Firewalker (36 page)

After they'd eaten, Lily felt strong enough to talk. “What happened?” she asked.

“I'll tell her,” Breakfast said with a tired sigh. “Well, for starters, I finally found out why everyone kept mistaking me for an Outlander. It's because there's another
me
here.”

“He's the young shaman in training that we were trying to locate for you when you were first here,” Tristan said.

“He was on a vision quest on the Ocean of Grass,” Lily recalled.

“He came back. And I met myself.” Breakfast's tone was even, but his expression was still one of shock. “And myself said that he had spirit walked into these places called cinder worlds.” Breakfast shook his head to clear it. “Anyway, so Red Leaf—that's his name—came out against the bombs. He said that he'd seen this mistake made on other worlds, and that Alaric would wipe out the Outlanders along with the cities.”

“How did the tribe take it?” Lily asked.

“A lot of braves were angry that Alaric hadn't told them about the bombs and that he'd planned on using them without consulting the rest of us,” Caleb said. He threw something into the fire in agitation, showing that he was one of the angry ones.

“So that
did
happen,” Lily said.

She shivered, realizing that if she hadn't hallucinated seeing two Breakfasts, she hadn't hallucinated seeing Carrick. She rubbed her cheek repeatedly, trying to scrape away any trace of the blood he'd marked her with—as if they'd both been responsible for shedding it.

“Were you conscious while you were in the cage?” Una asked. “Your eyes were open, but Rowan said—” She suddenly broke off, stumbling painfully over Rowan's name. She'd trusted him, too. Una had learned to love Rowan like a brother. It was an honor she'd never given anyone before, and the loss of him had hurt her deeply.

“I wouldn't say I was conscious, but a few things managed to sink in,” Lily said quietly. “Keep going.”

“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.

“You should eat,” her Tristan said softly.

Lily looked up at him and realized that everyone else was asleep around the fire. She'd lost track of how long she'd been sitting there.

“Really. Finish your food,” Tristan urged. He sat down next to her.

She picked up her bowl and swallowed what was in front of her without bothering to taste it.

“I'll keep watch,” Lily told him when she had finished.

“You need to sleep,” he replied.

She tilted her lips into a bitter smile. “I won't be sleeping for a long time so I may as well make myself useful. I'll wake you if something comes.”

Tristan lay down next to her. He stared up at her, worried. “I'm sorry about Rowan,” he said. He reached out and laid a hand on her wrist, trying to comfort her. “I'm so sorry he hurt you.”

“Go to sleep,” Lily replied, her eyes scanning the trees.

Eventually, Tristan fell asleep and Lily was finally alone. She needed answers, and there was only one person who could give them to her.

You used me, Lillian. You had Carrick follow us from my world. Was it because you knew Rowan would take me right to Alaric?

I wanted a man Alaric never lets out of his sight. Hakan, the builder. He knows how to disarm the bombs, and he knows where most of them are. Carrick gave me Hakan, and now I know what Hakan knows.

I can't believe it. I didn't have to say anything to Rowan. I lost him for nothing.

I didn't tell you to tell him, Lily. In fact, I was very careful to never disturb you with my memories when Rowan was near. I didn't want him to accidentally pick up on my presence. I didn't want you to lose him.

Then why have me come back here at all, Lillian, if not to argue your side? You said that was the whole point of showing me your memories!

Yes, I need you on my side, and that's why I showed you my memories. But I never wanted you to tell anyone. In fact, I told you not to.

If you don't want me to argue for you, then why do you need me, Lillian? Why did you kill my father to get me to come back here?

Have you been paying attention to anything I showed you? The shaman told me that no one knows where all the bombs are—I don't even think Alaric knows. But you claimed an army of Outlanders, Lily. Some combination of all those minds must know something. I forced you to come back to this world first to lead me to Hakan, who is one of the three people who know how to disarm them, and now I need you in this world so you can go into the minds of your claimed and find the bombs that Hakan can't locate.

Alaric said that he was careful about who he allowed me to claim. He said none of my braves even know about the bombs.

It doesn't matter what they
think
they know. Use your claimed to make a mind mosaic. Someone has seen something, even if they don't know what that something is. Find all the suspicious carriages and tell me where they are. Your claimed don't even have to know you're in their minds.

I just have to violate the privacy of thousands of people who trust me. That's despicable, Lillian.

