Shield of Sparrows Chapter 25
While Odessa is on a walk with Zavier and Evie, the Guardian emerges from the forest with troubling news and pulls Zavier aside. The walk is cut short.
Odessa seeks out Brielle, who hasn’t heard anything about sick monsters, but mentions that several men from Treow have gone missing and that King Ramsey is actively recruiting for his militia, pulling men from across the kingdom, including pony riders.
Between the book burning, the militia buildup, and the missing men, Odessa begins to wonder whether her father’s plan to reach Allesaria is a response to something King Ramsey is already doing rather than the other way around.
Odessa decides waiting is not working. She needs to act like a spy and find a way out of Treow.
Shield of Sparrows Chapter 26
With Zavier, the Guardian, and Tillia all gone, Odessa acts. Brielle pays the supply merchant to take her “lady’s maid” to the nearby town of Ashmore. Odessa climbs in, the wagon passes through without incident, and she makes it to town.
Walking through Ashmore, Odessa spots the Guardian outside a tavern, completely focused on a beautiful blonde woman. Odessa ducks into an alley, watches the Guardian usher the woman inside, and tells herself the sick feeling in her stomach is annoyance rather than jealousy.
Odessa crosses to the inn, rents a room, and goes upstairs. The moment she closes the door, the Guardian speaks from the center of the room. He’s furious.
Shield of Sparrows Chapter 27
The Guardian demands to know what Odessa was thinking. She apologizes halfheartedly, secretly proud that her disguise fooled the watchtower guards. When the Guardian tells her she’s never to do this again, Odessa holds her ground, telling him that she didn’t ask to be married off and shipped across the continent and that she’ll resist him at every opportunity. The Guardian stares at her in silence.
Then the Guardian asks, calmly, why Odessa never simply asked to leave Treow. A serving woman interrupts with Odessa’s dinner, and the Guardian leaves through the window.
Odessa eats alone, turning over her doubts about her father’s plan and whether she’s acting on blind faith.
Later, the Guardian comes back, takes Odessa’s pillow, and makes himself comfortable on the floor. He tells her he has known about her red hair all along, since the dye smells too strong to mask. Odessa and the Guardian trade barbs and settle into an uneasy truce for the night.
Shield of Sparrows Chapter 28
Odessa wakes to a note from the Guardian telling her not to wander far. She takes it as permission and heads into Ashmore with her knives.
She finds Ashmore’s library burned to the ground. Cathlin appears and joins Odessa, explaining that King Ramsey has been pulling soldiers out of unprotected towns and suggesting it may be to force people into cities where they can be watched. Odessa asks whether the militia buildup is about control rather than the migration. Cathlin taps her temple but doesn’t elaborate.
Warning bells begin ringing across town. People drop everything and run. Cathlin grabs Odessa and tells her to run for the inn. Then comes the clicking sound Odessa recognizes from her night on the plains. Bariwolves.
Shield of Sparrows Chapter 29
A pack of bariwolves attacks Ashmore. Odessa draws one away from a limping woman, buying her time to reach the inn. The Guardian takes down a second before it can reach Odessa from behind.
Odessa and Cathlin make it to the tavern, where a bariwolf crashes through the window and mauls the blonde woman Odessa saw before. Odessa wounds the creature with a crossbow bolt but doesn’t kill it. She and Cathlin flee to the apartment above.
From the upstairs window, Odessa sees the Guardian fighting multiple bariwolves alone, bleeding and losing ground. Odessa fires from the balcony, crippling one long enough for the Guardian to kill it. The remaining bariwolves retreat or are killed.
As Odessa climbs down, the balcony gives way. She drops to the porch below just as the bariwolf that mauled the blonde woman charges through the window straight at her. The Guardian throws his sword and splits its skull.
The Guardian hauls Odessa to her feet, furious. The crossbow bolt is pressed between them, Odessa’s finger still on the trigger. The Guardian tells her to do it. She cannot. He lets go and disappears before Cathlin reaches them.
Shield of Sparrows Chapter 30
Seventeen people died in the attack, including Sariah, the woman who had opened the tavern door. Odessa helped dig Sariah’s grave and is now lying awake.
The Guardian staggers in, drunk. His wounds have completely healed, making Odessa wonder whether rapid healing is one of his powers. When he drops to the floor, Odessa tosses him her pillow. She apologizes for Sariah’s death. The Guardian tells her not to play the martyr, that Sariah knew the risks, then admits he’s sorry too.
Odessa asks whether they’ll reach Allesaria before the migration. The Guardian says no. Odessa tells him she thinks the bariwolves were sick, pointing to the green blood. He confirms it with a single word: Lyssa. Before Odessa can ask what that means, the Guardian falls asleep.
Shield of Sparrows Chapter 31
Cathlin meets Odessa and the Guardian downstairs, gives Odessa a book on Turan customs, promises more when they meet again, and says goodbye with the formal hands-over-heart gesture. The Guardian pulls Cathlin into a brief hug, which surprises Odessa.
