diff --git a/iterator.go b/iterator.go
index fb093fd..217b4c4 100644
--- a/iterator.go
+++ b/iterator.go
@@ -140,11 +140,11 @@ func eachPrefixRange(prefix []byte, nbins uint, callback func([]byte, []byte)) {
 }
 
 // SubtrieIterators cuts a trie by path prefix, returning `nbins` iterators covering its subtries
-func SubtrieIterators(makeIterator IteratorConstructor, nbins uint) []trie.NodeIterator {
-	var iters []trie.NodeIterator
+func SubtrieIterators(makeIterator IteratorConstructor, nbins uint) (iters, bases []trie.NodeIterator) {
 	eachPrefixRange(nil, nbins, func(from []byte, to []byte) {
 		it := makeIterator(HexToKeyBytes(from))
+		bases = append(bases, it)
 		iters = append(iters, NewPrefixBoundIterator(it, to))
 	})
-	return iters
+	return iters, bases
 }
diff --git a/iterator_test.go b/iterator_test.go
index 882a145..fb3fa63 100644
--- a/iterator_test.go
+++ b/iterator_test.go
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ func TestIterator(t *testing.T) {
 		allPaths := internal.FixtureNodePaths
 		cases := []uint{1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32}
 		runCase := func(t *testing.T, nbins uint) {
-			iters := iter.SubtrieIterators(tree.NodeIterator, nbins)
+			iters, _ := iter.SubtrieIterators(tree.NodeIterator, nbins)
 			ix := 0
 			for b := uint(0); b < nbins; b++ {
 				for it := iters[b]; it.Next(true); ix++ {