Page 39

She tapped its spine with her beak.

Tempest leaned over to look and noticed something strange. She was certain she’d seen several crafting and hobby books on that shelf the night before. She’d seen some sweater patterns she’d wanted to try.

But now those books were not there.

While she’d slept, the books had rearranged themselves. They were sorted into whimsical groupings that seemed to defy the Dewey Decimal system along with every other logging system Tempest was familiar with. There were fiction books stacked beside reference tomes. Maritime history tucked in beside historical romance.

She heard the faint sound of whispering. She had the distinct impression that the books were gossiping about her.

Fortune was still waiting patiently on the shelf; beside the book she had chosen.

The Most Important Question: Fanciful Trivia by Dandelion Wilder.

It was Tempest’s own copy of Dan Wilder’s book. She’d read and reread it twice in the week since the signing. There were tiny paper tabs sticking out and the corners of the cover were bent.

Tempest picked it up without her gloves. She didn’t have to be careful around this book. After reading it twice, she’d memorized it. All the loose information was stitched down now. She’d been able to highlight the common threads and fill in some missing details as she read. Now it all made perfect sense. It didn’t bother her at all.

Fortune gave her a significant look and then spoke in a deep and pleasant voice that Tempest recognized from the book signing, “What is the only known mammal capable of true powered flight?”

Tempest looked at the parrot. The parrot waited, unblinking.

“A bat, obviously,” Tempest said. Chapter four of Dan’s book had a section on animal kingdom anomalies. “Flying squirrels can glide but they don’t generate lift. Bats are the only mammals with the musculature for true flight.”

Then Fortune asked another question in Dan’s voice.

“What navigational instrument did Arab and Persian sailors of the Indian Ocean use to measure the altitude of stars, predating the European astrolabe by several centuries?”

“The kamal,” Tempest blurted, and then paused for a moment. She frowned. “I don’t know how I know that one though. I don’t even know what a kamal is.”

She was certain that this question wasn’t in Dan’s book. Not even in the section about tools and everyday items from the past. But she’d touched hundreds, possibly thousands of books in her lifetime without gloves. Impulsively, foolishly, accidentally, and occasionally on purpose. Even though it was a painful process, curiosity could still get the best of her. She couldn’t resist. She had no idea how many untethered facts from all those books were still floating around in her head. She had no memory of where she picked up the kamal, or what other handy items were hanging out in her mental ether along with it.

Four hundred dollars. The prize for winning the trivia competition was four hundred dollars!

“Fine, Fortune. I’ll do it.” Tempest swallowed down her misgivings. What was the worst that could happen? Who cared if she made a fool of herself in front of some strangers? That wasn’t half so bad as being made a fool of in front of everyone she knew at work. It couldn’t hold a candle to being turned out of the only home she’d ever known. And it was much better than starving.

“You win,” she said. “Who am I to argue with fate? I think I have just enough gas in the tank to get me to Boise.”

Q: What is a pyrophyte?

A: A plant that does not merely survive fire but depends on it.

The giant sequoia holds its cones sealed for up to twenty years, releasing seeds only when heat forces them open into ash-cleared ground. The banksia of Australia locks its pods with a resin that melts only at high temperature. Even animals benefit indirectly. The Karner blue butterfly relies on lupine plants that are themselves fire-dependent. When the 1988 Yellowstone fires were reported as a catastrophe, ecologists documented what followed as one of the most vigorous periods of forest regeneration in the park’s recorded history. For an entire class of living things, destruction is not the opposite of growth. It is the condition for it.

—Dan Wilder, The Most Important Question: Fanciful Trivia by Dandelion Wilder

ELEVEN

THE HEARTH OF THE MATTER

There was no time to waste. Dan drank his coffee while standing at the counter at the Mudpuddle Cafe. He bolted his muffin on the walk over to The Wildernest. He hadn’t been back to the tavern since the day of the fire. After winning the pot at The Weighted Anchor, he had spent two days gathering tools and supplies for demolition and making his plan. He half hoped it wouldn’t be as bad as he remembered when he got there.

No such luck. If anything, things looked worse now that the dust and ash and soot had settled into a sludgy mess on the waterlogged floor.

He tied a bandana over his mouth and took stock of his tools. A pickaxe and a crowbar for wresting burnt floorboards and baseboards free. A sledgehammer for the worst of it on the walls. That would be good for taking out his frustrations too. A hammer, a drill, and a scraper. He had a shovel and a wheelbarrow at the ready for all the debris.

He’d start, he’d decided, with cleaning up and cataloguing the parts he intended to save. That had been his approach when he first bought the place: assess what stays, plan around it, spend as little as possible on the rest. The bar had only needed refinishing. The floors had been serviceable. The walls were one coat of paint away from acceptable.

All of that was moot now that all these things were rubble. He still believed there would be something worth saving under all the mess. He just had to dig his way out to find it.