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Fen’s words had taken up too much space in my mind, and I couldn’t seem to shake them. She’d been wrong—Baer’s concerns had had nothing to do with my actions the day her uncle had come to the village, following her like her own shadow, never letting her out of my sight. That had been my own worry and protectiveness, to hell with Baer’s. But she’d been right, too. I had been trying to make Baer happy since I was a snot-nosed boy half a world away from home and missing my mother.

But not today.

Baer narrowed his eyes but didn’t argue. I took a breath and got right to it.

“This clan is thinking with its ass. We’re making enemies of our own, and for what? To make Runehall’s happy? Fenli is not a risk to us, and we need to stop thinking of her like she is.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“Is it not? Ten years ago, our elders committed to keeping Fen and Indi here.”

He cut me off. “We did, and you were the solution. Now look where that’s gotten us. She won’t even accept you, and you’re too dumb to see her rejection for what it is.”

“It was a lousy solution!”

“It was the only one we had.”

I raised my chin. “I don’t believe that.”

He scoffed at my words. “Well, do enlighten me on how better we could have handled it. In the meantime, I’ll be in there,” his finger jutted to the door, “trying to solve actual problems.”

I grabbed his arm when he tried to leave, and he looked down at the hand I dared to lay on him.

“This clan treats Fenli with no respect, but it’s more than that. It’s not just her. It’s Esska, too. It’s anyone who wants to do anything that doesn’t fall neatly into the perimeters of our traditions.”

I’d never spoken out against my father and our clan like this before, and it gave me a kind of heady rush. I didn’t think before I said my next words.

“Fenli makes maps, you know. Meticulous, accurate maps. That’s what she wants to do. Not care for the birds or dye the fabrics. And Esska! She wants to hunt. I’ve been teaching her, and she’s damn good—”

He ripped his arm from my grip.

“You what?”

“This clan needs to change, to allow people to take interest in more than what they’re assigned.”

“Fool,” he spat. “You’re a damn fool. We have traditions for a reason, and if you drug me out here because you imagined you were doing thosegirls a favor, you were mistaken. When are you going to wake up to the world and stop dreaming this nonsense?”

It was then that it dawned on me what I’d done, the secrets I’d divulged. My heart sank.

“Don’t follow me into this hall,” he said. “And never repeat those words you just told me again.”

I didn’t grab for his arm this time. He went back to the others, and I stood in the alley alone.

Shit.

I left, needing to talk to Esska or Fenli or both of them, but it was Ess I came across first. She was in front of the dye house, talking to some of her friends, and she frowned when she saw me.

“What is it?” she asked as I came closer.

I glanced at her friends, then back at her.

“Can I talk with you?”

She gestured to the narrow path that wound between structures and out to the brush, and I followed her down it. I wondered what I’d tell her—how I’d tell her—and when she turned back to hear what I had to say, I still didn’t have an answer.

“I’ve made a mistake.”

“I figured that,” she said. “What did you do?”