Tricked

else would she do it? «
    » You have a marble of turquoise in your pocket. «
    » Oh … she’d just ask Sonora. «
    » And Sonora knows exactly where you are because of that marble. «
    She pouted. » I have to give it up, then? « I nodded and tried not to be distracted by her lips, extended and puckered. I was supposed to be angry with her. » But I can’t just throw it out the window! « she said.
    » I know. Pull over. «
    She obliged and we got out of the SUV. She walked around to my side and I put out my hand, palm up. » Let’s have it. «
    Granuaile reluctantly dug the marble out of her jeans pocket and grimaced. » Can’t I say good-bye first? «
    » We’re on the Colorado Plateau. Sonora won’t hear you. «
    » We’re not going to leave it here, are we? «
    » No, « I said, removing my sandals. » I’ll ask Colorado to return this piece of Sonora through the earth, and then I will explain very carefully that we wish to keep your existence a secret from anyone who asks, especially the Tuatha Dé Danann. Colorado will spread the word to all the elementals worldwide. They’ve been keeping my whereabouts secret for centuries now, so this won’t be difficult. «
    » Does this mean I can’t talk to Sonora now? «
    » Yes, but you can always get a new marble next time you’re down there. And you wouldn’t have been able to talk to him outside of his range, anyway. «
    » Her range. «
    » Hmm? Oh, right. Her range. What were you going to tell me earlier before we got distracted by trust issues? « Granuaile was watching me place the wee piece of Sonora on the ground, a wistful expression on her face. My question caught her off guard.
    » Trust issues? « She looked up with alarm. » You don’t trust me now? «
    » You kept secrets from me. Not personal secrets—keep those all you want. I mean you kept something from me you knew damn well I should have known. And I must assume you convinced Oberon to keep quiet too. There aren’t any laws against suborning hounds, but there ought to be. «
    » Atticus, I’m so sorry! « she said. » I was trying to explain and you cut me off. Will you let me finish? «
    I nodded once. » Go ahead. «
    » Okay, mental gearshift. I was telling you about my stepfather. His name is Beau Thatcher. He’s a giant dick in a suit, and I was thinking about him after I went through the Baolach Cruatan . Before as well, to be truthful. And that’s what I was leading up to. I never told you the complete truth about why I want to be a Druid. «
    » All right, « I said. I clasped my hands together and waited.
    She took a deep breath before continuing. » Basically, I want to be the opposite of him. His nemesis. I want to completely destroy his company and drive him into bankruptcy. He laughs when people get upset at oil spills. He laughed hardest at the Gulf oil spill, because the journalists got shut out, the local biologists were bought out, and the company went on to post obscene profits. Massive die-offs and extinctions in the Gulf and wetlands ruined for decades, and he laughed , sensei. «
    » As you said, he’s a dick in a suit. «
    » But it makes me so angry! « she cried, clenching her fists. Then her voice softened. » Angry enough that it kind of scares me. Don’t you ever get to feeling that way about people like him? «
    » Sometimes. But preventing ecological disaster isn’t a Druid’s primary function, Granuaile. Gaia has outlasted dinosaurs and she will outlast the dicks in suits as well, whatever they do to her. This oil spill or that will be overcome, given enough time. Protecting the earth’s magic is what we’re for. That’s why the Tuatha Dé Danann became the first Druids—it was after that episode in the Sahara that I told you about, when a wizard took the elemental’s power for his own. Gaia recognized that she needed champions among humans to prevent that from happening again. And so the children of Danu were chosen to become those champions. Marbles like these, « I said, pointing to Sonora’s turquoise, » appeared beneath their feet. And when the Tuatha Dé Danann picked up those marbles, the elementals began speaking to them and teaching them and eventually guided them in binding the first human to the earth. But you don’t see the Tuatha Dé Danann jumping around trying to prevent the clear-cutting of the Amazon or the damming of the Colorado River. «
    » Well, why not? Don’t they revere nature? Don’t you? «
    » Of course.