A bowl of spicy stew steamed in front of Rafferty. It smelled great, but she was too anxious to eat much, so she contented herself with shoving all the carrots, which she hated, into one corner of the bowl. She forked up a potato, and forced it down, so that Katrin wouldn't ask any questions.

Max had sent her and Katrin on a town liaison stint to Corcoran. While he hadn't specifically said it, Rafferty got the idea that she was supposed to use this time to iron things out with B Hall.

Rafferty wondered, not for the first time, if Max understood girls. Sending her somewhere alone with Katrin wasn't doing her any favors with J Hall. Blaspheme and the others already thought Rafferty spent too much time with her.

She sat at the small table with Katrin, trying to figure out where to start, or what to say to wouldn't offend her. For her own part, Katrin seemed to be happily slurping up the contents of her bowl.

I guess I'm the only one who's nervous…

Doing liaison duty with Katrin in Corcoran was a little like to going to Falls Rock with Blaspheme. Everyone already knew her, and they were excited from the moment she got here. But there was none of the spectacle that followed Blaspheme in the Rock, where they regarded her with something between fear and awe. Katrin stopped and talked to dozens of people. She knew their names, knew their kids, knew their dreams.

How was this the same person who wouldn't even break stride in the hallway for a new Hunter until she'd been a full Hall member for an entire year?

They were supposed to be here three days. In Rafferty's opinion, it couldn't end soon enough. Tomorrow, the Hunters were scheduled to teach an archery class. To children. Rafferty was not looking forward to it.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Especially because I haven't shot a bow in like, three years.

Rafferty managed another forkful of potato. It really was good. Katrin had been talking about this stew the entire way here. A young woman had brought it in a big covered dish. She had only just left.

Well, I'm supposed to be fixing this . . .

"So… why did you do it?" Rafferty asked.

Katrin looks confused for a moment.

"The Cody thing? Are we still on that?" Katrin asked.

"Yeah, the Cody thing," said Rafferty.

Katrin looked at the table for a minute, like she was thinking, then looked up at Rafferty.

"Maybe I didn't think it was very fair that she was doing that teleportation thing in a training exercise. Maybe I didn't hear Leslie, and I feel terrible about it. Or maybe I'm just a cranky alpha bitch that doesn't like to lose," Katrin said.

"But-" Rafferty started.

"But it doesn't matter. It's over. I've moved on and so should everyone else. We work hard to be ready to fight things that can kill us. There's gonna be flare ups. It they're weren't, we wouldn't be ready. If Cody wants another shot at it, if that will make her feel better, then I'm game, any time. But I'm not going to talk about it endlessly, and let it keep me from doing my job. I've already told my girls to play nice. I hope J Hall can do the same.

"Let me ask you a question, Rafferty. Do you want to obsess about it, and go over it and over it and over it until we can all pretend we accomplished something? Is that what Rafferty wants?" Katrin asked, leaning forward.

"Well, no, but I have to live with them," Rafferty said.

"Maybe not," said Katrin.

Wait, what?

"What?" Rafferty asked.

"Never mind that for now," said Katrin. "I want to talk about something else,"

"I'm confused," said Rafferty.

"I want to talk about the girl that was just in here," said Katrin.

"What about her?" asked Rafferty. She had absolutely no idea what was going on here.

"Her name is Marion. She lives on the other side of town with her little boy. She seemed nervous. Usually she's kind of funny. I think she was going to ask for help but chickened out," Katrin said.

"I'm still confused," said Rafferty.

"I think we should find out what's wrong. Don't you?" Katrin asked.

They weren't supposed to do stuff like this, weren't supposed to meddle. It was kind of a big deal, and the rules about it weren't vague. But it could be a heck of lot more interesting than three days of shaking hands and posing for photographs. And almost anything was better wrangling a large group of children armed with pointy weapons.

"Are you ever going to stop trying to get me in trouble?" asked Rafferty.

"Not likely," said Katrin. "Come on, Rafferty, let's help this bitch."