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before Rhiannon began her three-day battle
against the Ironteeth High Witches, my
mother smuggled the baby princess out on her
broom.” The crone’s throat bobbed.
“Rhiannon was her dearest friend—a sister to
her. My mother wanted to stay, to fight until
the end, yet she was asked to do this for her
people. Our people. Until the day of her death,
my mother believed Rhiannon went to hold
the gates against the High Witches as a
distraction. To get that last Crochan scion out
while the Ironteeth looked the other way.”
Manon didn’t entirely know what to say,
how to voice what roiled within her.
“You will find,” Glennis went on, “that you
have some cousins in this camp.”
Asterin stiffened at that, Edda and Briar
also tensing where they lingered at the edge of
the fire. Manon’s own kin, on the Blackbeak
side of her heritage. Undoubtedly willing to