My napkin froze halfway to my mouth. “Destroy it? Why?” The Well was the lifeblood of Winterune. They said its water had magicked the canals and that was why our produce and harvests were so lush. Why weaken his own country?

“Because of King Vämbat’s murder.” Anouk’s voice dropped to a near whisper. “The morning of his death, he was found in bed aged and burned as though all his life had been drawn out of his body by fire. He was so changed in appearance that his militairen thought him an imposter at first. But as he lay dying, he managed a single word. ‘Talent . . .’”

“What do you think he was trying to tell them?”

“That a Talented killed him. Everyone thought it was someone with a Bane.”

I frowned and nibbled at my toast. “That’s a lot to assume given he said that singular word.”

Anouk shrugged. “Perhaps, but Mattias already didn’t trust the Talented. You need to hide, Myrthe. Not even a half bell ago, the king charged a Talented to find you. To hunt you down. He even has a sketch of your likeness.”

My appetite dried up. The king was after me. “How did he get that sketch of my face? How did he find out where I lived?” Surely Anouk didn’t . . .

“He said it was a new ally.”

Would Oma have betrayed me? Surely not. But now a Talented was hunting me? I hardly dared voice my other suspicion. “Could it have been Sven?”

Only as I asked the question did I realize I didn’t even know what had happened to him. I hadn’t even wondered. He’d been out of my mind as much as my curse had been at the forefront. “Where is Sven? Did he return?”

“He returned a month ago. He found it, Myrthe. He found the Well and came back with a Talent. But at a high cost. All his companions perished.”

Poor Sven. He’d known the dangers setting out, but I knew the pang of loss all too well.

“He’s in rebellion against the king now. Amassing a following in the forest. I don’t believe he would have betrayed you.”

Rebellion against the king. Sven had always hated the royal authority, hence his pilgrimage the very day after King Vämbat died. Which reminded me of how I’d told him about my Talent, of how I realized he didn’t choose to love me the same way I’d chosen to love him. The thought didn’t sting like it used to.

If nothing else, it made me feel freer in this new expedition of survival. I needed to break this curse—to find Mutti. To thaw the canal. But most importantly to survive. To be truly free.

I pulled the Wishtress book from my satchel. “I took this from Oma. She knew the last Wishtress before me.”