The Glacian Trilogy
by Stacey McEwan

Beware of all the spoilers. Dawsyn lives her life in the cold, on the Ledge, struggling to survive with everyone else that lives there. She’s splitting a log with her ax when the drop comes. She immediately abandons the log to watch the winged creatures drop a wooden crate from their talons. The drop gives the people food, cloth, and tools, but they must fight each other to get anything. Dawsyn only manages to get a piece of flint and some cloth, but at least she got something this time. She goes back to her two family trees, trees marked with an “S” for Sabar, her family name – even if she is the only Sabar left. These are trees that she will chop, that will hopefully give her a full year of warmth. Trees that she has fought to protect until they were large enough to chop and stack next to her house. Dawsyn was born on the Ledge, high on the mountain, a child of hostages. There is a Chasm that keeps the hostages where they are, a Chasm so deep that you cannot see the bottom, surrounded by ice so slick that you can slip into the Chasm even from several feet away. On all the other sides, they are surrounded by a vertical mountain face that cannot be climbed. They’re kept hostage by the Glacians, the same winged creatures that just brought the drop. At the beginning of every season, the Glacians come for Selection Day, in which the Glacians choose villagers at random and fly them over the Chasm to do who knows what. Nothing good, they’re never seen again. Dawsyn carves a table out of some of the wood and takes it to her friend (with benefits, sometimes) Hector, who must care for his mother and had to burn their last table for warmth. Hector and his mother are struggling, making deals with other families just to survive. They lost his father last year to the Selection, and then they lost their family trees to the Levisons, who took them by force. When Selection Day comes in a week, Dawsyn will have to stand alone as she has for the last seven years, with no family behind her. When she was little, Dawsyn’s father fell into the Chasm, leaving the woman who raised her, Briar, pregnant. For a long time, it was the four of them: Dawsyn’s grandmother, Valma, Briar, Dawsyn, and her little sister, Maya. When Dawsyn was fifteen, her grandmother died of a cough. Then at sixteen, Dawsyn watched as ten-year-old Maya tried to save her mother from a Glacian during the Selection and was taken herself instead. Briar was saved but quickly fell apart after losing her daughter. One day, she asked Dawsyn to take a walk with her and allowed herself slip over the Chasm during the walk, leaving Dawsyn all alone. It's early on Selection Day and Dawsyn is out near the Chasm when she hears someone behind her. Josiah Redmond, who is literally licking his lips at the thought of finding her alone in the woods. It’s not the first time he has tried to assault her; she beat him off the first time and she intends to do it again. He makes a rude comment about how he once assaulted Briar, so she hits him in the head with the butt of her axe and knocks him to the ground. She’s going to take his eye out for talking about Briar too, but he faints before she does, and she doesn’t bother with it anymore. Instead, while he’s unconscious, she pushes him onto the ice, and he sails over the lip of the Chasm. She goes home to prepare for Selection Day. When it’s time, she stands in front of her house and waits for the Glacians to come. Her luck has run out, and she is taken, a Glacian putting their talons through her shoulders and flying away with her. They take her to the kingdom of Glacia. She is chained by humans, people she recognizes since they once lived in her village before being taken by the Glacians themselves. One of the other women who was taken, Mavah, recognizes her husband Gerrot, who is now placing manacles on his former neighbors, but Gerrot won’t look at Mavah. Sacks are placed over their heads and the newly captured have their clothes removed, then are dressed in a heavy, coarse cloth. They’re moved, their chains are taken off, and they’re shoved into a holding cell where Dawsyn can remove the hood over her head. She sees who else has been selected: Mavah, Deidre and Carl (both in their twenties, Carl is injured as if he fought his Glacian), and Justin and Lester, both old men. She looks at the wounds in her shoulders quickly before falling asleep. Mavah wakes her up in the morning and tells her that Lester didn’t make it through the night. Mavah treated wounds in the village, she has ripped her hoods into strips and is using it to bandage Dawsyn’s wounds. Dawsyn sees Carl, who has a cut on his face from fighting back and seems to already have an infection. Gerrot shows up at the door of their cell. Mavah talks to him, and he nods in answer but doesn’t speak. When she asks him to bring something for Carl’s infection, he shakes his head. Mavah realizes that they’ve cut out Gerrot’s tongue, and the two share a tender moment of being together again before Gerrot leaves. Carl’s infection keeps getting worse, at an unnatural pace, while the shoulder wounds of the others seem fine. Mavah thinks that Carl was poisoned when the Glacian bit his face, causing the infected wound. It’s not long before Carl dies. Two Glacians enter their cell. Most of the Glacians have skin white like snow, but one of the Glacians that enter (Ryon) has hair and skin that is dark. He has the same build as the others, but he almost looks human compared to the other Glacians. Dawsyn assumes that he is not a full-blooded Glacian. Two human slaves enter and tend to the selected’s shoulder wounds, sewing the skin together and applying a salve to the wounds. They are blindfolded and shackled again and led to a