Page 23 of The Gathering
“He didn’t answer, I’m textin’ him,” she announced. “He never was big at answering his phone,” she fussed lightly. “Now, I had an idea to pass by you,” she said, returning her phone to her pocket after texting. “It’s gonna sound crazy as the day is dark and really, it’s the dark days that gave me the idea.”
“Tell me,” Beth urged, needing something besides the gnawing dread in her bones to think about.
“Some will say it’s the worst idea at a time like this, but I know you’ll understand where I’m coming from. It don’t have to be fancy or anything, but what do you think about one big welcome to the swamp party for our incoming.” She shot up a palm. “I do realize we don’t know a thing about any of them and there needs to be certain precautions, but this is a multiple bird killing, crawfish boiling, stone throwing event.” She swiped the air. “Poorly strung words. I'm just sayin' we need to really get to know them if you know what I mean.”
Beth considered what she was trying to say. “Like an intel party?”
She spanked her own hand sharply. “Exactly! An intel party! I knew you’d get it! Cause we know there’s gonna be all sorts of people and somebody’s gonna need to sort ‘em properly.”
“Find out their skills,” Beth agreed, nodding.
“And their belief system and what-not. They need to be educated on how we do things here and that this ain’t noAmericahere in these swamps.”
Boy, she wasn’t kidding there. She recalled Sinrik’s Ever-Fallen handbook. “Does the swamp keep a written record of all its laws?”
“Oh, absolutely we do. Every Hatch has its bylaws of course, and every Hatch follows the Horde’s constitution so-to-speak.”
“We should make copies of those, then,” Beth thought.
Mah-Mah’s eyes lit up. “We could,” she said, excited. “We can get every Hatch to make ‘em, that way it won’t be daunting. And the Sisters have agreed to help however they can.”
A plan began to spring up in Beth’s head. “We need to have a meeting about it. With all the women. Assuming we’ll have Bishop’s blessing. The men can focus on getting the refugees in and we’ll focus on receiving them.”
Mah-Mah nodded. “Receiving them nice and clean.”
“We’ll treat it like…” Beth angled her head, thinking. “Becoming citizens of the Horde?”
She lit up at that. “They’d need to swear allegiance,” she snapped, nodding.
“That’s definitely non-negotiable,” Beth said, realizing how many ways this could bring trouble. “Different religions, different mindsets, different ways of life—all of that will surely become an issue.”
“Unless they adopt our way of doing things and believing. Aside from religion. I realize we can’t force nobody to that.”
“No, we can’t,” Beth agreed. “But we can enforce our laws and ways.”
“We must,” she assured. “And those are religious in and of themselves,” Mah-Mah added.
“They are.”
Mah-Mah paced before her. “Would be like a…”
“Quiet testimony?”
Mah-Mah did another hand spank, shooting an index finger at her. “Oui! A quiet testimony. But proud,” she tacked on with a firm nod.
****
Seer’s excitement flipped on the second Zodak entered the graphene-infused enclosure. Several Creole Kings stood and watched with the rest of the Twelve as his favorite graceful monster moved toward an unconscious Sinrik still bound on the floor, his long black robe brushing the stone.
He slowly circled him, ocular gates still lowered and locked on. Standing at his head, he stopped. His right hand lifted and the webbed etching on his skin glistened in the light. The plan was to move slowly through each lens, only touching him if he needed to.
He flipped up the first lens and Seer’s breath held as he stared. His head began to gradually angle.
He moved slowly around his entire body till he returned to the head. He flipped up the next lens. Again he circled him, pausing every few seconds then resuming. He flipped a third lens back at his head and again paused. Longer this time.
“What’s he seeing you think?” Hurricane barely wondered next to Seer.
“No clue,” Seer said quietly back.
