Free Torrent by Lindsay Buroker Page B

enough to tell that there weren’t any signs of injury from the fire extinguisher propellant. My own skin was raw and red in spots, and I hadn’t even been the target.
    I shifted from foot to foot and scanned the trees for Simon, but I didn’t see him. The authorities were swamped by now too. This guy better not be trouble, because it looked like I was on my own for dealing with him.
    “Hello,” he said. “I am Eleriss. What is your name?”
    “Er?” I’d been tensing, ready for him to stab me with the arrow, so this frank introduction took me off guard.
    He tilted his head. “Er?”
    “No, I mean, it’s Delia.” Belatedly, I wondered if I should have lied.
    “I located your arrow.” Eleriss held it out to me.
    “Uh, thanks. Was it in the haunch of anything when you located it?”
    “Haunch? Ah, no, the
jibtab
would not be injured by such a weapon. Perhaps you… what is the expression? Gave it a hangnail?”
    In the poor lighting, it was hard to tell, but I thought a slight smudge darkened the arrow tip. Maybe I’d made the creature bleed at least. Truth be told, I was impressed I’d hit it at all given how much my hands had been shaking. Of course, that might be a smear of dirt on the arrow too.
    “But you attacked it,” Eleriss said. “It will remember you now.”
    “Oh, good.”
    “This… conveyance-house—” he pointed at the van, “—will not protect you from its fury if you cross it again. The
jibtab
is very strong.”
    “So moving back to New Mexico would be a good idea now?” As soon as I said it, I rejected the idea. On the off chance that something—a
jibtab
, whatever that was—was hunting me, I wouldn’t lead it back to my family.
    Eleriss considered my question for a moment, mouthing, “New Mexico,” a couple of times. “Ah yes,” he said, “the territory adjacent to this one. Perhaps a farther destination? Your Alaska may be safe for some time.” He smiled, like a man making a joke, but I didn’t find any of this amusing.
    “Safe for some time? What do you mean?”
    “It is lightly populated by humans, so will not attract the wrath of the
jibtab’s
master for now.”
    I digested that for a moment. It was hard to concentrate as fully as I would have liked with people shouting and setting up lighting and equipment in my peripheral vision. It was only a matter of time before someone came over and wanted to interview me. Or arrest me. I wasn’t sure which sounded less appealing.
    “Just to be clear,
you’re
not the jib-thing’s master?” I asked.
    Eleriss took a step back. “Me? I would not create anything to harm humans. I
like
humans.”
    “Yeah, me too.”
    This guy was seriously weird. I was beginning to think there was some merit to Simon’s idea that our strangers were Vulcans, or nut jobs who
thought
they were Vulcans. Would he be affronted if I told him Prescott didn’t have a Live Action Roleplaying Group?
    “It would not be within my abilities to create a
jibtab
regardless,” he said. “I am not a… scientist, is that the profession?”
    “For someone who makes monsters? I don’t know—I didn’t see those classes under any of the degree paths at ASU.”
    He did that head tilt that seemed to mean he was trying to figure me out.
    “So if you didn’t make it, what are you and your buddy doing here?” I asked. “Why do you keep showing up when it kills someone?”
    He could have asked me the same question, but he didn’t. He probably
knew
we were clueless. “We can track it.”
    “Oh? Do you know where it is now?”
    “It ran up a dirt road over there.” Eleriss pointed in the direction that the first people had been killed.
    I knew the road. We’d hiked up it to a trail that led to a lake. It’d been a nice hike, and there was no way I’d do it again now.
    “Are you trying to kill it?” I asked.
    “That is not currently within our power.”
    “Then why follow it?”
    “We seek to find that which can destroy it. Also, we seek to