The gerbil had disappeared, but something within me moved and pressed against my skin, bulging, causing pangs of torment. In the world’s worst way I wanted to relieve the pain and run off and join Salama before having to face the Woodsman. I could provide her company, protect her, help her on the climb. I was flooded with a thousand noble reasons to run away from the chasm and the Woodsman and join her.

I felt my heart in my throat. The Woodsman was returning. I was the only one left. He headed right for me. Though he had the form of a man, I felt pursued by a lion, wild and uncontrollable. As he came near, I saw his eyes, deep and dark, so dark I could not see the pupils, making it seem the large brown iris was the pupil. I felt he looked at me through lenses far bigger than a man’s. I sensed those eyes—like doorways to another world—saw every inch of me, outside and in.

I looked down at his hands and feet, then shuddered at the scars I saw there. I examined my bloodstained hands and stared at the ground, ashamed.

“Hello, Nick.”

I said nothing and didn’t look up.

“The deed is done,” he said. “The price is paid. The red road continues. The tree is there to cross. Now there is a way to the City of Light. Will you accept my invitation to cross the chasm?”

“But … how can it be crossed? It’s so huge.”

“The chasm is huge, but the tree is bigger still. And I am far bigger than the tree.”

“My friends who went with you—did they make it to the other side? Or did they … fall off and die?”

“They did not fall off. But in a sense they did die.”

“What?” My stomach tightened.

“You cannot cross the chasm without dying. If you stay here, you will die. If you walk the tree, you will die in a different way. But the tree is the only way to life. You are already dead. You may choose to die again and stay dead or to die again and embrace life—but in either case you must die again. Nothing that has not died can be raised from the dead.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You don’t have to—but to cross you do have to trust me.”

“What must I do?”

“You cannot earn your way. You must only receive the gift I freely offer, the gift I paid for. Admit responsibility for the abyss. Acknowledge you pierced my skin with your nails. Affirm I am the World-Shaper who crossed the chasm for you. Ask me to deliver you from the scorpion inside and the web outside and the flying beast above. Invite me to walk you across the chasm.”