“Well,” said Maiven, shifting in her chair and dabbing the corners of her mouth with her napkin, “as most of you know, I was the queen of Grimere when the usurpers began their rise to power. A fine dragon named Suki was the ruler of the dragons, and she and I got along very well until her unfortunate death at the hands of the rebels.” She went on to give a short history lesson about that rogue group who took advantage of a strange natural disaster, the meteors, to seize control of Grimere. “I hid my daughter, Nadia, in the castle while I commanded the army to fight against this group, but the usurpers were clever. They kidnapped black-eyed children and used them to get to her. Then they forced the other children to deliver Nadia to the pirates, threatening to harm their parents if they didn’t comply. Before I could get to her, she was gone.”

“Wait a minute,” said Rohan tersely. “And please excuse me for interrupting, but did you say that the other black-eyed children were forced to kidnap your daughter? They didn’t do it willingly?” His expression betrayed how important this detail was to him.

Maiven studied him. “Yes, I’m sure of it. They were her friends. I knew most of them by sight if not by name, and I knew they wouldn’t do anything like that unless they were coerced or threatened, which all of those children were. Why do you ask?”

Rohan seemed beside himself for a moment and couldn’t speak. Then he said quietly, “As you know, those of us who have taken the ancestor broth have experienced images pulsing through our minds. One of mine that I’ve been ashamed to tell you about is of my mother…” He paused to steady his voice. “My mother,” he continued, “as a young girl, helping to push Nadia onto the ship.”

“I have an image like that too,” said Asha. “And so does Reza. We didn’t know what it meant. Are those our parents by the sea? And is the captured girl Maiven’s daughter?” She turned to Aaron. “She’s your mother?”

Maiven reached out to Asha and Rohan. “Listen to me,” she said. “Your parents are not to blame for Nadia’s capture. That rests solely on the usurpers, especially the one who called himself king. Whatever the images show you… please believe that your ancestors are not at fault.”