For several moments we sat in silence, hands clasped, watching snowflakes drift into the fire.

“You’re a lovely boy, you know,” she said. “Queen Hye Sun doesn’t deserve you, and she knows it. I’ve heard rumors that she’s tortured with guilt. If you went back now,” The Lady said thoughtfully, “she would give you whatever you wanted.”

“I don’t want anything from her.”

“Ah,” breathed The Lady, avoiding my gaze, “but I do. I want to keep children like you safe. And if you convince your mother to let me borrow her army for just a little while, I can make sure that no Songland child enters the Breach ever again.”

My pulse quickened. “How?”

“That’s where you come in, my dear. Somewhere on this mountain, there’s a cave with a very special secret. I’m told only a few Songlanders can find it: the highest shamans and the royal family.”

I gulped. Of course I knew how to find Sagimsan’s holy cave. Every year, my family visited on a pilgrimage to leave offerings at the opening and pray for Songland’s prosperity. No one was supposed to go inside, but I had once stolen into the tunnel, mad with curiosity. I found a room with glowing gibberish on one wall. Then I fainted, lungs floundering in the blue pressurized air. Eventually shamans came to rescue me, and I was barely conscious for two days.

“I can’t tell you where it is,” I said, drooping. “I’m only allowed to tell family.”

“Not allowed by who? The bullies in Eunsan-do who called you names?” She let me ruminate on this before adding, “Besides, I can be family, dear. If you will have me.”

And as I lay my head on her soft chest, she told the most beautiful story I had ever heard. There was a band of anointed children, outcasts just like me. They had raised each other, grown together, traveled the world sharing one mind. Their love was so strong, separation caused illness, and even death.

“Where are they now?” I asked in awe.

“Waiting at the Arit border.”

“Do you miss them?”

“Yes, though council sickness does not affect the Raybearer. I could not bring them into the pass; the storm was bad enough with one foreigner. I have three Anointed Ones, and several more hopefuls.” She smiled. “Someday, we will be twelve.” The Lady could anoint me too, she explained. In her family, I would never be hell-boy or sacrifice. I would only ever be Woo In: liberator of the Redemptors.

I led her to the cave the very next day.

“Did you learn what you needed?” I ask her eagerly now, my arms wrapped around her waist as we ride Hyung back to camp. “Can you free the Redemptors? Will you anoint me now?”

“I …” She rubs her temples. “I learned a lot of things. Let me be, Woo In. I need to think.”

I ask her again the next morning, as The Lady retrieves a hare from one of her traps, absently snaps its neck, and cleans it to roast over our fire. “Are you done thinking, Lady?”

After a pause, she says, “You don’t really want to be anointed, Woo In. It’s for life, you know, and a lot of work, not to mention the council sickness. Why don’t you join me as …” She thinks quickly. “… as an honorary member? It’ll be just the same.”

“It won’t,” I say, frowning. “I won’t have the Ray.”

The Lady laughs. “We don’t need the Ray to love each other, child. Tell you what. Why don’t you get bundled up and go back to Eunsan-do? I’ll wait right here, and you can convince Queen Hye Sun to see me. Then I’ll come to the palace and fetch you. We’ll go away together, forever.” She cleans her bloodstained hands in the snow, then comes to draw her cloak around me, murmuring into my hair. “Once the queen lends me her army, I’ll need a handsome young prince to help me lead it. Just imagine—”

“You don’t want me.” To my embarrassment, my lower lip starts to tremble. “You’re afraid to keep me with you. Just like Mother.”

The Lady kneels to my level and grips my shoulders. “I am nothing like Queen Hye Sun,” she whispers. She fixes me with those vivid black eyes, though for a moment she speaks to herself. “I would never disown a child out of fear. I’m not like Father or Olugbade. I’m better. I’m different.”

“Then anoint me.”

She stiffens, then brightens. “I can’t. Not yet, anyway. You have to love me first, remember?”

“That’s all right then,” I say. “Because I do.”

Her breath catches as she stares, features shading with wonder and grief. “Am’s Story. You mean it, don’t you?” I nod and she laughs bitterly, kissing my forehead. “No wonder the Kunleos have always anointed children. Love is so uncomplicated at your age.”

