“You wil do nothing,” I said. “I wil take care of this.”

“Wendy,” Matt said. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t worry about it.” I started walking again, and they folowed more slowly behind me. “I wil handle things if it comes to that, but until then, we wil continue with the plan. We wil ready ourselves for war.”

I marched ahead, walking faster so I didn’t have to argue with Matt or Finn. Both of them wanted to protect me, but they couldn’t.

Not anymore.

On the way to the library, we went past the balroom. Finn went inside to finish the training, and I glanced in. Al the trackers were sitting on the floor in a semi-circle around Tove and Loki. They were both talking, explaining what would need to be done.

“Should I go in with them?” Duncan asked, gesturing to the room of trackers.

“No.” I shook my head. “You come with me.”

“Are you sure?” Duncan asked, but he folowed me down to the library. “Shouldn’t I be learning how to fight with the rest of them?”

“You won’t be fighting with the rest of them,” I replied simply.

“Why not?” Duncan asked. “I’m a tracker.”

“You’re my tracker,” I said. “I need you with me.” Before he could argue, I turned my attention to my brother. “Matt, we’re looking for books that have anything in them about the Vittra. We need to find their weaknesses.”

“Okay.” He looked around at ceiling-high shelves filed with books. “Where do I start?”

“Pretty much anywhere,” I said. “I’ve barely made a dent in these books.”

Matt climbed one of the ladders to reach the books at the top, and Duncan dutifuly went along to start colecting books for himself.

While the history of the Vittra was interesting at times, it was irritating how little we knew about stopping them. So much of the Tryle past had been about avoiding them and making concessions.

We’d actualy never stood up to them.

By al accounts, Oren was the cruelest King the Vittra had had in centuries, maybe ever. He’d slaughtered the Tryle for sport and executed his own people for simply disagreeing with him. Loki was lucky to even be alive.

“What’s this say?” Matt asked. “It doesn’t even look like words.” He was sitting on one of the chairs on the far side of the room, and he pointed to the open book on his lap.

“Oh that?” Duncan was nearest to him, so he got up and leaned over Matt, looking at the book. “That’s Trylic. It’s our old language to keep secrets from the Vittra.”

“A lot of the older stuff is written in Trylic,” I said, but I didn’t get up. I’d found a passage about the Long Winter’s War, and I hoped it would give me something useful.

“What does it say?” Matt asked.