hall to see the king. The Glacians are gathered for dinner, the enslaved humans serving them. Dawsyn searches for her sister Maya but does not see her. In the center of the room, with a table on either side, is a pool in the floor filled with a bright substance that is almost a liquid, but not quite, and it is moving all on its own. The largest Glacian she’s ever seen stands next to the throne, the king. He tells the humans to sit, and they’re forced to sit at the tables. One of the Glacians that brought them to the hall, Jorst, sits to eat (he seems particularly cruel) while Ryon is told to fetch something. He leads in about twenty more humans, more of the previously selected from the Ledge. Their faces are vacant, and their mannerisms are identical to one another. Dawsyn recognizes one of the people who was taken when the girl was ten, she still looks ten years old even though it’s been more than a decade since her selection. Then Ryon brings in the bodies of Lester and Carl, he throws them into the mysterious pool, which the King calls iskra. When the pool swallows their bodies, it glows even brighter, and then it releases the bodies for the Glacians to pull out. Apparently, the pool only wants what’s inside. The King gives the newly selected a choice: jump into the pool of iskra and be made immortal, but docile like the others, a shell of who they once were. Otherwise, the Glacians will kill them and put their bodies in the pool anyway, to take whatever it can. Of course, there is a third choice although no one has chosen it in years. This choice would mean a human takes their chances on the mountain, trying to make it to the bottom before the Glacians capture them again and take them as their personal trophy. The Glacians will even give the person a head start, but no one has ever made it to the bottom of the mountain. Justin asks to become one of their slaves, but the King says they have no available positions. He chooses the pool, throwing himself in and having to be fished out by the Glacians, now empty of any thought, and joins the other vacant people. Deidre does the same. Mavah, however, uses a shard of glass to cut her own neck. They throw her body in anyway. Last is Dawsyn, she wants to take her chances on the mountain. The King asks who wants to hunt her and a dozen Glacians step forward, including Ryon. They take Dawsyn to a tunnel and as she looks out, all she sees are the downward slopes of the mountain. They undo her shackles and let her loose. They’ve given her nothing but a long dress that does nothing to block the cold, but when she puts it on, she realizes that someone (likely Gerrot) has hidden her ax and dagger inside it for her. She runs down the mountain as fast as she dares, searching for a den or a burrow that she can hide in. She hears a horn indicating that the Glacians have been released, and she finally sees an area at the root of a tree where she can hide. But looking behind her she sees footsteps, her footsteps, leading right to her little hiding spot. She hears as a Glacian lands outside, he pulls her out into the open. It’s Ryon, who the King called a half-breed. She surprises him by putting her dagger to his throat. Another Glacian calls out for Ryon, but instead of answering, he grabs Dawsyn and flies her into the air. They land high in a tree, and he instructs her to stay silent. They can hear other Glacians searching below, believing that Ryon has found her and is “playing with her” before taking her back to the King. They plan to find Ryon and make him share. Once they’re alone again, Dawsyn tries to stab Ryon, but he disarms her (she does nick the skin of his neck). While he’s putting the dagger away, she pulls out her ax and throws it at him, he drops to the ground just in time. He explains to her that he is her best chance at getting off the mountain, he needs to reach the valley too. If she wants his help, she needs to decide now to work with him, otherwise he’s leaving without her. She refuses him, so he returns her weapons to her and leaves. Dawsyn starts to run again. She doesn’t get far before she sees two more Glacians coming for her. She kills one and takes his sword, she’s facing off with the second when Ryon shows back up and kills the second Glacian for her. She still refuses his help, even though her wounds have reopened, and a blizzard is gearing up, and it’s likely her feet are bleeding from wearing the shoes that are the wrong size that the Glacians gave her. The choice is taken away from Dawsyn when she loses consciousness and falls to the ground. She wakes up in a warren, with Ryon in front of a small fire. He’s retracted his wings so they aren’t in the way in this small space, something all Glacians can do but most of them don’t (inconsiderate). He shows Dawsyn where her weapons are (he’s wearing them) and then instructs her to lay down and rest. No one can fly through this blizzard, so they’re safe for now. Ryon tells Dawsyn that she called out for Briar in her sleep and asks who that is, she tells him that Briar raised her, was her mother’s sister. Her own mother died from a lung sickness when Dawsyn was a baby. The only father she ever knew was Briar’s husband. He gives her some water; she asks if he’s thirsty (he’s not) and she accuses him of drinking his fill from the iskra pool like she saw the other Glacians do before they released her. He admits that he has never drunk from the pool. He explains that iskra is the energy that humans are made of, drinking it keeps the Glacians immortal and gives them magic. Because he has never drunk it, he cannot conjure ice like the others. The, they both lay down to sleep. After she wakes up, Dawsyn can hear the blizzard letting up. She decides to make another run for it, but Ryon