She stands and paces for several minutes, avoiding Hyung where the beast sits nearby, cleaning its paws and baring its teeth at her. Then she stops, murmuring to the air.

“Isoken blood would balance it. Several strains from different realms … It’s a risk, but it could work. There’s still room on my council. I need only find the right ones. Yes … it’s worth a try.”

She draws a vial out from under her cloak, and it swings from a chain on her neck. Her full lips harden with resolution, then blossom into a sweet smile as she turns to me.

“Come, child.” I run into her outstretched arms, and she wets my brow with oil as her Ray engulfs me. I wince as she draws a knife and slashes her palm, then mine, letting our blood run together. Then her words drip into my ear like beeswax, deafening and sweet. “Receive your anointing.”

WHEN I DETACHED FROM WOO IN’S MIND, I shivered, shaking off the phantom of my mother’s embrace.

“For all her efforts, The Lady never did get Songland’s army,” Woo In murmured, smiling ruefully at the schoolroom floor. “I tried to convince Mother for years, but Min Ja always managed to talk her out of it.” He chuckled. “Out of the two of us, my sister always had the brains. She tried to warn me about The Lady, but I wouldn’t listen. So Min Ja washed her hands of me. I don’t blame her.”

After a tense moment I asked, “Kathleen isn’t the only isoken on Mother’s council, is she?”

“Of course not. They’re all isokens, all except for me and the first three.”

“So by strengthening her own blood—by representing Arit realms multiple times through mixed-race council members—”

“The Lady hoped to cancel out my blood, stacking the dice against Songland again. That’s why she still hadn’t anointed her last member. She had to find the perfect blend of isoken.”

I shuddered. “It’s so callous. Like choosing breeds at a market.” My head spun in confusion. “And wouldn’t isoken blood be weaker? A pure-blood council member represents their realm fully, whereas an isoken represents each realm by half—”

“Or their blood represents each realm fully. No one knows for sure how the magic of Enoba’s shield works. But The Lady had to try. She knew Arits would rebel if their children were born as Redemptors. She would never have risked losing her throne.”

A lump grew in my throat, so large I couldn’t swallow. My mother was dead, and I didn’t even know what to feel. Should I cry for the Kunleo princess, a child disowned by her father, exiled by her brother, and abused by the world? Or should I curse The Lady, a tactician who would willingly kill thousands of innocents? Perhaps it was wrong to choose. In any case, I had run out of time for tears.

“I can stop it,” I said, gripping Woo In’s arm. “The Treaty Renewal isn’t until tomorrow at sunset. Take me back. I can stop Dayo.”

His face brightened, and then dimmed to gray. “I’m too weak to fly,” he said. “The arrow wound is bad enough, but my body is weakened, still adjusting to the loss of the Ray. I’d never make it to Oluwan. You could ride Hyung. But the only way to reach An-Ileyoba in time …” He broke off, glanced at the map on the wall, and avoided my gaze.

On the map, I counted the eleven realms between Sagimsan Mountain and Oluwan. The world around me grew cold.

The only way to reach An-Ileyoba by sunset tomorrow was to ride through twenty-six lodestones.

After four crossings, my body would begin to disintegrate. If I was lucky, my lungs would start failing at ten. A man had once been known to survive fifteen, but had spent the rest of his life deformed and bedridden.

But twenty-six?

I would die within minutes of reaching Dayo. And that’s if I made it to Oluwan.

“It’s over,” said Woo In. “At least, for these Redemptor children. Ae Ri. Jaesung, Cheul, and the rest. Maybe in a hundred years, Dayo’s descendants will end the Treaty. Until then …” He smiled tightly. “At least we know who to blame for our nightmares.”

That night I slept in fits and woke up just as exhausted as when I had first laid down. When Ye Eun offered me breakfast, I shook my head. The screams of phantom children still rang in my ears. “I need air,” I said.

Ye Eun didn’t move from the doorway. “You upset Traitor Prince.” She looked haunted. “We heard him, late into the night. He was crying. Traitor Prince never cries.”