IS HE USING the same trick as Gethen?” Biana asked when Sophie had finished her update.
After hours and hours of trying, Mr. Forkle had brought her back to the tree house to rest.
Sophie sighed. “I don’t know.”
She wandered to her window, staring at the dark forest. She had no idea what time it was. It didn’t matter.
It was too late.
“Mr. Forkle and Granite tried to check,” she whispered. “Since they’d both been in Gethen’s mind and knew how it felt. But neither of them could last longer than a few seconds. They said Prentice’s head felt like being thrown into a pit of boiling tar.”
“I’ve never heard of anything like that before,” Della said, appearing in the doorway.
“Neither have I.” And it made Sophie want to kick things.
She knew so little about her purpose—but one fact had been made perfectly clear: the Black Swan designed her to heal minds.
And yet, the one person who’d counted on that ability more than anyone else was lying on a cot in a small stone house, and she couldn’t do a single thing to help him.
“Prentice’s mind felt like the darkness had somehow taken over,” she whispered. “And what I don’t understand is, what changed? The last time I read his mind it was a cage of nightmares—but he was there. He gave me a vision of Jolie, and told me how to escape.”
“But you said he was drugged today, right?” Biana asked. “Maybe he was still sedated?”
“Drugs rarely have any effect on a broken mind,” Della said. The sadness in her voice made it clear she was reliving the days she’d spent holding down Alden’s thrashing body while Elwin struggled to keep him sedated.
“Unless . . .”
“Unless what?” Della and Biana both asked, making Sophie realize she’d spoken aloud.
“What if . . . Dame Alina did something?” she whispered. “We all saw him yesterday, and he wasn’t catatonic like this. Terik even called for backup because he needed someone to calm Prentice for transport.”
“But what could she have done?” Biana asked.
“I don’t know,” Sophie admitted. “I know nothing about Beguilers.”
“Neither do I,” Biana said.
The bigger question Sophie had was: Why?
Why would Dame Alina risk harming her own sanity by hurting Prentice?
“What’s wrong?” Biana asked her mom.
Della shook her head and wiped her eyes. “I’m just . . . glad Alden isn’t here to hear this.”
Biana covered her mouth. “You don’t think he’s going to . . .”
“No,” Della said, rushing over to hug her daughter. “Your father is strong, he won’t let this break him again.”
Biana’s eyes welled with tears anyway.
Sophie’s eyes burned as well. “If it helps,” she said, trying to convince them as much as herself, “the Collective thinks we just need to give Prentice time. He’s been surrounded by so much misery in Exile, he might’ve retreated to protect himself. So now that he’s free, we can surround him with happier things to draw him back out. Plus, Fitz and I haven’t tried working together as Cognates yet.”
“That’s true,” Della said, clearing thickness from her throat. “We all have to remember, Prentice has only been free for a few hours. We need to be patient.”
“I’m tired of being patient,” Biana said.
Sophie was too.
Della hugged them both. “It’s late,” she said. “We should all get some sleep so we’re ready for whatever the Black Swan needs tomorrow.”
Sophie tried to take Della’s advice. But her head was too full of questions. She stayed up reading, scouring the telepathy books the Black Swan had given her, hoping to find some clue that might explain what was happening.
“I feared I might find you like this,” Mr. Forkle said from her doorway.
Sophie jumped so hard she knocked the books off her lap.
“Any news?” she asked, sitting on her hands to stop from reaching for her eyelashes.
“No change—but we’re counting that as a good thing. At least he is not getting worse.”
He crossed her room and pulled open her drapes, staring out the window. It was brighter outside than Sophie had expected it to be.
“Caring for Prentice is going to be far more time consuming than we’d originally planned,” he said. “Especially since Calla and the other gnomes have yet to return. Do not let that trouble you,” he added quickly. “Calla warned us it would take several days for her search. But . . . the fact that the plague keeps spreading proves we should be doing more to investigate. We’ve been pinning so many hopes on Prentice that it’s made us shortsighted. So I brought your request to the Collective, and we’ve reached a decision.” He turned back to face her, and she could see the worry in his eyes as he said, “We’ve agreed that the five of you should attend Exillium.”