She swallowed before she stepped back.
His eyes followed her without turning his head. Then he took his final breath…and lay still. His eyes were still aimed in her direction, locked in place until his body decomposed into the ground.
Within a few hours, everything felt as it had been before. The tables were returned to their places, and the Knives were stripped of their armor for us to resize and repurpose for ourselves.
There was still a charged energy in the tribe because of the danger that had passed. There was also grief for the men who had laid down their lives so the rest of us could survive. We buried them in our small cemetery near the Hall of Elders.
Everyone had learned of Hanne’s heroism, and anyone who still had reservations about her no longer did.
She was officially one of us.
I visited my mother in the common room to check on her. No danger had touched her within these four walls, but I knew she must have been frightened to know that an attack was on her doorstep and she couldn’t even see it. Forced to sit there and wait for news without any ability to participate would have eaten her up inside.
I took my seat in front of her, and before I had a chance to speak, she addressed me.
“They tell me you’re unharmed. Is that true?”
Except for the pain in my face. “Yes.”
She inhaled a slow breath and let it out even slower. “To sit here and do nothing but hope…is infuriating.”
“Is that why you told Hanne to help?” I was a little angry with her about that. That she’d chosen to take matters into her own hands when I’d already given my orders.
She said nothing.
“I told Hanne to stay here.”
“Yes, she told me.” That was how my mother was, never one to lie or mince the truth. She was stubborn and hardheaded and, more importantly, proud. “She has her sight and her strength. They should be put to use.”
“That wasn’t your decision to make?—”
“But I made it anyway,” she said calmly. “And it was the right decision, from what I’ve heard from the others.”
I gave a quiet sigh, one she could probably hear.
“I understand what she means to you. But she means what she does because of her courage and strength. She’s your partner, a leader who shares the responsibility and burden with you, not your inferior. It would be unwise to sheathe the sharpest blade in the arsenal. To dim our brightest light. To hide our greatest power.”
I sat in silence and absorbed the echo of her words, knowing my mother’s wisdom prevailed over my yearning heart. “She’s never seen battle.”
“And now, she has.”
“That was but a taste.”
“Now it’s an experience she’s gained,” she said. “Our journey to victory will be a long road. You need to prepare her for it. Train her. Teach her. Nurture her.”
All I wanted to do was protect her, shield her from the life I’d been subjected to. I wanted to give her sunsets and pastries and birdsongs. I wanted to give her a life better than the one I’d lived.
My mother let the subject die. “They are searching for us, Morco. What happens when they realize their scouts are dead?”
“Anything could have killed them. Sciwards, basilisks, coyotes…”
“But what if they assume it’s us? They’ll return.”
“With the vegetables that Hanne has planted, we’ll be able to sustain ourselves without meat. The potatoes are hearty, along with the other things she collected. We won’t leave the island for the foreseeable future. We’ll burn torches rather than the bonfire. If we don’t leave for months, they won’t be able to catch our scent, and we’ll never be found.”
My mother managed to disagree with that answer with just her features.
“If we leave for Stonework and they are searching for us, we’re far more likely to cross paths.”
