“It’s not supposed to pass through rock, either,” Keefe reminded her. “The light from the unmapped stars must be different. Maybe that’s why they’re secret. And look. There’s another one.”
They all stared at the curved bottle nestled into the sand, glowing with the rosy light of Marquiseire.
“Okay, what do we think?” Keefe asked as Sophie used the charm to create a pink glittery beam. “Better or worse than the others?”
“Worse,” Sandor decided, and Keefe had to agree.
But Sophie chose “better” as she pulled them into the shimmering light, since sparkles made everything better—didn’t they?
But she was wrong.
So. Very. Wrong.
Each glinting speck turned coarse as they traveled—grating and scraping, like they were leaping through a glitterbomb. She was starting to worry the pain would never end when the warmth fizzled and the ground rushed up at them, leaving them in a shivering heap on a misty hilltop, right by . . .
. . . another bottle.
“Phosforien,” Sophie mumbled as she tied it around her neck with the others.
The swirly opalescent light was a sensory overload of color and motion, and the leap was a nonstop rollercoaster of spinning and dipping and swerving.
Sophie was sure she would’ve hurled all over the neon colors if her stomach hadn’t been broken and scattered into a million pieces. And when they finally collapsed onto hard, frosty ground, it took several seconds before her eyes could focus on the stretch of empty tundra.
A silvery bottle was buried in the hoarfrost.
“Last one,” she said, her hands shaking as she carefully grabbed the bottle of quintessence. “And I have a feeling this is going to be the toughest one yet. Remember—this stuff can blow up cities.”
“Wonderful,” Sandor grumbled.
“Aren’t you glad you insisted on coming along?” Sophie asked him.
“Yes, I am. I’m always happiest when I know I’m keeping you safe.”
“Awwwwww, Gigantor’s so cute!” Keefe interrupted. “Who knew under all those muscles was a ball of marshmallowy sweetness?”
Sandor growled at him—but Keefe just laughed.
“Squeak all you want. It only makes you more precious.”
“Okay, this is it,” Sophie said, reminding them why they were all there. “The Black Swan should be waiting for us at the end of this. We just need to survive one more leap.”
“Uh, you had me all excited until you used the word ‘survive,’” Keefe told her as Sophie held her breath and pressed the charm against the last vial, casting a blindingly bright silver beam at their feet.
Now that the moment was here, she wasn’t sure she was ready to face the Black Swan—and whatever terrifying plans came with them. But she clung to Sandor and Keefe, and they held on to her just as tightly.
Slowly . . . bravely . . . they all stepped into the light.
FIFTY
THEY’RE . . . NOT HERE,” SOPHIE SAID, rolling the words around on her tongue, like that would somehow change their meaning. “Why aren’t they here?”
The quintessence had carried them to an island—a tiny spit of sand and palms where Sophie would’ve expected to find a marooned pirate searching for the X that marked the spot. But there was no treasure. Just beach and trees and empty ocean, looking extra eerie in the dim moonlight.
“Maybe we’re early,” Keefe said, plopping down in the soft sand as Sandor went to patrol the trees. “I bet they’ll be here any minute.”
He motioned for Sophie to join him, but she was too tense to sit. She made her way to the shore, grabbing one of the smooth stones from the beach and hurling it into the water as hard as she could—followed by another and another. Each stone flew just a little shorter than the last.
“You should be skipping them,” Keefe told her as he came up behind her.
He placed a wide, flat rock in her palm and showed her how to flick her wrist. They practiced the motion one, two, three times. On the fourth they let it fly, and the rock skipped and skipped and skipped some more before they lost sight of it in the dark waves.
“See how much more fun it is when you relax?” Keefe asked her.
“How am I supposed to relax, Keefe? Look at this place—it’s a deserted island.”
An extra creepy one. She couldn’t put her finger on what it was, but there was something off about it. Like all the color had been bleached out. Even the moonlight was a faded gray.