But it will end the war. Do you want to be the good guy, or do you want to save lives?

I think I hate you more now than ever.

Think of how much you'll hate yourself if even one of those bombs goes off. Think of all the people who are going to die because you're too squeamish to do something you find despicable. Haven't you learned yet? Someone has to be the villain so everyone else can stay alive. Think of the one thing you would never do—that's what you'll have to do in order to end this war. It's what I had to do.

Lily cut off contact with Lillian and stared at the fire, bitterness gnawing at her. Lillian's version of the future was a dictatorship, while Alaric's version was a smoking wasteland. Neither of those worlds were acceptable to Lily.

She saw something dart through the underbrush and instantly stiffened, adrenaline pumping through her veins. Lily opened her mouth to cry out and wake the others, but stopped. The thing in the underbrush was running away. She saw only a long, pale tail as it retreated.

Lily sat back, not completely sure why she had let the pale coyote Woven go, and saw Juliet's big eyes staring up at her from where she lay. Her sister knew her better than anyone. She also knew Lillian better than anyone.

“How do I do this, Juliet? How do I stop this war?” Lily whispered. “Lillian's still using me. I'm her pawn. She's always two steps ahead.”

“That's because you're in her world, where she's in control, and you're still thinking like her,” Juliet whispered back. “Don't.”

Lily looked at the pale Woven's trail. The underbrush was still moving slightly where it had run away. “Did Lillian ever think to go west?” she asked.

Juliet propped herself up on her elbow and looked at Lily. “Never.”

Lily looked back at her sister, and they shared a determined smile. “Good.”

*   *   *

Lily stared at a map of what she still thought of as North America, except in this version of the world, North America ended just a little bit past the Mississippi River. Everything west of that was filled in with nondescript cross-hatching, as if to say, Here, There Be Dragons. Which, Lily supposed, was entirely possible.

“Okay, so all we have to do is follow this trail we're on and we get to a ferry that will take us across this river?” Lily asked.

Caleb and Tristan exchanged looks.

“Maybe,” Tristan replied. “It was there two months ago. According to some.”

“My cousin said he saw it still functional three months ago,” Dana said. “If the Woven haven't attacked it, it should be fine.”

“That's comforting,” Una said sarcastically.

They had been riding west for over a week. About forty braves had joined them, making things both easier and harder. There were more eyes on the lookout for Woven, but there were also more mouths to feed.

Dana was one of the people Lily had found in Lillian's dungeon. Lily had freed her, and during the battle with Lillian that had followed shortly after, Dana proved herself to be a good general. As soon as she found out that Lily was back, Dana had joined her with fifteen other braves, but not even she could promise that she would go all the way west. Mostly, she and her braves wanted to be on the other side of the mountains if Alaric proved crazy enough to detonate his bombs.

Dana had been a leader among one of the other twelve factions in Alaric's tribe, and every time Lily regarded Dana for too long, she wondered what would happen if she slipped into her mind. Would she find some bit of information she could pass on to Lillian about the bombs? Lily made herself look away. She'd possessed Dana once to free her sister from the dungeon and had promised never to do it again to anyone. Lily didn't doubt that Dana would try to make good on her promise to kill Lily if she caught her sifting through her mind without permission.

“Why are you guys talking about crossing a river that's miles away? What about
those
?” Breakfast pointed to the Appalachian Mountains looming above them. “We've got to get through those first.”

“There are trails and trading posts all through there,” Caleb said, shrugging like it wasn't a big deal. “And spring's here. We'll be able to find food.” He suddenly wrinkled his brow in worry. “The rivers coming down the mountains might be all swollen with melt water, though. That could be a problem.”

“But aren't mountains, like,
high
?” Breakfast asked timorously.

Dana clapped Breakfast on the shoulder. “You'll be alright, little shaman,” she said seductively. “I'll catch you if you fall.”

Una's lips tightened, and she glared at Dana. Breakfast had become quite the catch since it was discovered that he was the “other Red Leaf.” All the people in this world wanted partners with magical talents so their children might inherit those abilities. Dana had made it clear she thought Una had enough power of her own to pass on to a child, and that she should share the wealth where Breakfast was concerned. As for Breakfast, he was not accustomed to his new status as man-candy, and he blushed and dropped his head, deathly afraid of Una's wrath.