“Not yet.”
“Don’t I remember a speech or two about transparency and community?”
Valentina glared.
“I will follow up with Ms. Rodriguez once our plan of action solidifies. I didn’t want to worry her before it was necessary.”
“How do we fix this?”
She studied her own trembling fingers.
“This cold is the glass fawn’s influence. When the fawn goes, I expect its influence will go with it.”
Green stood and walked to the window. It was as if he had just noticed the ticking of a time bomb tucked beneath the floorboards. He looked out across the camp, desperate to think of something Valentina could have missed, knowing it was impossible. She had been a cryptonaturalist since before his great-great-grandfather wasborn. He didn’t even know the word “cryptonaturalist” a month earlier.
“How long do we have?”
Valentina laughed without mirth.
“I don’t know, Mr. Green. This has never happened before. Based on pure intuition, I would guess I can endure a day or two. Perhaps less. I feel as though I am underwater and am looking about wondering why I have yet to drown, with no compelling explanations coming to mind.”
“A day or two! What do we do?”
“We stay calm. We think. We research. We do the best we can with what we have.”
Green paced back and forth.
“I’m more sure of it than ever. I’m bad luck.”
“Nonsense. You have been a help already. I consider myself fortunate to be alive after such an encounter. More fortunate still that I have some time to undo what has been done. Others on this mountain have not enjoyed such second chances.”
“And if the strategies Clara suggested don’t work?”
“Then, Mr. Green, you will wish me luck, we will say our goodbyes, and I will step through the doorway between the pines.”
Valentina sent Green to hiscustomary chair to read. As she spoke, her visible breath wordlessly made the same point again and again.Time is running out.
“There’s gotta be something I can do to help you.”
“My plan for this afternoon is to research the poultice Clara mentioned, craft it, then cross-reference a dozen journals on the subject of willing closed gaps in reality. Few of the entries are in English. All of them are above your level of experience as a cryptonaturalist. Mr. Green, sit and continue your own studies.”
There was a tremor in her voice and her breath was forming ice crystals in her eyelashes.
His thoughts reached toward Catskill.
Dreamless dark and the weight of mountains.
No help there.
He touched the acorn in his pocket, imagining a mythic bird scolding him from a street sign.
No help there either.
He looked at the floor and felt his own warmth draining away.
“If you think of something I can do to help…”
She dismissed him with a look, then went to gather her research materials.
