The next morning, Sage and Leelo sat on the shore, Watching near the spot where Pieter had died. Sage seemed to have forgiven Leelo, and they passed the time by talking about the solstice, what they would wear and who they thought would get engaged. It was a beautiful morning, the surface of the lake as smooth as glass, but Leelo kept thinking about her brother. It was possible that Tate really had found a nice family in a nearby village to live with, that he was safe and sound. She had wanted to believe Jaren so much it made her chest ache with hope.

But it was also possible he was telling her these things so she wouldn’t kill him. If he humanized outsiders, maybe she would come to believe they weren’t as bad as she’d always thought. Jaren didn’t seem like a bad person, but he could be acting. Saints knew she wasn’t really a battle-scarred Watcher who could slit his throat in his sleep if she chose to.

She needed to be more like Sage, she thought, watching her cousin from the corner of her eye. She was whittling something, her hazel eyes flicking up every thirty seconds to scan the horizon.

“What are you making?”

“This? It’s a fox. Can’t you tell?” She held up the wood and grinned. So far, it was just a shapeless lump.

Leelo smiled. Here she was thinking she should be more like Sage, and Sage was whittling the craftiest creature on the island. Endlan foxes were the bane of families like Isola’s, who raised chickens. Dirty, disease-ridden scavengers, to most.

“Why a fox?” Leelo asked.

Sage dropped her hands to her lap and turned her attention on Leelo. “Foxes,” she said, “are brilliant. Do you realize that in all our years of hunting, we’ve never once caught a fox in our snares? We’ve never even found a carcass. When they raid Rosalie’s henhouse, they leave nothing behind but feathers. They’re like shadows, silent and stealthy.”

“And you admire that?”

“Sure I do. When you didn’t show up for duty, I was almost looking forward to doing our shift alone. To really test myself, you know? A fox doesn’t need a pack to hunt. They don’t need anything but their own wit.” She frowned and picked up the wood again. “It was my mother’s idea to ask Hollis.”

“But we have each other, Sage.”

She shrugged. “We do for now. But we won’t always be together. And if I ever come across an outsider, I want to be ready.”

A chill ran down Leelo’s spine. “Ready?”

“I swear, when we arrived for our Watch and the boat was there, I was praying an outsider had come. Praying for my chance to protect Endla.”

“Wouldn’t you be scared to meet an outsider?”