“A few times. He’d appear without warning, riding into camp with goods to trade, then disappear just as quietly. Those visits were magical, but he was always searching for something. He spoke of a group that was mining to the northwest. He wanted to look into the earth, too, and was more focused on the rocks beneath our feet than on our gods among the stars.” She exhaled sadly. “The last time he visited, we’d just learned that you’d be branded in the coming days. I never saw him after that. I’m sorry I never let him see you—and that I didn’t tell you who he was. His visits were so short, so fleeting. I thought it would be crueler to meet your father and lose him, than to never know him at all.”

He could never read the future in the stars, I realize. What he said that day when he gifted me with the lodestone was merely poetic, a way to capture my attention.

He didn’t know what would happen, only what he hoped would. So he put the wheels in motion. He found the children he fathered and gave them lodestones, pushed them in certain directions. Reed to Bedrock, in case the worst came to pass.

I reach for my lodestone now, turn the cool stone between my fingers.

Where did he find it? Was this powerful compass why he showed interest in mining and was always looking at the dirt beneath his boots? And if he truly cared about what happened to me—if he feared the General’s growing power—why did he disappear? He should have stayed to help.

“I don’t trust Reed,” Asher says, dragging me from my thoughts. “We should leave him behind.”

I shake my head. “Who knows when he last communicated with Bedrock. If they have his position as being near Powder Town—or, gods help us, north of Powder Town—Loyalists might come looking for him. Better to take him with us.”

“To the Verdant?” Asher says skeptically. “You want to take a Loyalist to the Verdant?”

“Shh,” I hiss, but Harlie’s already heard.

“If you wanted your destination to be a secret, you should have lowered your voice to a whisper when chatting with that half brother of yours.” She scans my frame from where she stands, leaning against her wind wagon. “You got a map, huh?”

“Up here,” I say, touching my temple.

Harlie frowns. If she heard me discussing things with Reed, she certainly heard him mention a brand, but Harlie just squints north, a smile spreading over her lips. “Always knew there was more out that way, and by gods, we’re gonna find it.”

“Still don’t think he should come with us,” Asher grumbles.