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As she watched, the object moved, oozed, coming slowly together. The lizard tail remained.
“What are we supposed to do with him?” Dekka asked.
Just then Roger, known as the Artful Roger for his skill in drawing, came up the side. “Is Edilio around? Because—ahhhhh! Oh no. Oh no.”
“Hey, Roger,” Brianna said. “Have you met Drake?”
“Oh, God, no. Oh . . . Oh . . .”
“I know!” Brianna said proudly. “We’re just trying to figure out what to—hey, you know what? You should totally draw him so we can always remember what he looked like.”
Dekka, in as dry and nonchalant a tone as she could manage, said, “Roger, can we help you?”
“Can you . . . ?” He had definitely forgotten why he was there.
“You were looking for Edilio, right? He’s down in PB.”
The Drake head was almost back to being Drake with the addition of the lizard tail, and the larynx was mostly repaired, so he was able to produce a windy, wheezing sound while his tongue and mouth worked furiously.
“I figured Sam would fry him up,” Brianna said.
“Sam’s not coming back right away,” Astrid said. She was trying to mimic the light tone, but failing. She was worried about Sam. And she was a little sickened by the emotions that swept over her in waves: bitterness, rage, triumph. How much of her life had been about fearing this psychopath? And now he was in her grasp. Now he was without his famous whip hand. Now he was helpless.
The
urge to kick him was almost too much to resist.
“Go ahead,” Dekka said, as if she’d read Astrid’s thoughts.
It took Astrid a while to react, to slowly shake her head no. She hated Drake; there was no denying it. But she couldn’t give in to that. She had to use what she had been given.
“Tell us about Gaia, Drake,” she said.
His answer was voiceless but easy enough to decipher.
“Yeah, you don’t seem to have the body parts to do that,” Dekka said.
“Hah! I told him the same thing,” Brianna said with a happy grin.
“I’m just going to, um, not be here anymore,” Roger said, and beat a retreat.
“You had a bag of dead lizards and a couple eggs,” Astrid said. “Why was that?”
Drake cursed foully. But softly.
“Where are Diana and Gaia?” Astrid asked Drake.
“Better just chop him up,” Brianna said. “I can spread the parts of his head all over like I did the rest of him. I only brought him to show Sam.”
Astrid and Dekka exchanged a look. They were in charge at the lake. It was their call. But neither wanted to decide without Edilio. This was not exactly one of the contingencies they had discussed beforehand.
A thought occurred to Astrid. “He morphed from Brittney back to Drake. He’ll sooner or later go the other way. Brittney may be easier to talk to.”
Dekka nodded. “Yeah, that’s right. She might be of some use if we can get her to talk.”
“We can’t be careless, though,” Astrid said. “We don’t know what his capabilities are. Maybe he can regenerate beyond just his head. For all we know the separate parts can regenerate.” She glanced uneasily at Brianna. “Do you know where you put all the parts?”
“Yes,” Brianna said, but with definite uncertainty in her tone, accentuated by the way she stared up and off to one corner as if trying to remember.
