It was all right for them. Home meant the warm gas fire and a steaming plate of food. But that was no longer an option for him. He slipped onto a smaller branch line and headed away from the crowds.

Five minutes later, his head peered around the door of the kirk. The inner sanctum looked empty. He crept toward the side chapel. Candles flickered in clay recesses as the polished wooden floor caught their reflections. At the altar, a familiar figure was kneeling on the floor. The silence spread out, unbreakable.

Ark had no choice. “Ahem,” he coughed.

The figure remained, unmoving. “Come to pray, my Malikum?”

What good would that do now?

“I hear your doubt. Sit by me a while.” Warden Goodwoody raised her head and motioned Ark to a nearby pew. She sniffed the air. “That smell you bring with you … I think I remember it. When I was young and still sighted, I used to explore all sorts of forbidden places….” Her voice trailed off. “But speak to me, my Ark. They said you were dead. Then you weren’t, and now there is quite the commotion about you.”

Ark found himself trembling as he perched on the chair. “I did nearly die … a few times.” And what else had he done? Vanished into a cloak of dark and touched a mealworm. He didn’t know if it was his abilities or mere timing. He did know he was not the same boy who came to see the Warden for guidance two days ago. Too much had happened since then. It was ridiculous, but he felt older, more determined than ever.

“Yes, and I have a feeling the trees have been with you all this time. This is a place of wonders, but most Dendrans have forgotten that. Not you, though?”

Ark nodded, then realized she couldn’t see his agreement. There was more hidden in the woods than he’d ever dreamed of. “The feather —”

“Is guiding you, yes. But you are not there yet. There is much to do. Perhaps too much.” Goodwoody sighed.

She was right and he was an ivy-strewn fool. The King was as inaccessible as ever. “How’s the roof?” he said, finally changing the subject.

“Oh, that!” The Warden smiled wryly. “The Woodsmen were most suspicious of my story, but I could have hardly climbed up there and made the hole myself.”

“Is my family all right?”

The Warden paused. “Your mother and father are fine. I managed to smuggle out some food that would have rotted in the kirk otherwise. But … I don’t know how to tell you this….”

“What?”

“Your young sister …”

Ark felt his heart suddenly lurch. “Is she ill? Did she fall? I shouldn’t have left!”