wakes up when she tries to take her weapons. He pins her down and asks her to reconsider, they have a common goal. She really looks around the warren for the first time and notices supplies stashed inside it, Ryon has used this as a shelter before. It’s clear she’s not going anywhere right now, so he lets her up and she gets a look at her feet. At least two of her toes are broken and the others aren’t much better, and the skin on her heels is being rubbed off. She’s forced to wrap her feet in strips from her skirt before putting on Ryon’s spare boots he’s stored here. They’re huge on her but at least she will still have feet when they get to the Valley. He comes back and tells her they can’t fly during the day since the others will see them, she will have to walk, and he’s worried about her running in the too big boots. She will manage; she wouldn’t let him fly her anyway. He thinks she will change her mind about flying before too long. They start down the mountain and for the first time ever, Dawsyn hears the sound of running water. Although most of the mountain here is still frozen, it’s warm enough to let the water move. She runs to the water even though Ryon would rather go straight to the next shelter. When Ryon catches up to her and grabs her, he’s furious since the whole shelf is nothing but melting ice and she could have slipped right over the edge. She headbutts him but he continues to hold on to her, overpowering her but he does nothing more, not trying to assault her sexually or physically. She is shocked. He finally releases her, telling her to drink her fill but be careful of the ice, they need to move quickly. Suddenly, a Glacian lands behind them. Phineas, he seems friendly towards Ryon instead of the barely veiled hostility the others have shown, but he’s confused about what Ryon is doing. He tells Ryon to bring Dawsyn back to Glacia, but Ryon refuses and says he’s never going back either. Phineas retorts that he thought Ryon had more sense than his father, but it appears that he was wrong. Ryon hits back, saying he will not live and die on the hill of the Glacian’s self-proclaimed divinity, that there is no life for him there. Phineas goes against his better judgement, but leaves Ryon and Dawsyn, suggesting that Ryon drop her off a cliff. Ryon turns to Dawsyn, they must run. They drink as quickly as they can and then they start to move. They run as quickly as they can until they hear a horn, then Ryon grabs her and flies high into the sky to the top of a tree and tells her not to talk. She sees the Glacians come, a dozen, two dozen, looking for the two of them. The Glacians find no sign of them and move on, so Ryon flies them back to the ground. They continue to run, until he points her to a small cave hidden by a mass of obsidian boulders. There’s just enough room for the two of them inside; they can’t risk a fire tonight, but Dawsyn is going to freeze soon. She folds herself into his body to keep herself warm. Dawsyn agrees not to kill him if he will return her weapons to her and asks what it is he’s running from. He confesses that he’s only a half-blooded Glacian and they are looked down upon even though they make up about seventy-five percent of the Glacian population, but she doesn’t think that’s all. He tells her he’s never killed a human, but he’s thrown them into the pool and then watched as their soulless bodies went over the chasm afterward. She asks how he got entrance to the court, the only hybrid there. He is at least half-Glacian, most others are far less, but mostly it’s because his father was pure-blooded and thought of well by Vasteel, the king. He also tells Dawsyn that the pure blood Glacians are dying off. Although the iskra keeps them from aging, they can die from other causes (as we’ve seen), but the bigger problem is they cannot breed. A full-blooded Glacian has not been born in more than one hundred years. Ryon is leaving but one day, he will return and burn the whole place down. They continue in the morning but there is yet another storm coming so they don’t have much time to travel. They make it as far as they can before taking shelter in another one of Ryon’s hideaways. He explains how he came to find and prepare his little shelters when only Vasteel’s personal guards are allowed on the mountain slopes. Although he would sneak out at night and make preparations, he could not leave altogether until there was a way to fake his own death, otherwise they would know he was a traitor and continue to search for him. As long as Phineas does not betray him, the others will assume that Dawsyn has killed Ryon like she did Kesh and Theodore, the other two dead Glacians. Ryon thinks he can trust Phineas, since Phineas was his father’s closest friend. Ever since Ryon’s father, Thaddius, was the king’s favorite, and Phineas rode his coattails right to the top. After some time, Thadius grew restless and weary of throwing bodies into the pool and he and Phineas traveled to the Colony, where the mixed-blood Glacians live. He saw how there were treated. When Ryon’s mother was brought from the Ledge, Thadius claimed her as a maid, smuggled her into the Colony, and planned to help her escape. He fell in love with her in the process. When Vasteel found out that Thaddius had a son with the human woman, he cut off Thadius’ wings and had both of Ryon’s parents thrown into the Chasm. Ryon stayed in the Colony and Phineas watched over him, provided for him, and requested that he be allowed into the palace when he was old enough. The next morning, Dawsyn asks Ryon about what exactly is at the bottom of the mountain. Boulder Gate, which is impossible to cross on foot. Dawsyn starts to reel when he explains that Boulder Gate is what the humans call it. When the people of