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“How about I answer a question, then you do, and we take turns?” I bared my teeth with a smile.
One of the spirits half-raised a spear and stepped between us. Possibly the smile hadn’t been as friendly as I intended.
Though she hadn’t reacted to it, either.
I tried again to sense what was in the shadows further back and failed. I considered asking her, but I had more important questions to put forward.
She laughed, a merry but creepy sound in context. “You first. Why are you here now? It's been eight years. Everything is dust.”
Wonderful. She’d gone weird. For a moment, I had a flash of empathy for Silver when I was being difficult.
“We just found out about your call, we’ve only known for a week or so. My turn. Did you see the Wendigo summoned here?”
She stilled. Her hair fell in a dark wave over her shoulders and her faintly tilted eyes were a light color—there was something not quite right about her gaze.
“Oh, yes,” she said. “Why are you here?”
Her emotions flipped rapidly, from grief to bitterness to a strange joy. They shaded back to wariness, with a hint of sadness.
“To find out what happened. We want to stop the Wendigo from eating people.” That was a safe statement. I couldn’t imagine Silver letting it roam if we confirmed who it possessed. At the least, he’d try to free Melissa Cohen, if I confirmed it was her.
The small person with the spear approached me, the spearhead down. The pelt obscured details of his body other than a large head and lack of a nose. A narrow face with an odd appeal, eyes large and expressive.
“Do you come in ill will?” he asked. His voice was strange, like the whine of dragonfly wings. He was wary and concerned, the emotional pattern familiar to me. The other humanoid spirits I’d felt before had a similar feel to them. Nothing of the Ridden here.
“No.” I took a deep breath. Tuuli’s emotions were strong, and I could feel grief reawakening in her, strong enough to make my chest hurt. “Who did the Wendigo possess?”
Tuuli shook her head. “I won’t answer that question. Ask another.”
“Will you tell me why you won’t tell me?”
She laughed again, and the creepy ramped up a notch. Her actions were in stark contrast with her emotions. “Loyalty. And if you punish the possessed, you ignore the reason they were possessed. Ross Cohen called the Wendigo, he and his assistant, and destroyed my life and killed my parents. Then more of the Guild came to kill me. Bring him to justice. Prove to me that something worthwhile remains in the human world.”
I sheathed my knife. “Don’t worry, I’ll be more than happy to punish the summoner, Tuuli. If you remember from before, living with spirits isn’t mentally healthy for humans.”
“What are you going to do now?” Tuuli asked, ignoring my comment.
Not unexpected. I wished I could record this, but I couldn’t risk recording and sending a message out.
“Go back. Bring Ross Cohen down. Get evidence of what happened eight years ago. Maybe bring you back to the Capitol, so you can be with your family?”
The shadows that I’d been keeping a wary eye on dissolved. The moonlight revealed a burly man and a woman of Native heritage. She was dressed traditionally, while the man wore simple clothing and a leather apron.
OK, this had officially spun beyond the strange that I was accustomed to. I could feel them now with my talent, and they were human only in appearance. Both were deep old wells of emotion, of magical power, and even though the emotions I caught were neutral to me, they had far too much power for me to feel comfortable in their proximity. These were spirits in a class with the great ones, and I wanted nothing to do with them.
Though I did want to know what they planned for Tuuli.
Tuuli shook her head and moved back to stand with them. “No, I have a family now. They saved me. But I want to see him punished, too.”
Frustration welled in me, not unmixed with fear, but I wasn’t going to argue. If they hadn’t destroyed her in eight years, the situation could wait a week or two for Silver or an expert to arrive and deal with it. Though I wanted to see her safe.
I sighed. “Will you talk with me later, when I come back? Perhaps give testimony?”
“Yes.” She had begun swaying again, dancing to unheard music.
“Can I help you?” I asked.
“Yes. I have plans, but I need tools, and I don’t have any out here.”
