Despite their collective sense of dread, the sky never fell on them, and Leo and his little group slowly made their way to the northeast. Still, as they went, the remnants of evil grew thicker, and the fights grew more challenging.

  An evil monstrosity that was one part giant snake and one part herd of wild horses that had been stitched together in a way that made it impossibly fast was very nearly the end fie. It practically trampled the young man to death one night when it caught them by surprise.

  One moment, a few of them were sitting around a lofire, and the rest had already goo sleep a little farther away, and the , the monstrosity galloped through their camp like a stampede. It stood up to Leo’s silvered bde er than anything else, but even after he cut the thing’s monstrous head off, the remains of it tio blunder around dangerously, knog over random trees until it was finally nothing but a squirming mass of spines and legs on the ground.

  Reggie survived thanks to the healing touch of the light and the bined efforts of his friends. Even with that magical intervention, he would walk with a limp forever afterward.

  They chose their campsites more carefully after that, which led to the discovery of the first scarecrow. That was the hat Rin gave them when she hurried back from her scouting patrol. “Everyone, you have to see this!” she cried out as soon as she sighted the main group.

  None of them had any idea of what to expect, and Leo was hoping she’d finally found survivors. He was growing increasingly ed that the world might be empty now, and they might be the st ones left.

  That wasn’t what she showed them, though. It was good news of a sort, but only barely. What she’d found was a zombie that was so rown with weeds that it was frozen ihe thing struggled weakly, but it was only enough that it appeared that it might be swaying in the wind, even though there was only the fai breeze.

  “It has to be magic,” he said stupidly as he studied it. It was obviously magic that had bound the thing ih grasses and vines. Anyone could see that, but still, no one mocked him. Instead, they all quietly studied the gruesome sight. It was only after ara struck the head off that the silence was broken, and Toman finally asked, “Who do you think did this? Do you think ane lives nearby? Like Jordan?”

  “The rest of the mages are nothing like Jordan,” one of the girls said,

  “Why would a mage bind a zombie instead of striking it down?” Sam asked.

  “Good question,” Reggie shot back as everyone seemed to be speaking at once. “Maybe it wasn’t a mage then. Maybe the gods did this?”

  As everyone began to bicker, Leo started to tu the versation. He had no idea who had do, but he retty sure a mage would have bur to ash instead of pnting it like a tree, and gods… well, he retty sure gods could do more than this.

  That scareight have been the first that they found, but by the end of the day, they found almost a dozen more, whily deepehe mystery. If this was something that could have been dohen why was it happening only here? Why hadn't the nature spirits of the world risen up as oo end this sce? Could the god or the goddess of a single forest have decided to do something when no one else did? Why didn’t anyone else help them in the same way?

  In the end, all that any of them could agree on was that whoever had dohis roteg something, which made it seem like there was something worth proteg up ahead. They bickered about what it might be for the wo days before they finally found it. Some people argued that it had to be a mage's tower, and others that it had to be a vilge or even a city.

  “That’s why they didn’t kill them,” Toman decred, “Because that would draw the evil on upon the survivors. I’ll bet we’ve finally found where all the other survivors have gathered, and soon, we’ll have all the cakes and pies we eat!”

  The young man turned out to be half right, but only barely. After another day, they found the edge of the forest and, beyond that, duhat sheltered them from the sea. It was there that they found one of the saddest-looking fishing vilges that might have existed anywhere in the world.

  There were people, and Leo was grateful to see them, but they were so malnourished that they made his small group seem well-fed by parison. He instantly saw the dark humor of the situation: both of the groups rejoiced upon seeing each other, but only because they each thought that the other was here to save them.

  There was no salvation for anyone. Not yet, anyway. As that realization slowly set in, the others that had been touched by the light pulled away from the poverty and the disease of the survivors they’d just found, and the strangers pulled away from the men and women with light in their eyes.

  This was not an oute that Leo could expect. What would everyone do when this ambivaleurned into animosity? Would they fight and kill the only other men and women they’d found, or would they leave them to their fate, which was surely a slow death from starvation?

  her was an acceptable option to him, so as his peers whispered and tried to decide the best way to leave the two dozen souls they’d found to their fate, Leo strode forward and introduced himself to the headman.