the Ledge were taken and carried to the top of the mountain, only the southern villages were taken since they were closest. The northern villages remain in the valley still, and they know about the Ledge. He asks Dawsyn to tell him about the Ledge, so she tells him about Hector and their relationship, but there’s really nothing else to tell. A lonely life, something he knows a lot about. At that point, Dawsyn collapses from exhaustion and hunger, but Ryon continues to carry her unconscious body. When she wakes up, he tells her that he’d like to fly her the rest of the way. They’re low enough on the mountain now that he doesn’t think the Glacians are looking for them this far and she cannot continue on her own. After some complaining, she agrees. He takes her directly to the valley. It’s the first time she’s seen grass. They see the Fallen Village; there’s an inn they can sleep in on the other side. When they get there, the innkeeper is familiar with Ryon and gives them two rooms. There are no other guests right now. Dawsyn sleeps for an entire day and then Ryon brings her some food. This inn used to be the midpoint between the Mecca - basically the capital of Terrsaw (the land they’re in) - and the Fallen Village. It’s owned by Salem, who knows that Ryon is part Glacian, as do a few others, but the patrons of the inn do not. Dawsyn decides it’s time for the two of them to part ways, but she’s brought to a screeching halt. She doesn’t have any money; she doesn’t even know what money is! Ryon explains the concept to her and then gives her some coins to keep. He tells her she can go if she’d like, but there will be a mage showing up tomorrow who can heal her wounds if she is willing to wait. When she comes into the main room of the inn, she and Salem hit it off. Ryon has explained who she is and how she came to be here, and Salem is happy that she is here. Soon after, Dawsyn meets Esra, who clearly does not know that Ryon is a Glacian but is familiar with him, believing that Ryon is a woodsman that travels between here and the Mecca. Dawsyn is very confused by Esra, who is bald and exuberantly dressed. She asks Esra if they’re a man or a woman, and Esra thinks about it before responding that neither category can encompass the wonder of who they are. “Call me Esra, call me darling, call me bitch, for all I care…but never lower me to such mundane names as man or woman.” What a wonder. Esra does clarify that they’re okay with the he pronoun when necessary. Esra helps Dawsyn bathe and gives her something pretty to wear for the first time ever, and Dawsyn thanks everyone for their generosity. Including Ryon, for helping her off the mountain. Then she turns without preamble and leaves the inn. Ryon chases after her, reminding her about the mage, but Dawsyn says she cannot stay. He asks to come with her until she figures out where she is going. She asks him to show her to the Mecca, she would like to see it. On the way, they talk about what happens if Ryon manages to kill the Glacian court and destroy the pool of iskra. The people on the Ledge could leave, the part Glacians in the Colony could make a different life for themselves. They come to the Mecca, a city the likes of which Dawsyn couldn’t have even imagined. She sees the palace which houses the queens: Queen Alvira and her wife, Cressida. They explore the city but when they get close to the palace, Ryon starts to turn around, but Dawsyn wants to see it. Instead, she walks towards the palace doors. She just walks right up, pounds on the doors, and announces she wants to see the queens. When the guard says no, she punches him and slips in anyway. She’s about to assault a second guard, possibly worse, and is being surrounded by guards so Ryon yells out something that he wanted to keep hidden: that’s she’s from the Ledge. Her name is Sabar! Pretty soon, Queen Alvira arrives to see what is causing such a commotion. She sends for her wife, telling Dawsyn that she once knew her grandmother, Valma, and that Dawsyn looks like her. Cressida arrives and the two of them stare at Dawsyn, Ryon doesn’t like this. He doesn’t like the way they’re looking at Dawsyn, so he points out that she only wanted to meet them and introduces himself as Ryon Vesser. Dawsyn tells the queens her story, omitting Ryon from the story. She wanted to meet the queens to see what was so special about the people who live in luxury while the people of the Ledge remain trapped, slipping in the Chasm every day, freezing, starving. Alvira points out that they couldn’t exactly cross the Chasm to rescue them, and when the Glacians came fifty years ago and attacked, not a single person from the Fallen Village survived. She was friends with Valma, and many of the other villagers who were taken, and offers Dawsyn an apology. She points out a monument in the town square, of a woman standing on a mound of rubble holding on to broken stone, “the Fallen Woman”. At the beginning of every season, the people of the Mecca come and pray there for the people on the Ledge. The people there have not been forgotten. They did try to rescue those taken but did not make it far and just lost even more people to the Glacians. This is something new to Ryon, he had not heard that the humans ever staged a rescue, sending their army up the mountain to be slaughtered. Alvira offers Dawsyn a home in the palace for as long as she wants it, but Dawsyn refuses and asks that the queens keep her past a secret. Ryon takes Dawsyn back to Salem’s inn, but not before she gets super drunk. When she wakes up the next morning with a terrible hangover, Ryon lets her know that the mage has arrived at the inn. Her name is Baltisse. They don’t hit it off, but Dawsyn tells Baltisse what caused her shoulder injuries and what her