“This is simple enough,” Ian said. I wanted to jump up and clap my hand over his mouth, but I didn’t think I could get to my feet without help. “My brother was warned. He was not in any doubt about Jeb’s ruling on this. Wanda is one of our community—the same rules and protections apply to her as to any of us. Jeb told Kyle point-blank that if he couldn’t live with her here, he should move on. Kyle decided to stay. He knew then and he knows now the penalty for murder in this place.”

“It’s still alive,” Kyle grunted.

“Which is why I’m not asking for your death,” Ian snapped back. “But you can’t live here anymore. Not if you’re a murderer at heart.”

Ian stared at his brother for a moment, then sat on the ground beside me again.

“But he could get caught, and we’d have no idea,” Brandt protested, rising to his feet. “He’ll lead them back here, and we’d have no warning.”

There was a murmur through the room.

Kyle glared at Brandt. “They’ll never get me alive.”

“Then it’s a death sentence after all,” someone muttered at the same time that Andy said, “You can’t guarantee that.”

“One at a time,” Jeb warned.

“I’ve survived on the outside before,” Kyle said angrily.

Another voice came from the darkness. “It’s a risk.” I couldn’t make out the owners of the voices—they were just hissing whispers.

And another. “What did Kyle do wrong? Nothing.”

Jeb took a step toward the voice, glowering. “My rules.”

“She’s not one of us,” someone else protested.

Ian started to rise again.

“Hey!” Jared exploded. His voice was so loud that everyone jumped. “Wanda’s not on trial here! Does someone have a concrete complaint against her—against Wanda herself? Then ask for another tribunal. But we all know she hasn’t harmed anyone here. In fact, she saved his life.” He stabbed one finger toward Kyle’s back. Kyle’s shoulders hunched, like he’d felt the jab. “Just seconds after he tried to throw her into the river, she risked her life to keep him from the same painful death. She had to know that if she let him fall she would be safer here. She saved him anyway. Would any of you have done the same—rescue your enemy? He tried to kill her, and yet will she even speak against him?”

I felt all the eyes in the dark room on my face as Jared now held his hand out, palm up, toward me.

“Will you speak against him, Wanda?”