“But there will be time for us to worry about that,” Anvil had told Claire as she had spent one afternoon helping him scrub moss off a lynx-squirrel chimera they had found on the edge of the Sorrowful Plains and Petrified Forest. For the inauguration, Nadia had wanted an entire regiment of the copper beasts behind her. Once the lynx-squirrel was properly shiny, Anvil rode it over to the alchemists so they could awaken the beast.

And luckily, the alchemists weren’t far away from Aquila’s cabin—at least, for now. Woven Root had set up camp in the Sorrowful Plains, the only place big enough to hold the vast crowds they were expecting to witness Nadia’s Vow.

Though the alchemists were no longer outlaws, many of them couldn’t imagine setting up stationary homes. Besides, Nadia herself had said that she wanted Woven Root to keep traveling. That way, she would be able to spend equal time with all the guilds’ many towns, villages, and cities. Not one corner of Arden would be overlooked on her watch. As soon as the inauguration celebrations were over, Nadia had plans to move Woven Root to Starscrape Mountain.

“If ever a place needed some love and care,” she’d said with an arched brow, “it’s that dilapidated castle.” Maps had been spread over her desk, and Claire had been helping her update the villages with all their most current names.

“I don’t know,” Claire had said as she blotted ink from her paint brush. She’d just finished adding “Spyden’s Lair” to a currently empty bay near the Sparkling Sea. “I think you just want an excuse to look at their mosaics and art collection.”

“Their collection is impressive,” Nadia had agreed. “I must admit, I’m looking forward to exploring all those forbidden corridors and secret passageways. Imagine what treasures might be hidden there!”

But Claire had chosen not to imagine.

It was too hard without Sophie by her side.

Sophie.

Claire had seen many unicorns in recent days, racing one another across far-off hills, free and unrestricted. But she knew, with a sister’s intuition, that none of the sparkling creatures she saw were Sophie. She hadn’t seen her sister since she’d slipped away on Starscrape Mountain.

“I … I think she’s just busy,” Claire said when Nett and Sena had asked last week at dinner. And it was true. Arden had been without unicorns for three hundred years, and everything needed their attention.

“She’ll return when she’s ready,” Sena said sympathetically. The girl had become less sharp with the return of her parents. The Steeles had moved into Francis’s old cottage and had, of course, already asked Nadia’s and the Grand Council’s permission to officially adopt Nett. Claire had spent many cozy winter evenings with them, enjoying the warmth of a family. But most of the time, she stayed with Nadia in her Woven Root tent.