Nisha made a show of thinking it over. “Actually, yes.”
“Oh?”
“Come closer.”
Romie shuffled closer, raising a brow.
“I said closer.”
The gleam in Nisha’s eyes finally registered. Romie smiled, leaning in for a kiss—and jumped back as Aspen’s voice rang out.
“Romie, do you—Oh, sorry.”
Aspen’s worried expression had Romie on high alert. “What is it?”
“I still can’t find Tol through scrying,” the witch said, full of devastation. “This whole thing doesn’t add up. From what I know of him, Tol wouldneverbreak his oath. He might have had a bit of a rebellious streak in him, but these people saved him. They’re his family. His oath to the light is his purpose.”
“We should ask questions around the city,” Nisha suggested. “Find the answers that the Knight Commander wasn’t keen to share. Likewhat’s this Night Bringer she spoke of? And the Sun Forger?”
“The Sun Forger is their goddess,” Aspen said. “The Night Bringer, though, I have no clue.” She worried her lip. “Is there no mention of this in that book of yours?”
Romie shook her head. “There are warriors inSong of the Drowned Gods, sure enough, but they never sproutedwings.”
“Although the warrior of the story did confront a dragon,” Nisha supplied. “Surely one of these draconic knights has to be the key we’re looking for.”
Romie caught Aspen’s eye at that, a thread of understanding unfurling between them. She didn’t want to be the first to voice this suspicion growing in her mind, so she was thankful when Aspen said, “I think the key might be Tol.”
“Because of this connection you share?” Nisha asked. Romie could hear the doubt creeping into her voice.
“Yes, but it’s more than that. This song you and I hear,” Aspen said, looking at Romie, “I don’t think it calls usonlyto other worlds. I think it calls us to each other. This kinship I felt when you arrived at the Wychwood, this same kinship I feel toward Tol…”
“It’s like there’s an echo of the song in our souls,” Romie said quietly, recalling this thrum of familiarity, ofrightness, she felt whenever she encountered Aspen in dreams, or when she’d seen her transform into Tol as she scried. There was a profound sort of magic in whatever bond they shared. If Romie was the girl of dreams and Aspen the witch, it stood to reason that Tol was the warrior.
She wondered, not for the first time, why she didn’t feel that same bond with Emory, the scholar. But she shut away the thought once more.
Romie, Nisha, and Aspen slipped away into the city that evening while the others bathed and ate. Someone had brought them clothes that made them blend in to the busy streets. There was agrim undertone to Heartstone, something that seemed to make its inhabitants skittish and tense.
Romie couldn’t help but note how many cats roamed about—her heart lurched at the thought of Dusk—though she seemed to be the only person here with any sort of affection toward them. Merchants shooed the cats away from their stalls, mothers hugged their children close and cut to the other side of the street to avoid walking past them. None of the cats looked feral. They were simplythere, watching the world with keen eyes.
And so were the owls.
As the sun dipped past the horizon, the winged creatures were suddenly everywhere, perched atop arches and buttresses. Owls big and small, with feathers ranging from snow white to ink black. The sight of them seemed to chase away most people from the streets, and those who remained were quick to light torches and lanterns, as if scared of the dark.
“For people who live in a world full of terrifying beasts, you’d think it would take more than cats and owls to spook them,” Romie remarked.
“They fear the Night Bringer’s creatures,” someone said behind them.
Romie spun to find the young page who’d been with the draconics—Caius, she recalled—sitting on a rampart with a book he was writing in. Torchlight made his strawberry-blond curls glow orange.
Romie peered at the inside of his book. He’d sketched an owl on one page, the drawing surprisingly accurate, and a cat on the other. Both animals were surrounded by tidy handwriting listing their characteristics and behaviors. “You seem to have quite the interest in them,” she noted.
“I have an interest inallcreatures. Most of them are feared because people simply don’t bother trying to understand them.”Caius shut his book with an air of self-importance. “Which is whyIwant to master as a sage. Master Bayns says my personal bestiary is already far more complete than those of most squires he’s taught.”
“What exactly is a bestiary?”
Caius looked at her like she was a particularly odd monster. “Why, it’s only the Fellowship’s most sacred weapon. A compendium of all the eldritch beasts we encounter. A map of the evil that needs to be purged by the light.”
Romie didn’t think acatwarranted such vitriol. When she said as much, Caius laughed.
