Chapter 85

Violet discovers that Faris poisoned Garrick with fermented zakia berries in the cake. Using her father's field guide, she identifies the antidote and forces Faris into an alliance by threatening his sons with a dragon positioned at their location. The squad then flies to Zehyllna and arrives at the capital city of Xortrys to a massive, cheering crowd and an inexplicable surge of magic.

At the dining hall, Ridoc is attacked by the cook with a knife but the blade only grazes his flight jacket, infuriating him over the damage. Violet realizes the cake was poisoned when Garrick collapses with shallow breathing. She consults her father's field guide and discovers zakia berries cause poisoning, treatable with fig or lime to the throat within an hour. The group works to get Garrick to swallow a fig slurry; he revives after four swallows. When Xaden learns Faris poisoned Garrick, he nearly kills him in rage until Violet intervenes, bringing Xaden back from what appears to be dragonrider bloodlust. Violet then blackmails Faris into an alliance by revealing she knows about the arinmint poison used in the cake, that a dragon guards his sleeping sons, and that Garrick is the Duke of Tyrrendor through his mother Talia. Faris drinks the antidote after she threatens exposure. The squad flies through the night toward Zehyllna, and by midday they reach the mainland and fly inland toward the capital city of Xortrys, where they encounter a massive crowd in an amphitheater-like clearing that cheers their arrival. Violet senses a wave of magic in the air, unfamiliar and unsettling.