Page 97 of The Poison Season

They waited two months before they made the journey back to Endla. January was the coldest month, when they could be sure the ice was as solid as possible. Leelo believed the others would be safe from any singing, now that the Forest was gone, but they wore wool in their ears, just in case.

Grimm, the leader of the incantu, had managed to gather up more than twenty to join them. They were children who had been forcibly taken from their parents and thrust into the world alone. As Tate had guessed, they wanted a chance to reunite with their families. And many of them wanted answers.

It had taken a lot of convincing to keep Tate at home with Lupin and Jaren’s sisters, where he would be safe. But Oskar, Stepan, and several other villagers had agreed to come. Leelo stood among them now, gripping Jaren’s hand and praying that whatever they found, Mama was safe.

They crossed the ice silently. Leelo was half-sure the ice would give way beneath them, but they were spread out, and it was a particularly ferocious winter, like the year Nigel had accidentally gone to Endla. The ice held.

As they drew closer, Leelo couldn’t help but notice how desolate the island looked. There were a few remaining trees, some bushes and shrubs, but what stood out starkly against the snow were the cottages. Miraculously, they hadn’t all burned. She could see candles glowing in several windows, and the familiar scent of woodsmoke pluming from the chimneys gave her hope.

But though she was relieved to see that at least some Endlans had survived the fire, this place that she had once loved no longer felt like home. It felt sinister and dead, not like the living, thriving Forest she’d once known. There were no animals rustling in the brush, no leaves whispering overhead. It was winter, and the Forest was always quiet at this time of year. But it was a different kind of silence that lay over the island like a blanket, and, for a moment, Leelo was hit by a wave of fear, that perhaps no one had survived, that it was ghosts who lit those candles and sat by those fires.

As they approached the pine grove, a shape materialized just feet in front of them. Leelo gasped. Wildcat eyes and fiery hair blazed out of the white and black of the winter landscape.

“Sage,” Leelo breathed. Despite everything, despite the hurt and betrayal, Leelo still cared about her. She wasn’t sure if she could call it love. But loyalty was a difficult thing to quell, and Leelo wanted to believe that Sage would have made different choices in another world.

“You came back.” Sage’s voice was so quiet it was almost a whisper. She took a step toward Leelo. “Or am I dreaming again?”

“It’s not a dream,” Leelo said, her voice cracking.

Sage looked at Jaren, her jaw clenched. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again. It’s been so quiet here.”

“Where is Aunt Ketty?” Leelo asked, half expecting her to appear at the sound of her name, like a demon summoned.

Sage shook her head. “Gone. She disappeared the night of the fire, when the Forest vanished. I’m not sure if she died or if...”

“If what?” Leelo asked.

“If the Forest took her with it.”

Leelo felt her stomach twist with horror. She didn’t know what fate Ketty deserved, but surely it wasn’t this, to be taken by the very thing she had sacrificed everything for.

“Grimm?”

They all turned to see a man in his fifties emerge from a cottage, his weathered face wet with tears. “Grimm, is that you?”

“Uncle?”

“It really is you,” the man said.

Leelo and Jaren stepped back as the two embraced and more Endlans began to come out of what Leelo now realized was hiding. They must have seen them approaching and taken shelter. And something about that, about her once proud people hiding in the face of danger, made her heart ache.

Slowly, one by one, Endlans began to search among the incantu for their lost loved ones. After that, there was a lot of crying, some joyful, some pained, as families learned of the fate of their sons or daughters, sisters or brothers. But slowly, one by one, the twenty incantu who had come with them dispersed among the crowd.

Through all of this, Sage had stayed close to Leelo, but she hadn’t spoken.

“Where’s Mama?” Leelo finally asked. She’d been waiting for her to join them like so many of the other Endlans, but she hadn’t, and Leelo was beginning to fear the worst.

“Come on,” Sage said. “I’ll take you to her.”

Sage was dressed in furs and leather, a large knife strapped to her thigh, Leelo’s old bow across her shoulder. She looked like she had prepared for battle. But as Leelo gazed deep into her cousin’s eyes for the first time that day, she saw that all of the fight had gone out of her.

As they approached the cottage that had been Leelo’s home for so long, she noticed that there was no smoke coming from the chimney. When she opened the front door, the bells, which were frozen under a layer of ice, didn’t ring their cheerful welcome. The house was so cold and still that Leelo was convinced her cousin had brought her to her mother’s grave.

And then she heard a familiar creak on the stairs, and Leelo collapsed in relief.

“Is it really you?” Mama descended the stairs slowly, but though she was thin and pale, she wasn’t clinging to the banister for support. She knelt down next to Leelo and gathered her into her arms, and now it was Leelo’s turn to cling to something, to be held like a child and comforted by her mother.

“Are you all right?” Leelo managed between sobs.

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