The Lamplighter's Toll

The lamplighter lived where the last streetlamp in Willow Hollow gave up and the woods began, and he had been waiting a long time for someone interesting to walk past.

"You'll want to pay the toll," he said, not looking up from the lamp he was polishing.

"We don't have any money," said Odalys.

"I didn't say money." The lamplighter finally looked at them, and his eyes were the pale, patient color of unlit wicks. "I said toll. Everyone has a toll. Yours is a secret, told true, and small enough to fit in my lamp."

Pip and Odalys looked at Sam, who was, after all, the one who had insisted on going off the edge of the map in the first place. Sam thought for a moment, then leaned close to the lamp and whispered something none of the others quite heard.

The lamplighter smiled for the first time. "That'll do," he said, and stepped aside.

The path beyond him did not look like a path so much as a held breath, waiting for someone to exhale.