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“I’m afraid,” she whispered. “I think I’m very sick.”

“Iknowyou’re very sick,” Mazby replied.

“Can you please not ride on my shoulder?” She shut her eyes in shame. Brier Skystone, unable to bear the weight of a grifflet?

“I’ll ride on Thorn’s broom when I need a rest,” said Mazby gently. “Unless it hurts too much to carry it?”

“No,” Brier lied. “I can do this.” Another lie. She wasn’t sure shecoulddo this. Everything hurt. But she truly didn’t mind the pain of carrying the broom.

It reminded her of Thorn. And Thorn never complained.

.14.

The Queen in Flight

Celestyna Hightower the Twelfth, Queen of the Vale, Master of the Realm, Daughter of Westlin, and Mender of the Break, sat at her breakfast table and waited for the moment when she could run.

Her heart pounded at the back of her throat; she could barely swallow her tea. Her untouched, cinnamon-sprinkled porridge sat congealing at her elbow. She had never liked porridge, not since—

She blinked hard until the memory vanished.

At the table across from her sat her sister, Orelia, her longgolden curls tied back with a silver ribbon. On Celestyna’s left sat gray-haired Lord Dellier, with his gentle smile and his kind brown eyes. On her right was the royal tutor, Madame Berrie, pale and wrinkled, with immaculate white curls.

Lord Dellier and Madame Berrie were important enough to take meals with the queen and the princess, when Celestyna felt like allowing it.

And today she did.

She needed the two of them here, with Orelia, so she could slip out of the castle without one of them finding her, and fussing and scolding and then increasing her guard so it would be even harder to try running away the next time.

No one could know where she was going. Not Lord Dellier, not Madame Berrie, not even Orelia.

Especially not Orelia.

Celestyna lifted her cup of tea to her lips and forced herself to take another sip. Her scalp prickled with sweat.

She did not like high places.

But she would have to crawl out a window and climb down the castle wall.

She did not like witches.

But she had to visit one—an old witch, and so terrifying thather parents had never let Celestyna meet her. The only witch left alive in the Vale, they had said. The witch who haunted Celestyna’s dreams.

Even the name was enough to make her shudder.Fetterwitch.

And once Celestyna got there, to the old witch’s lonely mountain cave... she would need to do a terrible thing. It was so terrible she could only think about it sideways, as if it were a shadowy night-creature too frightening to look at with both eyes.

But she had to do it. The people of the Vale depended on her to save them—and so far, she was failing. Brier Skystone might never return, or return too late. Booms from the Break shook the castle day and night. Distant roars from the Gulgot plagued everyone’s nightmares.

With shaking fingers, Celestyna carefully placed her cup on the table.

She would not fail her people for much longer.

She glanced at Orelia, who was happily chattering away about the new gowns her ladies-in-waiting had brought back from the city. Lord Dellier listened with a patient smile. Madame Berrie rubbed her temples as if a headache was forming.

There was an awful pang of guilt in Celestyna’s chest. Oreliawould be beside herself with worry when she realized Celestyna had gone.

But soon the Vale would be saved, and everyone would be cheering Celestyna’s name in gratitude, including Orelia.