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Chapters (63)
  1. Dedication
  2. Map
  3. A Note to the Reader
  4. PART ONE
  5. The Keeper
  6. Chapter One
  7. Chapter Two
  8. Chapter Three
  9. Chapter Four
  10. Chapter Five
  11. Chapter Six
  12. Chapter Seven
  13. Chapter Eight
  14. Chapter Nine
  15. PART TWO
  16. The Keeper
  17. Chapter Ten
  18. Chapter Eleven
  19. Chapter Twelve
  20. Chapter Thirteen
  21. Chapter Fourteen
  22. Chapter Fifteen
  23. Chapter Sixteen
  24. Chapter Seventeen
  25. Chapter Eighteen
  26. Chapter Nineteen
  27. Chapter Twenty
  28. Chapter Twenty-one
  29. PART THREE
  30. The Keeper
  31. Chapter Twenty-two
  32. Chapter Twenty-three
  33. Chapter Twenty-four
  34. Chapter Twenty-five
  35. Chapter Twenty-six
  36. Chapter Twenty-seven
  37. Chapter Twenty-eight
  38. Chapter Twenty-nine
  39. PART FOUR
  40. The Keeper
  41. Chapter Thirty
  42. Chapter Thirty-one
  43. Chapter Thirty-two
  44. Chapter Thirty-three
  45. Chapter Thirty-four
  46. Chapter Thirty-five
  47. Chapter Thirty-six
  48. Chapter Thirty-seven
  49. Chapter Thirty-eight
  50. Chapter Thirty-nine
  51. Chapter Forty
  52. Chapter Forty-one
  53. PART FIVE
  54. The Keeper
  55. Chapter Forty-two
  56. Chapter Forty-three
  57. Chapter Forty-four
  58. Chapter Forty-five
  59. Cast of Characters
  60. Acknowledgments
  61. About the Author
  62. Don’t miss any of THE GRACELING REALM novels
  63. What’s next onyour reading list?

From her state of mental chaos, Lovisa did an inventory of her person, because if the monster wanted a sparkly bauble, she wanted the monster to have a sparkly bauble. She had some snacks and one of Worthy’s milk rags in her pockets, all sodden now, but no baubles, and she wore no jewelry. Then she remembered something. Reaching into the front of her coat, she pulled the string with the attic room key over her head. She held it up, considering it. In the twilight, the purple stone sparkled and the metal of the key glimmered silver.

She felt a sort of relieved sigh coming from the silbercow, and considered that the key had a steel loop at the top. If someone really wanted to, they could wear it as a ring.

Or a necklace, the silbercow said, around one of her eye-stems.

Uncertain, but deciding, Lovisa held the key out to the silbercow, who took it gently in its mouth. Lovisa felt a thank-you, then the silbercow turned and took off. It had happened so fast, the relinquishing of that key. Lovisa looked for a sign of the silbercow streaking across the water, but it was gone.

Will you come talk to me again? she cried out desperately.

Yes, Lovisa Cavenda, said the silbercow, in a fading voice. You will be our friend.

—

Lovisa walked back to the city, dripping water, stomping her feet hard to warm them. The ends of her coat began to form a frozen sort of shield around her legs.

When she reached the tall, brightly lit hotel where the queen was staying, she stood outside for a moment, watching snowflakes hit its glass windows, then slide down like rain.

It had taken her so long to give up that key, the key to her cage. But it was a cage that no longer existed, because she’d destroyed it, by herself. Freeing Bitterblue was freeing herself. What would’ve happened if she hadn’t?

Now the key had moved on, to the bottom of the sea, where it belonged. It was someone else’s treasure. She’d received the Seashell in return, the missing link for the Magistry in the story of her parents’ crimes. Those two murders would be added to the charges against her father.

There was more. Lovisa had seen something today. She had a story to tell. She thought it might even be an inspiring story. “The Keeper is a fairy tale,” she could say, “but what I saw was real. Are you so sure that the silbercows are making things up?”