Echo Mountain

Ellie and Larkin arrive to find Cate worse and growing pale. Ellie notices how much Esther is changing: she has cleaned out Cate’s wound without instruction or being pushed. Ellie and Esther pour the honey into Cate’s wound together; Larkin takes Cate by the hand, and Ellie is “stunned by the grief” she can see in his eyes (291). Ellie asks Esther to find some more willow bark to make tea for Cate, and Larkin prepares it for her. In this moment, Ellie has an epiphany as her mind flashes back to the day of her father’s accident. She realizes that she felt his hand push her as she held Samuel, out of the way of the tree. Ellie then has an idea to take Cate down the mountain to her cabin—a last-resort effort to save her. She sees “a fire in her tired eyes” (294) and knows that Cate is up to the challenge.