17
Integra's mood had not improved the next morning when Amon and the others arrived to pick her up at the hotel. Robin could tell by the determined way she was walking that she had something to say. And it wasn't going to be good.
"Still sneaking around with that toddler, cradle-robber?" she sneered as she slid into the passenger seat.
"Still shacking up with that walking corpse, grave-robber?" Amon retaliated.
"Don't start that again," Nagira protested. But they ignored him.
"Flea-bitten, dumpster-diving, stray cur," Integra said while gazing nonchalantly out the window.
"Steak-fed, pillow-sitting, lapdog of a figurehead monarch," Amon said, guiding the car back into traffic.
"Somewhere Vladimir Nabokov is laughing," Integra said.
"Somewhere Mary Shelley is laughing," Amon said.
"You guys are making my head hurt," Nagira growled.
Integra and Amon fell silent but the air between them still crackled with rage.
"Are we going into the forest of Musashi today?" Robin asked just to break the tension.
No one answered but Amon turned the car onto a northbound street, the right direction. They all rode in silence for a few minutes until Nagira leaned closer to Robin.
"I'll bet you didn't think traveling with a pack of dogs would be this fun," he said.
Robin smiled a little at the joke but the air was so heavy in the car that she couldn't laugh.
18
A half hour passed slowly and quietly as the group drove north through the suburbs. Nagira pulled out the map of historic shrines that he had found the night before. There were dozens of them in the area but none of the names mentioned anything about a trickster. Amon had narrowed their search to only the sixteenth century shrines and that helped. There were only four shrines in the area that dated to that time period and only two of those were north of the trail marker. Nagira noticed that they were circled on the map. Amon must have done it that morning. How condescending, Nagira thought. As if Amon was the smart one in the family. But Amon only became truly condescending when something was upsetting him. Nagira studied Amon and Integra sitting in the front seats doing their best to avoid each other in the small space. Did it bother him that much that she blamed him for her current predicament? And was it really his fault? Or was she just attacking out of nervousness?
"What is it?" Integra asked.
Nagira blinked. He had been so lost in thought that he hadn't noticed her turn around.
"It's nothing," he said, recovering quickly. "I was just looking at you."
Integra narrowed her eyes a bit but the corner of her mouth turned up slightly.
"I do hope we'll be splitting up again today." she said teasingly.
"Well, that's pretty bold of you," Nagira laughed.
"Don't take it the wrong way," Integra said with a perfectly straight face. "I simply don't want to spend the whole day in the company of this neurotic fool. His affliction might be contagious."
Nagira laughed out loud. This woman had spirit by the truckload. And he thoroughly enjoyed it.
Amon had been monitoring the conversation and he chose that moment to look over at them with narrowing eyes.
"What are you looking at?" Integra snarled at him.
Amon moved his eyes back to the road and said nothing.
Story Notes:
"...figurehead monarch..." - Amon is referring to the fact that England is no longer ruled by the royal family. While they remain important figures in international diplomacy, the Parliament has taken over almost all of their governing power.
Vladimir Nabokov - author of Lolita. Plot: A middle-aged man becomes obsessed with a young girl.
Mary Shelley - author of Frankenstein. Plot: A scientist uses dead body parts to build and animate a monster.
I know that I'm using some high-brow abuse here. I figured that those would fit the modern dogs best since they all show a certain intellectual refinement. And high-brow insults have more of the smart, vicious quality that I wanted.