Sophie turned to pace, dredging a rut in the sand. “Something’s wrong. I don’t think they’re coming.”
“But why would they go to all the trouble of giving us these?” Keefe asked, pointing to the five glowing bottles dangling from her neck.
“Who knows? Maybe they needed to get rid of them because they’re illegal and they knew I would get in less trouble.”
“Uh, they could just open the bottles and release the light back into the sky. Plus, after the whole ogre king thing, you’re on pretty thin ice, y’know? I bet if you sneeze too loud, Bronte will call a Tribunal.”
Sophie straightened. “Maybe that’s their plan.”
“What is?”
“Having me get caught with these, so I’ll be exiled. They want me to heal Prentice, right? And they know there’s no way the Council is going to approve that now. So if they can’t bring him to me, they’ll force me to go to him.”
Keefe stared at the glowing bottles like he was seeing them in a whole new light. But then he shook his head. “I still don’t buy it. There are easier ways to get you exiled. Plus, why would they invite me? Remember, I didn’t just tag along this time.”
He was right—inviting him didn’t make sense.
Unless . . .
“What if this whole thing was a distraction?” she asked. “A trick to get you, me, and Sandor away from something.” She grabbed Keefe’s arm. “What if they’re trying to get to Silveny?”
“But Silveny’s not with us anymore. She’s at the Sanctuary.”
“Still—we should get back. There’s no reason to stay here.”
She pulled out her home crystal, holding it up to the pale moonlight. But it wouldn’t cast a beam. She tried several directions, and nothing changed.
“Okay, that’s not cool,” Keefe mumbled when his home crystal did the same. “It’s like the light’s too weak, somehow.”
Or something was filtering it. If the Black Swan could create a pocket of air under the ocean, surely they could put some sort of shield around an island. And the palm trees didn’t look tall enough for her to teleport from. . . .
“This is a trap,” Sophie whispered, squinting through the darkness, trying to see what hid in the shadows. “They must’ve picked this place because they know we can’t leave.”
“We can try those,” Keefe said, pointing to the glowing bottles dangling around her neck.
“Won’t they just take us back to the places we’ve already been?” Sophie asked. “They were all pretty cramped places. I’d rather be out here.”
“I guess.”
Maybe it was the weird moonlight. But Keefe looked genuinely afraid.
“Sandor!” Sophie shouted, wanting some extra muscle—and weapons—close by.
Sandor must’ve been listening to their conversation, because he was already on his way, sword raised.
“I detect no trace of life,” he told them, sniffing the air once more. “But we must find a way to get out of here.”
“What if we, like, combined the different lights or something?” Keefe suggested. “That might take us somewhere different, right?”
“Would that work?” Sandor asked.
“I don’t know,” Sophie admitted. “But if it did, where would it even take us?”
Keefe shrugged. “It’s gotta be safer than waiting around here.”
No one could argue with that, so Sophie untied all the bottles and placed them in a small circle in the sand. Their colorful glows turned white where they conv
erged, and when Keefe nodded, she carefully placed the magsidian charm in the brightest spot in the center.
A blinding flash shot out of the swan’s beak, turning everything to a blur.
Sophie rubbed her eyes, trying to focus through the glare. But Keefe must’ve recovered first, because he grabbed her arm and whispered, “I think I see something.”
“Where?” Sandor asked, and Keefe pointed toward the ocean.
The light had faded, leaving nothing but shadows and more shadows.
But when Keefe took the charm from Sophie and created another gleaming flash, she spotted what his sharp eyes had caught the first time.
Three figures in dark hooded cloaks, coming toward them across the waves.
FIFTY-ONE
THEY’RE WALKING ON WATER,” SOPHIE whispered, staring at the white eyes sewn on the cloaked figures’ sleeves. “How are they doing that?”
