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But what was bothering me was the last thing Tamazusa had mentioned: when we were supposed to get back to the Trustees. Tell the truth, I hadn't really been paying attention to the time. But thinking about it and counting the days on my fingers and toes—don't fucking laugh—I figured out that we had been there eighteen days. I was stunned, but that might be why Wolf was looking so pissed. Things weren't working like they told him that they were supposed to. Big surprise there. So I'm racing back to figure out what the fuck up was and who do I run into but Samojirou. My luck was sucking at the moment.

"I want to thank you for caring for my lord and my consort,” Samojirou said formally.

I looked at him and thought about what Tamazusa and I had been talking about. “Um... she did all the work. And Keno can take care of himself, but you knew that."

"He can now,” Samojirou said, polite but with this look in his eye.

He was pissed about something. Crap, he probably thought I had taken advantage of Tamazusa in the Northlands. Shit, I wasn't that stupid on my worst day

"And where is he?” I asked, trying to distract him. I knew that he'd kill me and not give it a second thought. Keno was the only thing that stopped him from doing that. And I was going have to thank him for that real soon.

"Sleeping,” Samojirou said. “I have a matter to discuss with my lord, and I was informed that she was with you."

I got uncomfortable when I realized Keno was probably passed out after being nailed to the floor a couple of times. I had been told how the two of them had been looking at each other, and I didn't know what had stopped them from jumping each other right then and there when Samojirou had shown up. I was surprised Samojirou had been able to tear himself away from Keno long enough to check on Tamazusa. “She's in the strolling garden. She wanted to talk to me out there."

"That's interesting,” Samojirou said, looking like he had just swallowed something bitter.

He was really pissed, and I didn't think Keno would be able to save my ass unless I explained shit to him. I shrugged, trying to act casual, hoping my explanation didn't piss him off more. “I was offering her someone to either bitch at or cry on."

"So you seek to be her counselor?” Samojirou asked, not sounding very happy.

I shook my head. “Shit no. But you and Keno are off with each other, and I noticed that she doesn't seem to have too many friends here.” I waited a second before adding, “And she was nice enough to explain things to me. What a shit that Satomi asshole was."

"You are talking about Keno's grandfather,” Samojirou cautioned with a smile. I guessed he realized I wasn't after his job. Shit, I wasn't going to tell him that if I was working for Tamazusa, I'd be her court jester or something like that, ‘cause he'd find it too fucking funny. Tamazusa liked me, but she also knew I was the worst person to give her any sort of advice.

"And you know what? He's still an asshole. Fuck, Yatsufusa didn't deserve that shit from him, either, about Fuse-hime,” I said.

"You are not disgusted with their relationship?” Samojirou asked slyly.

"I don't want to know about you and Keno, not because of who you are, but because he's always gonna be fifteen to me, so I can ignore what those two are doing in their spare time too,” I told him. I actually hadn't really thought about it. And I wasn't going to start to, either. Some shit I wasn't meant to know about, and that was one of them. “But I need to talk to Wolf about something, so I got to run."

Samojirou practically hissed. “Wolf...."

"I'll keep him off your ass,” I promised.

"I don't know if I should be overjoyed or frightened at that statement,” Samojirou muttered. I laughed. I knew we wouldn't be drinking buddies, but he was good for Keno, so I wouldn't give him too much shit.

When I got back to the rooms Hamaji had given us, I wasn't surprised to see Wolf and McGann having tea together in the living room. Me, Wolf, and Tholf had one room, Helga and McGann were sharing another, and we had a third room as some sort of living room.

I stopped at the edge of the porch and was proud that I remembered to take my shoes off before I walked in on them. “So when were you going to tell me?” I asked, not bothering to beat around the bush. I didn't know where either Tholf or Helga was and didn't care. This was something we couldn't really hide from them.

