“I don’t know what my stepmother has on you, Perrault, but you don’t need to worry.”

Yasumaro was at the helm. I surveyed the horizon over his shoulder.

“Don’t you know I always do what I’m supposed to do?” I asked Perrault.

Homer, Lang, and Yu stood around me.

Yasumaro glanced from their faces to mine, eyes serious in his round, gentle face. “What are my orders, Seneschal-elect?”

For once, Lang didn’t bother to remind us that he was the captain and that this was mutiny. Yasumaro didn’t seem to care.

I swallowed hard, thought of my father at home, wasting away.

I could turn the Beholder around. Fight Alessandra. Try to save him.

Poison, Yu had said.

My enemies are already inside the gates, I’d said to Torden.

But so were the enemies of Shvartsval’d. Of Finlyandiya. Of all the terytoriy that’d been stolen and stripped of their names and their stories by the Imperiya Yotne.

I was a long way from home. But we were nearly beneath the shadow at the center of the map. Nearly in the Shvartsval’d, where my third suitor waited for me. Where I could offer the crew the cover they needed to seek out the resistance.

I could help the Waldleute. And they could defend their homes—their stories—their people.

One detour. A few weeks of my life—and my father’s. To help save a continent.

I was done looking for suitors. Whether or not I’d ever see Torden again, I’d already fallen in love.

It was time to stop playing Alessandra’s games and join a fight that mattered.

Time to begin writing my own story. To begin doing something worth writing about at all.

I set my jaw, and set my face forward.

“Yasumaro, hold course for Deutschland.”

Acknowledgments

To Stephanie Stein: it has been a privilege to have you as my editor. Thank you for the space you’ve given me to breathe as a writer and the guidance you’ve offered me as an author. This book would not be what it is without your care, your talent, and your friendship. I am so grateful.

To Elana Roth Parker: You were my dream agent. What a delight to find the reality of working with you to be even better. You are the advocate and the sharp eye and the understanding reader that every author hopes for, and I got you. Thank you.

To the rest of the indefatigable ladies of Laura Dail Literary Agency, especially Samantha Fabien, and to Tamar Rydzinski: thank you for your hard work, support, and guidance. I’m lucky to have such a team of all-stars at my back.