“The Revinir is definitely greedy,” Sky said. “It seems strange, living in a world like ours, to be so transfixed on making money. But she and the pirates were trading with other worlds secretly for many years before we learned that other places even existed.”

“So going to the land of the dragons and understanding the monetary system wasn’t such a shock to her.”

“No.” Sky read aloud a few equations, then frowned and searched for a pencil. She started working some figures.

Fifer watched her curiously. “What are you doing?”

“I’m checking her work. She’s got a number of chemical formulas written down here that I’m familiar with. She’s actually quite smart. No wonder she figured out that the whole dragon-bone-marrow-and-broth thing would alter her body’s chemistry.”

“So she already knew she could become a dragon when she lived here?”

Sky wrinkled her nose. She turned a few pages and studied them. “I don’t know about that. Maybe. I wonder if she’d been trying to trap Pan’s young for a long time. I knew the dragons were worried about the pirates capturing and trading them. But maybe they were also worried about Queen Eagala getting her hands on them.” She read a few more pages. “I doubt we’ll ever know. But it’s so interesting, isn’t it?”

Fifer nodded. She rummaged through the second box and pulled out a notebook with a tattered cover and opened it. “What’s this?” said Fifer softly. She gazed at the first page. The date was written in a childlike scrawl. “This is from when she was a child. It’s like a journal or something.”

Sky looked up and went over to Fifer so she could see.

“It’s dated sixty years ago,” said Sky. “I can’t believe she still has this.”

“She was nine,” Fifer said, blowing dust from the brittle pages and beginning to read. “The journal begins on the day that Marcus and Justine sailed away without her.”

“Wow,” said Sky, reading silently alongside Fifer. “And look how she signed the entry. Is that her real name? Emma?”

“That’s, like, so normal. Her name can’t be Emma.”

“Why not?” asked Sky.

“Because Emma is a nice name. Not like Eagala or the Revinir. Those sound sinister. Emma sounds like the name of your best friend’s mom.”

Sky laughed. “None of my best friends’ moms were named Emma. I don’t know anyone with that name, actually.”

“Me either,” admitted Fifer. “I just . . . Maybe I read it in a book.”

“Anyway,” said Sky, “it makes sense that when she decided all of Warbler needed nature and animal names she picked Eagala—it starts with the same letter.” She went back to the books she’d been looking at.