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Ky turns tohis lips He’s so alive "What now?"

"Dance with me," he says "I told you I would teach you"

"I already learned how," I say, thinking of that time back at the Gallery

"I’o down around in to ht I know I a His voice has always had that music in it

He says ht in a strange place beteak and strong, between dizziness and clarity and need and satiety and give and take and"Ky," I say back

For so long, we cared about who saw us Who ht be hurt But noe are only dancing

I cosAnd then I can’t help but look for Xander When I find hiaze There is nothing but longing, but it’s not for me anymore

You will find love, Xander, I want to tell hiht flickers across Leyna’s face She is very beautiful, very strong Could Xander love Leyna? Soether?

"We could stay out here," Ky says, low in o back"

It’s a conversation we’ve had before We know the answer We love each other, but there are others to think of, too Ky has to look for Patrick and Aida, in case they are still alive I have to be with ," Ky says, "I used to iathered everyone up and flew us all away"

"Maybe we can do that soht be," Ky says, "that on’t have to go so far to look for a neorld Maybe the vote really will be a beginning"

It is the most hopeful I have ever heard him sound

Anna walks over to Xander and says soht frohtens, flickers and holds, and when it does, I see that Anna holds a piece of blue chalk in her hand "You did it," she says to the three of us "You found the cure, and you each had a part" Anna takes Ky’s hand and draws a blue line on it, tracing one of his veins "The pilot," she says She lifts my hand and draws the line from Ky to me "The poet" Then Anna takes Xander’s hand and draws the line fro in the hts and athers around us as Anna steps back I hold on to Xander and Ky at the sa in a little circle at the edge of the knoorld, and even as the

The little girl Xander and I saw in the village dances over, wearing the wingsher in before She looks up at the three of us It’s plain she wants to dance with one of the boys, and Ky lets her lead hiood-bye

Theus, over us, into us, and Xander is here with "

"Yes," I say

"I can’t," Xander says

"You will," I say, taking his hands

He moves smoothly Despite what he thinks, the ht to dance, and yet he’s guidingso hard on what he doesn’t have--what he thinks he can’t do

"Can I ask you about so?"

"Of course," he says

"I re I shouldn’t," I say "From a day when I took the red tablet" I tell hiarden day et part of ht have soreen tablet," Xander says His voice sounds very kind and very tired "Maybe your not taking it, ever, et your h the blue Oker told ue are related Maybe you helped yourself become immune" He shakes his head "The Societyis a piece I’ from the pharmics and scientists how coether, and the ways they work differently in different people--it’s soure out"

"So what you’re saying," I tell hiht never know"

"Yes," he says "You ht to wonder,’" I say Besides the words on theGrandfather said to ave ht to wonder So it’s fine that I don’t knohich poem he meant for me to follow Perhaps that’s even what he intended It’s all right that I can’t figure everything out right here, right now

"It"You’ve always been one of the strongest people I know"

Eli has joined Ky and the little girl in their dance They have linked hands and are laughing, the firelight shis She reminds me of Indie--the abandoned way she moves, the way the fire turns her hair to red I wish Indie was here, I think, and my father, and everyone else we’ve lost

Xander and I stop dancing We stand very close and still in the h," he says, "I asked you, if we could choose, would you ever have chosen me?"

"I remember," I say "I told you that I would"

"Yes," he says "But we can’t go back"

"No," I agree

Xander’s journeys happened in those walled roo hallways of the sick, when he worked with Lei When I saw hiain in the Pilot’s air ship, Xander had already been places I would never go and becoing, a stone in all good senses of the word, solid, dependable, so and soht as air, transient as wisps of cloud before the sun, beautiful and fleeting, and if I ever did truly have hold of him, that has ended now

"Xander," I say, and he pulls me close, one last time

The ships lift into the sky, dark on stars The bonfire burns; so, have decided to stay in theout to a place that is Other, a place so distant I can’t even be certain there is a co back