And then a woman with silver hair entered.

She saved a rebel, the woman said, and laid her hand on the princess’s shoulder. A person hired to kill you.

Her heart skipped a beat, startled at the idea that the princess might have died, and she never would have known. Would the mirror have shown her? Would it have revealed a second funeral procession?

Fate intervened as it always did, and for the first time the nestling was commanded from her sacred city and into the war-ravaged world below. It should have surprised her that she was directed to the double she’d seen instead of Maram herself—it didn’t. Despite her fascination, there was something about the double—even as she’d begged she’d seemed regal.

The double had saved someone’s life. She’d taken the princess’s place in the line of fire.

Sacred fire only ever came to the brave and courageous. Hope was given to a person who might reshape the world. The nestling watched it take root in the double, watched the way light returned slowly and chased out the shadows that lived in her now. Saw the double draw in the heat that was a matter of course for someone like her, saw it give strength to her spine and speed to her will.

And from His first creatures He made stars, glowing hot with their fire and warmth.

All may see the stars, but few will see their forbears. And those whose eyes see golden fire We say heed Us and listen.

For We have sent unto you a Sign. See it and take heed.

The nestling’s wings unfurled and the double gasped as she cried out and launched herself up and into the sky.

She was meant to return to her sacred city.

She did not.

1

In a city in the heart of the world, in a palace in its very center, was a slave—a girl. Once upon a time the girl had borne ancestral markings on her face and danced happily among family and friends. She’d been kidnapped, as all girls in stories were, and brought against her will to the royal palace to serve as body double to a princess. Once upon a time, the girl—I—had been a rebel, and forced to make a choice between the rebellion and a princess who had undergone a spell of transformation herself. I’d chosen the princess and saved her life. The price had been high—my family was beaten, and I was threatened with their lives.