Rachel turns to another section of the room. “Let’s see… That’s a very old one. I don’t recognize some of these surrounding landmarks. We’ll need to compare it to a more recent one to determine where it really is now.”

I hold my breath while she fumbles through a couple other stacks of maps. Maeve whispers in my ear. “Good work.” I beam, my heart racing faster than ever. Dizziness threatens as Rachel finally pulls another map depicting the entire Parillan territory over to the table and spreads it flat for us all to see. She compares the two maps, her frown growing deeper by the second.

The warmth that was rising in me begins to cool. “What’s wrong?” I ask, peering around her arm.

“I…” Rachel hesitates, glancing back and forth between the ancient map and the newer one several times. “I don’t understand. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“What doesn’t?” Maeve asks, taking the older map from Rachel. She sighs when she sees what Rachel did.

Dread claws its way up my back. “What’s wrong?” I ask again, more insistently this time.

Maeve gives me a long, sad look. “My dear. I’m sorry. I don’t think we’re going to be able to visit Wren after all.”

She places the small older map just above a portion of the newer one. She points to the location noted. “Wren is here, in a valley between these two mountain ranges.” She moves her finger to the newer map. “But the mountains are no longer separated by a valley—Lake Uccello lies between them. At some point, the area must have flooded, removing any remaining trace of the village.”

Disappointment cuts through me. I sink to the floor, head in my hands. Sebastian sits down next to me with a hand over mine.

I’m sorry, he thinks. I don’t respond. I don’t know how. I suspected I must be much older than I appear and that I was taken long ago, but I never imagined it would be so long that the entire landscape of my former home would be underwater. I’d hoped it would be more like Sebastian’s situation where he still had family, but they’d just grown up now.

My breath grows ragged and I hurt, everywhere and nowhere all at once. This is how it feels to have every ounce of hope wrung from my heart.

Someone lifts me up and curls me against their chest. Auburn hair falls over my face, and Maeve’s voice whispers softly to me. “I know it feels like daggers now, but the pain will lessen with time.”

Maeve understands. She lost her children, her hope of finding them faint and her grief huge. Though it has lessened since we found her. I nestle into her shoulder, unshed tears stinging the corners of my eyes, and she carries me back to my quarters.

She sets me gently in my bed and pulls a blanket up to my chin, humming a lullaby. I close my eyes, letting her soft, comforting voice lull me into a fitful slumber.