Free The Land of the Shadow by Lissa Bryan

back to let her pass, and Justin offered her a seat at the kitchen table. Carly ducked down into the basement, took the pitcher from the shelf, and brought it upstairs. Pearl took the glass of cool water with a nod and a smile of thanks. The sun had set hours ago, but the air was still hot enough that tiny beads of sweat dotted her forehead.
    “I take it you’ve decided to stay,” Justin said.
    “Why do you think that?” Pearl replied, a little smile dimpling her cheeks.
    “Because if not, you’d already be gone.”
    She laughed softly. “Yeah, I guess I would. I’ve still got some reservations.”
    Carly refilled Pearl’s glass. “Of course you do.”
    “What’s the catch? What do you expect of me?” Pearl pressed her hands flat on the table and leaned forward a little.
    “Just that you contribute wherever you can,” Carly said. “We need every pair of willing hands.”
    “And you’re the leader, right?”
    Justin spoke up. “Carly and I are, yes.”
    Pearl smiled at Carly. “You’re, like, the vice-president?”
    “More like co-dictator.” Justin poured himself a glass of water and took a sip. “I’ll be blunt—this isn’t a democracy. Carly and I are always willing to listen to other opinions, but our decisions are final. If you can’t live with that, we understand. But that’s the way it is here.”
    Carly cast him a reproving glance. “He’s exaggerating. We vote on most stuff. It’s more like we hold veto power. Rarely exercised, at that. We do make some rules, but we don’t boss people around all the time.”
    “How can I know what sort of leaders you are?”
    “Only by living here, I suppose.” Carly tapped her fingers on the table. “You’re always free to leave if you’re not happy here, Pearl. The fence we have is to keep people out, not keep them in.”
    “That’s another thing I wanted to ask you.”
    Justin waited for her to continue, but Pearl just stared down into her glass and turned it in her hands.
    “The fence is a precaution,” Justin said. “A necessary one, as you saw in today’s events. Fortunately, we haven’t faced anyone yet who wanted to do us physical harm or organized raiding parties, but it’s always a possibility we need to be prepared for. And as the food supply dwindles, it’s going to become more likely.”
    “What are you going to do about the fence-cutter?”
    Carly exchanged a glance with Justin. He was the one who answered.
    “Increase the patrols, set a few traps, and catch the bastard.”
    “What will you do when you catch him? Assuming it’s a ‘him.’ ”
    Both Carly and Justin had been using the male pronoun as an assumption, but the more Carly thought about it, the more she was almost sure it wasn’t a woman. Perhaps it was just her own prejudices, but the theft didn’t seem like something a woman would do. But she was always willing to consider the possibility.
    “That depends on who it is,” Justin said. “And why they did it.”
    “Is there a scenario where you would kill someone for stealing?” Pearl set her empty water glass down.
    “Yes.” Justin met her eyes, cool and level. “It’s not like we can call the police, Pearl, and have them put in jail. It doesn’t work that way anymore.”
    Carly couldn’t tell whether Pearl was unsettled by that response or not. She traced her finger in the condensation on the table.
    “But you can’t prevent people from breaking in.”
    “No, maybe not, but we can try. And we can be ready to deal with it when it happens.” Justin sat back in his chair. “Is your interest in this subject an indication of the area where you’d like to contribute?”
    Pearl was startled. “I hadn’t thought about . . . I mean, I just wondered—”
    “We can use another sharp pair of eyes in the Watchers.”
    Pearl copied Carly’s tapping fingers. “I have to admit, this makes me nervous. You guys seem to have a really good thing going here, a prime target. Do you know what it’s