Page 63 (1/2)

“No,” I answered, “it’s the last thing the Star left behind hiht, water which is not water”

The e, and tears of sap flowed down her face She spoke to the moat around her

“Itto? Itto? Do you see how big and tall I’ve become? I’m a real ship now, not a silly broken raft Aren’t you proud of me?”

I thought, then, that I had done what I came to do, and that no one who knew the Star could have asked more I turned to leave the Ship-Tree alone with the tears

“Oh, please, oh, please wait!” The figurehead writhed towards ht off the tree and tumble into my arms But the Ship-Tree rew even louder, acco I climbed up a little onto a keel-root

“I’m here”

She blushed, her red wood beco even darker and more crimson “Thank you for the water,” she said

“I would like to give you soh the dark water—I would have done it for him, but I can still do it for you, I can bear fruit for you, just like all the other trees”

I was immediately unsure “What sort of fruit do you have, Ship?”

She s with barely held tears “It’sI ever wanted to be when I slept wrapped in oilskin”

The Ship-Tree seeh the forest The sails twisted together, the rigging knotted itself into half-hitches and bowlines, the keels and prows clattered together like branches tapping against aThe figurehead kept laughing, louder and more shrilly until I feltof wood

was like a stor across the wood, and all the while, thedeeper, until I was trying desperately to swie then that I feared it would engulf me entire, if I did not drown first

But I did neither Froan to take shape A prow, a ht wheel spun into being like a sunflower opening A ship, full-grown, descended fro, and ca river of tears The figurehead quieted herself, and drew one of her huge wooden hooves fro water by the scruff of the neck

“Don’t wreck her too quickly,” the figurehead said worriedly, and set me down at the new ship’s wheel

When my feet touched the newborn wood of the decks, I felt suddenly at home It was not a question of which line to pull taut or which sail to trim; the sleek schooner was as familiar to me as my own limbs The ship was mine, made for my hand as surely as a child of my oomb