“Let’s worry about it later, okay?” Keefe asked, grabbing the glowing bottles and pulling a goblin throwing star out of a pocket on his sleeve. “Right now there’s three of them and three of us. I think we can take them.”
“The only one ‘taking them’ will be me,” Sandor growled, throwing Sophie and Keefe over each of his shoulders and running them into the palm trees. He dropped them behind a wall of fernlike bushes and took the bottles of starlight. “Stay here—I mean it, Sophie. Do not move unless absolutely necessary.”
“But—”
“DO NOT ARGUE WITH ME!”
Sophie cowered.
“I’ll cover us,” Keefe promised as Sandor handed him one of his melders.
“Good. And I”—Sandor gripped his other melder—“am going to catch these villains once and for all.”
He slashed his sword over their heads, covering them with fallen leaves before he charged back toward the waves.
The bushes blocked their view of the beach, but Sophie could hear deep voices mixed with the roar of the ocean.
It sounded like they were arguing.
“How did they find us?” she whispered, scooting closer to Keefe. “Do you think they’re the ones that led us here?”
“If they were, why pick this spot for their ambush? That underground cave would’ve been a way easier place to catch us.”
“True. But how could they have followed us through all those leaps? And why aren’t the Black Swan here?”
“We are.”
Furry hands blocked Sophie’s scream as a dozen dwarves popped out of the ground. Two of them pinned Keefe to a tree, snatching his melder and cutting off his cry for help.
“What’s happening over there?” Sandor called from the beach.
“Tell him to come to you,” the dwarf holding Sophie whispered. “We’re here to capture the rebels, and he’s ruining our plan.”
Plan? Sophie wondered as he held up his wrist, pointing to a cuff bearing the sign of the swan.
A dozen dwarves did have better odds of winning than a lone goblin did. Plus, if they were there to capture her, they could’ve just taken her.
“Fine,” she mumbled into his palm, wishing she didn’t have to taste his sandy fur.
The dwarf let her go, begging her to call Sandor quickly. “He’s keeping the rebels off the sand. That’s where we have our advantage.”
Sophie really hoped she was doing the right thing as she took a breath and shouted, “Sandor, we need your help!”
“On my way,” Sandor called, tearing into the bushes.
The dwarves dove back into the ground, and their feet had barely disappeared when Sandor burst through the ferns behind Keefe, sword raised. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”
Sophie nodded, trying to figure out how to explain.
But Sandor was already sniffing the air. “Dwarves have been here.”
He took off after them, despite Sophie’s cries to stop, and the starlight around his neck cast a glow over the shadowy beach.
The cloaked figures had just set foot on the sand when they spotted Sandor—and the line of dwarves sending cracks rippling across the beach. They scrambled back into the water just in time to avoid sinking into the shore.
Sophie and Keefe caught up to Sandor as he drew his sword at the dwarves. “They’re with the Black Swan,” she told him. “They were trying to get us to lure the Neverseen onto the beach.”
“Yes, and it didn’t work,” the dwarves mumbled, shaking their furry heads.
The one who’d grabbed Sophie pointed to where the Neverseen were diving under the waves. “They came here through the water. I’m sure they’re leaving the way they came.”
Sandor reeled on him. “How do you know so much about them?”
“We know only what we observed.”
“And why were you observing?” Sandor demanded.
“Part of the plan. Which you have now ruined.”
Sandor lifted the dwarf by his furry shoulders. “Excuse me?”
The dwarf didn’t so much as blink—though his friends raised their feet, ready to stomp the ground any second.
“Uh, careful there, Gigantor,” Keefe warned. “I’m pretty sure they’re about to drop you into a sinkhole.”
“Only if he gives us a reason,” the dwarves told him.
Sandor pulled his hostage closer. “I’m only going to ask this once. What. Was. Your. Plan?”
“Watch, and wait, and if the rebels show up—catch them. It would’ve worked, if you hadn’t chased them off the sand.”
“You planned for us to be ambushed?” Sandor snarled.
