Page 109 of Thornlight

Thorn’s mouth went dry.The Gulgot.

A rainfall of tiny rocks peppered Thorn’s arms. She ducked,covering her head with her hands. Noro stumbled with a sharp, bleating cry.

“Noro?” came a shout.“Thorn?”

Another voice, so familiar and dear that Thorn lost her breath, said, “Cub, wait! Stop!”

Noro rushed forward, ducking beneath a strange furry canopy, darting between strange hairy trees, each with fat trunks the size of Castle Stratiara’s towers.

Thorn slid off Noro’s back, choking down tears, and ran toward the glimmering light, because she could now see that it belonged to a man who wore a glowing cloth sack slung around his torso.

“Papa!” Thorn stumbled, feet catching on a ground she couldn’t see. “Mama!”

But Brier—Brier,Brier, not dead, alive and breathing, limping with arms outstretched, laughing through tears—was the first one to reach her.

Thorn crashed into her twin, flung her arms around her neck, kissed Brier’s cheek again and again. Same skin, same cheekbone, same soft brown hair tickling Thorn’s neck. Same voice whispering against Thorn’s ear, “Thorn, you’re home, you’rehome.”

Thorn tried to pull away to see Brier’s face, but suddenly she couldn’t move, and didn’t want to. Her father was behind her, and her mother was beside her, and they were both wrapping their arms around first Thorn, then Brier, then both of them at once. Brier found Noro, hugged his slender head. Noro, forgetting himself, nickered and whinnied and whuffed Brier’s hair, as any common pony might have done.

“My Thorn,” whispered their father, kissing both of Thorn’s cheeks. “My brave, brave girl.”

But all too soon, Thorn remembered the reason she had jumped into the Break in the first place. With a lump in her throat, she asked, “Where’s Zaf?”

Everyone fell silent.

Thorn’s mother gently touched her cheek. “Was that her name? Brier didn’t know.”

Was.Thorn’s voice came out strangled. “Was?”

“This way,” said Brier, holding out her hand. Noro’s horn and their father’s bag of eldisks lit a path. Thorn tried not to look at their glow and think about what lived trapped inside them.

Thorn’s mother crouched beside a pale, still form on the ground. She turned to Thorn with tears in her eyes.

“Here she is, darling,” whispered Thorn’s mother. “We tried to keep her with us, but...”

Thorn’s blood pounded and rushed and roared. “Noro?”

Noro lowered his head, blinked two, then four, thensixtears onto Zaf’s forehead and arms and chest. It was the most tears Thorn had ever seen him use on a single person, and her heart blazed with love for him.

But Zaf remained still as stone. The tears rolled down her skin, useless and wasted.

Thorn knelt. She touched Zaf’s hand, her smooth hollow cheek.

“Zaf,” Thorn whispered, running her fingers through Zaf’s thin white hair. “I’m so sorry.”

At Thorn’s touch, a wave of light shifted faintly across Zaf’s skin. Thorn’s heart jumped with hope.

She whirled to face the others. “Did you see that? She’s still alive!”

Her mother inspected Zaf’s still face. “Thorn, I don’t know. We’ve tried to wake her, but—”

“I don’t care what you think,” said Thorn, shaking her head fiercely. “I know she’s alive. Iknowit.”

“Thorn.” Her father tried to gently direct her away from Zaf. “Come here, my sweet girl.”

The shell inside Thorn shoved hard against her skin, with a sharp spat word.No.

Thorn smacked away her father’s hand. “Get away from me!”

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