last name is. Baltisse is intrigued by Dawsyn, she can tell when someone is a mage, but she can’t quite decide what Dawsyn is. She heals Dawsyn and leaves, saying that she’s happy that Dawsyn is alive but doubts that it will last long. That night the inn has more than just the handful of people we’ve met, and someone is shamelessly hitting on Ryon. Dawsyn isn’t having it, and she stops the woman, but Ryon refuses to put Dawsyn in the same position as his mother and he walks away from her. In the middle of the night, Ryon storms into the room. He yells at her to get up and to run, Glacians are in the air, he can hear them. He leads her down to the storerooms and shows her a small trapdoor where the two of them hide. Ryon tells her he did not think they would come all the way down here to find her, they must know that Ryon did not die on the mountain. They can hear windows being kicked in, destruction being wrought inside the inn, and Dawsyn is worried about her new friends. She tells him that she will not stay where the Glacians can reach her, she’s going to leave and asks him if he will come with her, but Ryon can’t leave until he has destroyed the court. When the Glacians finally leave, the two of them come out to see that everyone else is fine. They get to work setting the inn back to the way it’s supposed to look, except Dawsyn. She leaves without saying goodbye. She’s walking under the cover of trees when she hears wind, the sound of a Glacian’s wings. She runs, looking behind her for a moment and running over a ledge and into a raging river. If she doesn’t drown or get taken by a Glacian, she’s going to freeze from the cold of the river. Lucky for her, the Glacian is Ryon, and he saves her from the river. He gives her chest compressions, desperate to save her, which thankfully he does. But then he can hear more wings above him and realizes that the Glacians are, in fact, still in the area and it’s too late to hide from them. There are six of them, including Phineas. They ask Ryon how he knew who Dawsyn was, but Ryon doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Ryon doesn’t have any weapons on him, but Dawsyn is ready to do some damage - she throws a dagger to Ryon and kills one Glacian with her axe before the Glacians even attack in earnest. Another Glacian falls into the river, Ryon puts a dagger in the heart of another, and at the end only Phineas is left, who decides to retreat. Ryon is about to follow and kill him when he sees Dawsyn fall to the ground, exhausted and unable to stand any longer. He notices that she is injured, a sword cut just under her ribcage. Phineas gets away while Ryon does what he can to save Dawsyn for the second time that day. Dawsyn has a memory of her grandmother. After a fight that Dawsyn lost during the drop, she allowed a starving boy to take what she was after instead of fighting him for it. Her grandmother tells her that the Sabars tend to allow others to take what should be protected, it’s the reason any of them are here on the Ledge at all. It’s in Dawsyn’s blood to see other people’s pain and need. But Valma tells her that she will stay the frost and take what she needs. Do not let the cold come to life. Dawsyn wakes up. Ryon has brought Dawsyn back to Salem’s inn and Baltisse has healed her. Dawsyn tells Baltisse that she is in her debt, Baltisse responds that she’s sure Dawsyn can find a way to repay her one day. She asks why the rest of Terrsaw was lucky enough to be spared when the people of the Ledge were taken fifty years ago. Baltisse tells her that luck had nothing to do with it. But she’s pretty sure Dawsyn has already figured that out. Dawsyn remembers Queen Alvira telling her about how the whole Mecca pays homage at the statue and wonders what exactly they’re atoning for? She takes a poker out of the fire and goes to ask Ryon. Ryon wakes up with the fire poker at his throat, Dawsyn is going to need some answers. How does he plan to conquer Glacia? He tells here there’s an entire rebellion in the Colony; he is their leader. He comes to Salem’s inn to get the weapons that Esra brings him and smuggles them back to the Colony. She asks him what it is that everyone hides? Why, when they talk to her, do they sound guilty? Why do the queens fear her? He explains: fifty years ago, Alvira (who was not yet queen) made a deal with King Vasteel. She sold him a village of humans if he agreed to leave the rest of Terrsaw untouched. Ryon doesn’t know if this is common knowledge among the humans. Dawsyn storms down to the main room to find Salem and Esra, who tell her that the common people did not know until it was too late, but the court, the nobles, and the guards all knew. They voted on it. Alvira is queen because the people may not have liked the deal she made, but they fear the Glacians even more. Dawsyn leaves again, this time on her way to Mecca. Ryon, again, follows her. For the two hours it takes to get to the city, Dawsyn does not speak at all. She marches all the way to the shrine they have built to the people of the Ledge. She looks at the woman and realizes that the Fallen Woman is her grandmother and asks Ryon why Valma was chosen for this monument. She was the crown princess of Terrsaw. Dawsyn goes directly to the palace, all Ryon can do is follow because she is not listening to his pleas for her to stop. She introduces herself to the guards at the gate and they let her and Ryon in, taking their weapons from them first. There are archers on the parapet, they are in the archers’ sights, but the archers’ weapons are at rest… for now. The queens come to meet with Dawsyn, happy to hear that she is safe. It appears that they know of the Glacian’s raids over the last few days but had done nothing to stop them - par for the