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closed her hands around the vines that corseted the rock. The roots and tendrils had weakened the stone over the centuries, but now the thick vines did as much to hold the boulder together as tear it apart. Fortunately, they were easily removed. She closed her eyes and found the dark doorway inside her, carefully opening it. The vines in her grasp crumbled to dust. She opened her eyes as the rot spread through the remaining vines, which twisted and crackled as they withered. In moments, the last of the vegetation peeled away, leaving a ring of dirt around the boulder. She took a deep breath and willed the portal to close. It wasn’t so difficult, when things were quiet and calm. But could she ever control the force during the heat of combat?
    “Not bad,” said Brand, who stood behind her holding his shovel.
    “I’m just getting started,” she said. She motioned for Trunk. He was now armed with a large sledgehammer. Sorrow pointed toward the top of the stone, where it dipped down into a narrow depression that formed the indentation of the heart-shape. “Climb,” she said.
    Trunk’s inhuman limbs had no trouble scrambling up the cracked surface. Sorrow guided him with a string of commands to what she sensed was the boulder’s weakest spot.
    By now Bigsby had left his tent and found his brother. He looked like he was still half-asleep. He mumbled, “Whash going on?”
    “Sorrow’s hunting for ghosts,” said Brand.
    “Ghosts?” asked Bigsby, rubbing his eyes. “That’s crazy.”
    Sorrow bit her lip to avoid responding. She couldn’t let the dwarf distract her. She finally had Trunk right where she needed him.
    “Strike the crack before you!” she shouted. “Use your full strength!”
    Trunk swung the hammer back behind him. It cut through the air with a loud WHOOSH and smacked into the rock with a deafening BANG . All throughout the waking jungle, monkeys and birds screeched in alarm.
    Sorrow turned and said, “Gentlemen, I’m fairly certain I know how the stone will fall, but I suggest you take a few steps back as a precaution.”
    Bigsby’s eyes narrowed. Sorrow could tell she was about to be scolded for addressing the two men as ‘gentlemen.’ She quickly added, “You also, your highness.”
    Behind her, the stone was popping and trembling as the shock of the impact continued to reverberate. She stepped away as the loudest crack yet made her flinch. She looked back in time to see the two halves of the heart-shaped boulder split, then tumble away from each other. Both of the top-heavy pieces flipped as they tumbled down the respective halves of the hill they’d been perched upon.
    Trunk had been straddling the crack; he tumbled into the shallow pit of black earth left by the departing stones and landed on his feet, looking none the worse for the experience. She was deeply satisfied by the performance of the golem. The moons she spent on top quality lumber were an excellent investment.
    “That was a lucky break,” said Brand. “What would you have done if the stone had split, but just sat there?”
    “That wasn’t going to happen. I could sense the tension between the two halves of the stone. Each half was held in balance by the other, but doomed to fall once split. Once you know how to look at the material world, it’s not that difficult to understand.”
    Brand shook his head as he looked down the hill to where half of the boulder had come to rest. “I think there’s a metaphor here about broken hearts, but I’m too deprived of coffee to piece it together.”
    “I shall record in my journal that on this day you were at a loss for words,” said Sorrow.
    Brand laughed. “I don’t think I’ve heard you make a joke before.”
    Sorrow shrugged. “I’m not certain why you think I’ve made one now.”
    She grabbed a shovel and carried it to Trunk, swapping it for the sledgehammer. The compressed earth beneath the boulder was broken and jumbled from the movement of the stone. There were no