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Did you try cancelling out her magic entirely?he suggested.

I tried and tried and tried, exhausting several dresses of pearly iridescence in my efforts. It was like trying to dry a well. Whenever I managed to block a small patch of the shield, magic seemed to flow back in from all four sides, restoring the defences before I could so much as stick a finger through the hole I’d created.

After half an hour of trying with increasing force to break through, I had to admit defeat.

‘It’s like trying to punch a hole in a waterfall,’ I grumbled, falling down next to Creon to devour another apple. The damn things were surprisingly sweet, and frustration made me ravenous. ‘What else can we try? If it’s like water, I could see if I can … let’s say, redirect it?’

Creon’s shrug did not betray any tension – as if he didn’t realise with every fibre of his body that this impenetrable wall of magic may be all that separated him from the voice he’d fiercely missed for over a century.Your guess is as good as mine.

‘What use are ancient fae princes if they can’t even unravel magical mysteries for me?’ I said, rolling my eyes at him.

He gave me a dramatically pained look.Ancient? You wound me, Em.

‘Slightly antique,’ I corrected myself leniently.

Experienced, he spelled.

‘Historical,’ I suggested.

He quirked up a stern eyebrow.Mature.

I snorted a laugh. ‘You’re as mature as any person who’s never been allowed to be a child. Who wanted to duel me the moment I showed up with godsworn powers?’

Matter of strategic intelligence, he signed dryly.I need to know how much of a threat you are.

But I didn’t feel much like a threat as I glowered at the Mother’s shield for another solid hour, trying to direct the magic elsewhere and failing hopelessly at every attempt. I tried to slowly bend the barrier inward – no luck. I tried to pull it towards me and let it envelop me so that I would end up on the other side of it – again, nothing. I tried to let the magic flow aside to create a small tear I would be able to step through, and smashed another dozen apples with my tests before I concluded that strategy was coming to naught, too. The protective force seemed fixed in the dome-like shape she’d erected over the Cobalt Court, a structure so massive I could only guess how many pearl necklaces she’d used in the process.

The sun had passed its highest point by the time I reached that conclusion, sinking slowly to the west and making an eerie silhouette out of the castle ruins. I plopped down next to Creon, who had wandered off to find a creek in the meantime and collected water in a drinking bag shaped from a handful of fall leaves and plenty of yellow magic. A few gulps lessened the dry ache in my throat but did nothing to soothe my frustration.

The more time I spent fighting this wall, the more certain I felt that something of essential importance was hidden behind it. Why couldn’t I figure out the trick, damn it?

I’ve started thinking we might be going about this the wrong way, Creon signed as he considered the pile of bruised apples my efforts had produced. Alyra was cheerfully picking at them.

‘You think?’ I said sourly.

I’m trying to figure out the logistics.He rubbed a scarred hand over his face, eyes narrowed in concentration. The bright blue bargain mark he’d exchanged with Helenka was gone, I noticed only then – dissolved after he’d fulfilled his promise to leave today.We know the Mother did reverse bindings in a few cases, yes?

‘Yes, that’s what Ophion said. Do you …Oh.’ I blinked at him. ‘Oh. You said she’s never left the Crimson Court since the Last Battle?’

If she left, she did it very quietly, at least.

‘But then – if the bindings are not stored at the Crimson Court – she must have sent someone else to retrieve the ones she needed in those cases.’

Exactly.His smile was tired yet satisfied.You see where I’m going?

‘If others had to be able to step through this shield, they can’t have needed divine magic to do so,’ I said slowly. ‘The Mother is – was – the only one with those powers. So that suggests we don’t need to do anything to theshieldto get through, because she wouldn’t have been able to do that from a distance.’

He combed his fingers through his hair, then signed,Could she change anything about the envoys she sends? Make them undetectable to the shield, something like that?

Energy buzzed through my veins as I jumped up, my wavering resolve restored. Trying to change the shield – that vast, incomprehensibly powerful display of magic – had been not unlike trying to change the colour of the ocean with little drops of paint. Changing one person, in whatever way, seemed a far more achievable goal.

I started with apples, though. They seemed safer test subjects.

Over the course of an hour and a half, I created apples that could not move no matter how hard I tried to throw them, floating apples, apples making disconcerting sizzling sounds, and apples that absorbed magic in a way that vaguely reminded me of alf steel. Not even that last category made it through the Mother’s shield, however.

‘For fuck’s sake,’ I said as my most hopeful attempt yet bounced back and nearly hit me square in the face.

Give yourself time, Creon signed, looking sourly amused.She studied this magic for centuries. You’re at two days.