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disappearing around the giant stone tail of the sculpture-like beast. Ellie fumed but stomped back the way she’d come with a mind to capture that pesky Tak. She’d known the goat longer than she’d known some of her youngest brothers. As much trouble as Tak could be, she counted him as not just a pet but a friend. And so she doggedly trudged after him.
    The gentle breeze that had blown away the last of the grounded cloud stiffened. Ellie squinted to protect her eyes and hurried to catch Tak. She planned to tell him what she thought of him when she had a firm hand on his collar. She skidded to a stop when she rounded the last ridge that would be the tippy-tip of the rock tail.
    In front of her, beyond what appeared to be a glass wall, the sun shone on a bright road winding through a meadow of tall grass and wildflowers. Tak sat beside the thick wall and licked it.
    Ellie approached cautiously. Pushing the handle of the carpetbag up her arm, she put her hand out to feel the solidity of such a thing. No one, ever, had said one word about a towering wall made out of glass. Everything on the other side looked huge, like things did when you looked through the bottom of a bottle. Ellie tilted her head back and gazed upward. Huge. Monstrous. Colossal.
    She pressed her nose against the glass, cupped her hands around her eyes to see better, and peered at the land on the other side. On this side of the wall, gray clouds and the late afternoon drained all light from her surroundings. But on the other side, the sun shone as bright as noonday. Her side was rocky hills with sparse vegetation. The other side teemed with flowering green bushes and long grass waving before a gentle breeze. The wind whipped at her cloak, and Ellie leaned closer, feeling the cold solid glass press against her cheeks.
    “Maa.”
    Tak shoved her from behind, and she fell. She fell
through
the glass wall, feeling its cold hardness touch her arms and legs just as she had felt it on her nose, forehead, and cheeks. It didn’t break, but it didn’t stop her fall. She sprawled on the lush, cushy grass and gasped for air.
    “Maa.” Tak folded his legs and settled beside her.
    She rolled over, sat up, and stared at where she had just stood. She saw no glass wall. The pleasant countryside stretched on to a band of trees, and the road passed through the woods and went on to the horizon. Not a prickly bush or a scrawny shrub of her world. Only the lovely, serene landscape that had appeared on the other side of the wall—the glass wall that was no longer there. Ellie felt her nose tingle, her eyes water, and a horrid sob waiting to escape her chest.
    Now she
really
did not know where they were.

Ellie fought rising panic as she examined the unfamiliar terrain. Rocks from tiny pebbles to huge boulders spotted the fields around her home. But grass covered this place. Trees with full heads of soft green leaves lined one horizon. Even the shrubs dotting the landscape appeared to be less rugged than the rough and thorny bushes of home.
    Tak jumped to his feet and trotted off, following the impressive road going toward a line of trees.
    “Wait!” Ellie scrambled to gather her carpetbag and stood. “Tak!”
    She hoped they would pass through the glass wall, even if she couldn’t see it, and be back at the end of the ridge. Within a few steps, she knew that crossing over to the other side was not going to happen.
    She ran to catch up. Tak jogged along at a brisk pace. Ellie, huffing and puffing, finally got close enough to grab his collar.
    “Stop!” She jerked on the goat and fell to her knees beside him. Tak looked at her, the pupils of his yellow eyes mere slits. He thumped his hindquarters down. His disgusted look lingered on Ellie for a long moment before he turned to stare toward the trees.
    The wide road could accommodate three wagons side by side. Ellie had never seen anything but dirt tracks, or paths covered in shale. Compared to those country lanes, this