“So the tribe started to divide,” Breakfast said. “One side agreed with the sachem and the other with the shaman. But that’s not all.”
“Let me guess. Someone disarmed the bomb that Alaric had been concealing at camp and no one knows who did it, right?” Lily said. She nodded, already knowing she was right. “It was Carrick. He came to my cage.” Everyone stiffened and Lily raised a hand. “He didn’t hurt me, and I’m sure he’s long gone. He’s Lillian’s henchman now, and her main objective for everything—the trials, the hangings, all of it—has been to get rid of the bombs and the people who know how to make them. She’ll send Carrick after the other twelve bombs before Alaric has a chance to use them.”
“Thank God,” Una said. It earned her a few sharp looks. “Look, Carrick is a psycho, but he’s doing this world a huge service. You three didn’t grow up seeing movies about nuclear war like we did,” Una continued defensively, aiming her comments at Juliet, Caleb, and the other Tristan. “You have no idea what nuclear fallout is. It’ll kill all of you, slowly and painfully. Lily, show them what happened to the tunnel women just for carrying the bomb parts.”
Lily did as Una asked, and then waited for Una, Breakfast, and her Tristan to finish answering all of the disbelieving questions before bringing the conversation back to what she needed to know. “You said the tribe started to divide,” she said, prompting the other Tristan.
“Caleb and I didn’t think it was right to kill everyone in the cities without at least trying to fight the Woven now that we have a witch who’s with us,” he answered. “Plenty of braves sided with you and your idea to go west and fight the Woven, Lily.”
She vaguely recalled Rowan standing up for her against Alaric at one point during the foggy time she spent in the cage. “Did Rowan?” she asked. Her voice was small and pathetically hopeful.
Juliet’s forehead pinched with sadness. “No,” she answered. “He and Alaric said that the only braves who wanted to go west were the ones who’d never seen the Hive.”
Lily sat back, deflated. This wasn’t about her broken heart, she reminded herself. She had to focus and think like a leader. Like Alaric would. “How many braves are with me, Caleb?”
Caleb and his Tristan shared a look. “About thirty from Alaric’s group. They’ll follow us when they can,” Caleb replied. “More may come from the other twelve factions once they hear you’re back. A lot of them are your claimed, and they all hate the Woven. They may want to join us in fighting them.” Caleb’s words were optimistic but his tone wasn’t.
“What happened while we were leaving camp?” Lily asked. “There was something going on. People were dying.”
“Caleb, your Tristan, and I took on Rowan to get your willstones back,” the other Tristan said quietly. “We had to fight our way out.”
Lily studied their faces. Even under their warpaint, she could see that the other Tristan and Caleb had gotten the worst of it, and her Tristan didn’t have a mark on him. She wondered what had happened, but she didn’t want to bring it up in case she said something to embarrass her Tristan.
“A lot of Outlanders were angry that Alaric was letting you starve in that cage,” Juliet added. “They feel like they owe you their lives so they helped us get away. Even most of the braves that sided with Alaric thought he should let you live.”
Lily gave a mirthless laugh, smiling so she didn’t start crying. “But not Alaric or Rowan.”
“No. Not them,” Juliet replied.
Tristan looked up at Lily, like he wanted to say something, but after a moment he looked away.
The conversation was over and everyone went back to finishing supper. Lily crossed her arms over her chest, holding everything inside as best as she could. It was worse than she thought. Rowan would have let her die. A bitter voice in her head said he was just being smart. It was probably easier for him to let her die than to smash his willstone again.