Page 36 of Skinwalker's Bane
“I will. What else should I do?”
“Keep me informed, please.”
“You don’t sound…well, forgive me, but you didn’t sound surprised when I said Adam had been attacked by strangers.”
“I wasn’t,” Noa said flatly. “Cavers have been taking pot shots at skinwalkers ever since we destroyed their illusions about the big cave we all lived in. Now, they like to blame us for their woes.”
“How do you know they were Cavers?” Noa asked “They barely said anything.”
“Did Adam provoke them in any way?”
“No. He walked outside and they leapt on him.”
“They were Cavers,” Noa said, with the same flat, sure tone. “Since Dhaval Bull announced to the ship that the shard exists, there have been six other attacks, just like this one. So no, Devin, I’m not surprised at all.”
Devin assured Noa she would keep her apprised of Adam’s condition, then went back to the kitchen to tell Kall that Adam was a skinwalker and had just come off shift.
Kall nodded shortly, keeping his gaze on Adam as he examined his head. “Bernice told me he was a skinwalker. I didn’t know he was just off shift, though. That will make a difference.”
“Why?” Bernice Daly asked curiously. She was holding Adam’s shoulder, keeping him on his side while Kall worked.
“Nitrogen levels in the blood,” Kall said shortly. “Thank you, Devin. Now, out.”
Devin moved out of the kitchen, feeling useless. She wondered if there was anyone else she should tell. She didn’t know who Adam’s housemates were and suspected that Noa would tell them the news, anyway. The skinwalkers took care of their own.
She thought briefly of contacting Bishan and calming him down by reporting in about the morning on the bridge, only that seemed so far in the past now, she could barely build an interest in the subject.
A more senior member of the Bridge Guard arrived some time later. He wasn’t wearing a uniform, yet Bernice Daly’s men snapped to attention when he came in, alerting Devin. He sat in the chair opposite her, nodded and took out a flat pad screen. “Could you tell me what happened?”
“And you are?”
“Micha Vestri, Lieutenant, Civil Division, Bridge Guards.”
Devin nodded and walked him through the events. There wasn’t much to tell. “The attack was unexpected and fast,” she admitted. “I don’t think I breathed until it was over.”
He nodded. “Do you have any idea who it was who attacked him?”
“I don’t know Adam very well,” Devin said carefully. “His Institute director says it was most likely Cavers. They’ve attacked six other skinwalkers in the four days since Dhaval Bull made his claim about the shard.”
“Ah, yes.” Vestri nodded. “You were part of that, weren’t you?”
“Indirectly and accidentally,” Devin said. “I was just there at the time, that was all.”
“The fact that they attacked Adam Wary right outside your house has no significance, in your mind?”
She looked at Vestri, horrified. “Should it?” she said at last.
He shrugged and smiled, putting away his terminal. “It is probably the most convenient location they could find. There are not many people up here, usually.”
It was an unsettling thought, anyway. Devin sat still on the end of the sofa for a long while, turning the possibility over in her mind that in some way, she had been responsible for the attack, because of what she had said and done in the Aventine that day, only she couldn’t see a connection.
She was certain that if she laid it out for Bishan, he would immediately see the connection. However, she had no intention of telling him anything about this. He would be livid and would give her grief for days for risking her public reputation in this way.
As that was exactly what she was doing, Devin had no desire to listen to the lecture. She’d heard it more than once in the past. She knew the bullet points backward.
The dayline was creeping closer, lighting the land outside, when Kall emerged from the kitchen, unrolling his sleeves with damp hands. “Is there a bed we can put him in, Devin? I apologize for the imposition. I don’t think jolting him around on a taxiboat or the train, to get him back to his apartment, would do him any good right now. If you don’t mind letting him recover here, it would be a kindness.”
Devin hastily cleared off her own bed, the only one in the house. Kall and Bernice Daly’s men carried Adam in and laid him on it. Bernice Daly took off Adam’s boots and Kall pulled the covers over him. “Sleep, Adam,” he murmured as Adam stirred.
