Lexa doesn't respond immediately, except with a tiny nod of acknowledgment--more a slow blink than an actual movement of her head. That is the answer she had expected, but his confirmation still requires another moment of consideration before she speaks. These are weighty matters, and if speaking to Bellamy is in some respects just a warm-up for the real conversation, she knows she cannot afford to present to him an idea she isn't fully willing to support.

The cart bumps over deep ruts in the road. Tall prairie grass that grows up between the wheel tracks whisks along the bottom of the cart and across the leather of Lexa's boots. She brushes a fly away from her ear.

"If they wish to stay then they should become a hold. If they are a real settlement, recognized as part of my coalition, it will be far more difficult for others to oust them as lowlander invaders squatting on land they have no right to."