Unless.

“I—I have a strange question,” I said. “It may seem unrelated, but . . .”

“Ask.” Chenda sat back in her chair. “It would be a nice distraction from the conversation about whether or not to abandon hundreds of thousands of people with no access to ships.”

“Stop. This is no time to debate between morality and practicality. You can both be right. And wrong.” I let my gaze drift toward Crystal and LaLa, who’d hopped onto the noorestone sconces. “My question is . . .” This was silly. But still, I had to ask. “Do any of you know when the next eclipse is?”

Most shook their heads, but then Ilina said, “I do. The second of Lesya.”

That was just over two decans from now.

Gerel shot a raised eyebrow Ilina’s way. “And how do you know that?”

Ilina gestured toward the dragons, who were hunched over the sconces like they were part of the room’s decor. “They all get a little wild during eclipses, and some dragons need more space, or they need to go inside one of the buildings for the duration.”

A shiver crept through me. “One moon or both?”

Single-moon eclipses were fairly common. Both moons passing before the sun—that was far more unusual.

She frowned. “Both, I think.”

“You think?” I leaned forward, my heart pounding. “Are you sure?”

“My parents told me months ago, but the talk was focused on making sure we were prepared to accommodate the dragons’ needs. Not about anything else. But I think it was both moons. I think I remember them saying we’d have to wait for both eclipses to pass.”

Blood rushed through my head, and I swayed. No, not blood. A roar. Wings catching on the air. Wind rushing past.

If the eclipse was true, what else might be? The bones? The answers in the empire?

“Why?” Ilina asked. “What does the eclipse have to do with anything?”

“I think . . .” The words hardly felt real. “I think there may be a way to save the Fallen Isles.”

Everyone jerked straight.

“What?” Gerel’s tone was incredulous.

“Why are you mentioning this only now?” Chenda asked.

It was so much to explain. I couldn’t even make it fit right in my own head, because it was too big. Too wild. But finally I said, “I’ve been having these dreams—”

A knock thudded against the door, startling everyone, and without waiting for us to answer, Tanhe burst into the parlor. Panic shook his voice. “You have to hide. The high magistrate’s guards are coming through, and they’re taking people.”

THE DRAKONTOS CELESTUS

ALL ACROSS THE ISLANDS, PEOPLE MOVED TOWARD the water.

Most cities sat along the coast already, but a few had risen up inland, and there were plenty of farms and factories and mines and elegant country homes that had been built there simply because more space was available.

Now, the poor from those inner-island communities traveled outward in rickety carts, on horses, but mostly on their own feet. They took only what they could carry, what they couldn’t bear to leave behind, and whatever was the most practical: a change of clothes, small trinkets from their ancestors, and food and water and noorestones.