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“You think he’ll listen to me?”

“I think you’re the only one he’ll listen to.”

Ty and Basil and the rest of the soldiers race through the scattered branches, shouting and cheering, and when they reach me, they hoist me up on their shoulders.

“Whoa. Hey!”

“The cloud is breaking!” someone shouts.

“The gods have returned to us!”

I’m carted over to the nearest patch of sunlight where the others gather in a tight-knit crowd.

We spin around, cheering.

I don’t know how to tell them that we still have so much work left to do, that I don’t entirely know where we go from here, let alone understand what this all means for me.

But now isn’t the time anyway.

Best to leave them to a small celebration under the warm beams of sunlight.

FORTY-FIVERook

Bayla and Bron find me in the Emerald Palace a day after the felling of the trees.

They come wearing their civilian clothes and I know immediately what their visit portends.

“Sit,” I tell them and pour us each a glass of rum. I’ve been drinking too much since yesterday but without a little buzz, my thoughts swirl and my doom mounts.

I don’t want to think about what happened or what it means.

I don’t want to think about Kansas.

“I’m sorry I left you at the battle,” I tell them.

“To be perfectly honest,” Bayla says, “they were not interested in fighting us.”

“Our cousin Ty was there,” Bron says. “And he…”

“He’s a royal sympathizer,” I say. “I know him.”

The twins nod. “We take our commands very seriously,” Bron says.

“But family is family,” Bayla adds.

“Are you leaving?” I ask, but I already know the answer.

“Yes. It’s the harvest reaping,” Bayla says. “The dance draws near.”

“Right. The dance.”

“We’re leading this year,” Bron says.

Bayla nods and downs her rum. “We will perform the dance to completion.”

I know what this must mean for them. I know this has nothing to do with me. And yet they are my two closest friends here. The two I trust the most.

“You will do well,” I say, knowing that if they succeed, their village believes the gods will return with their blessings and divine magic. I’m not sure what they’ve made of Kansas, the felling of the trees, the unleashing of Blue’s magic, the breaks in the dark clouds, but they must sense things are changing. And one more bit of hope could change the tide.