“They’re coming!” someone cried out. Crier whirled around. There was a small cottage higher up on the bank, white clay walls and a thatched roof. Three figures were standing outside it, and when she squinted against the dying light she saw it was Leo, a heavily pregnant Clara, and a man she’d never seen before. “They’re coming, you have to go now,” Leo said again, voice rough with fear. “Please, Clara. You’re running out of time.”

“I’m not leaving without you!” Clara said. She was holding both arms protectively around her stomach, leaning back into the man Crier didn’t know, and Crier realized: she was pregnant with Ayla. This man must be Ayla’s father. “Father, we’re not leaving you here to die!”

“I’m old, child,” Leo said. “And my leg—I cannot move quickly enough. I’d slow you down and it would be the death of us all.” He looked at Ayla’s father. “Yann. Please. You know I’m right. You know what has to be done.”

Somewhere in the distance, the sound of a war horn.

Crier knew that sound.

“Go,” said Leo, frantic. “Skirt the lake, you know where the rowboat is, when night falls cross the lake into Rabu. Please, Yann. Please, Clara. You have to protect the child.”

“If I make it through the night, I’ll meet you at the Queen’s Cove,” Leo was saying. “I’ll meet you there, Clara. For now, you have to leave me behind.”

“No!” said Clara, but Yann was nodding, looking grim.

“Take this,” said Leo, reaching beneath the collar of his shirt and pulling out—the necklace. The locket with the eight-point star, the red stone, the same locket Crier was holding at this very moment, sixteen years later, in the wilds of southern Rabu. “Take it, Yann. Keep it safe. It contains histories.”

“I’ll keep it safe,” said Yann, slipping the necklace over his own head, hiding it beneath his shirt. “What about the heart?”

“It stays with me,” said Leo. “Now go!”

“Father,” Clara sobbed, but she let Yann drag her away toward the lake, toward Crier. “Father, we’ll wait for you at the Queen’s Cove. We’ll wait for you. We’ll see you there, right?”

“Right,” said Leo. “Of course, daughter. I’ll see you soon.”

And Yann and Clara turned away, and the war horn sounded again, like the scream of a dying animal, and the world—

Fell away.

Crier’s eyes flew open. She lay there for a moment, staring up at the branches of the fir tree and beyond them, the night sky. She’d probably only lost a few minutes, but it felt like she’d aged a lifetime.

She knew one place Yora’s heart had been sixteen years ago. It wasn’t much, but it was the best lead she’d gotten so far.

She pressed the locket to her mouth. Thank you, Leo.

In the morning, she didn’t waste any time before pulling Hook aside. Once, she might have kept this information to herself, scared to act, scared to stand up against Kinok and her father and her own people, but she no longer had that luxury. She was going to act, and fast.