Whole House was fretting and running about like a nest of glitterbirds that have spotted a treefox. “We’re worried she’s unwell, Father!” “She’s been up the ladders, Father!” “She made the Timekeeper blow Fourth Horn way way too early!” I pretended to frown, but inside I laughed. Only Starlight would have thought of altering the flow of my dad’s precious time! “Well, why don’t you take me to her?” She was in the Writingcave, sitting at a table under one of the trees, pretending to read a bark under that big map of Eden. She’d sent away all the helpers. “Whole House is in a state, Starlight!” I told her. “No one knows which horn they’re in, or what they’re supposed to be doing!” She ignored what I’d said completely. “I’ve been figuring it all out, Greenstone. There are two sorts of power in the world: the sort that comes from force, and the sort that comes from love. You might say the first sort is man’s power, and the second sort is woman’s power, not that women can’t be forceful or men can’t be loving, not that some men aren’t kinder than some women, or that some women aren’t more forceful than some men.
