He turned his gaze to where Hayn stood, and his uncle nodded silent encouragement. “Our parents worked together,” Anders continued, “to create and restore the artifacts we’re using today. And just yesterday, wolves and dragons worked on them again. It was sowecould come together and forge something new.
“The new Vallen can be battle born. The dragons take so long to decide anything that nothing ever happens. The wolves follow their pack leader without question. And sometimes that pack leader makes mistakes, and there’s nobody to say so. The humans don’t trust either of them, but they also don’t try to talk to them—and even if they did, nobody would listen.
“We’ve all lived in those worlds, and our friends come from all of them. And you have alotto learn from each other. Wolves and dragons are meant to work together to create artifacts. Designers and dragonsmiths are no good without each other. And the humans are the families wolves and dragons come from.
“Dragons know that differences are important—it’s why every student at their school studies something different, why the Dragonmeet talks and talks until every voice is heard. And wolves and humans know too—they live in Holbard, where there are people from all over the world, making the city stronger and more interesting with the things and ideas they bring from other countries.
“Right now, you’re all separate. Most of you don’t have anywhere to live, and you’re all spending a lot of time worrying about being attacked. So maybe, justmaybe, you should all stop looking for someone to blame, and start talking instead.
“If you don’t agree, then argue! Forge a new way to do this with a battle ofwords. The new Vallenhasto be battle born, and it will be a better place to live for all of us.”
Everyone was completely silent when Anders stopped speaking. He had never said so many words in a row in his entire life.
Beside him, Rayna was holding his hand so tight, he thought she’d break his fingers. But he knew what it meant.I’m so proud of you, I can’t even talk, so I have to try to break your hand to show you.
He half hoped that Leif would say something, or Hayn, but he knew why they didn’t. They were already the most inclined to listen to him, but they couldn’t drag everyoneelse along with them. They weren’t the ones he had to convince.
So he held his breath as Torsten and Valerius, now just two versions of himself, looked at each other, as Ennar eyed the mayor, who stared straight back.
And then Valerius looked at the version of himself who was really Ellukka, and he seemed to decide something. “Well,” he said, “I can’t do this while I’m staring at a dozen versions of my own face. I’m just not that good looking. And I can only imagine what it’s like for Torsten, staring at that many versions of his beard.”
The version of Anders that was Torsten actually snorted, amused. But when he spoke, he sounded stern. “We’re not just going to give things away. We’re the ones who have somewhere to live. We’re not the ones coming asking for help.”
“Nobody’s asking for help,” Ennar replied quickly.
“Once upon a time,” said Saphira mildly, “they wouldn’t havehadto ask for help.”
Anders stayed silent, watching. Every single one of them was hearing what everyone else said, as though it came from their own lips. Saphira’s reminder had been spoken to each of them in their own voice.
It wasn’t that they’d forgotten who the others were, or that they really thought they were speaking to themselves.But perhaps seeing themselves speak, instead of someone they had always automatically assumed was wrong, it was just a little bit harder to completely dismiss it. Perhaps, hearing the words come from their own lips, they were forced to consider them just a little bit more carefully.
“You know what?” said the mayor, folding his arms. “I’ll ask for help. I’m not too proud. My people don’t have anywhere to live anymore. Two groups of elementals destroyed our city, and I don’t care if they were trying to hurt us or trying to protect us. What I care about is that we’re hungry, and my duty is to provide for my people any way I can.”
“We have a duty too,” said Ennar. “To protect you.”
“This isn’t about your duty,” said the mayor firmly. “This is about the fact that we’re all Vallenites.”
Anders looked across at Hayn, who slowly lifted a finger to his lips.Stay silent, his face—or, rather, Anders’s face—said.Let them keep talking.
Behind Hayn, two more versions of Anders that he was pretty sure were Sam and Sakarias were energetically jumping up and down in celebration. Anders wasn’t sure it was time for that yet, but at least nobody was attacking anybody else.
Tentatively, he crouched down and began to wrap the mirror back up again. It had done its job. It had remindedthem that, in some ways, they were all the same.
Now it was time for them to see their differences again. To talk and debate. And, in battles of words and ideas, to work out what kind of Vallen they wanted to live in. Now they had to show each other their differences, becausethosewere where the best ideas would come from.
All the adults paused as Anders finished wrapping up the mirror, suddenly seeing one another clearly again.
And then, as he picked it up and quietly backed away toward his friends...
... they all kept talking.
Epilogue
Five months later
ANDERS SAT ON A HILL ABOVEHOLBARD, SIDE BYside with Lisabet, eating slices of Kaleb’s cake. They were near the place that Sigrid had been buried, overlooking the city.
In the end, he and Rayna had decided not to tell anyone what Sigrid had done. They couldn’t hurt Sigrid now. She was gone. But telling the worldwouldhurt Lisabet. And it wouldn’t bring back Felix or Drifa.
