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gotten near either of the alicorns without my knowledge.”
    “The rebels always find a way,” Sophie whispered.
    They’d snatched her and Dex from a cave right outside her home, and tracked them down in the streets of Paris after the Black Swan helped them escape. They’d thwarted Sandor’s goblin senses and snuck into Havenfield’s pastures without being detected, leaving behind nothing but a single, unidentifiable footprint. And most impressive of all, they’d somehow followed her and Keefe across the ocean in the middle of the night, even though they were flying on the back of an alicorn, heading to a cave only the Black Swan knew existed.
    “We need to tell the Council to move Silveny out of the Sanctuary,” she decided.
    “To where?” Jurek asked. “Where else could possibly be safer than this?”
    “Uh, clearly there’s a few holes in the security,” Keefe said, stroking Silveny’s nose to keep her calm. “How long has Greyfell been acting weird?”
    “Not long. Maybe three days.”
    “You’re sure it was three?” Keefe asked, glancing at Sophie like that was supposed to mean something.
    Jurek nodded. “I remember him snapping at her when I was giving Silveny her bath, and I only bathe her once a week.”
    “What happened three days ago?” Sophie asked when Keefe turned slightly pale.
    “That’s when my dad had the effluxers installed.”
    Because the patrol had found those strange footprints.
    “But Greyfell didn’t see an ogre,” Sophie reminded him. “He saw a figure in black.”
    “True,” Keefe agreed. “Unless . . .”
    Their eyes met again, and this time she did know what he was thinking.
    Unless the rebels and the ogres were working together.
    “Those footprints were not ogre tracks,” Jurek interrupted as he dusted off his hands. “Ogres leave a trail of stink everywhere they step. But those prints smelled like ash.”
    “Ash?” The word tasted sour on Sophie’s tongue.
    The rebels had at least one Pyrokinetic in their ranks. Maybe he’d found a way to use fire to hide his scent.
    But then why would the tracks look like ogre prints?
    “Either way,” Sophie said, holding out the tracker to remind them, “ Someone put this in Silveny’s tail. And I’d like to know why, wouldn’t you?”
    Keefe took the tracker from her and studied the glittering crystals. “Think they can hear us right now?”
    Sophie backed a step away. “Can trackers do that?”
    “No idea. But just in case . . .” He held the tracker up to his mouth like a microphone. “Yo, bad dudes. If you’re listening, you should know that I’ve been practicing my aim with goblin throwing stars—a lot. If you touch one more hair on Silveny I will come at you with everything I have, and I promise, I won’t miss again.”
    Sophie shuddered.
    She’d watched Keefe clip one of the rebels across the shoulder with Sandor’s bladed, disklike weapons, and she didn’t want to be there when one hit the mark.
    “Maybe this is all just . . . a misunderstanding,” Jurek said after a second. “Maybe the disk is just a decoration or something. I’ve never seen a tracker with crystals on it, have you?”
    “No,” Sophie admitted. “But it still looks almost exactly like the trackers Sandor has sewn into my clothes.” She could feel the faint outline of one in the lining of her sleeve. “They’re gold, and they have slits where the crystals are. But the rebels probably went with sparkly silver so it would hide better in her tail.”
    “Right,” Jurek mumbled, sounding as tired and defeated as he looked. “I just . . . I’ve worked around the clock trying to keep Silveny safe, and when I tell the Council that the rebels managed to get past me . . .”
    “No one’s going to blame you,” Sophie promised.
    “Won’t they? The alicorns are my responsibility—and it’s not a responsibility someone like me is normally given. When I started at the Sanctuary, I was basically a poop scooper. And now I have