“I wouldn’t try to study raptor behavior yet,” the other Tristan said with raised eyebrows. “I’d just duck for now.”
Since their talk under the tree, Lily and her Tristan had spent every guard duty taking notes on what they observed about the Woven, and they had dissected three of them together, but so far they hadn’t found a pattern in either the Woven’s behavior or their biology. Lily hadn’t given up hope yet that she would find something. She and Tristan had to work much too fast when they dissected, and a lot got missed. Woven organs were so full of toxins that they seemed to dissolve from the inside out as soon as the creatures were dead, and Lily still believed that she would find something if only she got a fresh-enough sample to work with, which was proving difficult. The fourth Woven carcass that was brought to them was so far gone there was no point in putting on gloves to take a look.
“It’s useless. You have to start dissecting it immediately in order to find anything that hasn’t been corroded,” her Tristan said in frustration.
“It’s like they’ve got a self-destruct button,” Lily added, her brow knitted together.
“And what doesn’t dissolve gets eaten by other Woven. One dead Woven brings dozens, like they’re their favorite food or something.”
Lily turned to Tristan, shaking her head. “That doesn’t happen in the natural world.”
Since then, Lily had told her braves not to bother bringing her any Woven that had been dead longer than a few minutes. Secretly she knew that if she really wanted to see what made the Woven tick she’d either have to dissect one still alive or kill one herself, which no one would allow. If she got hurt, they were all vulnerable.
The first day up the mountain her tribe made record time, but by the time twilight was falling, Lily was dead on her feet. Juliet came alongside her as they toiled up a steep hill to the campsite.
“You shouldn’t keep giving them extra energy,” Juliet said. “Save your strength for yourself.”
Lily smiled at her sister and shook her head. “If I lie down without being completely exhausted, I think about him. And then I don’t sleep at all.”
Juliet looked away, her face in shadow. “Isn’t it odd? They hurt us, but now that they’re gone, we beat ourselves up even more. Why do we do that?”
“I don’t know,” Lily admitted. “Maybe we think we deserve it.” They both let the conversation drop. Neither of them were ready to talk deeply about Rowan and Alaric yet, and they each got back to work. Work was good—it kept them both glued together.
The days passed, and the higher Lily’s party climbed, the colder it got, taxing the tribe even more. Icy, rotten snow still clung to the edges of the trail, but fresh green shoots and bright blossoms grew between the patches of snow. It gave the ponies something tender to eat, though they rarely dared to duck their heads. The mountain slopes were eerily quiet, setting both the humans and the horses on edge. Occasionally, Lily saw a normal deer, or a normal hawk, its wings spread wide as it hung on an updraft, but there were fewer normal wild animals in this world than she would have thought. The ones that she did see were the furry burrowing kind, although once she did catch a glimpse of puma far away on another slope.
“Where are the regular animals?” she asked Dana after spending a morning searching fruitlessly. “The non-Woven kind?”
“They’re around, but they steer clear of Woven,” Dana whispered back. “Which means there are Woven nearby right now, so lower your voice.”
As she watched her footing in the treacherous slurry of rock, ice, mud, and water, Lily saw a great shadow blanket the ground. At first she thought it must be a storm front rolling in, and then she felt her Tristan tackle her from behind and cover her body with his.