Claire’s thoughts broke off.

For the first time, she looked at Lyric. Really looked at the girl she’d rescued. And now, away from the red glow of the cottage’s stove, without the tattered strips of gauzy web coating her clothes, and with Claire’s eyes fully adjusted to the moon’s thin light, she saw not only the yellow thread in Lyric’s hair and the white of her smile but the blue of her torn cloak.

And not just any blue.

It was the same blue Claire had seen that terrible, horrible night an arrow had pierced her sister. The same blue she’d spied through a crack in a secret passage of Starscrape Citadel. The same blue she’d seen in the damp cells of Drowning Fortress.

Royalist blue.

But—Lyric was so young! And wearing it in the open! The Royalists were usually much older and stayed secretive.

“Lyric,” Claire said, her voice sounding weirdly hollow to her own ears, “when you say ‘Queen Estelle,’ I mean …” She smiled hesitantly. “Are you talking about the Queen Estelle? The one from made-up tales and poems?”

“Where have you been?” Lyric asked. Her hand hesitated above the next strand of silk she’d been about to collect, and she peered at Claire. “Your fleet must have been in a really remote run of the Taryn to not have heard the news! The monoliths weren’t destroyed by Forgers or Gemmers like we all thought at first. No—Estelle’s actually returned! For real! Historian Fray confirmed it for all of us!” Lyric’s voice took on a tone of amazement. “The Royalists weren’t just a group of foolish dreamers. They were right!”

Claire’s heart began to pound again, twice as loudly and twice as fast. So it was all out in the open now. Estelle was no longer in hiding … which meant she must have grown even more powerful since Claire had last met her.

Keep calm. Sophie’s voice cut through Claire’s frantic thoughts. Don’t give yourself away!

“Have you actually seen her?” Claire asked, pretending this was all brand-new information to her. “The queen, I mean?”

Lyric sighed deeply. “No, not yet. But Historian Fray arrived a couple weeks ago with a message from the queen. Her Majesty has invited the guilds to join her at Hilltop Palace for the Starfell holiday, and asked that they bring with them all their unicorn artifacts and their quarter of the Crown of Arden.”