Misao hissed. Elena's trance was finally broken, and she looked around to see that the shambling, hideous Tree-Men had disappeared in the full sunlight and in their place was a wide patch of sorrel dotted with fossilized trees in odd shapes. Some looked almost human. For a moment Elena regarded the scene, puzzled, and then she realized what else was different. All the real humans were gone.
"I never should have brought you here!" And that, to Elena's surprise, was Misao's voice. She was speaking to her brother. "You spoiled everything because of that girl.Shinichi no baka!"
"Idiot, yourself!" Shinichi shouted at Misao. "Onore!You're reacting just the way they want - "
"What else am I supposed to do?"
"I heard you giving the girl clues," Shinichi snarled. "You'd do anything for the sake of your looks, you selfish - "
"You can say that to me? While you haven't lost even one tail yourself?"
"Just because I'm faster - "
Misao cut him off. "That's a lie and you know it! Take it back!"
"You're too weak to fight! You should have run long ago! Don't come crying to me about it."
"Don't youdare speak to me like that!" And Misao leaped from Elena's grasp and attacked Shinichi. He had been wrong. She was a good fighter. In a second they were a destruction zone, rolling over and over as they fought changing forms all the while. Black and scarlet fur flew. Out of the ball of turning bodies came scraps of speech -
" - still won't find the keys - "
" - not both of them, anyway - "
" - even if they did - "
" - what would it matter?"
" - still have to find the boy - "
" - I say it's only sporting to let them try - "
Misao's horrible shrill giggle. "And see what they find - "
" - in theShi no Shi !"
Abruptly the fight ended and they both became human. They were battered, but Elena felt that there was nothing more that she could do if they chose to fight again.
Instead Shinichi said, "I'm breaking the globe.Here ," he turned to Damon and shut his eyes, "is where your precious brother is. I'm putting it into your mind - if you can decode the map. And once you get there, you'll die. Don't say I didn't warn you."
To Elena he bowed and said, "I regret that you'll be dying, too. But I've memorialized you in an ode.
Wild rose and lilac,
Bee's balm and daisy,
Elena's smile chases
The winter away.
Bluebell and violet,
Foxglove and iris,
Watch where she treads
And then watch the grass sway.
Wherever her feet pass,
White flowers part the grass - "
"I'd rather hear a straight explanation of where the keys are," Elena said to Shinichi, knowing that after that song she wouldn't get any more from Misao. "Frankly, I'm sick and tired of all yourbullshit ."
She noticed that once again everyone was staring at her and she could feel why. She could feel a difference in her voice, in her stance, in her patterns of speech. But mostly,inside , what she felt was freedom.
"We'll give you this much," Shinichi said. "We won't move them. Find them from the clues - or by other means, if you can." He winked at Elena and turned away - to meet a pale and trembling Nemesis.
Caroline. Whatever else she'd been doing for the last few minutes, she had been crying, and rubbing her eyes, and wringing her hands - or so Elena guessed from the distribution of her makeup.
"You, too?" she said to Shinichi."You, too?"
Shinichi smiled his lazy smile. "And what two am I?" He held up two fingers in the V symbol to differentiate his two from Caroline's.
"You've fallen for her, too? Making up songs - giving her clues to find Stefan - "
"They're not very good clues," Shinichi said comfortingly and smiled again.
Caroline tried to hit him, but he caught her fist. "And you think you're leaving now?" Her voice was pitched at a scream - not as high as Misao's glass-splintering shriek, but with its own fearsome vibrato.
"Iknow we're leaving." He glanced at the sullen Misao. "After one more item of business. But not with you."
Elena tensed up, but Caroline was trying to attack Shinichi again. "After what you said to me? After all that yousaid ?"
Shinichi looked her up and down, seeming to actually see her for the first time. He also looked genuinely bewildered. "Saidto you?" he asked. "Have we spoken before tonight?"
There was a high-pitched giggle. Everyone turned. Misao was standing, giggling, her hands over her mouth.
"I used your image," she said to her brother, her eyes on the floor as if confessing to a minor fault. "And your voice. In the mirror, when I would give her orders. She was on the rebound from some guy who'd dumped her. I told her I'd fallen in love with her and that I wanted to get revenge on her enemies - if she'd just do a few little things for me."
"Like spreading malach through little girls," Damon said grimly.
Misao giggled again. "And a boy or two. I know what it feels like to have those malach inside you. It doesn't hurt at all. They're just - there."
"Have you ever had one force you to do something you didn't want to?" Elena demanded. She could feel her blue eyes blazing. "Do you thinkthat would hurt, Misao?"
"It wasn't you?" Caroline was still looking at Shinichi; she obviously couldn't keep up with the script. "It wasn'tyou ?"
He sighed, smiling slightly. "Not me. Golden hair is my undoing, I'm afraid. Golden...or fiery red against black," he added hastily, glancing at his sister.