Sky explained what it was like when the Revinir was Queen Eagala. “You might not know that Eagala was the younger sister of Marcus Today and the High Priest Justine. She was quite a bit younger, and when Justine and Marcus left Warbler as teenagers to begin Quill, they left Eagala behind. Some say that Eagala never got over that. She desperately wanted to go with them. When they wouldn’t allow it, she hated them.”

“Wow,” said Thisbe. “So decades later, she took it out on her own world to prove how powerful she’d become? And she attacked anyone who came from Quill—right? Like Samheed and Lani. Was that all because of her grudge against her siblings?”

“That’s what most Warblerans believe.”

Drock snorted angrily, making Sky and Thisbe dodge a blast of smoke.

Sky continued. “She took over the rulership of Warbler when her parents died, and completely changed everything. Even her name—she began to call herself Eagala and demanded everyone use names related to earth and nature. Thus my name and my brother’s: Sky and Crow. And Copper. And Phoenix, and Scarlet, and Thatcher . . . You get the picture.”

Thisbe thought this through. “It’s interesting. I’m not sure how it can help us, but maybe there’s something more to the story of how she felt spurned by her brother and sister.”

Sky shrugged. “I’m not sure either, but it seems important to her motivations, I guess.” She shared a few other stories about Eagala’s penchant for having a throne room to keep her secret writings and possessions in. Thisbe shared that the Revinir had done the same thing in the catacombs.

Then Sky told the other two about how Eagala had eventually put a silent spell over the entire island so she could more easily detect strangers coming ashore.

“Why?” asked Drock. “Was she afraid of strangers?”

“She was very possessive of her people. She didn’t want anyone leaving. She believed people would come and steal us away.”

“That rings true,” said Thisbe. “That must be why she’s coming all the way out here. She can’t stand it that Drock and I escaped. She told me once that she had big plans for me—she kept trying to get me to be her special assistant.”

“So she’s greedy, she’s possessive, she’s power hungry, and she’s angry about her siblings not including her,” said Sky, summing things up so far.

“What was her reason for the thorn necklaces and the orange eyes?” Thisbe asked.