She glanced over at the laughter rising over the sounds of hammers and saws, frowned as Duncan did a slow somersault off the roof, then floated back up with a stack of completed panels.
Inside himself, Simon sighed. He knew when a guy was showing off for a girl, and was pretty sure he spotted more than a spark of interest under Fallon’s frown.
As if war and survival weren’t enough to worry about, now he had a boy sniffing around his baby.
They finished the next run of panels, and not to be outdone, Fallon floated them up to Duncan and his crew. Simon took off his cap, swiped the sweat off his face, then jaw-pointed to an oncoming van.
Bill Anderson climbed out from the driver’s side, and a pretty girl with dark blond hair slipped out the other door.
“Hot day for this,” Bill called out, and set his hands on his hips to study the progress. “You’re sure getting it done. We brought out some wild boar barbecue, coleslaw, and other eats from the community kitchen. Got a couple vats of cold tea and more water.”
“You’re the man,” Simon told him.
“Got someplace we can set this up?”
“We’ll make someplace.”
A couple of salvaged doors on sawhorses served as workers swarmed. Fallon headed for the creek to wash up and nearly ran into the girl carrying a box of rolls probably baked that morning.
“Sorry, ah—I don’t remember your name.”
“We actually haven’t met. I’m Petra.”
“Fallon.”
“I know. Everybody … knows.”
“I’ll take that, honey.” Bill grabbed the box from her.
“You’re doing this for soldiers.” Pink flushed Petra’s cheeks as she spoke. “You’re going to lead them.”
“Do you have a problem with that?”
“No, but. No. I don’t want to fight,” she said quickly, gripping her hands together. “I don’t want to be a soldier. I take care of children. I can help make food. I don’t want to fight.”
Won’t. Coward.
Fallon heard the words in her head, glanced toward a woman with short brown hair. Starr, she remembered, an elf who said very little.
Starr simply shrugged, shot Petra a look of contempt, then walked away with a plate of food to a solitary spot away from the rest.
“I’m not going to force anyone to fight.”
“I just thought … I wasn’t sure—”
“What would you do if one of the kids you were taking care of was attacked?”
“I—I’d try to protect them, get them away. They’re only children.”
“Hey, Petra.”
“Tonia.” Instantly, Petra relaxed and smiled. “I didn’t know you were here.”
“Helping build an obstacle course for training. Can’t wait to try it out. You know, Fallon, I’ve got some ideas for another course for magickals. Uncanny Falls.” She laughed. “Add in some magickal traps and puzzles.”
“I like it.”
“You treat it like a game,” Petra said in a soft voice, then flushed deeper. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I need to—” She hurried away.
“I want to wash up before I eat,” Fallon said, giving Tonia a long, direct look.
“Oh. Yeah, good idea.”
They walked together to the lazy creek.
“What’s up?” Tonia asked.
“I don’t know Petra or why Starr dislikes her. It helps to know.”
“I don’t know that Starr likes anybody. And that’s not fair. She’s just not sociable. She fights, she works as hard as anybody. She hangs with Flynn mostly—no sparks there.”
“ ‘Sparks’?”
“Romantic, sexual. They’re sort of like brother and sister. Anyway, what I know about her is mostly second-and thirdhand. She was a kid, about twelve maybe. PWs caught her and her mother. Raped and tortured both of them. The mom saw a chance to get Starr away, talked to her the way elves can.” Tonia tapped her temple. “Made her promise to run and hide, and then caused a commotion so Starr could. They hanged her mother while she was hiding, and she couldn’t do anything to stop it. So she fights, she works, but she’s just never been really part of the community. Keeps to herself.”
“And Petra?”
“A rescue a few years back. She’d been taken in by a cult, her and her father. Sick cult, anti-magick magickals, led by some whack. The women all had to submit, you know, sex, have babies.”
“They were forced?”
“Brainwashed, so it’s the same thing. Some of them were just kids, like Petra.”
“She was forced?”
“Yeah. She’s steadied up pretty well considering. She lives with another woman and her kid we rescued from the cult. The rescue was ugly,” Tonia added. “The PWs attacked, we attacked the PWs. A lot of people died. Her father was one of them. They torched him right in front of her.”
“It should make her want to fight.”
“Well, I guess you can say Starr and Petra had different, you know, scars from a similar experience.”
“What is she? I didn’t get a sense.”
“She blocks it. A witch. She won’t use magick, either. They made her afraid of it. I think she knows better in her head, but they made her see it as evil, as dark, so she’s afraid of her own gift.”
Fallon nodded. “There are others like that.”
“Duncan and I made a little progress for a while, but, since it freaked her so much to explore her powers, we didn’t push. And, well, she started sort of getting this crush on Duncan, and he backed way, way off. She’s too young, you know? Not in years but how she is. He won’t touch that.”
Fallon glanced back. “Does she still …”
Tonia shrugged. “Maybe a little, but she’s sort of hooked with Denzel. You met him, right?”
“Duncan’s friend, shifter. He’s helping with the solar panels.”
“Friends since baby time,” Tonia added. “I’m pretty sure Duncan gave Denzel a nudge toward Petra.”
“Magickally?” Fallon demanded, ready to condemn that kind of interference or influence.
“No, hell no. That’s outside the lines. He just talked Denzel into making a move Denzel wanted to make anyway. Worked out. So that’s all to circle around to how Starr doesn’t much like Petra. She doesn’t respect Petra because she won’t train, won’t even take basic self-defense or go out to scavenge or scout. This is about as far out of town as she’ll go, and that’s only because Fred and Eddie and their kids are out here, and she’s nuts for their kids. Kids in general.”
Now she knew the stories, Fallon thought. And understood how Petra—who wouldn’t fight—could be useful.
“The younger ones need people willing to take care of them, to keep them safe while the rest of us fight.”
“She’s good with them, patient and, you know, responsible without being a hard-ass. I’m surprised she didn’t have some kid hanging on her today, but I’m betting she wanted to come out and see you. Get a sense of you.”
“Now she has. Thanks, Tonia. It helps to know.”
Knowledge, Fallon thought as she washed her hands, cooled her face with creek water, was always valuable.
She might have thought the sexual, romantic, and personality quirks simply confused what needed doing with drama, but knowing about them would help her lead.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Within two weeks, busy, rotating teams completed work on the base and barracks, and Fallon asked for another meeting. This time she requested New Hope’s leaders come to the house her mother had already made a home with her kitchen garden, her pots of herbs and bottles of flowers, with the scent of freshly baked bread and honey cakes.
She asked specifically for Duncan, Tonia, Starr, and, though she knew it grieved her mother a little, Colin to be included.
She stood in what her mother called the great room with food and drink on the wide kitchen counter and the furniture volunteers had brought in already arranged.
“I first want to thank everyone for all they’ve done to complete the barracks so quickly. Most who worked on the barracks and the courses don’t know me, but they gave their time, contributed supplies because the people in this room asked them to. Now I’m going to ask all of you to keep anything we talk about here tonight confidential. Um …”
When she looked at Arlys, busy taking notes, Arlys glanced up. “Off the record?”
“Yeah. At least until things are in motion.”
“Off the record until what things are in motion?”