  “Have you e to save us?” the older man asked.

  “I will save whoever I ,” Leo answered simply, “but you seem more than capable of saving yourself. We just o go hunting in the forest so you build up your strength and—”

  The headman interrupted, giving Leo a undry list of reasons why they couldn’t. Martel’s leg was broken, Karana was sick with a bad fever, and most importantly, the forest was swarming with the dead. That, it turned out, was the reason they huddled on the gloomy shore: they were terrified of what they might find in the woods. The group wasn’t even a fishing vilge, as Leo had first thought. It was just the survivors from two ship-wrecked boats that had taken over ay vilge and made it their own.

  After that, things started to make more sense. He asked ara to put some of the other boys to work hunting in the woods to find some meat since he khey would listen to her more than him; then Leo spent the rest of the afternoon using the gifts of the light to heal those that were the sickest, making them well again in minutes or hours.

  This, at least, was hailed as the miracle that it was and robbed the air of the tension that had been building. One minute, Leo was sure that this was going to devolve into bloodshed no matter what he did, and the , it was going to be okay.

  This was not what any of them had been hoping for. Later, most of them would gripe that they’d beeer off alone, but for the first time sihe people of Sanctuary had aged a tury in moments, they weren’t alone, and to Leo, at least, that made all the difference.

  The first few days they were there were a whirlwind of activity as some people hunted and fished, and the rest moved the crude shelters most of the survivors lived in from just above the high tide lio the more sheltered area at the edge of the forest.

  As that happehe story of what had happened slowly came out. Both ships were from the north. One was from the capital itself, and the other was from a town nearby. Both agreed that the city was a dead zone now and that there were likely to be no survivors.

  The captain of the ship from Rahkin, in particur, was a wreck, and wheried to talk to him about what had happened, he only babbled about a dark and terrible thing croug above the city on that st night. He described it as a flying sea mohat was made of shadows, which sounded ridiculous, but not even the light that Leo wielded so casually now could cure the man’s cracked mind.

  That terrible truth stole all the hope that had been welling up in Leo for the st few days. “I’d hoped that this was the first of many small groups we’d find,” he fessed around the campfire to his friends one night. “I thought we might bind them into something greater, but if Rahkin is gone…”

  “Who says we ’t?” ara said, looking at him from across the fire with fierce determination. “Where we found one group, we find others. I’m sure we . Just because they aren’t all in one spot like we’d hoped doesn’t mean we—”

  “What about the dead?” Toman asked. He’d been grumpy ever since he realized there would be her cakes nor pies in this dismal little pbsp;

  “Hang ‘em,” Leo answered, catg the fai bit of ara’s enthusiasm as he forced himself to smile. He might not have much hope for finding other survivors, but he certainly didn’t fear the dead. “They haven’t been causing us much trouble so far. I don’t see any reason why that would ge now.”

  A few of the others disagreed with that, but Leo couldn’t make himself care.” Why do you think we survived when almost no one else did?” he said finally, almost shouting. “Brother Faerbar. Sister Annise. Jordan. All of them, gone, and all of them to get us here. Why did they die if not so we could live?”

  "We don't know that Jordan's dead," Sam said. "He might be ing back..."

  "We know he's not here," Leo snapped. "That's all we o know."

  “And what is it we lived for exactly?” Toman said. He opened his mouth and looked like he was about to make a bad joke, but Leo cut him off.

  “We are the light,” he answered. This time, he was shouting, but he didn’t care. “We are the heroes. We might be the st ones left in the whole awful world, but even if we are, that will be enough. It has to be.”

  It was stupidly optimistid by the end of his statement, he felt his cheeks flush, but no one ughed at him, at least not openly. As to what would happen if he was wrong, well, that went unsaid. They were the st of the light, but if they weren’t the salvation and were instead just a few remaining sparks from a dying fire… well, there wouldn’t be anyoo mourn them when the darkness finally shem out.