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Tillia takes Odessa to the infirmary. Both tarkin carried Lyssa and had behaved unusually, hunting as a coordinated pair rather than as solitary creatures.
On her way out, Odessa passes a room where the High Priest is performing a ritual over the Guardian’s bare chest and bite scar, causing the Guardian visible pain. The priest slams the door before Odessa can see more, but Odessa notices that the priest’s eyes are the same dark green as infected monster blood.
Brielle finds Odessa outside. Over dinner, Odessa shares what happened in Ashmore and Ellder but leaves out details about Evie and Lyssa. Brielle mentions that if Allesaria is a myth, it would explain why no one has ever found it.
That evening, Evie takes over Odessa’s treehouse. After putting Evie to bed, Odessa goes to the balcony where the Guardian is waiting. He tells Odessa the High Priest has been siphoning Lyssa from his blood and that Laine alchemists believe it shares similarities with fenek tusk powder and korakin, suggesting it may have been created rather than occurring naturally. He doesn’t yet know who’s responsible.
Odessa asks to help find the source. The Guardian refuses, then relents when Odessa pushes back. For the first time, he thanks Odessa by name and leaves her rope ladder attached to the treehouse all night.
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The Guardian catches Odessa following him into the forest and lets her come along to a tarkin den discovered by scouting parties.
Inside, they find three newborn pups dead from starvation, their mother having been killed during the Treow attack. A fourth pup is barely alive. When the Guardian moves to kill the surviving pup as a mercy, Odessa stops him and picks it up. The Guardian warns that the pup could carry Lyssa. Odessa tells him to test it when the pup is stronger and promises to kill it herself if it’s infected. The Guardian nicks the pup’s leg, and the blood runs red.
The Guardian asks whether Odessa would really kill the pup if necessary. Odessa says yes. Then the Guardian asks the same question about himself, whether Odessa would kill him if he lost control. Odessa understands what he’s asking and swears she would.
He then tells Odessa that his name is Ransom.
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Four days after the tarkin den, Ransom tells Odessa that a lionwick infected with Lyssa was killed in a nearby village. He plans to investigate, and when Odessa asks to come, he doesn’t say no. Odessa straps Faze to her chest in a makeshift carrier, and they ride out.
During the ride, Odessa asks who else has sworn to kill Ransom if he loses control. Ransom names Tillia, Halston, the kingdom’s rangers, and Zavier, whom he says he would want to be the one to do it. He speaks about his own death as though it’s inevitable.
Odessa suggests talking to pony riders for information since the riders travel across the kingdom and carry as much news as they deliver. Ransom admits it’s a good idea and says they’ll stop at the outpost beyond Ravalli.
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Odessa and Ransom arrive in Ravalli. At the blacksmith’s shop, Ransom introduces Odessa by her full Turan title, and she realizes he plans to use her novelty as the Sparrow to draw people out. The blacksmith says it took six men to bring down the infected lionwick and that a local paperman was injured in the fight, adding that the paperman has been printing suspicious pieces about Ramsey’s militia.
At the paperman’s office, the man and his son, Jonas, describe the attack and confirm that the lionwick had cloudy eyes, green blood, and an unusual smell. Then the paperman introduces himself as Samuel Hay. Odessa recognizes him as the author of the book accusing her father of murdering her mother and introduces herself pointedly as Odessa Cross of Quentis. Samuel flinches.
Jonas spots Faze and immediately delights in the baby tarkin. Ransom heads out to gather information while Odessa stays behind, intending to confront Samuel about his book and about what he knows regarding Ramsey’s militia.
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Samuel tells Odessa about his wife’s murder in Roslo and admits that his book was written in grief, built on an unverified rumor he now regrets.
He reveals that a woman from Ravalli has actually been to Allesaria and that the only way through its gates is a blood oath to keep the city’s location secret. Maps of Turah are forbidden on pain of death. The capital houses the kingdom’s scholars, alchemists, and healers, who keep their knowledge to themselves. Samuel also mentions that soldiers who join Ramsey’s militia seem to disappear entirely.
When Ransom returns, he reports more monster attacks nearby. Odessa raises the idea that someone in Allesaria could be the source, given its concentration of alchemists. Ransom shuts her down immediately.
Back at the inn, Ransom tells Odessa that Ramsey is rumored to be arriving the next day and that they’ll leave at dawn. He then goes to his room without saying whatever else was on his mind.
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Odessa and Ransom try to leave at dawn, but Ramsey’s soldiers surround the inn before they can depart. Ramsey rides in and faces off with Ransom, then notices Odessa and says that she should be in Allesaria. Ransom tells Ramsey that Odessa can’t be trusted yet. The words sting, but Odessa realizes in that moment that she couldn’t betray the Turans even if she wanted to.
As they ride out, smoke rises above the rooftops. Samuel’s home is burning, and Jonas is outside screaming for his father. Ransom goes in and emerges with an armful of salvaged belongings. When soldiers try to take what Ransom is carrying, he warns them off, and they back down.
Odessa turns on Ramsey and calls him a coward. Ramsey taunts her, saying he was told she was weak, then tells Ransom he has one month before riding off. Odessa turns to ask what the deadline means, but Ransom has already disappeared.
