“Do I really need to spell it out?” she hissed. “You’re cave clan. Your kind killed my whole family, murdered my village even down to the animals. It took me three days to bury them all. Three days of mud and sweat, of blood I wished was mine. Three days of fending off carrion crows. Do you really think I would have tried to rescue Seven if I’d known she was one of them? No! I hope she’s already dead.”

A sickened silence fell. Twelve wanted to take the terrible words back, but they’d already flown, more destructive than anything her axes could do.

She saw a deep shudder run through Six and, when he spoke, his voice trembled with emotion. “How can you say that? She’s still the same person you knew. She gave you Widge.”

Twelve couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. Widge was like a statue on her shoulder.

“Give me her moonstone,” Six said, his voice harsher now, his breathing ragged. “She made a mistake giving it to you.”

“The moonstone is Seven’s?” Five asked wonderingly.

Surprise mingled with shame as Twelve pulled the stone from her pocket and half flung it at Six, startled at the wrench she felt to let it go. Its light had been a reassuring certainty for the last few days.

“Yes, it’s hers,” Six snarled, snatching it up and cradling it.

“Another thing you could have told me,” Five said coldly, recovering his composure. “Exactly how much more is there that you’ve kept to yourself? Do you know why she was taken?”

“What does it matter now?” Six asked bitterly.

“You do know!” Five exclaimed, his voice rising to a shout. “And you didn’t think fit to share it with us? Quite happy to use us, but clearly no need to trust us!” He shook his head and wrapped his arms around himself, his misery obvious.

“Six?” Dog asked, turning to him, a dangerous light in his eye. “Is this true?”

“The Hunters don’t even let us keep our names!” Six cried, his eyes wild. “You think they’d let me keep my sister?”

A salt-stained memory snatched at Twelve: Elder Hoarfrost, true to his name, unmoved by her pleas and tears as he carried her father’s axes away. She shook herself furiously.

“Seven insisted we had to go to the Hunting Lodge together,” Six said. “I begged her to choose somewhere else, but she said no. She must have known this was going to happen, but she never said anything. She gave her moonstone to Twelve and I don’t understand why!”

The blank look on Five’s face gave way to doubt, then outright confusion. “How could she have known this was going to happen?”

Twelve felt sure her expression mirrored Five’s and Dog’s. She tried to tell herself she didn’t care, that none of this mattered, but her curiosity burned bright.