Free The Boys of Fire and Ash by Meaghan McIsaac

it.
    “What do you think she told him?” Av asked, nodding to Blaze who walked just a few paces ahead.
    “I dunno,” I said. “She looked pretty upset.”
    She looked horrified and I had no idea why. How shecould learn anything about me from staring into my palm, I’d never know. But she’d been frightened, that much I understood. By what? Blaze knew. I couldn’t stop worrying that it had something to do with Cubby.
    “Hey,” said Av, and he smacked my hand where my fingers were probing the lines, “she got over it pretty quick too. You saw her; she was smiling when she left.”
    That was true. Liars, Blaze had said. And maybe she had been lying.
    The Abish dwellings came to an abrupt stop, the road curving around and leading us back the way we’d come. Beyond it, more rolling green hills.
    “Where are we now?” I asked.
    Blaze stepped across the curving road and into the thick, tall grass.
    “End of town.” He pointed straight into the rolling hills. “Baublenotts are just off that way; we should be there before it gets dark.”
    “By Rawley,” breathed Digger from somewhere behind me. He’d been dragging his feet the whole time and had fallen pretty far back. Some leader. He’d been deadweight from the start. “What the Mother is this ugly thing?”
    I turned and when my eyes found what he was looking at, I nearly fell backwards.
    A monster, a giant hideous yawning monster towered above the village, its hideous gaping mouth silently screaming out into the distant hills. Av steadied me before I could go down.
    “It’s a Shibotsa,” said Blaze. “Abish superstition. Let’s go.”
    Its arms reached the sky, crooked skinny things, and as I stared at the claws I could see they were branches. The legs were hidden by the large sheets of flowing, fraying fabricthat clothed the thing, but I could see a small part of its legs poking out the bottom. They were logs.
    “They made this thing?” I asked.
    Blaze nodded. “It’s supposed to be an angry spirit. Keeps trouble away.”
    Av lifted the Shibotsa’s skirt and inspected what was underneath. “Spirit?”
    “Like, I dunno, a monster, I guess.”
    Blaze had already turned his back on the beast, completely disinterested, and started making his way through the long grass.
    “What kind of trouble are they keeping away?” I asked him.
    At that Blaze stopped and turned back. He clicked his tongue three times while he rubbed his neck, trying to decide how best to answer. “The war.”
    He stood there and I waited.
    He sighed, realizing I didn’t know what he meant. “Let’s just say the Abish want to keep out someone else’s fight.”
    “Whose?”
    He smiled, and a laugh that sounded more bitter than amused escaped him. “The Beginning’s.”
    There it was again.
The Beginning
. I could feel my brow go heavy. What did that mean? What kind of trouble comes from the start of something?
    “So this thing,” said Digger, kicking at the base of the Shibotsa, “is gonna fight off something for the Abish?”
    “Of course not. It’s just a symbol, just—” Blaze let out a groan and ran his fingers through his hair. “It’s a warning to anyone who would come and cause problems here. Did your Big Brother ever tell you he’d get your Mother to take you back if you didn’t stop misbehaving?”
    All three of us nodded. Every Big Brother has said that at least once to their Little Brother. I felt a pain in my gut, knowing I’d said it to Cubby enough times. He never believed me, though.
    “Well, the Shibotsa here is like the Mothers. If you cause trouble, she’ll come and get you. Make sense?”
    It made sense enough for Digger, who abandoned the Shibotsa and made his way into the grass after Blaze. It didn’t make sense completely for me.
    “This…Beginning,” I said. Blaze watched me as I tried to figure out what I wanted to ask. “It’s a people?”
    Blaze sighed. “It’s more like an idea.” He rubbed his neck and looked down at his