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especially curious about two of the inventions I had already encountered. He refused to teach me about the exploding rocks, but he was more than happy to teach me about the steam engine.
    He cleared a section in the barn and set up a large table where we could assemble a smaller version. This required a great deal of fabrication, and in the process I learned a lot about soldering and welding. By the time our project was finished, I was practically his apprentice.
     
    Winter had blown in with a vengeance, leaving us more or less stranded in Tinker’s little homestead. There was a well-trampled path between the cottage and the barn, but if I stepped off to the side I quickly sank up to my hips in the snow. My long walks in the woods were out of the question now, and not just because of the weather. Tinker told me of beasts that lived in the mountains to the north, about the winter wargs that came with the north wind, traveling in packs that would murder an entire herd of livestock in the night, leaving nothing but bloodstained snow to be found at dawn. And then there were the bears, great grizzled creatures that could swallow a man whole; and the trolls, the green-skinned wild men who raided villages and farms all along the borderlands every winter.
    All of this talk was more than adequate to keep me within the confines of our homestead. In fact, it was enough to give me more than a few sleepless nights as well.
    Fortunately, our steam engine project occupied so much of my time that I hardly even had a moment to worry about wargs and trolls. I had to keep the forge and foundry warm, I had to prep the molds and file the castings. In those days, everything was made at home, right down to the steel. The engine block, the pistons, even the piping was machined right there in Tinker’s barn. And I helped, every step of the way.
    All along, I continued to question Tinker about school. I did it subtly, with simple questions here and there when he was distracted by his work. I asked where the school was, and got the angry response that it was down by the river, but that I didn’t need to know and not to ask about it again. I waited a few days before asking who the teacher was. To my surprise I learned that it was Analyn Trader, the woman who had discovered my secret. Suddenly I understood why she’d been so adamant that I should be in school. I wondered if she still felt that way, now that she knew I was a half-breed.
    I went on like this for weeks, dropping my questions here and there, trying to wring information out of Tinker. I squeezed at least a little out of him every few days, but not much.
    Gradually I got a feel for what school was and how it worked, but in the end I was no closer to getting there than I had been at the beginning. Then one day, news that would change my life forever came right to our doorstep. It came in a very surprising form.
    We had completed the engine and we had it running on the table. It was our first test-run, and Tinker and I were observing it for any problems. It chugged away, occasionally hissing and puffing out little clouds of steam, but working exactly as it was supposed to. Tinker adjusted a gauge and then asked me to check a release valve. I reached for a screwdriver but froze as I heard an urgent whisper in the back of my mind. It confused me at first. It had been weeks since I’d spoken with the trees, and for a moment I doubted whether I’d really heard anything. Since the snow had started falling, the trees had all seemed to be sleeping.
    The message came again, one word: “Warning!” It was an urgent whisper that seemed to tease at the edges of my perception. I stopped what I was doing, and let my mind reach out. The word came to me again, this time louder than before. “WARNING!” I raced over to peer out through the crack between the doors.
    “Someone is coming,” I whispered. I saw a slow moving, horse-drawn carriage coming up the trail. The two horses pulling the thing had