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Thorn let them both wrap her into a hug so warm and tight she could hear nothing of the nasty whispers in her head. She hid her face in Bartos’s coat and smiled into the wild white fall of Zaf’s hair.

Later that night, Thorn awoke to whispers.

She left Zaf in their little bed of moss and crept across the camp. Where Thorn stepped, the moss shifted—sunset orange under her feet, then deep vermilion, then back to a cool aquamarine once she’d passed.

She followed the whispers to a glittering patch of pearl-colored sand beside one of the brook’s shallow tributaries. In the sand crouched Quicksilver, Ari, Sly Boots, and Bartos. Behind them stood Noro.

Thorn sat gingerly in front of Noro’s legs and stared at what they were all looking at.

Someone had drawn in the sand a map of the Star Lands, and now Bartos was finishing up another map, joining it to the first. A map of the Vale.

Thorn’s tired heart warmed to see the familiar lines—rivers and valleys, Estari cities that had once stood tall and proud, and now lay empty and ruined. Touched by the Gulgot. Shadow-struck.

Just like her.

She clutched her stomach with one hand and found the long line that cut Bartos’s map of the Vale in two:

The Break.

“Once we get here,” said Bartos, pointing to the lines beyond the Break, “to the Westlin cliffs, we’ll be safe. There’s a hidden trail that will take us right up into the basement levels of Castle Stratiara.”

Quicksilver nodded, frowning at the maps. Absently she patted Thorn’s shoulder. Noro pressed his muzzle to Thorn’s neck. Just like Zaf, they weren’t afraid to touch her.

Thorn, too tired to smile, nevertheless felt a bit warmer.

“It will take three weeks to travel the rest of the Star Lands,”murmured Quicksilver. “We could go much faster if we recruit witches to help us and try traveling by monster. Willow-on-the-River isn’t far from here.”

Ari made a skeptical sound:puh!

Quicksilver rolled her eyes. “Ari thinks I’m mad for even suggesting that traveling by monster could work.”

“Caution,” said Ari, a bit loftily, “is a virtue.”

“So is courage,Your Highness. I’m telling you, I think it could be done, with some more experimenting. I made decent progress with Lord Vilmar’s knights before we left Tavarik.”

Ari raised an eyebrow. “Or we could justwalkto the mountains, instead of wasting time trying to craft a spell that might not even work.”

Sly Boots glanced at Thorn with a rueful smile. “They’re fun, aren’t they?”

Quicksilver thwacked Sly Boots on his arm.

Ari looked at Bartos. “Traveling by foot from the mountains, how long will it take us to get through Estar to the Westlin cliffs?”

Bartos scratched his chin. “Three weeks, maybe. That’s if the land doesn’t turn on us, which it very well might.”

“By then,” said Ari, “the Vale could be lost, if what you’ve told me is true.”

“Zaf could get us there faster.”

Silence fell at Thorn’s words—words she hadn’t meant to say. The cruel web inside her had been quiet, maybe scared away by her friends, but now it was back. And it was angry.

“Zaf is the stormwitch, right?” Ari asked.

Bartos frowned. “Thorn, you know we can’t ask Zaf to do that.”

“Another trip like the one that brought you here might finish her,” added Sly Boots.

“No, it won’t. I can do it.”