Leelo took her mother’s arm and helped her into a chair by the fire. “We can stay here, if you’re not feeling well enough.”

“Everyone has to attend,” Ketty said. “You know that.”

“Mama?” Leelo crouched down next to her mother. “I don’t mind staying.”

“I don’t think I have the strength for it,” Fiona said to Ketty.

“Exactly why you should come, sister. The singing will help bolster you.”

Fiona frowned and rubbed her temples. “My head is pounding. I’ll try to follow, but you should go ahead, Leelo.” Her mother’s voice was soft with compassion, though she looked troubled. “That poor boy. And his parents. I wonder if they know.”

Leelo bit at the jagged edge of a fingernail. Her mother understood how much Leelo hated the drownings, but she had missed the last one, when a man who claimed to be lost in a snowstorm was found by a pair of Watchers on their first day of duty. He had been given the same choice as everyone else, and Leelo had been surprised when he chose the Forest. In the winter, there was at least a chance of making it across the ice. But the Forest would no sooner tolerate an outsider than a dog would a flea. The man had been crushed by a falling tree within minutes of his release.

Leelo’s repeated absence would be noticed. Besides, drownings were important to Endla. They were a reminder of how precious this place was and how vital it was they protect it at all costs. Only the incantu were spared from these occasions, as they weren’t considered true Endlans.

Despite the food and shelter the Wandering Forest provided, outsiders believed it was evil, as Aunt Ketty had explained a hundred times. That’s how outsiders are. If they don’t understand something, like the Forest, they have to destroy it. Anything that doesn’t function the way they decide it should doesn’t deserve to live in their eyes.

That was why all the other Wandering Forests had been chopped down or burned by outsiders and why it was so vital no harm should come to Endla. Pieter wasn’t an outsider, of course, and he likely had no intention of harming the Wandering Forest. But if he could come across the frozen lake so easily and remain hidden, what was to stop an outsider from doing the same?

“All right, Mama,” Leelo said finally. “We’ll be back soon.” With a pit forming in her stomach, she donned her muddy boots and trudged back into the woods with her aunt and cousin.

Sage linked her arm through Leelo’s, and she could feel Sage’s—she didn’t want to say excitement, though that was what it felt like—buzzing inside of her. “I know you hate it, Lo. But it’s necessary. He can’t stay here. You must understand that by now.”