Page 67 of By the Moonbeam and the Mist
“Dazmine,” I started hesitantly, because I knew we had to get going within the next two minutes and I wasn’t sure I wanted to start this conversation now. But if she knew aboutmysecondbrand… “Did you ever see another burn mark like this on Jenia, before she was exiled? Maybe… maybe under her arm?”
Dazmine’s head snapped up, confusion creasing her forehead.
“No. Not before the… the incident, at least. After the incident, she was always draped in so many sheets that I never saw anything but her mutilated eyes. But…” The crease of Dazmine’s forehead deepened. “Shedidcome to visit Jenia in the sick bay, Dyonisia Reeve did, along with a posse of her Good Council elites. She ordered me out and wouldn’t let me back in until hours later, just as they were finally leaving.” A stiff pause. “Are you telling me you think…?”
That Dyonisia had secretly branded Jenia with Mind Manipulating bascite while she lay there half-delirious? Yes, yes I did.
But before I could say that or elaborate onwhy, a frantic set of footsteps thumped its way toward us from the hallway outside, and I sucked my breath back in as the door burst open to reveal—
Wren?
I stared at the image of her panting in the entrance, my stomach dropping when her wide, frantic eyes bypassed Dazmine and Willa completely and landed on mine. The fact that she appeared to have sprinted here meant something was wrong. Wren didn’trun.
“Rayna. Come quickly. It’s Emelle.”
My heart shriveled and exploded all at the same time, flooding me with a fear so potent it seemed to scramble up my lungs.
“What’s wrong? Is she okay? Where is she?”
I had just seen her merely twenty minutes ago. If something had happened to her in that measly time fame…
I was already lurching forward, my blockade wavering and my hand reaching for my knife, when Wren shook her head.
“She’s safe in the parlor. But a bird just arrived with news about her home village, Merkwell—it’s under attack.”
CHAPTER
22
Iflew downstairs faster than my breath could catch up with me, Wren right on my heels.
As soon as we made it to the parlor, I spotted Emelle bowed over on one of the sofas, surrounded by Cilia, Mitzi, and a small mob of other Wild Whisperers who were all pelting her with questions. Above their heads, a vaguely familiar blue cotinga spiraled in quick, fluttering flurries like a moving fluorescent halo.
“Melle?”
As soon as she looked up and saw me—her eyes rimmed with red—I shouldered my way through the other women and dropped to my knees in front of her to gather her into a hug.
“I’m here,” I said into her hair. “What happened?”
I’d heard Wren, of course, and Dyonisia had told me about the pirate attacks on seaside villages last year in the Testing Center, but…
What had Steeler said to me right before he’d Walked me to the lighthouse?I don’t deny the attacks, but they’re not what you think.
And I’d been so overwhelmed with everything afterward that I’d forgotten to ask him to elaborate later.
“I…” Emelle started in a shuddery whisper, “…I made friends with Pedwill last year right after our first quarterly test.”
She nodded up at the blue cotinga still zipping in circles over her head, and I suddenly remembered where I’d seen it before. It had been the bird tapping on my window the morning after Lander’s party. The one Willa had wanted to strangle.
“My grandpa was sick when I left Merkwell for the Esholian Institute a year ago,” Emelle continued, each of her syllables shivering like fracturing glass, “so Pedwill has been flying back and forth, giving me periodic updates on his health.”
Emelle’s grandpa was sick? She’d never said, never told me. And…
Pedwill. The name of a bird I’d never evenheardof until now.
My stomach clenched with the realization that Emelle had been keeping secrets of her own… for even though it wasn’t strictlyforbiddento communicate with family back at home, it broke one of the many unspoken rules that always seemed to loom over us alongside the domed shield arching across our sky. Keeping us small. Contained.
Emelle pulled back to look at me, a silent plea swimming in her eyes—a plea to not question it right now.
