“So you kept them around like . . pets? Like dogs or something?”
“More like dolphins, I think. We try not to annoy them, but there are often dolphins and cthulhus hanging around the fence that keeps the dolphins in the bay. Anyway they’re pretty much smarter than dogs. How much smarter, we don’t know.”
“These things killed your boyfriend, and you’re okay with that?” Cadzie asked.
“I wasn’t at first. But it wasn’t their fault! It was that grendel image! I had to accept that. A mistake. And the hurt just . . faded.”
It was possible. Perhaps these creatures were not only smart, but hated grendels as much as he did. The enemy of my enemy is . . But why don’t I know this already? “Aaron, did you know all this?”
“Never asked,” Aaron said. “Jennifer told you true. Archie had grendels painted on either side of his board. Made me twitch. Cost me a board race. Must have driven the cthulhus nuts. That’s why there’s a rule about not having grendel images unless it’s a party of two and both are armed.”
“Only nobody plays with grendel images,” Jennifer said. “Not any more.”
Cadzie frowned. “When did this happen?”
Aaron laughed. “I don’t know, about the time you and Joanie learned to read, I guess. I was about your age, I remember that. It was a beach party. Your mother might have been with us, can’t remember. Before she was married, yeah, I think she was.” His eyes narrowed slyly. “Hey, I might have been your father, well, the father of her kid. Wouldn’t have been you, of course. We weren’t very careful then.”
Cadzie suppressed a flash of anger. They weren’t all that careful now. If a couple wasn’t ready to go over the falls, there were as always people who were ready, willing and able to raise babies. Cadzie’s grandmothers had certainly been eager. “So you didn’t tell anyone.”
Aaron’s mouth tightened. “Of course we did. They’d killed Archie! Couldn’t tell your father that. So we mentioned that there were some big squiddy things around Blackship, be careful where you swim. No big deal.”
Jennifer said, “They’re intelligent, and they belong on this planet. Belong more than we do! And my dad and your grandfather would have exterminated them, just as they did grendels on the island. I loved Archie, and he wouldn’t have wanted that. The Earthborn would have killed them all. All of them! So we didn’t tell anyone.”
Silence followed that statement, and lasted a long painful moment. “You understand, don’t you?” Joan asked. For the first time since her childhood, vulnerability had crept into her voice.
Aaron said. “Seemed like the right thing to do. I never learned they use tools. And now you say they talk to each other? Why don’t I know this?”
“Yes. How did you keep this secret?” Cadzie tried to keep his voice calm, but wasn’t entirely successful.
“We just made it forbidden information for anyone but the inner circle of the Starborn,” Jennifer said. Aaron snorted. “Some of the Starborn. It’s a graduation secret for the highest level Grendel Scouts like Joan. Our greatest secret. Those who don’t reach the top rank never find out.”
“I was a Grendel Scout leader,” Cadzie said calmly.
“Yes, and you’re Cadmann Weyland’s grandson,” Jennifer said with equal calm. “And you don’t keep any secrets from Carlos and you never will. Carlos and your father hunted down every adult grendel on the island. Every one of them.”
“And . . why are you telling me now?”
Joan said, very slowly, “We didn’t want to.”
“That’s why I’m here,” Jennifer said. “Joan called me and I flew over. I’m in charge of keeping this secret. Always have been.”
Cadzie looked completely puzzled. “So?”
“Because we think it might be connected with the visitors,” Joan said.
“The visitors . . how in the hell . . .” Then, comprehension dawned. “You think that there are no visitors. Because they haven’t communicated.”
“Yes.”
Cadzie thought fast. “Then you think that Cassandra is making an error. A pretty damned big one.”
“Well, she might.”
“And you think she’s making that error because . . .” Suddenly he understood. “Because you told her to lie. She knows about the cthulhus, doesn’t she? Of course she does.”
Joan seemed to flinch. “It would have been hard to keep it from her.”
Cadzie frowned. “And she was acting strange when I talked to her about them.” As the implications sank in, he felt his throat tighten. Hoarsely, he asked, “How did you do it?”
“It was gradual,” Jennifer said. “It got more complicated after a while.”
Joanie said. “Cassandra’s firewalls are a joke. Hacking her was the best game we had, and our parents never noticed. Later we added a board to her primary preferences. She knows things she won’t tell anyone but those with the key passwords. It didn’t take much, she just doesn’t respond to questions about intelligent nonhumans. As you just found out.”
Now he was reeling. “Oh my god. Do you have any idea how much damage you may have done?”
“I’m starting to wonder, yes.” A little-girl’s voice.
“I have to tell Camelot. They need to know. Carlos needs to know now.”
“Cadzie.” Desperation was creeping into her voice. “I trusted you. I’ve betrayed a secret that will probably get me expelled from Surf’s Up. I may not be forgiven. You have to give me something.”
“What?”
“Let me tell Surf’s Up first. Dad will help me. Give me that much.”
He paused, thinking. How much of an emergency was this? Aaron made his skin crawl, and Joan wasn’t a lot better, but . . “Aaron?”
“Two days,” Aaron said.
Cadzie looked thoughtful, then nodded slowly. “All right. Landing Day is day after tomorrow. You talk to Zack and Carlos about the cthulhus then. And you and Jennifer explain to the council exactly what you did to Cassandra and why you did it. Maybe they’ll decide not to share that information with the general colony. I don’t know.”
He looked through the binoculars again. Two last man-sized squid-shapes were crawling over the lip of the dam.
“Cadzie. Please. You don’t understand.” She gripped his shoulder. He stared at her hand until she dropped it.
“Help me,” he said. “Make me understand.”
“Our grandparents wanted this,” she said. “Needed this. Wanted their own world. And got it. We . . you . . never asked for this. Just found that our parents had made the decision for you. Talked about Earth as ‘home’ while making sure you knew there was no way back.”
“So?”
“So Earth isn’t ours. And Avalon isn’t ours. Your parents make it clear to us every chance they get that they are the heroes of Avalon. They pretend to know everything, decide everything, control everything.”
“You wanted something that was yours.”
For the first time since her childhood, he watched her eyes water. “Yes. You . . you’re almost one of us. Can’t you understand?”