«I want to watch that,» Pixit said, his head poking in through the open window.

I don’t think she’s serious. Or not very serious. Backing into the living room, Mina watched Gaton pull on his boots, preparing to head to the chicken coop. “Gaton . . .” She tried to figure out what exactly she wanted to ask her brother, about what he knew about weather being connected and about storms across the border, but before she could, Gaton was out the door. He’d been a guardian longer than she had, and Professor Dano had said the rumors had been circulating for a while. Had Gaton heard them?

But he was gone before she could think of the words she wanted to say.

Or if she wanted to say anything at all.

A week passed quickly at home. Mina took back all her old chores, and she tried to tell herself that there was nothing that she could do to stop the Ten-Year Festival and help the people beyond the mountains. She was just one lightning-guardian-in-training, and not a very good one at that. She couldn’t even spark. Who would listen to her, even if she did speak?

«I’d listen.» Pixit was watching her from the other side of the chicken-wire fence as Mina fed the chickens scraps from breakfast.

You’re the only one.

«That’s not true,» he thought quietly.

Squawking, the chickens pecked at her feet. She scooted back and tossed the food across the coop, far away from her toes. I can’t.

She looked up at the mountains, softened by distance into a nice background landscape, like a painting on a wall. Miles and miles away, Neela, Eione, Varli, and everyone they cared about were preparing for the ten-year storm. I don’t know how to stop the festival. And if I tell anyone what I know, I’ll be expelled, and what good would that do? I can’t help anyone if I’m expelled.

«Your family won’t expel you,» Pixit pointed out. «They love you.»

She finished with the chickens. That was true. They’re going to yell.

He considered that. «Probably.»

It was tempting. If she could get them to listen . . . They aren’t going to even let me say it all before they start to yell.

Pixit considered that, too. «Talk really fast.»

She wanted to tell them, especially if there was a chance they’d believe her and support her. She didn’t like carrying this heavy secret. But what’s the point in telling them? How are they going to stop the festival? It’s happening in just one week!