course. Cressida points out that they think the Glacians were looking for Dawsyn, it’s lucky they didn’t find her - but Dawsyn retorts that they did find her. She killed them (think about that, queens!). Dawsyn asks them how the Glacians knew where to look for her. It’s clear she thinks the queens told them, clearer still when Dawsyn says the accusation outright. Then she gets to the real crux of the matter: selling the village fifty years ago. Alvira says she won’t deny it and although she regrets it, she would do it again. The Glacians used to take people from Terrsaw whenever they wanted - children from the streets, whole families from their homes at night. At the time, Alvira was an advisor on the royal council of the king. She came to the king with her idea, but he would not hear of it. So, when Vasteel came to the palace and killed the King of Terrsaw, Alvira gave Vasteel her proposal directly. The council voted on which village would be sacrificed, everybody except Valma. Valma evaded her guards and went to the village the next day, the council didn’t know she was there until after the village had already been taken. And everyone was sad to lose her, but the Glacians didn’t come back so the ache eventually eased. When Alvira insults Valma’s memory, Dawsyn disarms a guard and points the sword at the queens. She tells them that a true queen would offer herself as a sacrifice to save her people. Ryon, in the meantime, is fighting off the other guards. He yells Dawsyn’s name and grabs her, then reveals his wings and takes flight as rows of guards storm into the throne room. They break through the glass ceiling and fly away. Ryon takes her to the sea. He tries to soothe her. He admits that he did know who she was, as did the others at the inn, but he wasn’t trying to use her. He asks her to think if he has ever done anything to sway her in any way, or done anything at all except try to protect her. When she collapses in her grief and anger, he wraps her in his arms and protects her from the wind until she is too exhausted to do anything but sleep. At that point, he has to move her, knowing that now they’ll be hunted by both Terrsaw and Glacia. He finds a cave near the seashore, on the edge of the land where it falls away to the shore. It’s high up so that humans will likely not be able to reach them, or at least not easily. He places Dawsyn in the cave and tries to start a fire for her. It’s all he can do to help her, and he tries for hours until night has fallen, and Dawsyn has come back to herself. She comes to him and shows him how to start a fire properly. She asks him why her grandmother, why the original people who knew who her grandmother was, why none of them told her the truth. She tells him that she’s tired. Just…tired. Ryon opens up about his mother, named Farra Julliard. He never knew her - she died so early - but he knew the people she became friends with. He tells her that his mother had a close friend on the Ledge named Harlow Sabar, Dawsyn’s mother. They were so close, more like family than friends, and Farra told the Colony of the Sabar family. So, when Ryon heard Dawsyn announce her name to Vasteel, it felt like fate. Like the time for action was now. But it also felt like getting back a piece of his mother, that’s why he couldn’t leave Dawsyn behind on that mountain. Now it feels like they belong together. After a few days in the cave, telling each other their life stories, they leave to find a small hut next to the water. They spend a few wonderful days there together, Dawsyn fashions a new handle for her ax. He calls her malishka, which means “my one” in the old language. A term of endearment used in the Colony. They’re so sweet together. He tells her about life in the Colony. The Glacians there only given scraps, and it is forbidden to be on the slopes of the mountain so they cannot get timber or hunt. If they’re found breaking that rule, they have their wings clipped and are thrown into the Chasm. Mixed-bloods are forbidden from the palace, full-bloods are forbidden from mixing with the Colony. They have nowhere to go. They can’t go to the valley since the humans fear them. The other option is the sea, but no one knows if there’s any land out there, if there’s even anything to find. Vasteel only keeps mixed-bloods because he takes their iskra, too. They used to use the mixed-bloods exclusively to fuel the pool of iskra, but when the full-bloods were no longer having children, they had to start taking humans. But Vasteel keeps the Colony, just in case. Ryon is the one that started the rebellion, convinced the mixed-bloods that he could get close to Vasteel, and that they should not waste a chance like that. Ryon and Dawsyn agree that they will kill the king, and they will not stop until the people of the Ledge are free again. Ryon tells Dawsyn about the Glacian palace. It cannot be entered from the sky. There are no doors or windows, only the tunnels beneath the palace protected by magic portcullises. They can only be opened with Glacian magic. She asks about the pool of iskra, but Ryon does not know what it is or how it works. He believes that the magic persuades the iskra from the body, you can almost hear the magic whispering sometimes. It is believed that drinking the iskra allows you to have its magic but when you are submerged, you cannot drink from it. The magic may trick the submerged person and convince them not to drink, your body believing that it is drowning and holding its breath. They leave their little cottage and go back to the inn for the things that they left behind, like Dawsyn’s ax, but to get there they must go past Mecca again. When they get to the inn without trouble, Salem tells them that word has gone out that two people (sounding suspiciously