Princess Aelindra Starweave knelt on the throne room floor and gathered slivers of her mother's tiara into her purple skirt. The silver band had broken at dawn, when the sky above the castle cracked open and dropped a burning stone through the roof. Seven gems were missing. Without them, her family lost its claim to the seven star systems her grandmother had bound to the crown. She counted the pieces again. Still seven gaps. The court would meet at sundown to name a new heir if she could not prove the tiara whole. Aelindra ran to the highest tower and pushed the shutters open. She scanned the sky for any trail of light, any hint of where the gems had flown. Clouds. Rooftops. Nothing. "Your Highness." She turned. Her mother's old guard captain, Aldric Lightbringer, stood in the doorway. He had trained her with a wooden sword when she was six. He had also refused to kneel when the council tried to seat her cousin last winter. His helmet was under his arm, his blond hair damp with sweat. He had run up the stairs. "I felt the strike," he said. "Where did they fall?" "I don't know. That's the problem." He set the helmet on the sill and pressed his gauntleted palm flat against the stone. A white glow bled from the star-shaped mark on his breastplate and ran down his arm. The light spread across the tower wall, then out through the window, thinning into a wide net over the city. Aelindra had seen him light a dark corridor before. She had never seen him light half a kingdom. "I can find bright things," he said. His jaw was tight. "Hold on." The net pulsed once and pulled back. Six threads of light snapped taut, each pointing a different direction over the horizon. One went straight down, into the palace grounds. "Six," Aelindra said. "There should be seven." "Six is what I've got." She ran down the stairs with the shards knotted in her skirt. Aldric followed. The thread that pointed down led them across the courtyard to the winter garden, where a mound of purple snow glittered against the wall. It had not been there yesterday. The garden was not cold enough for snow. Aelindra pushed her hand into the drift. The crystals hummed against her fingers. She dug until she touched something hard and warm, and lifted out a violet gem the size of a plum. One of hers. "One down," Aldric said. "Five to find. And one I can't see at all." Aelindra closed her fist around the gem. The court would meet at sundown. She would not be there. She looked up at Aldric. "Saddle two horses," she said. "We leave before the bell."