Nett shook his head incredulously. “Well, you’re fine now, Nadia made sure of that. Anyway, after we freed the Steeles and the unicorn from the Way Between, you passed out for the entire day, and now it’s nearing midnight.”

“Of the same day?” Claire asked incredulously. “But how did we get here so quickly? And are all the guilds with us? What did the grandmasters say? Where are the tines?”

Nett came to sit next to Claire. “It’s the unicorn,” he said. “With him around, everything is just … more.” He shook his head, seemingly at a loss for words, which, considering it was Nett, was something. “The chimera move twice as fast and the Spinners’ cloaks can catch even the tiniest breeze, as though they were great gales.”

“And then there’s the jumbled magic,” Nadia added. “As non–Woven Root people are realizing, the combination of crafts can lead to incredible innovations, like Ten League Horseshoes.”

Nett nodded. “As soon as the guilds saw the unicorn, there could be no mistaking what we had told them. They ended up listening to Nadia pretty snappily, especially after the unicorn galloped to her.”

“Where’s the unicorn now?” Claire asked. The wonder of it all still hung with her, even though it did really feel like a dream, between the mist and now being in Stonehaven.

“Around,” Nett said, waving his hand vaguely. “He kind of appears and then reappears as needed. Celina Cerebella once wrote that unicorns were more fact than matter, which means, of course—”

“Nettle, hush,” Nadia said. “You’re just confusing her more! I’ll explain.”

And so Claire settled back in her pillows and let her great-aunt make sense of it all for her.

When the unicorn had arrived at dawn, the Tillers, Spinners, and Forgers had quickly come to believe what Nadia, Claire, and her friends had shared. And all agreed on one thing: it was essential to protect the unicorn, especially if Estelle’s goal was to make the wraiths able to withstand sunlight by some use of his heart.

Messages of all natures had been sent throughout Arden, informing the many villages and towns to up their wraith protections, while all those who had been at Hilltop Palace and fled to Greenwood would now make up the unicorn’s escort and guard at Starscrape Citadel, the only place big enough and secure enough to house them all.

“But what about the Everless Wall?” Claire interjected. “I thought Queen Estelle did something to it so that it wouldn’t let anyone out or in!”

“That’s true,” Nett said. “But Estelle hadn’t counted on the Forger Blades working in tandem with Tiller Roots and Spinner Ropes. The entrance revealed itself pretty quickly.”

The goal, Nadia continued to explain to Claire, who could hardly believe her ears, was to draw out Queen Estelle, away from everyone else and have her meet … Queen Nadia.