like Dawsyn and Ryon) are wanted for threatening the palace. They tell the others, who are all present, that they are leaving that night for Glacia. Esra gets all the blades that he has at the moment and gives them to Ryon. Baltisse takes Dawsyn to a different room, she tells Dawsyn that she was alive long before even her great-grandfather was born, and she believes the Sabars were the best rulers of Terrsaw during her time. She gives Dawsyn a small necklace. Not a talisman of any sort, just a memento from a friend, so that Baltisse can be near ger when Dawsyn kills Vasteel. They climb the mountain for three days with no trouble. On the third day, they hear wingbeats. There are now sentries flying the perimeter of the Colony, a new development, but Ryon and Dawsyn are not seen. When they get to the outskirts, there is another Glacian sentry. Ryon goes ahead of Dawsyn and kills him quietly. They will have to move quickly now, Vasteel will know they’re here when that sentry does not check in. They steal into the Colony, Ryon leading the way to find Adrik - a mixed-blood and council elder. Adrik tells Ryon they thought he’d been killed on the slopes by Dawsyn and “two brutes”, what they call a full-blooded Glacian in the Colony. But Adrik knew better when six nobles left the palace and only one came back. He knew that must’ve been Ryon’s handiwork. Ryon tells Adrik that he was betrayed by Phineas, but Adrik is not surprised. Adrik wakes the other elders, and they meet with Ryon and Dawsyn. The rebels refine the plans that they’ve been making. The time has come, they wake the other rebels and will wait on the edges of the Colony until they receive Ryon’s signal, Ryon and Dawsyn go to the palace while it is still dark. The two of them go to an old slaves’ passage that leads to a tunnel beneath the palace. The human slaves no longer use it as they are now kept below the palace at all times. Before Dawsyn and Ryon can enter the tunnel, they are stopped by two Glacians. Ryon specifically told Dawsyn to stick to the plan, “no hacking, slicing, or gutting until we get inside”, but when one of the Glacians insults Dawsyn and Ryon’s dad in less than a minute, Ryon changes his mind and kills him. Then, a dozen Glacians who were waiting on the spires above descend on them. An ambush. The Glacians take their weapons and bring them into the tunnel. They take them through one of the portcullises that guards the way to the palace, opened through some sort of magic the Glacians wield. They pass a second portcullis of the same design. They take Ryon and Dawsyn to the doors of the hall, where the pool of iskra can be found. Inside, the tables are crowded with Glacians. The king stands to taunt them with their capture, what exactly did they think was going to happen? Ryon thanks Vasteel for bringing him into the palace, for showing him the entrances and exits, and for allowing him to take the slopes after Dawsyn, facilitating his escape. Vasteel points out that Ryon has failed, that he was unable to convince the queens to revolt with him, but Ryon said they would be worthless allies, and he would never have trusted them. Vasteel finally throws Ryon off by telling him that Ryon killed his own mother simply by being born, a human body was never made to carry the child of a Glacian. He has always believed that Vasteel killed his mother but hearing this news, it rings true to Ryon, and the information tortures him. The Glacians bring Dawsyn and Ryon to the pool. Ryon is in some sort of stupor, as if he can’t see or hear Dawsyn. She’s panicking, knowing that to fight the pool’s magic, all of their focus needs to be on resisting it. The Glacians throw Ryon’s body into the pool and he is swallowed immediately. She screams at them to throw her in as well, and they do. The iskra tells Dawsyn to close her eyes, to sleep, to rest now. It tells her she will be safe, free from death. It tells her to close her mouth and for a moment she cannot remember where she is. It’s the thought of Ryon that pulls her out of it. Yet, her body still rebels against her, refusing to breath. She forces herself to open her mouth and take a breath - and it does not hurt, it is as easy as breathing air. She swims to find Ryon. His eyes are closed, his mouth is closed, he floats along with the movement of the pool. She puts her mouth on his and coaxes his mouth open, she feels a slight tremor within him, and it gives her hope, his lips only need to open a tiny bit. She breathes the iskra into him but then they are jerked apart. The Glacians pull her out of the pool, and she pretends to be thoughtless. She sees Ryon across the pool, eyes blank, and she does not know if he is pretending or if he is really gone. The Glacians walk them to the edge of the Chasm. There is no escape for Dawsyn if Ryon does not wake. Vasteel comments that he wants to clip Ryon’s wings before letting them walk to their deaths, but Ryon’s wings are not out, and when Vasteel demands that he release them, Ryon does not respond. Vasteel cuts him with a dagger and still Ryon does not respond. They assume he’s a shell and decide to proceed without clipping his wings. The Glacians push them over the edge and the two of them fall. Dawsyn calls out to Ryon as they fall and finally, the iskra inside him wakes and forces Ryon to wake as well. He’s desperate to save them, he releases his wings and dives for Dawsyn. He grabs her around her torso and pulls her to his body before stopping their freefall with his wings, praying he does not break her bones when they change direction so rapidly. Once Ryon assures Dawsyn that he has her, that she is no longer falling, Ryon surges up and out of the Chasm. He glides over the spires of the palace. The Glacians call those in the