Starsinger

Glenburrow

Earth rushed up to meet them, and the impact drove the air from Aaron's lungs. Dizzy pain washed over him. Above him the sky was green and brown and made of leaves, pocked with a giant hole where the sun streamed down onto his face. The soldiers were a tangle of limbs.

Mild gasps announced they weren't alone. Aaron shoved himself onto his hands and knees as Sapphire scrambled back, accidentally driving an elbow into Jace's side. A ring of surprised faces surrounded them, people frozen in midstep, caught in a tableau of domesticity. Behind their unsuspecting audience were long rows of low wooden houses with more people moving in between them, pushing wheelbarrows piled high with early harvest. Two half-naked children chased each other in the yard until their mother snatched them up and carried them inside, squalling. Trees grew tall next to the short houses, disappearing into the dark green canopy that hung heavy over the village.

"That's quite an entrance."

Aaron sat up. Before him stood a man built like a barrel, short and thick and round. His nose bulged from a ruddy face buried under a coarse black beard. He wore a long tunic patterned with bright reds and oranges over his roughspun shirt.

"Apologies," Aaron said. "We didn't mean to cause a scene."

"It's not the ruckus I mind, boy." The man sized up the gap in the greenery. His hair was tied back in three thick braids, wound together at the back of his head. As he spoke, the crowd began to dissipate. "It's the nice big hole you've made in the Canopy. That'll have to get fixed."

Aaron followed his gaze. Raelyn's face hung over the edge of the gap, lips persed in concern that bordered on mirth. "We were trying to reach the village."

"The surface road wasn't good enough for you?" The big man pointed. The village was cradled by earthen walls, but off to the east a narrow path cut up to the forest floor.

Aaron flushed. "We didn't know there was an entrance."

"How else would a fellow come and go?" He peered up at the hole again. "Just a few dozen yards off to your left, miss. You can walk right down."

"Thank you kindly, sir." Aaron could have sworn Raelyn was laughing at them.

They were all on their feet by the time Raelyn reached them. The big man eyed her burgundy scholar's uniform with a flicker of suspicion. "Guess you folk aren't from around here."

Jace straightened. "Just passing through."

"A research expedition," Raelyn lied smoothly. She offered the man her hand. "Scholar Renée, from the Aster Conservatory."

"Honored, mistress." He took her hand with a slight bow of his head. "Figured you had to be from out a ways. Most people in these parts know how to find Glenburrow without falling smack in the middle of it. Hardly much of a secret anymore."

"Is it meant to be secret?" asked Aaron.

"Not since the Division. You folks come to trade?" His eyes darted back to Raelyn. "Or study?"

"More to buy than to trade." Raelyn slipped on the character of Scholar Renée like a familiar cloak. "I'm bound for Lurien to analyze the seasonal ocean currents, but I'm afraid we've already eaten through our supplies."

The big man man scratched under his beard. "The inn's next to my forge. I can take you. Headed that way anyway." The smith offered a huge hand. "Call me Paul."

As they passed the outer ring of houses, the village came alive. Women with baskets of brightly-dyed cloth swished across the dirt road, calling out to each other and laughing. A young boy dashed in front of Aaron chasing a renegade hen. After weeks of near solitude, the bustle both jarred and excited him. Their group walked slowly, trying not to stare.