“The same is true for us now. This is the home we have. It’s not perfect, and I would give anything for greens you didn’t have to boil for a year before they were edible, but it’s better than where we were.”

“And it’s where you came from,” Caledonia added, understanding why they’d been drawn back to the Northwater. “How long have you been here?”

“Nearly a full turn. Eleven moons,” she answered quickly. There was a stiffness to her now as she turned away from the wasted lands to the north.

Eleven moons ago Caledonia had been with her sisters on the Mors Navis menacing Aric’s bale barges outside of the Bone Mouth. She’d had no idea that her brother was still alive, that Pisces’s brother was still alive. She’d been angry and driven and cautious. And if someone had told her that in less than a turn’s time, she’d find herself trapped in the Northwater away from her girls, she’d have laughed in their face.

“I had—have a sister,” Triple said, breaking into her thoughts. “You remind me a little of her. Stubborn and a little self-righteous. You’d have either been perfect allies or terrible enemies.”

“Is she still here somewhere?” Caledonia traced the forested coastline west until it faded into the horizon. The colonists had hidden themselves well here, using the dense cover of trees and unfriendly terrain to mask their numbers from Aric’s Bullets.

“I don’t know. Possibly. But more than likely she was conscripted soon after me.”

“Did you ever try to find your parents?” Caledonia asked.

“I wanted to.” Triple gave a wavering smile. “But then I realized that if I knew where they were, nothing in this world would stop me from going to them. And that would end badly for everyone.”

Caledonia nearly laughed. “As someone who has made that choice, I have to admit you have more restraint than I.”

“Caledonia, I suspect even the Perpetual Storm has more restraint than you.”

The girls laughed together, finding common ground in the similar threads of their pasts. It must be maddening and painful to be so close to home and unable to rejoin it. Still, maybe it was better to be near enough to leave gifts of meat and know they had what they needed to survive. If Caledonia were in their position, she could imagine making the same choice. The Blades were as close to home as they could possibly get.

“I understand,” she said. “What you’re trying to show me. I understand.”

Triple smiled as a cold wind pushed strands of sunset hair across her cheeks. “I thought you might.”

They were halfway down the hillside when a horn sounded in the distance. Caledonia froze, senses on alert.