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“So, they came to us,” Rilda said, watching her smoke float upwards. “To our island fortress, which could not shield them from the dark, but could help greatly with the human soldiers their enemies relied on.

“Hard to attack an island. Harder still to hold it. The Circle gained the queen’s favor and set about rebuilding their numbers—”

“And destroying ours!”

“Yes, but why?” Rilda asked, suddenly sitting forward. “Haven’t ye ever asked yourself that? When there were so few of them, and they were so vulnerable, why not make allies of us? Wouldn’t that have been better?”

“They tried. As long as we followed their rules, their laws—”

“Aye, and we should have listened.”

Gillian stared at her, not believing what she was hearing. “You have gone mad,” she whispered.

“Have I?” Her old friend looked annoyed for the first time. “Or was it madness to set ourselves against them? To become their enemies, ones that had to be exterminated, lest they join the dark—”

“We weren’t dark!”

“But did they know that? When more and more violence was breaking out every day? They were distrustful after their experiences on the continent, and saw nothing but hostility from us. Whilst we—we never stopped to think, even once, about the larger picture. About what happened if we won.”

“I thought about that all the time,” Gillian said tightly, her arms wrapped around herself because she wasn’t sure what she would do with them if she let go. “The Circle would leave our shores, never to return—”

“Yes, and who would come in their place?”

Rilda got up, leaving her pipe behind, and came closer, to the point that Gillian could tell that she wasn’t as unmoved as she’d seemed. Her cheeks were flushed, enough that it was visible even in the poor lighting, and her eyes were hot. But her voice was calm.

“That’s the thing we never asked. We blamed the Circle for the king of Spain attempting to invade us, for the Armada, for our terror and England’s peril. But we never paused to wonder: what if we had won? Destroyed the Circle and scattered its people to the winds? What would have happened then?”

“Anything is better than what we have now!”

“Really? Do you truly think that the contagion spreading over the continent wouldn’t have come here? That the dark wouldn’t have invaded as soon as the Circle was gone? They’ve gone everywhere else; why would they stop at our shores?

“We should have joined with the Circle, added our strength to theirs, postponed the question of who would rule these islands until the bigger threat was dealt with. That was what the Mothers finally realized, but not until the Armada was on our coast and invasion was nigh—”

“And then they slaughtered us,” Gillian said, venom in her tone. “Your beloved Circle—”

She never even saw the hand that slapped her; it was that fast. And that hard, leaving a stinging welt upon her cheek. And likely a print, too, from the feel of it.

Her ears were ringing.

“Not my Circle, girl!” Rilda told her, furious. “Never mine! They took everything from me, including even the right to hate them. I know we were wrong; that we should have swallowed our pride and done what was needful. I know I was part of the reason we didn’t, part of the Assembly of Elders who wanted to fight, just like you, and what did it get me? What did it get any of us?”

She gripped Gillian’s arms, hard enough to hurt. “There are so few of us now, we can’t afford misplaced pride. We have to think of our people—”

“And do what? Join those who slaughtered us? You say the Circle is better than the dark; I say there’s no difference! If you think for a moment—”

“There are other ways—”

“Yes, to be slaves! We have to—”

Gillian cut off as a sudden, sharp whistle tore through the air, causing all of their heads to lift in unison.

“What is that?” Kit asked.

“Thieves’ warning,” Gillian said, starting for the door. But this time, it was Rilda who held her back.

“Leave it to me.”

“Leave what to you? You don’t even know what’s happening—”