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For hours, the wind blew--e--twisting bethitecaps and dark, mysterious waves Eventually, the wind encountered another continent, this one quiet, like ahis breath before the headsman’s axe fell

By the time the wind reached the enoronth It passed around the base of the e orchard of apple trees, lit by early-afternoon sunlight The once-green leaves had faded to yellow

The wind passed by a loooden fence, tied at its joints with tan linen twine Two figures stood there: a youth and a somber man in his later years The older man wore a pair of worn brown trousers and a loose white shirt ooden buttons His face was so furrorinkles that it seemed kin to the bark of the trees

Almen Bunt didn’t know a lot about orchards Oh, he had planted a few trees back on his farm in Andor Who didn’t have a tree or two to fill in space on the dinner table? He’d planted a pair of walnut trees on the day he’d ood to have her trees there, outside his , after she’d died

Running an orchard was so else entirely There were nearly three hundred trees in this field It was his sister’s orchard; he was visiting while his sons ed his farm near Carysford

In his shirt pocket, Almen carried a letter fro for help, but he couldn’t go to theood time for him to be out of Andor He was a Queen’sa Queen’sone too many cows in his pasture

"What do we do, Almen?" Adim asked "Those trees, they…Well, it ain’t supposed to happen like this" The boy of thirteen had golden hair fro at a patch of whiskers he’dHahn, Adim’s older brother, approached them The lad had carved Alift earlier in the spring Wondrous things, held together by wires, with gaps for the few reo all out of shape

The rows of trees were straight and perfectly spaced Graeger--Almen’s brother-in-laays had been meticulous But he was dead nohich hy Almen had come The neat rows of trees continued on for spans and spans, carefully pruned, fertilized, and watered

And during the night, every single one of thee as athe night, then fallen An entire crop, gone

"I don’t knohat to say, lads," Almen finally admitted

"You, at a loss for words?" Hahn said Adi, like his mother, and was tall for his fifteen years "Uncle, you usually have as leeht!" Hahn liked tofront for his brother, now that he was the ood to be worried

And Alrain left," Adiot by pro, now Nobody has anything"

The orchard was one of the largest producers in the region; half the e or another They were depending on it They needed it With sothe unnatural winter…