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something—turning the idea of it over in her mind. But what good were ideas? Soon we’d either freeze or starve. If I were going to make it to the boy, I needed to do something. I needed to take action. I buried my face in my hands, letting out an unhappy groan.
    I felt a tug at my sleeve. It was Ettie. She pulled my fingers down.
    “I believe you, Terra,” she said. Her expression was earnest, heartfelt—her dark eyebrows knitted up and hopeful. But it helped, more than I thought it would. I smiled weakly.
    “What do you propose?” Jachin asked at last. The man had spokenlittle since the crash. Though he’d helped us with our inventory, his words then had been perfunctory. Officious. Yet now his expression was hopeful. “I asked HaShem to save us, but I didn’t think an answer would come so soon.”
    “HaShem?” I asked. Jachin’s cheeks went pink. Rebbe Davison answered for him.
    “Mar Levi here is a believer. That’s why he joined the Children of Abel.”
    “My family passed our religion down like an inheritance. No matter what the Council said, I’ve never stopped believing.”
    I examined the man’s features. Small, close set. But intelligent. It was hard for me to believe that a specialist—a biologist—believed in God. The only other person I’d ever known who believed in God was Rachel, my best friend. And look where it had gotten her. She’d been trapped in the clock tower when the riots broke out. And now, who knew?
    “Someone died .” I said at last. My skepticism was obvious—it trickled out like water down the surface of a frozen rock. But Jachin didn’t waver. He didn’t even flinch.
    “But we lived. And now your dreams have told you where to go. That’s miraculous, isn’t it?”
    I let out a long sigh. I didn’t believe in miracles. There was an answer here—I just had to find it. But I suspected it wouldn’t come until I found my boy, so I changed the subject.
    “We’ll walk south.” I turned back to where the mountain pass sloped down beneath the light of two moons. “That way. Toward the largest cluster of lights. That’s our best chance to find people to help us. We should spend a few hours preparing our supplies, then take off by the first light of dawn.”
    “It’s a crazy plan,” Deklan called from the fire pit’s edge. “Following some dream!”
    “Do you have something better in mind?” Jachin snarled back. Deklan clutched his gun against his chest, apparently shamed. No matter our differences in philosophy, I was glad to have the specialist with me. He didn’t merely believe in some unfathomable spirit. He believed in me, too. If we were going to make it to Raza Ait, I’d need that faith.
    “Good,” Jachin said, and just like that it was decided. “South, then. By dawn’s first light.”
    •  •  •
    In the gray light we gathered our supplies, stuffing each knapsack to the brim with as much food as we could carry, making sure the rifles were in good working order and fully charged. We watched as Deklan propped one up onto his shoulder, flicked the safety back, and shot into the mountains. The noise seemed to ripple on the air. We all flinched; Ettie let out a squeal that was lost under the sound of the shot.
    “They work,” Deklan said, holding the hot barrel in both hands. Rebbe Davison gave a nod and began to dole the weapons out, his mouth a grim line. I took one, feeling the awkward weight. It had a switch on it, from two hundred fifty to a thousand sones.
    “Can this kill someone?” Jachin asked. Deklan glanced uncertainly at Rebbe Davison.
    “If you calibrate it correctly,” our teacher said, “yes.”
    I thought of the boy’s warning, a single word that suggested danger lurking in the forests beyond. Beasts . But we hadn’t seen any animals yet, not even a single, buzzing insect, as Jachin had pointed out. And I felt perhaps foolishly certain that my boy’s people wouldn’t hurt me. I kept the gauge on the lowest setting.