He straightened and looked at the boy. “I’ll have to find out what’s gone wrong or we’ll have to walk. A long way. Back to where you traveled before, the Columbia River, what you call Redonnelin Deep.” He glanced back the way they had come. “Too risky. They’ll be coming. Skrails. Perhaps some others.”

His dark face studied the horizon for a moment longer; then he ordered everyone out of the AV and began pulling open metal plates covering machine compartments and nests of wire. Kirisin watched him for a time, and then he walked over and sat down on a log by the roadside. Maybe he should have asked about skrails. But maybe he was better off if he didn’t.

Seconds later Praxia appeared and sat down beside him. She didn’t say anything for a moment, just stared off into the distance, her dark features expressionless. Finally she looked over. “Why do you think the Ellcrys chose you?”

Kirisin shook his head, not looking at her. “I really don’t know. I guess because I was there.”

“So were the others. She didn’t choose one of them.”

He didn’t know what to say. He didn’t want to tell her about Erisha. That was private, not something she needed to know. “I can’t explain.” “You must have been surprised when it happened.” She was still looking at him, her eyes locked on his face. “What did you think? Did you think you were losing your mind?”

“No, I didn’t think that.”

“What did you think, then?”

“Why do you want to know, Praxia?” He looked at her now, growing suddenly irritated. “Why should I tell you?”

She didn’t answer for a moment. Then she said, “I wish it could have been me. I wish she would have asked me. I know she wouldn’t; I’m not even a Chosen. But I wish it anyway.”

He stared at her in surprise. “Why?”

“Because what you did back there, that was the most wonderful thing I have ever seen. That was . . . I don’t have the words for it. How the magic came to life. How it gathered in our city and all our people, scooped them up like toys and drew them inside. Like a mother with an unborn baby, keeping it safe and alive inside her body.” She shook her head, her eyes filled with wonder. “I wish I could have done that. I would give anything.”

The way she said it made him look at her with new eyes. She wasn’t teasing or making fun. She meant what she was saying. Even if he didn’t like her all that well, her words moved him.