The Norn frowned. “No, I would have said that word. I meant brother.”
Nanshe stepped in front of Carlo. “We need Asherah. Why did you bring her here?”
“Asherah?”
“The Seelie Princess?”
“Oh, her. I forgot about taking her. Now, why did I?”
This was insane. This Norn was crazy. He shook off whatever she meant by calling him “brother” because she was obviously out of her head.
With infinite patience, Nanshe took Verdandi’s arm and walked her over to a golden chaise and sat them down. She flicked Verdandi’s horn. “Listen and recall.”
Verdandi sighed. “Thank you, Nanshe. I forget to block the present. It’s always changing, and it’s ... distracting.”
Nanshe looked to the men. “We all hear our time frames through our horns, but Verdandi has it the hardest. The present keeps moving constantly, changing like a thought.”
“It’s like ADD, ADHD, and then add some super high-power sugar—the fructose type.”
Yeah, Carlo understood all of that, barely. “Okay. So you have to remind yourself not to always listen to the pull of the present. I understand that.”
“But sometimes you have to put your behind in your past. Wait. That isn’t right. Uh, you have to put your past in your behind. Dammit, what did that warthog say?”
“I think you’re looking for what the meerkat said. You’ve got to put your past behind you.”
“Yes!” Verdandi shot to her feet. “That’sexactlyit, Chaos—er, Carlo. That’s why I took Asherah. It’s all about behinds and pasts, you understand.”
No, he didn’t. But the mention of Asherah made Kallan and Teague shake out of their confused stupors and pay attention.
“Where is Asherah?”
Carlo couldn’t fault Kallan for jumping in immediately. Teague was at his back, protectively. The two of them were pretty similar to how Cynes and Eiravel moved without their twin relationship.
“You reached the line of ‘I’ve already answered that question.’ Leave a message after the beep ... beeeeeeeeep.”
Nanshe grimaced, and Carlo curled his fingers to keep from strangling the Present Norn. “You said you took her, not where she was.”
“Where who was?”
Carlo counted to ten. “Asherah, the Fae Princess.”
“Oh yes, the one who would have been a Fury, but then it disappeared. She likes to sleep, a lot. What sort of sleepy girl can use her magic? Like, I’d be blasting away at the Hollows closing in.”
“Hollows?” Kallan’s bellow shook items in the room.
“Hollows are–”
“We know what they are, Verdandi. Why are they closing in on Asherah?”
“They aren’t. Well, theywere, but she’s safe now. Sleeping in the bed. My bed. Oh! My sheets are like, 3,000 thread count. Want to touch them?”
“Yes, that would be lovely,” Carlo answered before anyone else could say anything.
“Awesome. There’s this hot chick sleeping there right now, but I’m sure she won’t mind.”
There was no way they’d get any answers out of her, so they’d have to just get to Asherah and see what she knew.
If anything.