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Ransom and Odessa spend a somber day escorting Samuel and Jonas to Ellder. During the ride, Ransom tells Odessa how he got his name. He tracked a missing girl to a man in a port town who had been kidnapping children and killed him, and the girl’s mother called him a guardian. When Odessa asks about Banner’s brother, Ransom confirms that he killed him and reveals that Banner’s brother was the same man. The revelation reframes everything Odessa thought she knew.
Afterward, Ransom tells Odessa that Ramsey wants him in Allesaria by the autumnal equinox to serve as his general. Ransom has no intention of going.
Odessa studies the markings on Ransom’s cuff more carefully and wonders whether they form a map rather than a simple tally, possibly with Allesaria marked on it.
The group arrives after dark. Ransom gets the Hays settled, then grabs Odessa’s hand before she leaves, seeming as though he wants to say something, but he lets her go.
Odessa rounds the corner to the servants’ quarters and stops. Zavier is stepping out of Jocelyn’s apartment alongside another man. Zavier sees her. The color drains from Zavier’s face.
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Odessa storms upstairs, and Ransom blocks the door to her room. Odessa is in tears and admits that her tears aren’t really about Zavier and Jocelyn. They come from relief. If Zavier has someone else, Odessa can stop punishing herself for her feelings toward Ransom.
Ransom tells Odessa that he saw her on the cliffside in Roslo before she dyed her hair, when he came to investigate why her father had hired his people to kill the marroweels. Seeing Odessa changed everything. Odessa pushes back, pointing out that she’s doubly bound and not free. Ransom asks who she actually exchanged vows with at the ceremony.
Odessa starts to remember. Zavier never spoke. It was Ransom’s voice that gave the oath. And the blood in the vial wasn’t red.
Ransom shows Odessa the scar on his palm, matching hers. He signed the treaty. He spoke the vow. He’s the crown prince. Zavier was the decoy. Ransom’s plan was always that when Lyssa took him, the treaty would dissolve and Odessa would be free.
Odessa tells Ransom that she hates him. Ransom tucks a curl behind Odessa’s ear and leaves.
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Jocelyn comes to apologize. Odessa skips the apologies and asks for the truth. Jocelyn explains that she met a man in Treow, and Zavier eventually joined them. It was only physical, an escape from loneliness.
Odessa tells Jocelyn that she’ll send her home, then asks Jocelyn to deliver a carefully edited message to Odessa’s father, telling him she has failed to find Allesaria, that the Turans are too suspicious to trust her with that information, and that he should be cautious because Turah is building a militia. Odessa says nothing about Lyssa, Ransom’s true identity, or the possible map on his cuff.
The affair becomes a convenient reason to send Jocelyn away, knowing no one will question it. Closing the door, Odessa decides she’s no longer working for her father. She’s working for herself and for her freedom, and the person best positioned to help her is Ransom.
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At the training center, Odessa asks Zavier for his real name. Zavier tells her that his name is Dray and that he has been playing Ransom’s double for eleven years. Ransom sends Zavier away.
Knives drawn, Odessa goes after Ransom with everything she has. While Odessa attacks, Ransom explains that the practice of royal doubles has been in place for a century. He admits he chose a different Sparrow because he knew Odessa’s father had been training Mae as a spy for years and planned to invade Turah.
In the heat of the exchange, Odessa realizes she cannot actually hurt Ransom. The treaty magic stops her, and she figures out it was likely part of Ransom’s calculation all along.
Odessa asks why Ransom told her the truth if he expects to die from Lyssa. Ransom says that Odessa belongs to him and frames it as worth fighting for. Odessa pushes at him, exhausted and in tears, until she sags against his chest. They kiss, but Odessa pulls away, not ready to trust him, and leaves.
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A week after the kiss, Ransom and Zavier have been away. Odessa has been visiting Samuel Hay and shows him her hidden map of Turah, asking for his help filling in the gaps. Samuel agrees.
Ransom returns looking pale and exhausted from having Lyssa siphoned. He takes Odessa’s hand on their walk, and the second time, Odessa stops fighting it. Ransom explains that the infection has become bound to him the way blood magic works and that removing it all at once would kill him.
Odessa tells Ransom that she suspects the Voster may have created Lyssa, since no other magical beings exist in Calandra. Ransom dismisses the idea, saying he trusts the High Priest. Odessa drops the subject.
When Odessa asks about Evie, Ransom tells her that Evie is his sister and that Ramsey doesn’t know she exists because Ramsey once tried to kill their mother.
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Ransom tells Odessa about his parents. His mother never loved Ramsey, and years of unrequited devotion hardened Ramsey. When Ransom’s mother took a lover, Ramsey caught the pair, beat the man to death, and began strangling her. Ransom happened to be home and knocked his father unconscious before Ramsey could finish.
His mother recovered in hiding while pregnant with Evie. Ransom took his mother to Ozarth for the birth, then brought her back to Turah at her request. When Ramsey later told Ransom directly that he needed to finish what Ransom had interrupted, Ransom left Allesaria that day and hasn’t returned in four years. Zavier has raised Evie as his own. Since Evie is Ramsey’s daughter, Evie is next in line after Ransom, and Zavier has kept her hidden to protect her.
The conversation turns to Odessa’s father, whom Ransom believes has found a way to break the Shield of Sparrows by killing the Voster, since destroying the brotherhood would collapse the treaties.