Half an hour later, they stepped into a closed section of the Observatory Reserve, making their way along a white-graveled path that reflected the refracted light from the Earth below. Today, it had a slightly orange glow, and he knew if he looked out through the observatory, he’d see the vastness of the Burning Lands marring their ancestral home.

  It might make his heart break, but Oliver knew he’d look, and then he’d mourn. Perhaps no-one would mind if the Observatory echoed with one wolf’s grief for a world he hadn’t known. It was better than weathering the more human tears that were all his human form could offer.

  Sometimes blood memory demanded an outlet and eventually it took whatever form it could get.

  He followed the girl along the path, wincing at the sound of his steps, and envying the child her quieter tread. The path curled through large tubs of trees resembling pines, oak, birch and beech, each subtly different from the pictures he’d seen in books.

  That didn’t matter, though. What mattered was keeping up with the child, and finding whoever it was he was supposed to meet. He didn’t even know their name…or if they were male or female.

  “Male,” the girl told him, stopping where the path opened out into a wider space. “I will let him give you a name…that is, if he wants to.”

  She waited as he came alongside her. “Over there,” she whispered, pointing.

  Oliver looked across a circular ‘clearing’, whose center was adorned by a large pool and fountain. At the back of it, a double bench sheltered in a nook surrounded by trees and bushes. Toward the front, a tall man stood silhouetted in a vine-covered arch, his face tilted toward to the Earth-scape visible through the screen.

  “You are Oliver Landstrom?” the man asked, as Oliver moved forward catching his scent.

  Internally, he cursed his stupid human nose. Slow and dull, it had taken him to within striking range before he registered the distinct odor of another wolf.

  “Yes,” he admitted, realizing the child had not moved forward with him.

  The man turned, studying Oliver with pale silver eyes. “I thought you’d be bigger.”

  Oliver stopped, and the man shrugged.

  “Florey says you’ve paid and your record is…relatively…clean, and that our relationship with Odyssey is not compromised if we help you.”

  Oliver backed up another step. Odyssey? What did they have to do with that particular brand of trouble?

  The man arched an eyebrow. “Trouble?” he asked, and Oliver rolled his eyes. The kid was a psi, and she probably hadn’t gone very far.

  “She makes excellent security,” the man told him. “It’s why we let her come along. She needs to practice her skills, and we get to know how well she’s doing it.”

  “Uh huh,” Oliver said. It made sense, but he’d lay ten to the dozen the wolf and his transporter didn’t know all the things their little feral got up to.

  Pain lanced through his head, short and sharp, as the child’s presence grew stronger. He drew a hissing breath and buried his head in his hands. The other wolf stared at him in shock.

  “Wow! I don’t think she’s lost her temper like that in a long while. Whatever did you think?”

  The pain intensified and Oliver pressed his hands against his temples, trying to reduce the intensity.

  “Nothing,” he managed through gritted teeth, and put exactly what he’d thought very clearly into the communications channel in his implant.

  That elicited a startled hiss from the path on the other side of the opening, and the wolf chuckled.

  “Oh, very good,” he chuckled, and then his eyes narrowed and he turned his head toward another section of the garden. “We’ll discuss this when we get home, Tallie.”

  Oliver steeled himself for another show of displeasure, but it didn’t come, so he turned to the matter at hand. The clock was ticking, and if Xanil-Blue had known to find him at Li’s, then it probably wouldn’t take them long to find Lewis.

  “Florey said you would tell me what needed to happen next?” he said, trying to keep the anxiety out of his voice.

  If there was one thing he’d learned, it was not to show how much he needed something to the one person who could provide it.

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  “It’s a bit late for that, sweetie,” Florey told him, “but you weren’t to know that.”

  Oliver started, and the wolf nodded. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper.

  “You have two hours to reach this address,” he said, passing it over. “Do you know it?”

  Oliver read the address, noting the importer’s name above it.

  “I know it.”

  “Do you know how to reach it without being seen?” the man asked, and Oliver gaped.

  His mind raced as he went over the different routes he could take from the observatory. Discounting the ones in the back tunnels, he knew of at least three different ways to leave the Observatory Reserve. None guaranteed he wouldn’t be spotted, but each of them had several alternatives through more inhabited areas.

  Any of those would make tailing him difficult, but not impossible.

  He could travel in his hybrid form, but that would make him easier to see, not harder. After a minute, he came up with only one alternative, and he sighed.

  “Well,” he said, “I could just leave in wolf form. I don’t think I’ve left a record of it anywhere.”

  The man stared at him. “How close is your hybrid coloration?”

  Oliver’s heart sank. “It’s pretty close.”

