My symbionts were afraid. Even Wright was afraid, although he tried to hide it. He couldn’t hide his scent, though. Celia and Brook didn’t try to hide their fear at all.
I looked at Daniel who sat nearest to me. “Do you believe that I or my people murdered my families?”
He stared back at me. “We don’t know what happened.”
“I didn’t ask you what you knew. I asked whether you believe that I or my people murdered my families?”
He glanced back at his fathers and brothers. “I don’t. I don’t even believe you could have.”
“Then stop scaring my symbionts. If you have questions, ask them.”
“You’re a child,” one of the older men said. “And the two women with you are not your symbionts.”
I looked at him with disgust. He had already heard me answer this. I repeated the answer exactly: “They were my father’s and my brother Stefan’s. They’re with me now.”
“You don’t have to keep them,” he said. “They can have a home here … if you took them only out of duty.”
“They’re with me now,” I repeated.
The older man took a deep breath. “All right,” he said. “Tell us what you know, Shori.” And the pressure on us eased somehow, as it had when the guns were lowered outside. I felt it, even though I hadn’t been afraid. I looked at my symbionts and saw that they felt it, too. They were relaxing a little.
I turned back to face the Gordons and sighed. After a moment of gathering my thoughts, I summarized the things that had happened to me. I talked about awakening amnesiac in the cave, about Hugh Tang, finding the ruin, finding Wright, and later finding my father, who told me that the ruin had been the community of my mothers, then losing my father and all of his community except Celia and Brook, going to the Arlington house and almost dying there, discovering that our attackers were all human …
One of the Gordons interrupted to ask, “Were you able to question any of them?”
I shook my head. “We killed several of them. The rest escaped. We only just escaped ourselves. The fire had attracted attention, and I didn’t want to have to deal with firemen or the police.”
“You weren’t seen,” Daniel said. “Or if you were, it’s being kept very secret. There’s been nothing in the media about cars escaping the scene, and none of the sources my fathers created have phoned to tell us about anyone escaping. The police seem very frustrated.”
“Good,” I said. “I mean I didn’t know whether or not we were seen. We spent the next night in our cars in the woods. Then, because Brook had been here once, I thought I could get her to bring us back here.”
A Gordon who looked about fifty and who was, almost certainly, one of the two oldest people present spoke with quiet courtesy: “May we question your symbionts?” He had a British accent. I had heard BBC reporters on Wright’s radio back at the cabin talking the way this man did.
I looked at Celia and Brook, then at Wright. “It’s all right,” I said. “Tell them whatever they want to know.” They looked alert but not afraid or even uncomfortable. I nodded to the older man. “All right,” I said. “By the way, what’s your name?”
“I’m Preston Gordon,” he said. “I’m sorry. We should all introduce ourselves.” And they did. Preston and Hayden were the two oldest. They were brothers and looked almost enough alike to be twins, except that Hayden was taller and Preston had a thicker mop of white-blond hair. Their sons were Wells, Manning, Henry, and Edward. And they in turn were the fathers of Daniel, Wayne, Philip, and William. William was, I suspected, only fifteen or twenty years older than I was. Although no one said so, I got the impression that I’d met most of them, perhaps all of them, before. What did it say to them that I couldn’t remember any of them now? It embarrassed me, but there was nothing I could do about it.
Preston directed his first question to Brook. “Did you recognize anyone among those your group killed? Had you seen any of them before?”
“No,” Brook told him. “I didn’t get to see all their faces, but the ones I saw, I had never seen before.”
William asked, “How many did you kill, Shori, you personally, I mean.”
“Three,” I said surprised. “Why?”
“Three men,” he said and grinned. “You must be stronger than you look.”
I frowned because that was a foolish thing to say. Of course I was stronger than I looked, just as he was stronger than he looked.