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“At the grove.”

“Oh. I was going to offer to find you something.”

“Are you hungry?”

“No.” I keep hold of his arm. “I missed you. I wanted you to sit with me for a while.”

“Good,” he says. “I’ve had enough of walking.”

He lowers himself onto the wall. I sit against his side.

“How was your day?” he asks.

I tell him about the kettle. He objects to the price before I get to the crack, and I have to start again because I’m laughing.

When I’ve finished, he takes my hand.

“I was hoping you’d still be awake.”

I turn toward him. “You could have started with that.”

He kisses me, and I hold his shoulder before he can straighten.

The following afternoon I walk to the clearing alone, pleased to find that I know the turns. I add a question to the letter on my ledge: has Tovi spoken to his cousin about a new supplier? I’ll send it when I have the review’s answer to give her.

On my thirteenth morning, Daurek asks me to walk north with him after breakfast.

“Far enough to need my coat?”

“Yes. And boots you don’t mind getting wet.”

“Those are my only boots.”

“Then I’ll dry them afterward.”

I put them on, and we leave through the northern arch.

Beyond the last marked garden path, the trees grow close together. Daurek guides me over their roots without asking them to move. Blue fungi shine in the cracks. The air gets cooler as we descend into a hollow where the morning sun barely reaches the ground.

At the center lies a fallen tree so large that its upturned roots rise above his antlers.

I stop beside him.

The trunk has split along its length. Water fills the hollow, reflecting shelves of pale mushrooms. Birch and cedar seedlings grow from the softened bark. One has roots wrapped around a branch that must have been thicker than my body when the tree fell.

“Did you know this tree?” I ask.

Daurek rests his palm against the trunk.

“She was the first one I remember hearing through Tauremak. She fell ninety-three years ago.”

“What happened?”

“Blight in the crown. I cut it out, and it came back. For nine years I braced the limbs and moved floodwater away from the roots.”

“You couldn’t save her.”

“No. The trees around her were going without water while I tried.”