Diamond couldn’t think of a response.

“You say your mother left you here, alone?”

“He never, ever goes outside,” said Elata. “You know that.”

“Well, he’s outside now,” the woman said.

They stared at the conundrum while Diamond went back to watching the ropes. Another person was rising into view, and he pulled a new hope close enough to be a comfort. He was ready to be happy, but the person proved to be another stranger, a man who glanced at the odd boy while riding past, one hand lifting as a greeting, neighbor to neighbor.

The woman said, “Diamond.”

He backed away from the railing.

“Before today, have you have ever been outside?”

“No.”

“Never?” she asked.

He turned toward her, shaking his head.

“Oh my goodness goodness goodness.” Perplexed, she frowned hard. Then her mood shifted, and suddenly she was nothing but thrilled. A nervous laugh leaked free, and watching the boy, she asked, “Well, what do you think?”

He didn’t understand the question.

“Isn’t it the world beautiful? Spectacular? Wondrous?” Then giving him an odd wink, she asked, “What are you thinking, Diamond?”

“I want my parents,” he said. “That’s what I’m thinking.”

FOUR

Elata’s mother made a thoughtful face. “Before anything else, we need to search the house.”

“He already looked there,” Elata said.

“Did he check every room? Are you sure?”

Diamond had returned to the railing, watching anonymous figures stroll along a distant walkway.

Touching his shoulder, the woman said, “I don’t know your mother that well. She’s an older woman, isn’t she?”

Diamond looked at the hand until it was pulled back.

“What are you saying?” Elata asked.

“Well, I think she might be lying down somewhere. Maybe she’s asleep or something.”

Elata became angry. “Stop talking that way.”

“What way?”

“Mother!”

Ignoring their argument was hard work.

Elata joined him at the railing. “Maybe your mother is visiting a friend.”

Diamond didn’t think so, but he shook his head agreeably.

“Or maybe she told a friend where she was going.”

That also seemed unlikely, but he didn’t know how to explain his doubts.

The girl offered several strange names.

Her mother drifted over to the curtain. “I should walk through the house, just to be sure.”

Looking at the window, Diamond wished hard that his mother would appear behind the glass.

Elata said, “Rima.”

He stopped her. “I’ve heard that name.”

“You have?”

He nodded.

Elata’s mother pushed at the curtain and watched it fall again. “You kids go to Rima’s. See what she knows, and I’ll be two leaps behind you.”

Then she slipped behind the curtain, vanishing.

Elata smiled at him. For some reason she was suddenly happy, spinning and then climbing down onto the ladder.

Diamond looked at the rungs skeptically.

“You’ve never climbed,” she realized.

“No.”

“Well, it’s easy. Do what I do.”

She tried to move slowly, but that wasn’t her natural pace. Partway down the ladder, she stopped to wait. Diamond was examining a round, hand-worn piece of wood sticking out of the railing. Noticing her gaze, he turned and grabbed hold of the handle, dropping one foot over the edge, reaching until he felt the rope rung against his sandal. From below, she said, “Good,” and started down again. From much farther below, she asked, “Do you know what to do if you fall?”

“No.”

“Aim for the tree. With your body and the air, steer your way toward a walkway or one of the landings. And if you can, let your feet lead.”

He imagined all that. With a doubtful tone, he said, “All right.”

“If you fall carelessly, bones get broken. But you’ll survive.”

Diamond said nothing, moving faster now. Then a foot slipped, and he dropped and grabbed the swinging ladder with both hands, dangling in space. His home landing was above him. Every supporting timber wore a tangle of green epiphytes, and nests shaped like baskets were defended by sitting birds, and straddling one of the main timbers, watching him with considerable interest, was the orange-faced monkey.

Diamond started down again.

“Good,” said the monkey, as if encouraging him.

“Are you his?” Elata asked.

“What?”

She was waiting on the walkway. “Orange-heads don’t make good pets. But sometimes, nobody knows why, they’ll adopt one person. They make him into their pet.”

Diamond jumped down the last little ways.

“Did he tell you his name?” she asked.

He looked up at the animal. “ ‘Good’, I think it is.”

Something deserved a long laugh, and she waved. “Come on. Rima and her boys live over there.”

They walked under his landing. Wood slats and heavy rope created the walkway. The ropes were pegged into Marduk’s dense bark. New slats were pale, and fresh ropes were tied into the old fraying pieces. The walkway creaked and sometimes shook underfoot. Diamond let his hand ride along on the rope railing, touching the posts that came every few steps. He watched the air beside him. Elata watched him. He slowed to stare at a cavity inside the bark, a tiny garden growing just out of reach. Plants sported strangely colored leaves, and a pair of tiny blue birds buzzed loudly while hovering overhead.

“Candy orbs are my first favorite,” she said.

“What are candy orbs?”

“They’re a kind of flower, and that’s them.”

He didn’t reply.

“Do you know about flowers, Diamond?”

He started walking again. Questions were confusing and made him feel foolish.

“Do you know about birds?”

“I know usher birds,” he volunteered.

“You’ve seen them before?”

“Yes. Yes, I have.”

Elata watched his feet and legs. But when he looked at her, she blinked and stared out into the air. “Last night was amazing,” she said. “I slept and slept and then I couldn’t sleep anymore. Nobody remembers a longer, darker night. That’s what my mother says.”

Diamond remained silent, thinking about his mother.

“Inside your house . . . did you know it was night?”

He nodded.

“But nobody let you look out the window?”

He walked faster, saying nothing.

Elata slowed, watching the odd sandals crossing the creaking slats.

A new post was topped with rough wood, and one long golden splinter burrowed inside his thumb.

The pain hit. Diamond stopped and flinched.

She said, “Oh, my. I’m sorry.”

He touched the splinter with the other thumb and forefinger. Elata swallowed before asking, “Do you want me to pull it?”

But he already had. Putting the wound to his mouth, he sucked as he turned, walking even faster now.

“That looked bad,” she said. “How does it feel?”

Diamond broke into a steady run.

She sprinted to catch him, and laughing, grabbed his elbow and tugged until he stopped running. “Where did you get those legs?”

He had no words to offer.

“I’ve heard about kids born without legs, or feet with no toes. I even heard about a boy with two heads. But you’re not like them.”

Diamond dropped his gaze.

And she became self-conscious too. “I’m sorry. That was rude.”

Bright air beckoned. He gazed out at the birds and plunging water and what looked like the same giant leatherwing hunting for insects.

“I talk when I should think,” Elata said, passing him and turning before pointing at herself. “Teachers tell me that all the time. But if you didn’t notice, my mother does that too. It’s a family trait. We have loud blood. An idea pops into our heads, and we can’t help ourselves.”

The railing opened, revealing a new rope ladder that ended on a distant landing. Until then, Diamond was only a little bothered by heights. But the great tree seemed to sway under his feet, and looking at that impossible gulf, a sharp pain began to dig in his belly.