Clotho looked at Atropos for confirmation.
“I thought you wanted to take your time to find the coins, maybe go on a picnic with the dryad,” the eldest Fate grumbled.
“Do you want this to be done fast or slow?” Clotho asked her.
“Fast. As if you have to ask.”
“Then fast it is. Crossroads, please let Cardamom Oak know he has until noon tomorrow to find all three coins and bring them to us.”
“That’s not going to be long enough,” I said, “especially since he doesn’t know where two of them are.”
She nodded and shut one eye like she could better see the in-betweens of the world that way. “It could be enough. It’s not generous, but two out of three of us are very angry he took our coins.” She grinned. “You don’t have to guess who isn’t angry about it.”
“Why aren’t you?”
I had long ago learned never to trust the word of a god. Too many loopholes, too many pitfalls. A couple friends of mine were wandering Route 66, doing the bidding of a god due to a promise that god had made them.
Of course that god had brought Brogan back to life in exchange for the errands he and Lula were running for him, so I knew they had gotten something more than promises out of the god.
They had gotten a second chance together.
Who, in this wide world, wouldn’t want a second chance with their true love?
“Why aren’t I what?” the youngest Fate asked.
“Angry at Card for taking the coins?” I wasn’t going to say “steal” because technically he had taken them away from the woman who was actually trying to steal them from Fate.
“I’m...curious,” Clotho said, no longer looking quite as young, quite as innocent and free. “How did he manage to do it without us knowing? How did he even know where the coins would be?”
“A woman hired him to fetch an envelope she said would be left in a diner in the Wallowa Mountains.”
All the Fates held very still. Even the wind and leaves and clouds stopped moving. All bird sound, all insect clicks, silent.
Only the Crossroads behind me whispered and shifted with power, ready to attack or defend if needed.
“That isinteresting,” Lachesis finally said. “But not the matter at hand. We want the coins returned. All three. By noon tomorrow.”
Atropos sneered. “You may be able to protect the dryad, but if we don’t have our coins, we will end his tree. We will fell it with one blow. Burn it with one match. Or let it be devoured slowly by beetles from the inside out.”
Card swallowed. It was a dry click in his throat.
“But,” Clotho said, “wewon’tdo that, any of that, until after noon tomorrow.”
I knew that was the best deal I was going to get out of Fate, and since neither Card nor I were bleeding, it was better than I’d hoped for.
“Where will we find you once we have the coins?”
Clotho smiled again, and it was brilliant. “Camper van.” She pointed at the VW bus on the side of the road. “We’ll just move down to the wider pullout and wait.”
“That van’s going to be uncomfortable as hell,” Atropos said.
“Aw, come on, Atro, youlikedhell,” Clotho said.
“I only liked it a little bit.”
“I brought a blow-up mattress,” Lachesis said. “And pillows and other comforts. We will be fine.”
“Plus, it was your idea to hit the road, Atro,” Clotho said.
