His fingers scrabbled in the dirt next to him, like he was trying to gain purchase on an object.

“Stop moving, or I’ll shoot.”

The man looked up at her and held something out. It was a feather, long and striped in shades of brown.

“You dropped this,” he rasped. It was one of the hawk tail-feathers she collected for arrow fletching. It must have slipped from the buttonhole she had tucked it into earlier.

Leelo hesitated, unsure how she was supposed to proceed. This outsider—this man, or young man, she supposed—didn’t seem to mean her any harm. He’s an outsider! Sage’s voice hissed in her ear. But he seemed as confused as she was.

When she didn’t take the feather, he lowered it to his side and managed to sit up, running his free hand through his hair and ruffling it further.

“What’s your name?” the man asked her.

Leelo had been staring. She blinked and glanced around, sure that someone must be watching them and waiting for her to do the right thing, to sound the alarm and turn him over to the council. But she was still paralyzed with indecision. She’d heard once that the human body reacted one of three ways in an emergency: fight, flight, or freeze. And she was firmly in the third category.

“I’m Jaren Kask,” he said when she didn’t respond. She had the distinct impression he was trying to calm her, like one might a spooked animal, but it was just as likely he was distracting her, buying himself time to attack. “I recognize you, from the day of the... I suppose it was a festival of some sort. You waved to me?”

Leelo’s breath caught. He recognized her. She pulled the arrow back a fraction more.

He hurried to fill the silence. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone. I know I’m not supposed to be here. This wolf...”

As the man rambled on, explaining how he’d managed to get here in the first place, Leelo was scrambling for a solution to what was turning out to be an even larger problem than she could have possibly imagined. If Sage had also seen the blood, if she knew there was an outsider on Endla and that Leelo was partially responsible...

She had to get rid of him. It was the only option. But ending his life here seemed impossible. If she hadn’t done it back when he was still on the boat, when she didn’t know his name, how could she possibly kill him now? Jaren didn’t look menacing, lying on the ground at her feet with his pupils blown wide.

He looked terrified.

Do it, Sage’s voice said in her mind. Kill him and be done with it.