Both of them looked at me, but at least neither one of them did the “Tell you what?” routine. And they both looked a little guilty, so I was okay with that. They weren't being assholes about it; it was just like with McGann and the pregnancy thing, there really hadn't been a time or place to tell me about this, just like the fact I still hadn't told Wolf about Logan's confession. I guessed this was the time that I had to do it, even if I really didn't want to tell him. Logan had been right: Wolf was a good man. Good men don't expect to be backstabbed by their boss, even in our line of business. And there was the small fact that if those assholes were willing to do this to us, I didn't think that they'd hesitate throwing an old man like Wolf's grandfather under a bus or something, either, to make sure he didn't ask questions, even if he was a Trustee. He probably was going apeshit wondering what the other Trustees were pulling with his grandson. I wondered for a second if Mrs. Adams was in on this or if they had gotten rid of her too.

"I think that I was willing to let you figure it out on your own,” McGann admitted calmly. “There was a lot that was going on, and it could have been a simple miscalculation."

"After a while, getting back wasn't something I was going to worry about,” Wolf said. “I was worried about it happening on the ship. But once we got to land... then I realized it wasn't working for some reason. By then, there really wasn't anyplace I felt comfortable telling you what had happened."

"Tamazusa was the one that had to point it out to me,” I said, just realizing that we could have screwed the others badly by disappearing in the middle of the ocean. That was the only saving grace in this entire mess. Seven people hadn't been really enough to sail that ship, four would have been a disaster. And I didn't trust Helga not to try something stupid to either Keno or Tamazusa, like push them out of the boat. “I'm such a dumb fuck that I didn't notice that the hoodoo wasn't working like it should."

"Mason, you aren't dumb,” Wolf told me, trying not to sound too pissed, since he hated when I talked like that about myself. “You don't always think, but you aren't stupid. You had your hands full playing mother hen to Tamazusa-sama and Keno."

"So when was the recall supposed to happen?” I asked.

"About twelve days ago,” Wolf said. “I gave it a couple of more days, just in case something happened to the time when we crossed the barrier between territories. When the recall didn't happen, I talked to Caitlynn about it."

"So your pillow talk wasn't just sweet nothings,” I said sarcastically. Well, mine hadn't been, either, since I stuck close to Tamazusa to protect myself from Helga.

Wolf practically blushed like a schoolgirl when I said that. McGann gave me a look that promised me we were going to have a
very
long talk about that comment. I bet she was also going to give me shit about how I'd been acting with Tamazusa too. She could if she wanted to, because she really wasn't my boss anymore. As weird as it sounded, I was thinking about Tamazusa like that now. Wasn't that a weird and scary thought.

"And what did the two of you figure out?” I asked, trying not to sound too pissed off. I didn't care that I wasn't in on the decision-making process, I just was pissed that they hadn't told me what the decision was yet. But I couldn't throw stones, since I was hiding information from them too. “Aside from the fact that we're up shit creek without a boat, never mind a paddle."

"I think that would be true if we had stayed in the Northern territories,” McGann said, smiling slightly at my language. “However, here in Nippon, both you and Wolf have allies. I don't doubt that you will be protected by Fuse-hime since you seem to be avatars of her sons. Why you're both in the Dreamlands is something I'm going to leave to wiser heads to figure out."

"I don't think you're going to be left out in the cold,” I said. “You didn't do anything to piss them off. That was Murphy and the motherfuckin’ Trustees."

Not to mention Wolf would do anything he could to protect her. And I wouldn't be too far behind him. McGann needed protecting, even as strong as she was, because working for the Trust hadn't burned all the niceness out of her, even with the shit that had gone down with Keno.

"I wasn't innocent in that, no matter what you want to think,” McGann said, like she was reading my mind. Oh, wait, she could. “And then there was my treatment of Keno. I should have done more to protect him, and I didn't, as Tamazusa-sama pointed out to me."

"We're as guilty as you are,” Wolf told her quietly. “I should have done something more for him. I should have gotten my grandfather involved. He shouldn't have had to live like he did. We all should be held accountable for what has happened to him."

We were all silent for a couple of minutes. I didn't miss the fact that Wolf had gotten closer to McGann, close enough to touch her almost. He'd protect her.

So the next thing we had to worry about was what to do since we were stuck here. “Well, what's the game plan?” I finally asked. “Fuck, there must be one, because you guys are good at shit like that."

Wolf looked at McGann and then me. “I don't know. Honestly, I had hoped that things would be different here."