Colony, yelling for them to come fight for them. But the Izgoi - the rebels - wait until they see Ryon’s signal: himself flying over the palace towards them. Finally, they fight, but not with the brutes. They fight against them. Ryon and Dawsyn join the Izgoi. The Glacians retreat to the palace to protect Vasteel. Ryon and Dawsyn join the rebels as they go into the tunnels, but they do not stay together. Only Ryon and Dawsyn among them have drunk the iskra so only they can open the portcullises, since the iskra has given them magic. Ryon goes down one set of tunnels, Dawsyn goes through the smaller entrance. She is behind some rebels and fights her way to the front as they reach the portcullis. She demands that the magic inside her open the gate and she sees the portcullis rise. She is the first in the palace, the first to raise her weapon. She kills any who come against her. In the room she enters, there are only five Glacians, but she hears fighting in the distance and knows that Ryon and the others have also made it through. She runs to meet them in the throne room where the rest of the Glacians have gathered to protect their king. Ryon finds her inside the throne room, and they look around to see that the Glacians are far outnumbered by the Izgoi. Then, someone grabs Ryon by the shoulders with their talons and tries to pull him off the ground, but Ryon cuts off the Glacians’ feet instead. Dawsyn is bitten and turns to kill the Glacian who did it, but she can already feel the poison surge through her body. Ryon grabs the biting Glacian that Dawsyn just stabbed and, before the Glacian dies, thrusts her body into the pool. He then calls for the Izgoi to seize the Glacians and take them to the dungeons, warning them to allow the Glacians no space to use magic lest they escape. He catches Dawsyn as she falls. She is cold. She can hear Ryon calling to her but cannot call back. Suddenly, she feels the magic inside her reacting to the poison and the magic floods her, destroying the poison completely. She wakes to tell Ryon that the poison is now gone and explains what happened. As the two of them sit and regroup, a few council members come to tell them that Vasteel has escaped with a few of his noblemen, and they cannot be found. They agree to let the Izgoi celebrate and rest for now, they will find Vasteel later. He won’t stay hidden for long. Eight brutes remain alive on the mountain, including Phineas. The council agrees that the pool will be guarded until they figure out how to destroy it. If it can’t be destroyed, it will be sealed in stone. The human slaves are freed. Once they leave the throne room, Dawsyn asks Ryon to take her to the Ledge and start freeing the people there. Ryon cautions her to wait, it is dark, and he will only terrify them if they see him come now. They may try to kill him. He asks that they wait until the morning, they have had quite a day and need their sleep. In the morning, instead of going directly to the Ledge, Ryon and Dawsyn go to the palace of the queens. They need human ambassadors to come to the Ledge with them and explain that they’re to be freed, just having a bunch of Glacians (full-blood or not) come and tell them that would not be believed. In addition, the freed people will need homes, food, and medicine once they are off the Ledge. It is time to make new alliances. Their arrival is not greeted warmly but the guards do allow them into the palace, once they are shackled. The queens come to speak with them. Alvira accuses Dawsyn of trying to take her throne, but Dawsyn disagrees. She never wanted the throne. She does not want it now. Dawsyn tells the queens that she does not blame them or hold them liable for the lives that were lost to the Glacians. She breaks the news that the Glacian court is now broken and that Vasteel is gone, although not dead. Ryon tells them that the mixed-blood Glacians who are now in charge do not want to harm humans and the people on the Ledge can be freed. Ruby, the captain of the guard, is confused. Do the mixed-blood Glacians not eat humans as the full-bloods did? Dawsyn begins to explain that the Glacians never ate the humans, but she is cut off by Alvira. She’s already aware of the pool’s existence, and how it works, and she wants to know why Dawsyn is here. Dawsyn tells Alvira what she and the people of the Ledge need now. The queen asks Ryon the same question. He proposes an alliance between the two kingdoms. He explains that though there is no monarch in Glacia, there is a council that rules and he speaks on the council’s behalf. Alvira tells them that she never believed she would be free of the bargain she’d made with Vasteel. Then Alvira looks directly at Ryon and says something shocking. That they had a deal; he was to kill Dawsyn, and he has not followed through. She gives him the same answer she gave last time he came and asked for the queens’ help. She does not trade for anything without a fair return. She tells Dawsyn that Ryon came once and tried to extort the queens for weapons, alliances, and people to fight. He said he would start an uprising when the Sabar family reclaimed their title. And had Dawsyn been smart enough to announce who she was, the masses would have rejoiced to have her, to know that she existed and would have supported her claim. Alvira pulls out a blade and puts it through Ryon’s heart. Dawsyn watches as he dies in front of her. Alvira explains that even if Dawsyn doesn’t want it, the people would have given her the crown and that just can’t be allowed. The guards pick Dawsyn up from where she’s lying next to Ryon on the ground and takes her to be locked away. As they drag her, her feet get pulled through the puddle of Ryon’s blood and she can hear the magic there begging to be released.