Chapter Twelve

Aquarii Nerokouvalitís 

Aquarii hadn’t left the farm in two days and was getting exasperated. Her parents had grounded her for a year after the EclipseWing shenanigan at Mount Naga, stuck her on oyster duty for a month, and to top it off, Clam had vanished. He was supposed to have faced trial in the Obsidian Court for the attempted murder of the crown, but before the authorities could get around to it, he had simply disappeared.

She tugged another oyster from its shiny shell and dropped it in a bucket. The slime from the hundreds of shucked oysters danced around her in the water currents until she waved it away from her gills with an irritated talon.

A knock sounded on the window behind her and Aquarii turned with a frown. Her annoyed “What NOW?” stuttered to a halt as her eyes snagged on someone’s snout, quickly ducking out of view.

A pitch-black, dark-as-night, indigo-and-charcoal-with-swirls-of-eggplant snout.

A breath caught in her throat.

Eridanus?

She raced to the door, scattering oysters everywhere. Heart beating crazily, Aquarii flung the thick wood door open. It smacked hard into the dragon outside, sending them reeling backward.

It was not Eridanus. It was not even female.

He was, however, an EclipseWing.

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The EclipseWing twisted his jet-black talons, fiddling nervously with his claws. Aquarii stared at him. The only thing she’d managed to get out of him was that his name was Kasmar (he wouldn’t tell her his last name) and he had escaped from somewhere with ‘shadows that crept’. Then he’d started shivering like a rabbit and sat down.

They were sitting in the room reserved for Land Visitors, above water so that the visitors wouldn’t drown.

“OH!” Kasmar burst out. “I remembered! He said my name was Armani… but that’s not right. It’s Réalta! Kasmar Réalta! Reeee-aaaaltaaa,” he babbled. Aquarii started. Réalta was Eridanus’ last name… and Armani was the royal family's name. Sundancer only introduced Eridanus the night of the ball. Which meant that Ex-Prince Shawdowwalker must have stolen Khoeli’s egg.