“We suspected that you would be.”
“Why?” Sophie asked. “And why didn’t you warn us?”
“It was not our decision,” the dwarf told her, squirming out of Sandor’s grip like a cat. “I am sure our commander had his reasons.”
“And where is your commander?” Sandor asked.
“Monitoring the situation off site.”
Sophie rolled her eyes. “Of course he is. Why bother showing up for the meeting that he called?”
“This was never a meeting, Miss Foster. It was a test.”
“A test of what?” Keefe asked.
“Our security. And yours. And that is all I can tell you. Also, I must give you this.” He dug around his fur, pulling out a smooth, slightly opaque stone with a single facet along one edge. “Hold the moonstone to the light and it will create a path back to your home.”
Sophie reached to take it, but he insisted they give him the bottles of starlight—and the magsidian charm—first.
“Will you give your commander a message for us?” Keefe asked as Sandor grumpily made the trade.
The dwarves exchanged a glance, before their leader told Keefe, “Go ahead.”
Keefe stalked closer, crossing his arms with a smirk. “Tell him we passed his little test, so now he can pass one of ours. He’ll find instructions waiting in the cave in five days—and if he doesn’t follow them exactly, well . . . let’s just say there will be a mountain of sparkly poop with his name on it.”
FIFTY-TWO
REMIND ME NEVER TO LIGHT leap again,” Keefe mumbled as Elwin sprayed a misty elixir under his nose and told him to take a deep breath.
Fade Fuel.
Sophie had hoped she’d never need the all-too-familiar elixir again. But Grady took one look at them when they got home and shouted for Edaline to hail Elwin.
“At least there are no other injuries this time,” Elwin said, flashing a yellow orb of light around Keefe and putting on his iridescent spectacles. “But you do have the most traumatized cells I’ve ever seen.”
“I’m not surprised, given what little I know about the unmapped stars,” Alden said as he paced the living room.
Sophie had hailed him the second they were home safe.
“Did you know it was possible to leap underground or under the ocean?” Grady asked him.
Alden shook his head. “I knew the light of the unmapped stars granted unusual abilities, but I never realized they defied our physical laws.”
“At quite a cost,” Elwin muttered, handing Sophie and Keefe two bloodred vials. “I need to completely rebuild your cells. Don’t worry—it’s painless. You’ll feel a bit itchy tonight, but I have a poultice that should help.”
Sophie downed the remedy, gagging as the cold liquid hit her throat.
Keefe barely managed to choke his down. “Okay, that’s not the worst thing I’ve ever tasted—but it might be a close second.”
“Oh, trust me, I have lots worse,” Elwin assured him. “Keep hanging around her and I bet you’ll get to try them. As for you”—he turned to Sandor—“I’m not sure any of my elixirs will work on your physiology. I can probably make some tweaks tonight—”
“I have a remedy of my own,” Sandor promised, removing a flat black flask from one of his pockets.
He took a huge swig, making his chest heave and his eyes tear. But the fit passed after a few seconds, and he looked much less pale.
“What is that?” Elwin asked, taking the flask and sniffing it. He gagged and handed it back. “Never mind—I don’t want to know.”
“You don’t,” Sandor agreed.
“So they’re going to be okay?” Edaline asked, smiling when Elwin nodded.
Her eyes looked tight and tired—but her voice was calm and steady as she asked, “Then what are we going to do about the next meeting with the Black Swan?”
“Assuming they even show up,” Sophie said through a sigh.
“Oh, they’ll show,” Keefe promised. “I threatened them with sparkly poop. Plus, we passed their test, so it’s only fair.”
“Did we pass?” Sophie asked. “The Neverseen still got away.”
“I’m not sure that’s what was being tested,” Alden said quietly. “I can only speculate of course, but it seems logical that today’s meeting was designed to discover the source of their leak. It’s what I would’ve done—create a scenario with a limited number of variables.”