Before he left, Wolf conjured enough food and water for everyone. Then he shifted forms and nuzzled against Sora’s face. It was probably the lupine version of a kiss, but it was a bit too sweet for the rest of them, and Hana, Fairy, and Broomstick groaned and turned away. Wolf laughed, said goodbye again, then took off into the sky.

Broomstick opened his mouth, about to say something.

Sora held up a finger. “Not a word. You tease me, and I will make you sorry.”

He pinched his lips together, pretending to zip them while obviously trying not to grin.

Hana watched them with longing. This is how her sister and her friends had always been, a tight-knit group supremely comfortable with each other. Hana had always wanted to be a part of it.

But now I have a chance, she realized.

Fairy administered the poison to Tidepool, then woke her with salts that were part ammonia, part something even more noxious.

Tidepool opened her eyes groggily but snapped into a fighting stance when she saw her captors.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Hana said. “You’ve been given a poison that will dissolve all your internal organs unless we give you an antidote every two hours. If you want to live, you’ll do as we say.”

“You bitch,” she said as she held her hands up in surrender. “I always knew the emperor should have made me his second-in-command.”

Hana flinched. For most of her life, Prince Gin’s esteem had been the measuring stick for her worth.

But now she’d have to find that elsewhere. Or in herself.

She quickly went over what they wanted Tidepool to do—bring over one of the ships from Dera Falls, use the ocean to sail Empress Aki, Fairy, and Broomstick to Caldan, Brin, and Fale Po Tair, and hopefully lead their navies back to Kichona to stop Prince Gin before his war bled past Thoma and into the rest of the world. Tidepool kept trying to get in snide remarks, but after a while, Broomstick started pantomiming painful deaths caused by the dissolution of his insides, and Tidepool shut up.

“Do as Empress Aki tells you,” Hana said, “and when you’ve returned with our allies, Fairy will give you the permanent antidote to the poison. Agreed?”

Tidepool let out a violent string of Shinowanan curses but finally nodded.

“Good, then. Get started.”

Half an hour later, the fiercest of the warships that had been guarding Dera Falls arrived onshore. Hana and Sora joined Empress Aki, Fairy, Broomstick, and Tidepool on the beach to see them off.

“Here are some messengers,” Sora said, giving Broomstick a lantern full of glittering green eagle rays. “Send us updates at every kingdom.”

Broomstick took the lantern. “I can’t believe I’m voluntarily going to the kingdoms where the Lake of Nightmares said I’d cause so much death.”