Yenni’s spear is in her hands and she twists the mechanism, extending it. She pulls on her speed and focus runes, feeling the warmth of them on her arms and legs, across her eyes, and she rushes the soldiers. They do not expect her. Yenni thrusts around the first man’s shield, stabbing him in the side. She darts back, whirls, and slashes the throat of another. She pierces the back of a third, flares her strength runes, and pulls her spear free, making him scream. She sweeps the legs out from under a fourth attacker and stabs him through the middle even as he is falling to the ground. She knocks away the short spear of a fifth man and stabs him in the chest. But now she has lost the element of surprise, and the Gunzu warriors’ runes are glowing. She runs.

Fire and destruction whiz by on the edges of her vision. Her beloved market is up in flames.

I did this. Mercy, Almighty Mothers and Fathers, I did this.

Where are the Yirba soldiers? Where are their fleet cats and swordsmen? Their sky force? What is her brother doing? She must get to the palace.

Yenni’s speed runes give out when she is almost at the top of the hill. She stops right before the wide walkway—tiled and lined with coconut trees—that leads to the main palace compound. Screams and war cries accost her from below, but ahead the palace seems cold and empty, ominously silent. She takes only one step before an anguished, screeching cry cuts through her, leaches all warmth from her. She snaps her head up. Weysh’s wings are riddled with arrows, and he is falling from the sky. Above, the Shahanta Sky Archers are singing a low song of mourning and loss.

Yenni does not think, only runs, pulling vainly on speed runes that have faded away. She must reach him, must protect him.

I did this.

Weh-sheh. Weh-sheh!

“WEH-SHEH!”

The sound of her own shout woke Yenni from sleep. She took a deep, ragged breath and sat up in her bed, clutching the sheets. Bed. Sheets. Cresh, this was Cresh. She summoned a lantern and tethered it in front of her face, checking her palms by its light. They were the same as they had been when she checked before sleeping.

Yenni let out a relieved breath. Three weeks had passed since she received her mother’s letter. In that time her mother’s rune had grown stronger while her father’s faded once more. However, armed with her mother’s explanation, Yenni wasn’t nearly as anxious as she could have been.

But what a dream! Oh Mothers and Fathers, was it simply a cruel culmination of her worst fears over the last few weeks, or was it a warning?