“And what of the prince?” Hammond asks quietly, each word heavy as a river stone. “They will start putting the truth together for themselves soon enough. Should we tell them of his condition?”

His words snap me back to the present. Tell the citizens? It is the fair thing to do, but skies, at what cost? They would do as the Chief Healer predicts: they’d get angry, and more afraid than they already are. It would breed further chaos.

After a long pause, the king looks eastward toward Balmora. “My son has time. I will not inflict a panic on the citizens by revealing his condition now. Let us wait, and let us pray to the skies that the teams return swiftly.”

The council breaks up with a scraping of chairs against the floor and restless murmurs. Every setback of the past days has finally tipped the scale in my chest, and the guilt of it roots me to the spot. We humbled ourselves to Noam much too late. We’d sent the warriors too late, built our defenses too late. Was it arrogance that kept us from ever wondering if the Heliana would fall?

“Lady Shirene,” says a voice, one that has become familiar. Lord Rhys and Lady Alys stand before me. With the Sea Queen in agreement with King Kharo’s plans, I hadn’t expected them to feel compelled to attend this meeting. Frankly, I hadn’t noticed they had joined.

“Are you all right?” Lady Alys asks. “You look ill.”

I grit my teeth. “Lost in thought,” I reply, getting out of my chair. “Is there something you need?”

Rhys points across the room at the Chief Scholar. “We wanted to ask you about him.”

“What of him?”

“It is strange to us,” he says. “You trust him completely.”

I frown. “The scholars are keepers of our history. They have a sacred duty to the Heliana, and we reward that duty with trust.”

“Oh, we don’t think he is lying,” Lady Alys says, her tone ever a ringing chime. “Only that truth changes. You may not see it, in one lifetime. For our people, truth is like water—it will never rest, never cease folding and unfolding upon itself.”

“What is your point?” I ask.

“No point,” she replies. “Only a recommendation, from two lives who have seen more death and more life than most of your people. In tying yourself to the words of your histories, you are ignoring what is before you.”

I frown. “And what is that?”

“Change.”