“Why is the city called Sunder?”

Mekka stopped midsentence—I’d barely realized she’d been talking—and peered at me, as though she’d known I’d slipped into my own thoughts but she’d kept speaking because she didn’t want the empress to see her frustration. “The name of the city?” The guide frowned. “Well, that’s the eternal cycle. Beginnings and endings and beginnings again. Sunder is named for an ending. Stories of the actual events are vague, lost to time and poor record keeping.” She said the last part with a tone that suggested she felt personally slighted.

“We know dragons were involved,” said Apolla.

“Because of the skeleton in your throne room?” I lifted an eyebrow with practiced curiosity—not too much, but enough to seem genuine.

“Yes, most likely.” Mekka picked up the story, happy to have an interested audience at last. “Several other fragments were found along the coast, at least according to records inherited from the Sundered Lands’ previous occupants.”

“Where are those bones?” Ilina asked.

“In reliquaries and museums throughout the region, close to where they were first discovered. All Algotti emperors and empresses have understood the importance of territories retaining their history.”

Who was she trying to convince? Us? Or was she placating Apolla?

“And the obsidian dragons?” I asked. “The pair at the mouth of the river.”

Mekka nodded. “They, too, were present long before the empire came to the Sundered Lands.”

“Gods willing,” Apolla said, “they’ll be there long after.”

Now there was an interesting revelation. She didn’t think the empire would last forever.

I must have shown my surprise, because Apolla just smiled. “I’m no fool, Hopebearer. I know empires end. I can only hope the Algotti Empire endures beyond my reign, and that nothing I do causes it to fall.” Her gaze shifted to the street outside. “The eternal cycle gathers up everything in its path. Even, one day, my land.”

Sunder. The split between the old and the new world. I closed my eyes and remembered the dreams—the first dragon sweeping down over the land, shooting fire so hot the cliffs ran like liquid.

How interesting to learn the truths of the Sundering had been lost here. Then again, they had largely been lost in the Fallen Isles, too. Time eroded everything.

Apolla’s voice turned gentle. “Perhaps it’s insensitive to wonder aloud at the Algotti Empire’s unknown ending, considering everything you’re going through. Please forgive me.”

“It’s only natural to think about now,” I murmured, “when we are here because our world is ending. Of course you’ll think about yours, too.”

“Is there anything you can do to prevent it?” she asked. “Surely you must be able to find some way to appease your gods, persuade them to stay.”

My heart twisted, but I pushed aside my worries about the sacrifice; I couldn’t let them distract me here. “Dragons were meant to entreat the gods on our behalf. But our ancestors didn’t take care to ensure their survival, and so . . .”

Empress Apolla frowned thoughtfully, but she didn’t offer to let us take these dragons back to the Fallen Isles. Perhaps she knew these few would make no difference, or perhaps she simply didn’t want to let them go.