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I turned to tell Aster, but he had become unhinged at losing her and was now seeking vengeance on the world that took her from him, one guard at a time.

He drove a sword, which wasn’t his, deep into a Barren guard’s gut. Then he was fighting two of the men at once. He had taken the taller guard’s sword and destroyed the other’s shield. But the third was about to step forward, and as much as Aster needed to fight his pain out of his system, get a black eye or another split lip, I wasn’t about to watch him get taken. Pulling off my glove, I reached inside.

Life, Death, Rebirth.

And the warmth began to build—in my mind I fashioned it into a glowing red ember and then blew it out so that smoke could billow out of my index finger with the familiar sting Skyworld magic always gave. I covered the guard in a cloud of smoke, all his silver finery disappearing under it, and he crumpled to the ground. The last time I had used that move was on Aliwen, and she had stood for so long that I’d had to wrap her body too—no one had ever needed that encouragement, not even other Riders. The image of the gouges in her neck came flooding in, and I scanned the sky for Scar.

Let’s go.

I need to roost, and now White Hair Woman has bonded to Ashen; she’ll never let me go home.

The last thing I needed was more moaning about our tower and the rogue Ash Phoenix that had taken roost there nearly ten years ago.

I need to get to the Barren and tell them their guards killed my prisoners.

They won’t believe it, Scar grumped. And other rogues could bond tonight.

I couldn’t think of that. It will give us time.

There was no point dwelling on what I had just witnessed. A woman bonded to a phoenix even though she’d never gone into the mountain and—

I almost laughed as understanding hit me. I believed that Lex had told her, but she knew it because she had been there. Somehow she’d entered the mountains with all of us, and she had been chosen. The Ash Phoenix was there that day, a decade ago. But ten years had passed between the Ash Phoenix choosing her and bonding with her, and she never went mad… she didn’t seem harmed in any way. We’d been told that wasn’t possible. But she could do what others couldn’t, like read the Skyworld scribes’ words, bring the magic back into the pages. There had always been a trickle of Skyworld in her blood.

Those of us who refused the King’s Oath—almost all the princes who had walked into the mountains to get away from their oppressive courts—were beaten into submission. Or bribed, as Kit had been. We had all been told the same thing. King’s Oath or madness. Bond on the final night or die. Another lie.

In the far distance, the Ash Phoenix landed on my tower. I ran a hand through my hair, trying to stem my frustration.

Yule was over, but I suspected that the light that was returning was one we had never seen before.