  “The option’s still a good one, and probably the best you have. Florey tells me there are observers on each exit, and an ambush in the corridors you used to come in on.” He cocked his head. “Tell me, how do you feel about wearing a collar and leash?”

  Oliver had backed up two paces, his lips rippling in a snarl before he’d had time to think about it.

  The man laughed. “Yup. I feel the same way, but if it means getting off this rock without getting caught?”

  He let the offer dangle.

  Oliver sighed. “I think I could handle it.”

  “Even with a cat holding the leash?”

  And a lavender bow? said cat asked.

  Oliver stuffed his hands into his pockets and scuffed the gravel at his feet. “I could try…”

  The man smiled, and added, “And how do you feel about baths?”

  If he was honest, Oliver didn’t mind baths. Of course, he preferred taking them in human form, and he preferred showers, but the feel of water sluicing over his skin didn’t bother him that much, so he agreed.

  Several minutes later, he found himself in a small bathroom in the back of a storage area come office.

  “Hurry up!” the girl ordered, her voice sharp with impatience. “Don’t make me come in there!”

  Oliver blanched, shifting quickly to his animal form. He realized his mistake almost as soon as he’d completed the shift…the bathroom door was still closed.

  Huffing out a sigh, he reached out a forepaw and rattled the door. When he didn’t hear any movement from beyond, he whined softly, and rattled the door again.

  There was a moment’s silence, and then, “Really?”

  The girl didn’t sound impressed. The door swung open and she glared down at him.

  “You couldn’t think to open the door before you shifted?”

  Oliver sat on the floor and gave her a tongue-lolling grin.

  “Daaad! He’s as big a smart-arse as you are!”

  The other wolf chuckled. “Pretty sure he’s nowhere near that bad,” he replied. “Just bring him out here.”

  The girl stepped to one side, and patted her thigh. “Come on,” she ordered, and her face split into a grin. “It’s bathtime!”

  Oliver was pretty sure she was enjoying this far too much, but he didn’t give her the satisfaction of reacting to it. He padded forward, looking to her for cues as he came out of the bathroom. She ruffled the fur on his head and curled her fingers in the luxurious fur at the scruff of his neck.

  Oliver wagged his tail, and let her lead him into the storage and plant preparation room, stopping when he saw the huge tub standing in one corner. The girl’s fingers curled into a firm grip that included skin as well as fur, although how she expected to hold onto him if he did decide to bolt, Oliver didn’t understand.

  Five small punctures made him yelp, her claws extending as he jerked away. Oliver froze.

  Yeah…that would do it.

  He waited until her claws retracted and then breathed a sigh of relief.

  The damn child giggled.

  Oliver laid his ears back and shot her a filthy look, but Tallie ignored him and led him closer to where her wolf ‘father’ was waiting.

  “Tell me you didn’t draw blood,” he said, and then rolled his eyes, before assessing Oliver with a careful stare. “You’re an odd color for a wolf.”

  Dust pack, Oliver thought, and was relieved when Tallie relayed it. The man’s brow straightened in understanding.

  “Ah.” He turned to study the jars and bottles sitting on a shelf along one wall. “I’d suggest something in rust, then, although if you mixed a bit of that purple with it.”

  Oliver groaned and hung his head. Whatever you think is gonna work…

  He flopped down on the concrete floor and heaved another big sigh, his eyes switching between the girl and the man and the tub and then going to the shelf.

  Tallie crouched down beside him and ruffled his fur. “Awww… What’s wrong, puppy? You scared of getting wet? Who’s a big baby, then?”

  Oliver dropped his head to his paws and didn’t dignify that with an answer. He didn’t mind getting wet in the shower, but this was not a shower…and it was certainly not the sort of thing that came to mind when the word ‘bath’ was mentioned.

  For one thing, who knew botanists kept such huge tubs in the back rooms of the reserves they were building…and who knew there were so many colors fur could be dyed? He heard Tallie get up and cross to the shelf, and ignored her.

  “We just have to make sure you’re not allergic,” the girl told him, holding up several colored bottles. “What do you think?”

  Oliver lifted his head, and moved to the edge of the tub. He watched as the child mixed three buckets of color and poured a combination into the water, and then let the man help him in. The whole process took less time than he thought it would—and a lot longer than he wanted it to.

  He wondered how Lewis was faring, and wished he’d thought to check in before agreeing to the craziness coloring his fur. He’d moved on to wondering if the color would affect his hair in human form, when Tallie signaled he should get out of the tub.

  “Now, to add the finishing touches,” she declared, and the were in charge of the Reserve set down the bucket of semi-liquid earth he’d been working on over at the bench.

  Oliver laid back his ears, and Tallie grabbed his muzzle and shook it.

  “Don’t be a baby,” she growled, and went to work.