“I do,” Leelo said because it was easier than arguing with Sage. But surely Pieter didn’t have to die. She thought of him stumbling out of Isola’s cottage half-naked, how vulnerable humans were when it came to the violence of nature. A flash of memory—the way the roots of her family tree had so eagerly absorbed the blood sacrifice—made the wound on her hand pulse with pain. She had seen birds fly into trees and never fly out again, had even watched an entire deer disappear into a sinkhole once. She knew all too well what the Forest was capable of.

As they reached the water’s edge, Leelo saw that a crowd had gathered near the shore, spread out in a half-moon shape. Sage pushed her way through to the front, dragging Leelo along with her.

Pieter stood with his heels nearly touching the water, brandishing a stick as though it could protect him. He bared his teeth, reminding Leelo of a badger she’d once caught in a snare. She didn’t know if an incantu was given the same choice as an outsider, but it seemed Pieter had chosen for himself.

“Stay back!” he shouted, waving the stick at a woman who had come close to jeer at him. “I mean it.”

“Pieter, please!” Isola was screaming again, but her mother and two other islanders restrained her. “Stay with me!”

“Hush,” her mother said, trying to calm her daughter. “You know that’s impossible.”

Pieter glanced behind him. There were a few small ice floes left. The nearest was only a couple meters offshore, but there was no way to reach it without touching the water. Leelo scanned the crowd for Pieter’s parents and found them standing stoically near the end of the line of islanders. Aside from a few tears on his mother’s cheeks, you would never know their son was about to die. Why didn’t they do something? Leelo wondered. How could they just stand there and let this happen?

Suddenly, Pieter spun and hurtled through the shallows, somehow reaching the nearest ice floe. He stood there, his legs spread in a wide stance for balance, searching frantically for his next move. The islanders watched as he made a leap, landing half on the ice and half off.

“Look!” someone shouted. A group of outsiders had gathered on the far shore.

“Hurry, Pieter,” one of them called. “You can make it!”

Pieter was almost halfway across the lake, but the ice was even more sparse on the far side. There was no way he could reach it without swimming. The outsiders were hauling a boat through the mud toward the water, but they seemed hesitant to risk it. Leelo couldn’t blame them.

“Help!” Pieter screamed as the ice beneath him cracked. One moment he was standing, and the next he was gone with only a small splash and a strangled cry.