“WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT THE GROUND RULES?” Keefe shouted, covering his ears. “That’s it, this conversation is officially over. Next person who says ‘alicorn’ is getting pelted with fruit.”
“What’s wrong with the alicorns?” Granite asked behind them.
He’d arrived with Mr. Forkle, each of them carrying stacks of scrolls.
“Silveny’s pregnant,” Sophie said, and all the scrolls went THUNK!
“Are you certain?” Granite whispered, bending to gather the uncurling paper.
Sophie nodded, and Mr. Forkle rushed to her side. “Tell me everything.”
“And I’m out!” Keefe said, covering his ears and singing, “LALALALALA! I CAN’T HEAR YOU!” as he raced up the stairs to the boys’ tree house. Fitz, Dex, and Biana followed—but not before Granite gave them scrolls and asked them to put them somewhere safe.
It was a good thing they left, because Mr. Forkle wanted all the details. When Sophie finished, both he and Granite stared at each other so long she was sure they were having a telepathic conversation.
“Is something wrong?” she asked. “I thought this was what everyone’s been waiting for.”
“It is,” Granite said. “But it also complicates things.”
“The Council had plans to move the alicorns,” Mr. Forkle explained. “So that will obviously have to be canceled.”
“Why were they going to move them?” Sophie asked.
“Secrecy is better than security,” Granite said. “No one can steal something they can’t find.”
“A few days ago the Neverseen attempted to breach the Sanctuary,” Mr. Forkle added.
“WHAT?” Sophie asked, knocking over her chair as she stood. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“The Council is getting better at protecting their information,” Mr. Forkle said. “I only learned of it yesterday—and then we were sidetracked by your expedition. But that’s what we came to tell you. Both members of the Neverseen managed to escape—and both were male. There were also no reports of force fields, so we have no news on the Psionipath or Lady Gisela.”
Sophie sank back in her chair, feeling her brain reach Maximum Worrying Capacity.
Wasn’t it enough that they had the plague, and Prentice, and Keefe’s mom, and the ogres, and the Council, and Exillium to wrestle with—did they have to worry about the alicorns, too?
“They’re never going to stop trying to capture them, are they?” she asked.
“Unfortunately,” Granite said, “the alicorns are too important. It’s strange, all the years we only had one alicorn, no one cared. I guess the situation felt too hopeless. But now that we actually have a chance to reset the Timeline to Extinction—”
“Are you guys even sure that’s a real thing?” Sophie interrupted. “For all you know, the planet could be fine if something goes extinct.”
“Is there any creature that you could imagine the world without?” Mr. Forkle asked.
“I doubt I’d miss spiders,” she mumbled. “Or mosquitos.”
Granite’s cracked lips twitched. “I’ll admit, those aren’t my favorite either. But nature is an intricate jigsaw puzzle, and every piece matters. Unfortunately, that means that certain species—like the alicorns—leave us vulnerable. But that may change with the baby. And thankfully the Sanctuary has extensive security measures.”
“Then how did the Neverseen almost get in?” she asked.
“Through an old air shaft the dwarves used when they were hollowing out the mountains,” Mr. Forkle said. “We’re assuming the Neverseen thought we didn’t know about it—and in truth, we didn’t. If Lord Cassius hadn’t found those maps in Lady Gisela’s trunk, we might be reporting different news. The Council added guards to the area only days ago. That’s why we brought those scrolls today. They’re copies of everything Lord Cassius found. The map of Ravagog seems particularly important. It has a number of places marked that both Alvar and Lady Cadence claim hold no significance, based on their own journeys through the city.”
Sophie sat up straighter. “Do you think they could be the Panakes?”
“We’re not ruling out any possibilities,” Mr. Forkle said carefully. “But legends can be misleading. Think of the human legends about elves—there are seeds of truth, of course. But not enough to treat as a valid theory—but we’ll get to that later. First we must let the Council know it’s not safe to move Silveny.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Granite said as Sophie asked, “Why can’t they move her? She’s pregnant, not sick.”
“Ah, but pregnancies are fragile things,” Mr. Forkle said. “They’d need to sedate Silveny for transport, and the drugs could harm the baby—not to mention the stress Silveny would feel while adjusting to her new home. Even in an ideal case, a move will be a huge change. And a case like this, with a species we literally have no experience with when it comes to childbirth, I have no doubt the Council will decide it’s too dangerous.”