“Yes. They’re supposed to represent the new Watchers. That was all I knew. But my mother said that during the end of our year as Watchers, there’s a different ceremony, a secret one. A council member brings a cage with her, containing a mouse or a chipmunk, whatever they can find.” She swallowed, clearly disturbed by what she was about to say. “Then the council member drops the poor creature into the pond. Mama said it was reduced instantly to bones, then nothing.”

“So the lilies have something to do with the poison.”

Leelo’s blue eyes filled with tears. “Yes.”

“But you put the lilies into the lake every spring.”

She blinked and the tears spilled over her lashes, streaking down her pale face. “Yes.”

It was fortunate neither of them knew what to say, because in the ensuing silence they heard something coming through the underbrush. Leelo grabbed Jaren’s hand, dragging him down behind a rock. It was a man in a cart pulled by a shaggy pony. Fortunately, he didn’t hear their breathing over the sound of the cart, and he disappeared into the trees a few moments later.

Leelo stayed kneeling where she was, swiping her tears away with the back of her hand. He wanted to comfort her, but she was trying her best to compose herself. “I already knew that Lake Luma wasn’t full of poison when my ancestors came. That was how they made it across in the first place. But the poison doesn’t come from the Forest, like we were told. It comes from us.”

“Saints,” Jaren breathed. “How?”

“They were brought from the mainland by one of our people, a botanist. She planted and cultivated the lilies in the cave, then moved them to the lake every subsequent spring. And we’ve continued it every year since.”

Leelo’s voice was laced with disgust, and Jaren could understand why. She had just learned that something she had perceived as special was part of an elaborate lie, one only revealed to her when it was too late. “And this was all to protect your people from outsiders.”

She nodded.

“But it also kept you...”

“Trapped,” Leelo finished, her voiced ragged.

Jaren helped Leelo to her feet and pulled her into his arms finally. “I’m sorry, Leelo. That must have been so difficult to hear.”

She sighed deeply against him. “I think I understand why they did it. I just don’t understand all the lies. Instead of honoring our ancestors’ traumatic pasts with the truth, they’ve wrapped everything in flowers and ribbons, until my entire generation forgot why we’re here.”

“They make rules to protect us,” Jaren said, thinking of all the times his parents had warned him not to wander. “They just don’t realize we’d be far more apt to listen if we knew what they were protecting us from.”