Another great drop of saltwater fell from above, hitting the bleeding foot and splashing off on me, stinging my eyes. I cursed, then wiped my eyes, blinked hard, grabbed another nail, and started pounding, making up for lost time, drawing more blood. The more I swung the hammer the easier it became, the more automatic. Blood of the innocent, shed at my whim and convenience? It wasn’t the first time, I thought, then immediately pushed back nagging memories to the dark corners of my mind. No—what I’d done and what I was doing were reasonable and just. And besides, everyone else was doing it.

I heard voices far above and stopped hammering long enough to look up. I saw in the sky, above the Woodsman, the great red-garbed general of the army of light, the mighty one I’d seen on the battlefield. He parted from his soldiers and came down in front of the Woodsman’s eyes—apparently he alone was allowed to pass down through the glass ceiling. He bowed his knees in midair and looked at his commander in chief, eyes pleading.

The Woodsman returned the gaze of his general and for a moment hung his head and winced. He shifted on his feet, and I heard a guttural groan from within him, as loud as thunder.

“Let us destroy them now, Master—please.” The general’s deep voice shook the ground beneath me, causing me to tremble. I felt certain this was the only one to whom this prince of warriors had ever said “please.”

“Michael,” replied the Woodsman in a tired, hurting voice, “you know if that was what I wanted I could unmake them all in a single moment or destroy them with merely a thought.”

“But why, Master, do you not let us protect you and defend your honor? Why do you let them torture you?”

The Woodsman’s wet eyes drooped. “Because … it is the only way to save them.”

The warrior-lord seemed to search the air for more words. Finding none, he bowed his head and turned away. When he passed up through the glass, the soldiers listened in rapt attention. I heard some of them groan and shout, while others stood in stunned silence. Again they pressed and beat against the invisible ceiling, for them a floor, and for a moment I thought they would surely break through. I clenched my teeth, knowing if they escaped, my comrades and I would be crushed by the weight of their wrath.

They pushed until the ceiling cracked. I cringed and braced myself.

“Noooooo!”

Everything shook at the lionlike roar. At the utterance of the Woodsman’s word, millions of warriors were sucked up into invisible regions of the sky as if into the vacuum of space. They disappeared, all of them.