“I’m sorry, but you have a greater purpose, Ark. Deep inside, you know it’s the truth.” She gently wiped the tears from his cheeks. “Destiny is sometimes hard as heartwood. You prayed for a way to make things right and perhaps Diana, mother of us all, has shown you the way. What is the point of worship if it doesn’t bring results? I have been here almost since the wood began. Maybe I can reveal some of its mystery.” Corwenna let go of her boy and stood up. “Come, there are clean clothes for you. Once you have taken some food, we shall start. You have to develop the skills that are inside you. You weren’t let loose on the sewers without training, were you? You need a teacher.”

And she was gone, her black petticoats swirling behind her.

Miserably, Ark stripped off his old sweaty and bloodstained clothes. The cut across his chest had begun to scab over. It was a score rather than a deep wound. He’d been lucky his grotty jerkin had been so thick. There was a zinc-lined basin in the corner, filled with clean-smelling rootwater. As he finished washing, he looked over the new clothes, laid out as if she’d known all along that he was coming.

He pulled on a pair of hose spun from dyed black wool, much less itchy than his old stockings. Over the top went his new britches, of padded black velvet. His shift tied up at the front with horn buttons and he cinched this in with a supple leather waistcote. The shoes were close fitting, far more comfortable than the old ones his father had passed down to him. He looked in the mirror that hung above the basin. A raven on legs. Is that what he was? He no longer knew.

Ark stood uncertainly at the threshold of his room. Corwenna had said that he could save Arborium. All at once, he hated her and knew she was the one who could help him do it. So far, he’d only felt the loneliness of a mealworm and thrown a feather through the air. It was hardly wood-shattering.

He took a deep breath and finally pulled open the door to a staggeringly bright day. The light punched its way through the canopy. The branchway ahead appeared empty. He looked out toward the mountains and home. He felt so alone. This place with its jungle of wrinkled trees all woven together was alien and yet eerily beautiful. Where was Corwenna? He looked all around at the deserted canopy. Today there were no eyes staring back at him from the trees.