Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls - Jane Lindskold [54]
“It’s a nearly perfect replica of a saw-whet owl, one of the smaller North American owls. This little critter can go anywhere an owl might and since saw-whet sometimes hunt in the daytime, that’s just about anywhere. It has a small camera built in, though the resolution isn’t very clear. Otherwise, it’s just a nifty little robot. We were wondering…”
Uncharacteristically, she trails off and Professor Isabella continues for her.
“Sarah, we accept that somehow you are able to do this ‘magical thinking.’ We don’t have a very clear idea of how you do it. We were wondering if you could somehow talk to this, as you seem to with Betwixt and Between.”
I look at the little machine, already feeling a creeping fondness for it, but its spirit is not yet awake. It does not have the experiences of the old buildings or the smugness of the lockpads. Certainly, it does not have the personality of Betwixt and Between, who speak with me like a person would.
I narrow my eyes speculatively. “I look upon every day to be lost, in which I do not make a new acquaintance.”
“You can do it?” Abalone asks.
Stroking the bird, I nod again. “To be swift is less than to be wise. ’Tis more by art, than force of num’rous strokes.”
“You can do it, but not quickly,” Abalone clarifies.
I nod, wondering if the delay is a bad thing.
Professor Isabella cuts in, “Sarah, we told you we want to go after the Institute. Abalone has narrowed down where they are located. The place is quite isolated, which is good, because it means no nosy neighbors, but it is really secure. They use no outside programming so she can’t hack in as she did into the Home’s data bank. Anything more complex than this owlet is likely to have its signals scrambled by their jamming field. Hell, I don’t understand all of this technical stuff, but what it boils down to is that we can get in but we need to be very careful.”
Abalone hands me a control pad no thicker than a credit slip and neatly concealed inside a wide bracelet.
“I made certain to get one that uses shapes and colors rather than numbers or letters to identify the icons.” She grins wickedly. “You mix things up when they’re written, don’t you?”
I flush and she squeezes my hand.
“Don’t let it bug you too much. I thought that Grey Brother was gonna strangle you when we came out of the Lesser Trail all backward. We figured out later that your map was perfect but reversed. Even that wouldn’t have queered us except that somehow one of the edges had gotten rubbed out and we didn’t catch that the doors were in the wrong places.”
Hiding my embarrassment, I study the control pad: a red X in the center with geometric figures set like the spots on the “5” face of a die. Each is a different, bright color, and I guess that they are pressure rather than heat sensitive since each is perceptibly raised.
Abalone explains the pad to me and when I prove that I have the basics down, she takes us to an open field where I can practice. Setting Betwixt and Between between my feet, I work with the tiny owl until I can easily make it rise and fall, soar and fly, glide and perch.
Only when the damp has soaked through my shoes and Professor Isabella is making noises about hot coffee do I stop. I am reluctant to tuck the owl away; already it seems a pity to put such a wild thing in a box or bag, but I yield to reason.
As we walk, I reflect on Abalone and Professor Isabella’s determination to go after my enemies. The Institute. I, too, am curious. Perhaps more than either of my friends realize. Yes, I decide, I am very curious.
That night, I dream of a place that is almost familiar. A young man, who I somehow know is Dylan, is lying in a narrow bed. The sheets are white and folded in boxlike corners at the base of the mattress.
Moving only his pale green eyes, he looks across the room at a closed door. He moved his lips and although no sound comes, I understand that Eleanora, our sister, is behind that door. I am starting forward to open the door when Dylan slides his hands from under the counterpane. Unfolding the sheet, he draws it over