“The prime minister and her advisors hope this action will be sufficient to punish everyone who spoke up, and will deter others from doing the same. She’d rather not resort to more extreme measures—​she still hopes to have your loyalty, or at least your service, after you graduate. So long as you behave yourselves from here on in.” His lips quirked on the word “behave.”

“We gave my essay to guardians inside the storm,” Mina blurted out.

His eyes widened, then crinkled, as if he was amused. “Nicely done. Still, though, it won’t have a far enough reach to have an impact. Not before tomorrow. If we had more time . . . but we don’t.”

“What are we supposed to do? Sit back and let people die?” She jumped to her feet. Mina then clapped her hands over her mouth and sat abruptly. She’d never dreamed of shouting at a professor before. “Sorry,” she said between her fingers.

He chuckled. “Just because you’re quiet doesn’t mean you have nothing to say, does it? We’ve been funneling emergency supplies across the border for months now, at risk to ourselves.” He gestured to his right arm, which she remembered had been bandaged. She had wondered how he’d hurt himself—​she’d never have guessed he’d been off helping outsiders. “And we have been doing all we can to spread the word beyond the border of the exact date and time, and predict the location, of the worst of the storms, so people can prepare. Now we’ll have to spread word of the new date.”

Mina froze as a sudden thought hit her. “The people in the Dern outpost aren’t going to have time to reach their city’s storm bunkers.” They wouldn’t be expecting the ten-year storm to come tomorrow! They thought they had four more days.

Professor Dano sighed. “I know. But we have limited time and resources. Every storm guardian who believes in our cause is out warning as many as they can. Hundreds of thousands of people live in their cities. We have to focus our efforts there.”

But that’s not enough! She pictured Neela, Eione, and Varli. “We can help. There must be something we can do for Dern—”

He shook his head. “You’ve risked enough. It’s time for you to go back to being a student: learn as much as you can, and bide your time until you get another chance to help. I know it’s difficult: sometimes we have to accept that we’ve done our best but it wasn’t enough.”

Tears pricked her eyes. She blinked them back. She was not going to cry. It couldn’t be over! There had to be more she could do! People’s lives were on the line!