Leander stood frozen on the wall. The night breeze rustled the trees around them, the smell of elderberry and wet grass was crisp and cool in his nose.
“Deserters are considered one of the worst threats to the tribe,” Leander said slowly, thinking it through. His mind turned, leaping ahead. “They’re desperate. Uncontrolled. Dangerous. Almost as dangerous as...”
But he didn’t say the word. It hung in the air between them. “Yes,” his father answered.
He chewed the inside of his lip. “The Assembly would come after me.”
His father smiled serenely. “Yes.”
“I’d have to find somewhere forested, somewhere I could live and Shift without being noticed...”
“I daresay you would be able to take care of yourself, to find a way to survive alone. You’re the bravest of my children, by far the most re
