When the Moon Hatched

Raeve wakes in a room she doesn’t recognize. When a flash of memory appears in her mind, showing her a hollow cavity behind the mirror on the room’s wall that contains a leather-bound book, Raeve is disturbed by it but checks behind the mirror anyway. She only manages to glimpse a hollow cavity behind the mirror that matches her memory before the door opens. She hurriedly backs away as a woman enters, introducing herself as Kaan’s sister. It is clear that she does not like Raeve, but Raeve is unsure why since she’s never met the woman before. She gives Raeve a warning not to break Kaan again or else she will break Raeve. Raeve calls out to her as she leaves, demanding an explanation, and the name Veya slips from her lips. Veya is shocked that Raeve knows her name, but Raeve cannot recall how. Veya promises to work out what happened to her, leaving Raeve more confused.

Raeve dresses, grabs an expensive-looking candlestick, and leaves for town without anyone stopping her. Only Pyrok joins her after introducing himself. Reave is bewildered by the peace and contentment of The Burn. She learns that there are no public executions by dragons, young elementals are not stolen away for miliary service but rather attend Drohk Academy, and nulls are given the option to discover whether they have an affinity for runes, but if they do not, they may choose to study other avenues or gain an apprenticeship. Raeve allows Pyrok to lead her to the local Curly Quill shop under the guise of needing some quills and other supplies.

Pyrok reveals that the currency in The Burn is gold rather than the bloodstone used in other kingdoms. They don’t support the bleeding of dragons required to acquire bloodstone. At The Curly Quill, Raeve meets Vruhn—a man with milky eyes who possesses the Mindweft ability, which allows him to read minds. He’s aware that she’s come for dragonscale blades, iron blades, a bandolier, iron pins, and appropriate fighting garb—all useful items for her intended hunt for the bounty hunter Rekk Zharos.

He also detects a hidden depth in her “packed with more hurts and secrets than [he] can count” (444). When his gift pries further and discovers that she’s missing something vital that she doesn’t remember, he begins sobbing. He tells her the answer is within her, in the place where she hides everything. Raeve becomes angry. When he mentions an oncoming rain as he hands Raeve her sturdy bag of items, Raeve notes that she doesn’t sense an oncoming storm. Vruhn claims that she would if she bothered to listen for Rayne—the water god—and Raeve admits that she intentionally blocks that particular Creator out, as his songs are tears and bloodshed.

Kaan recruits Veya to help with the stubborn Elluin. Veya attempts to bring Elluin food, but she refuses to eat. One night, as Elluin sleeps in the hutch with Slátra, she is picked up by Kaan and carried into the Imperial Stronghold. He brings her to a bath, where Veya forcefully bathes her and apologizes for her brother’s behavior. Elluin still does not know Kaan’s name but doesn’t ask. She only stares mutely at the far wall until Veya offers to teach Elluin combat lessons. Elluin agrees.

Pyrok and Raeve stop at a bar for drinks, and Raeve attempts in vain to free the linchpin from her iron cuffs with the brute force of a thin metal sharpening tool. Eventually, Pyrok leaves for more drinks but never returns. Kaan slides into his vacated space. After watching her struggle, he deftly removes the linchpin with gentle extraction. While Raeve has taken notice of the benevolent way he rules his kingdom, she unleashes a torrent of hatred on Kaan for the cruel behavior of his brothers. Kaan admits that he’d love to eliminate his brothers but cannot wage war without risking many innocent lives—including the conscripted younglings and nulls whom Raeve so cares for. Raeve removes the málmr from her neck and offers it back to Kaan, thanking him for lending it to her. When he claims that the necklace was not lent but given, Raeve still refuses to keep it, admitting that it “means things [she] can’t give [him]” (464), and leaves the establishment.

Outside the establishment, a downpour begins. Though Raeve attempts to suppress Rayne’s song, the rain is too powerful and brings her to devastated sobs. Kaan follows Raeve outside and wraps his arms comfortingly around her. Kaan hums a familiar song to distract Raeve and calm her. When the storm stops, she asks him how he knows the specific song she thinks of as hers. Kaan admits that there’s something he needs to show her, and Raeve follows him.

Deep inside the Imperial Stronghold, Kaan leads her into a personal room of his, where he procures towels that they use to dry themselves off before setting back out. He leads her to the garden, where a hidden tunnel resides. They journey down endless stairs until they reach the bottom, where a silver light emanates. The circular cavern they emerge into has walls carved with Moonplumes—the same creature in hundreds of stances. Where the cavern floor dips in the center rests a massive silver moon made of collected shards. Kaan introduces the creature as Slátra and admits that he still has to locate her final shards.

While studying the Moonplume, Raeve can almost feel the sensation of being tucked within its tail, as if it were a memory. When she startles from the feeling, Kaan questions her familiarity with it. A memory arises of Raeve waking in a cage and seeing a cart filled with shards of silver brightness being wheeled away despite her pleas for it to stop.

Raeve pushes the memory away rather than accept it as truth, but Kaan presses her. He tells her that the dragon cradled her for 100 years, “breathing life back into [her] broken body until [they] both fell from the sky” (484). He implies that Raeve is Elluin, but Raeve refuses to believe it. She claims that Elluin is dead regardless of whether she fell with Slátra and tells Kaan that saving her life over and over again will never make her his.

Raeve stalks back the way they came but is followed by Kaan, who offers her a satchel of bloodstone for when she crosses the border, as he knows what she intends to do. He bitterly encourages her to continue to “chase death” and wishes that “[her] bloodlust brings [her] the same sense of peace [he] feel[s] just knowing [she] exist[s]” (488). He kisses her temple and leaves.

After her first fighting lesson with Veya, Elluin returns to Slátra’s hutch only to find the entrance locked. Kaan Vaegor waits beside it, sitting on the ground with a musical instrument, food, and the hutch key beside him. He urges Elluin to eat first and receive the key second. The food is spicier than she’s used to and makes her sick, but he unlocks the door to the hatch and is gone by the time she returns from the privy. The following day, he brings much milder food, which she eats before he unlocks Slátra’s cell. Every day, he does the same, and Elluin begins to look forward to their meetings.

Veya plans to set out for Arithia to search for Elluin’s diary. She and Kaan cross paths at the burrows, where she learns that Kaan is planning a trip and will be away for a month. A dragon from another village became rabid from a tick and torched half the area. Kaan and Grihm are dedicating themselves to hunting the poor dragon down. Veya mentions seeing Kaan lead Elluin toward his suite the previous night and accuses him of revealing the truth of Raeve’s identity to her too quickly. She disapproves of him being gone so long when he should be connecting with her and keeping her presence secret from Cadok and Tyroth. Though Kaan also disapproves of Veya’s plan to sneak into Arithia for Elluin’s journal, he doesn’t stop her.

Raeve decides to visit the nearby Loff forest’s depths out of curiosity before she leaves The Burn. Though signs claim that a dangerous brain-eating beast called a hushling resides inside, she believes it houses no such thing but rather something else that someone doesn’t wish others to find. She discovers a stone carving inside a tree—a three-dimensional depiction of Kaan’s málmar—and carries it with her. She eventually finds a stone wall that leads to a tunnel and then a set of stars. They lead to a small cavern, a cozy space clearly decorated for a loving couple. Raeve is assaulted by an intimate memory of her and Kaan on the bed within the room. With startling clarity, she realizes that the place is a relic of their love.

Kaan plays a song that Elluin recognizes as the song her parents used to sing to her when she was sick. The song makes her cry for everything she’s lost, and Kaan stops playing to hold her.