“I don’t know, Lily. They just don’t.”
“Okay, that’s ridiculous,” she said, exasperated. “Hasn’t anyone in this world thought that maybe it was a tad weird that Woven don’t go down in the tunnels? What? Are they superstitious or something?”
Rowan shrugged. “The Woven do what they do, and I don’t know anyone who’s ever stopped to ask them why they do it. We’re usually too busy trying to kill them.”
Lily leaned back, struck by a thought. “That’s the problem,” she said musingly. She waved a hand in the air dismissively. “Forget it,” she said, and changed the subject before Rowan could pick up on what she was thinking and get agitated. “So where’d the gang go?”
“Well, it looks like they move through here a lot,” Breakfast said, looking down. “Look—there’s no dust on the ground, but there is on that bench over there.”
“You’re right, Breakfast. Good eye,” Rowan said. “The trail leads down the tracks.”
“Do we stay or try to find them?” Una asked. “I could really use some food.”
Rowan bit his lower lip and frowned in thought, looking at Tristan. “What do you say?”
Tristan glanced at Lily, worried. His eyes darted down to the three willstones that hung around her neck. “If they see her, will they know who she is?”
“I can hide two of my stones and use a glamour,” Lily said, already removing her largest and smallest willstones and tucking them into her bra.
“Something less pretty than your normal face,” Rowan suggested. “You want to blend in.”
“Got it.” Lily altered her face until it bordered on plain. “You should change your face, too,” she told Rowan.
“Why?” Una asked. “Would he be recognized, too?”
Lily grinned. “Rowan is known as Lord Fall here,” she said. “He’s totally famous.”
“Really?” Una quipped impishly, looking Rowan over.
“I was Lord Fall, now I’m just an Outlander. But I should still use a glamour,” Rowan said, changing the way the dim light hit his face until Lily barely recognized him. “Our clothes are still a problem, though.”
“We stole them, and we’re looking to trade with them. You said they were valuable,” Breakfast said, brewing up a plan. “Come on, guys. We’re badass thieves, on the run from the city guard. Act the part.”
“I don’t know,” Rowan said, looking Lily over. She snatched a thought from the front of his mind. Nothing in the world could make someone as refined and fragile looking as Lily appear like a badass. Even with her glamour-altered face, there was still something inherently graceful about the way she moved that she could never wholly hide.
Lily could feel her mechanics’ empty bellies rumbling, and their hunger upset her in a way her own hunger wouldn’t. Her coven was her responsibility and she felt an inexplicable need to provide for them. “If we want to catch a train south, we’re going to have to go to a station that’s still in use,” she said, trying to win Rowan over with sugar rather than spice. “We’re bound to run into other people when we do that anyway.”
I’ll be fine, Rowan, she added reassuringly in mindspeak.
He finally relented, and they set off down the tracks. They still had some of Lily’s strength in them, and Rowan wanted to encounter whatever awaited them before it completely wore off.
They followed the tracks until they could see more signs of habitation and came to an abrupt halt when they spotted the first tunnel denizen, standing next to a barrel fire. The scruffy kid, who was twelve or thirteen tops, saw them and froze like a deer in headlights. Before anyone in Lily’s group could call out to him, the kid took off down the tracks.
“A lookout,” Rowan said, dismayed.