"We are stuck in a friggin’ war zone, but it's still better than what we would be going back to,” I said roughly, although I already thought we weren't going back. I didn't think that going back was worth killing someone. And while Tamazusa had been able to walk into our place any damn time that she wanted, she had lost that trick with her
kuni
. Even when she got her place back, even if she kept that trick, I didn't know if I wanted to go back. Maybe I'd get bored here in a year or two, but unlike Wolf and McGann, there was no one for me to go home to in the real world.

"What are you talking about?” Wolf demanded, sounding pissed off and worried at the same time.

"Those assholes were willing to send McGann on this trip, ignoring the fact that I told them how nasty it could get for her,” I said. He nodded, looking relieved that I hadn't been more blunt about what
I
thought was nasty. “And I think a couple of them were giving her shit about not saving Fairinox's or Collins's asses. Plus, they were going to make her life miserable for a couple of other reasons, right?"

McGann nodded, not willing to say anything. I wasn't surprised to see Wolf reach out and pat her hand after that, since she looked like she wanted to cry.

"And Wolf, you were stuck at the nuthouse, dealing with people you worked with at one time,” I told him. “I don't think that you were liking it there. I don't think that the shrink there was doing shit for you, either. And I was doing desk duty at Fall River, which was a bitch of a commute. Plus, I know Murphy was going to try and nail my ass, and not in a good way. So while this place ain't where we're supposed to be, it doesn't suck."

We were all silent for a couple of minutes. “And there's a couple of things I have to tell you about,” I said at last, hoping that the last shit had sunk in on them. “The first one is that Tamazusa is willing to have us stay at her place, when she gets it back. If you don't want to do that, I bet that any of the rest of them would be willing to have you. That's the good news."

"And the bad news?” McGann asked.

"It's one of those types of things that I should have told you earlier about,” I said.

Wolf shook his head, and I swear that McGann rolled her eyes. “You have to stop doing that,” Wolf said.

"Where's Helga the Horrible and Tholf?” I asked instead of giving them an answer. Yeah, keeping shit like this from my team leader was stupid, but letting outsiders know your own people were screwing you was bad too.

McGann gave me a look that told me she knew why I was keeping secrets, before saying slowly, “Tholf is with a squad of Tamazusa-sama's men, Seki-san's squad. Helga is with Fuse-hime."

"Fuse-hime's gonna keep her in line,” I said.

I meant it, too. Helga had realized she didn't have any allies here or anyone who would put up with her shit. Tamazusa probably was willing to kick her ass into line, but she had her hands full right now. Hamaji was just too nice, and of all the other women I saw wandering about this place, no one seemed to be interested in dealing with Helga, besides the fact they mostly seemed to be maids and people like that. Fuse had taken her on, and Helga had been too stupid to realize she was going to lose to the woman even before she started anything. I wondered if Helga even knew who Fuse was, besides the woman who was going to make her life miserable until she got her shit together. Fuck, I was going to call Fuse “Mom” a couple of times just to make Helga's brain melt.

"The reason that I didn't tell you this earlier is because I didn't want those two to find out about it,” I said. “Shit, you know that I don't keep secrets or play games for shits and giggles. And while you don't want to hear it, which was probably the reason that Tamazusa didn't tell us what trouble she was in."

"Keno should have,” Wolf said.

"Keno didn't want to tell us, because he couldn't trust us,” I said evenly. “He was trapped in what he thought was enemy territory, with someone he thinks of as family, and he didn't know if you were going to hoodoo him back to a place he hates once you knew Tamazusa wasn't going to be able to steal him back. Taking his ass home isn't something that's ever going to happen. The kid not only burned his bridges with that little stunt he pulled with the computers, he blew them up and pissed on the ashes. Taking him back, if we even ever get back, would be a stupider idea than kidnapping him the first place."

Wolf had a thoughtful look on his face. Maybe he'd just realized what a stupid shit move taking Keno back with us would be, besides the fact that Tamazusa would just pop up and take him back again without breaking a sweat and maybe kill anyone who got in her way, when she got her
kuni
thingie back. The man wasn't dumb. Wolf just thought that getting Keno out of here was the best thing for him. Maybe now he'd realize it wasn't. Hell, getting
us
out of here wasn't a good thing either.