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“Your Majesty,” said Thorn, curtsying. She tried to make her shoulders as square as the queen’s. “I know how to save the Vale.”

“Mender of the Break,” said Queen Celestyna, with a tiny tired laugh. “Tell me, O wise and brave Thorn of the Vale. How do we do it? How do we defeat the Gulgot?”

“Cub is not a danger to the Vale. I mean, the Gulgot,” corrected Thorn hastily. “The danger, Your Majesty, is you.”

Orelia, standing tensely nearby, whispered, “Howdareyou.”

“Let her speak.” Queen Celestyna watched Thorn steadily.

Thorn took three deep breaths. She wished Noro had beenallowed to come with her. She wished Brier was standing there, holding her hand.

She wished Zaf...

Zaf,growled the curse.For Zaf. Kill her, kill her!

Thorn licked her lips, her mouth watering. But she stood her ground.

“The Break grows,” she said, “because your family’s curse has been tearing it apart for years. The curse you thought would heal the Break and stop evil from rising to hurt us, that’s the thing tearing our land in two. It isn’t the Gulgot’s fault that darkness is destroying us. It’s your curse’s fault. It’s your fault. The Gulgot—Cub—he simply wants to live.”

Orelia scoffed, but Celestyna watched Thorn in silence.

“I spoke to him.” Thorn pressed on. “I saw the sores on his neck where your curse has hurt him. He gave me this, to give to you.”

Thorn reached into her coat pocket and withdrew Cub’s yellow flower. She knelt and presented it to the queen. Her mud-caked fingers looked silly next to the queen’s pristine silk gown. And the tiny smushed flower wasn’t fit for such a room.

“I know it’s a small gift,” said Thorn, “but he has nothing else. He has been alone for many years, since the Vale split and took the lives of his mothers.”

Celestyna considered the flower resting in her palm for a long time.

“If the curse were to somehow disappear,” said the queen at last, her voice tight and strange, “what then? Would the Break mend?”

“I’m not sure,” said Thorn. “Maybe, over time. But it wouldn’t get any bigger, I don’t think. It would just be a chasm.”

“You don’t think,” the queen repeated. “And would the Gulgot climb out at last and destroy us all?”

“No. He... promised me he wouldn’t.” Thorn winced, realizing too late how silly that sounded.

Orelia burst out, “Hepromisedyou? He’s a monster!”

“Some might say the same about your sister,” snapped Thorn. “Some might say a queen who kills other people to save her own is a monster.”

Orelia looked as though someone had slapped her.

But Queen Celestyna only smiled. To Thorn, she looked suddenly very tired. “You’re right. Some might say that.”

She tucked the flower behind Orelia’s ear, kissed her cheek, and looked thoughtfully at Thorn.

“I think I know what you’ve come here to say, Thorn Skystone,” she said gravely, still with perfect posture. “I’ve been thinking of doing it myself, but...”

“But the curse won’t let you,” Thorn finished.

“It will do anything to protect itself.”

“It would freeze your arm, hold you still like a doll.”

Queen Celestyna nodded. “Smart girl.”

Thorn blushed. “The Old Wild told me.”