When Odessa pushes back on leaving towns like Ashmore unprotected, the Guardian shuts her down, asking what solution she would propose that he and Zavier haven’t already considered. Odessa has nothing to offer.
The Guardian lifts Odessa into the saddle and swings up behind her. At the road, he steers toward the mountains instead of Treow and tells Odessa they’re going to Ellder, where Zavier is waiting. Hours pass in silence. Exhaustion catches up with Odessa, and despite her efforts to stay awake, she falls asleep against the Guardian’s chest.
Shield of Sparrows Chapter 32
Odessa wakes from a nightmare to find herself still against the Guardian’s chest. He has stopped at a cliff overlooking a river valley, telling Odessa that his mother once brought him there as a boy and made him sit still long enough to appreciate the view. The moment stretches until it becomes charged, their faces too close, until Odessa breaks it by saying she hates him. The Guardian tells her not to forget.
They reach Ellder at nightfall, where the Guardian is greeted with barely concealed awe. He takes Odessa to a private suite in Zavier’s house, tells her she won’t be returning to the encampment, and that Brielle and Jocelyn will stay there for now.
Before the Guardian leaves, Odessa grabs his wrist. He notices she’s flinching from where he gripped her arm the day before and apologizes. He traces one of her curls and tells Odessa she doesn’t have to hide who she is there. Alone, Odessa pours her jar of hair dye out the window.
Shield of Sparrows Chapter 33
After a week at Ellder, Evie leads Odessa to the fortress dungeons, where Luella has been hiding books from King Ramsey’s soldiers. Inside, Odessa spots a cell full of scrolls she plans to return to alone.
Luella is there with Cathlin, who’s assembling a stack of books for Odessa, including one on Calandran myths and legends.
Once she notices, Luella sends Odessa to take Evie home, but they linger and eavesdrop. Luella warns Cathlin that if “he” finds out, there will be consequences.
Back at the house, Zavier returns unexpectedly, reunites with Evie, notices Odessa’s red hair, and says he thinks it’s prettier. He invites Odessa to dinner.
When Odessa reaches her suite, the Guardian is waiting with a sword. He tells her she asked for one and walks her downstairs to begin training.
Shield of Sparrows Chapter 34
After a week of sword training, the Guardian tells Odessa she’s improving, which Odessa takes as a genuine win. During one exchange at the end of a session, the tension between them surfaces before the Guardian shuts it down.
Wandering Ellder afterward, Odessa reflects on her stalled mission. The dungeon scrolls have disappeared, no one will discuss Allesaria, and Odessa is starting to wonder whether the city even exists. She decides to stop mentioning it entirely.
On her way back, Odessa finds the Guardian carrying a screaming Evie over his shoulder. Zavier has left again without saying goodbye, and Evie is devastated. The Guardian calms her, holds her while she cries, and promises to take her somewhere special. He tells Evie he’s riding to Treow tomorrow to retrieve Odessa’s horse, Freya, then looks up and invites Odessa along. Evie begs Odessa to come. Odessa agrees.
Shield of Sparrows Chapter 35
Riding toward Treow, Evie accidentally reveals she’s a princess. The Guardian tells her it’s all right to share that with Odessa.
When Evie falls asleep against the Guardian’s arm, Odessa asks about Lyssa. The Guardian confirms it’s an infection spreading among monsters, making them more savage, and that Zavier and two hunting parties have been tracking and killing infected creatures across Turah. He explains it spreads only by bite. When Odessa asks what happens to people who are bitten, she figures it out before he answers.
The Guardian pulls back his cuff to show Odessa the scar on his forearm, jagged teeth marks from a bariwolf bite four years ago. He has Lyssa. As far as he knows, he’s the only person who has survived a bite. When Odessa asks what can be done, the Guardian says they kill every infected monster. Odessa understands what that means. If he’s infected, the plan includes killing himself too.
Smirking, the Guardian says Odessa’s father will be thrilled when he’s dead, and that she can take the credit.
Shield of Sparrows Chapter 36
The Guardian explains that Lyssa heightens natural abilities but fuels bloodlust, costing him more self-control over time. Before Odessa can ask why he’s telling her this, two soldiers arrive in a panic. A tarkin has attacked their scouting party and may have followed survivors into Treow.
He puts Evie onto Odessa’s horse, orders the soldiers to flank them, and rides ahead. At Treow, he drops them at the treehouse and charges toward the commons.
Odessa hides Evie under the bed. From the balcony, Odessa spots a tarkin prowling below, but it moves on. Then she sees a girl and a young boy hurrying toward her ladder. Odessa climbs down to help them up, but the tarkin picks up their scent and charges. She grabs the boy and climbs one-handed as it leaps at the ladder. On its final lunge, the creature snaps the ladder from the balcony, and they fall. Odessa throws herself over the boy to shield him. The Guardian arrives and kills the tarkin before it can strike.
The Guardian pulls Odessa to her feet, takes her face in his hands, and drops his forehead to hers. The moment is brief before shouts pull them back. The tarkin bleeds green. It had Lyssa. As Odessa processes this, the High Priest appears at the edge of the commons.