“LOOK AT THAT ONE!” Millie said, pointing up at a cloud in the sky.
She and Laura lay side by side in the grass at the edge of the Never-Dark Forest. It had been five days since Laura had made her promise, and she had managed to steer clear of the cracks in the wall. But it wasn’t easy. All week, she felt as though she had a giant itch that she wasn’t allowed to scratch. It made her intolerably grumpy. So Millie had invented a game to cheer her up. They would stare up at the sky and take turns naming what each passing cloud looked like. Millie had strained her imagination as hard as she could to come up with the name of the game. It was called “What’s That Cloud?”
Laura examined the puffy white shape overhead. “I think it looks like a one-eyed bear,” she said. “That’s twenty feet tall! And shoots fire out of its ears!”
Millie covered her mouth to keep from screaming. “That’s horrifying!”
Laura laughed. “Well, what do you think it looks like?”
Millie smiled. “I think it looks like a gray pear.”
Laura elbowed her lightly in the arm. “That’s what you say for every one.”
“It’s not my fault all the clouds look delicious!”
“Fine,” Laura said, pointing at Millie. “But you have to come up with something new next time.”
Laura turned to face the sky again. She had to admit to herself that she liked the game. Without the cracks in the wall, the clouds drifting overhead were the only glimpse she had left of the outside world.
“I’ll try,” said Millie. “I just don’t know where you get these wild ideas.”
Laura shrugged. “My dad has told me all sorts of stories about what life was like before the Lysors fled to Hillview. There are creatures out there unlike anything we’ve ever seen! Wolves with big teeth that howl at the moons all night…”
Millie raised her eyebrows. “Yeah, right.”
“And fish so big, you could eat one for a whole week!”
“You’re joking.”
“I’m not!” said Laura. “And there are dragons!”
“Okay, that’s enough!” Millie stuck her fingers in her ears. “This conversation was fun until it wasn’t!”
“Come on, don’t you have to tell bedtime stories to Horton and Nadine? This is good material.”
“Yeah, but those stories are supposed to put them to sleep, not keep them up all night in terror!”
Laura pointed up at a cluster of clouds. “What do you think those look like? Use your imagination. Think outside the walls.”
“Okay…” Millie furrowed her brow and mashed her lips together in concentration. “It’s…a…cat?”
Laura nodded encouragingly. “Yeah…”
“With a long tail…”
“Go on….”
“Eating a bushel of gray pears!”
Laura smacked her forehead and collapsed onto the grass. “You’re impossible.” She shielded her eyes against the bright sun. “Be honest. Haven’t you ever wanted to go beyond the walls? Aren’t you at least a tiny bit curious?”
Millie shifted uneasily. “Curious? Maybe. But you could be curious about what the bottom of the Endless Well looks like, that doesn’t mean you should dive in.” She rolled onto her side to face Laura. “My parents have told me stories, too. What about Queen Ailix? There were no walls protecting her, and look what happened.”
Laura leaped to her feet. “So just because something terrible happened when we were babies, we have to be trapped in Hillview for the rest of our lives?”
Millie sighed. “We’re not trapped.”
“Well, we can’t get out. That sounds like trapped to me.”
“You’re looking at it all wrong. Sure, we can’t get out, but nothing else can get in! Without the Crystal Crown, Lysors can’t protect the world. What else can we do but protect ourselves? Our power is fading every day. The Never-Dark Forest is getting dimmer. And what about our hair?” Millie said, clutching her green lock. “Don’t you remember when we were little, it used to be so bright, it would keep you up at night?”
“Yeah, but—”
“The Hexors have the crown, and that means they have all the power, and that means the world is getting more and more dangerous by the minute. You’d have to be out of your mind to go outside the walls—it’s a death wish!”
Laura flinched. Grief struck her like a punch to the gut.
Millie saw that she had said the wrong thing. She stood up quickly. “I—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—” She fumbled for words. “I wasn’t talking about your mom.”
“I know.” Laura looked at the massive gray walls, then turned back to Millie. “I guess—I just want to be able to see what she saw.” She nudged Millie’s shoulder and smiled, trying to lighten the mood. “I mean, come on! It’s called Hillview, and we don’t even have a view of any hills!”
Millie’s eyes narrowed in determination. She turned her back to Laura and crouched down. “Get on my shoulders.”
“What?!”
“You heard me. Get on my shoulders.”
“You’re nuts.”
“Have you seen how many gray pears I can carry?” She patted her shoulders. “Hop up!”
“Okay…,” Laura said tentatively. She awkwardly climbed up onto Millie’s shoulders.
With a hearty grunt, Millie straightened her legs, standing up tall. “What do you see?”
Laura looked around. “Uh…”
“Quick, Laura!” Millie groaned. “This is actually way more painful than I thought it would be.”
Laura craned her neck to see as high as she could. Over the top of the farthest wall she could just make out a slice of green hilltop peppered with pine trees. “I see it! It’s a view! Of a hill!”
And with that, Millie collapsed to the ground, sending Laura rolling onto the grass. They both burst into hysterical laughter.
When Laura was finally able to catch her breath, she looked over at Millie and smiled. “Thanks.”
“Anytime.” Millie rubbed her shoulder. “Well, not any time. But, occasionally.” She noticed the sun creeping down toward the west wall. She gasped. “I’ve got to get home! I have to start making the Thew for tonight.”
Laura felt a little queasy at the mention of the Thew. It was one of Millie’s signature dishes. Near the end of the week as the rations were growing thin, it was important to use every last scrap of food. The Thew was a thick mixture of ground fish bones, soggy oats, and gray pear seeds that had been soaked overnight and mashed into a paste. Laura had tried it once. It tasted like a foot.
“The Thew? Already?” Laura asked.
“It has to simmer for six hours, and if I don’t stir it constantly, it starts to develop a skin.”
Laura shuddered. “Don’t save me any.”
Millie snorted. “Have you seen how much my brothers eat? I’ll be lucky if I get any myself!”
Millie dashed off, and Laura headed down the dirt path toward her home. She walked past the schoolhouse and into the Never-Dark Forest. She stopped to look at the leaves on the trees. Millie was right. They were getting dimmer. But their magical glow still filled Laura with a sense of wonder. As the path led her closer to the cracks in the walls, she found herself slowing down. They drew her in like a magnet. As was often the case when Laura was forbidden from doing something, she found it all the more enticing. The itch she couldn’t scratch grew almost unbearable. It wasn’t just curiosity that tempted her to look. It was a longing deep in her bones.
Laura’s mom, Reina, had been an explorer. She’d spent her life traveling the world, facing the unknown, seeing what no one else had seen before. Laura had only one memory of her mom, from when she was just a baby. Reina was lifting her up in the air. Laura must have been barely a year old, but she could still remember that feeling, like she was flying.
Laura’s biggest dream was to be an explorer. Even if all she could explore was the small patch of ground visible through the cracks in the wall, it was the closest she ever felt to her mom.
Against her better judgment, she took a step closer to the wall. What was on the other side right now? Another fox? Once she had seen a deer with antlers so big, it looked like tree branches were growing out of its head, but that was years ago. Even just a glimpse might scratch the itch.
She knew she had made a promise to Torian, but would it really matter if she took one little peek? She checked to make sure no one was around. She was totally alone. She couldn’t resist. She sprinted to the wall and pressed her face to the cracks.
At first, she didn’t see much of anything. Then, she spotted something flying through the air. For a moment, she thought it was a strange bird. But as it got closer, she saw that it was a gleaming silver arrow with violet feathers on the end—and it was soaring straight toward the wall.
The arrow pierced the stone with a loud thwunk!
Hillview was under attack.
