Shield of Sparrows

Zavier and Odessa begin daily walks together. After five days, Evangeline joins them, though she is still shy around Odessa. The Guardian interrupts their walk one day to deliver serious information to Zavier in private. Evie whispers to Odessa, mentioning sick monsters. When Odessa later asks Brielle and Jocelyn if they’ve heard anything of the sort, Brielle reveals only that she’s heard a few warriors talking about men going missing from Treow. Jocelyn has heard others talking about King Ramsey recruiting more men for his militia. With time passing and no information surfacing about Allesaria, Odessa decides she needs to be more proactive.

With help from Brielle, Odessa schemes to temporarily escape from Treow. She convinces a merchant to give her a ride to the nearby town of Ashmore. Upon arriving, she asks how the town keeps monsters out, but the merchant claims that they don’t anymore.

As Odessa heads for a nearby inn, she hears a familiar laugh nearby. She spots the Guardian smiling and chatting with a beautiful blonde woman just outside a nearby tavern. Odessa tries to ignore her jealousy as she watches him escort the woman inside. She books a room at the inn, but when she enters her accommodations, she finds the Guardian waiting inside.

The Guardian is livid. He insists that they will return tomorrow and that she will never do anything like this again. Speaking freely for the first time, Odessa says that she will fight him if he even attempts to take her limited freedom away. The Guardian asks why she didn’t just ask to explore Ashmore: All her other requests have been granted, and this would have been no different. Odessa is surprised to discover that she hasn’t been as caged as she thought. The Guardian slips out her window, leaving Odessa alone to eat dinner and go to sleep. Just as she becomes comfortable, however, the Guardian returns and rips the pillow out from beneath her head, settling himself on the floor for the night for her own protection.

The next morning, Odessa wakes to a note from the Guardian: He has business to attend to but asks her not to wander far. Odessa relishes the freedom he’s given her to explore on her own. Odessa finds the town library burned, just as King Ramsey did to the one in Treow. Nearby, she crosses paths with Cathlin, who seems amused that Odessa snuck into Ashmore.

Odessa asks Cathlin questions, and she is more forthcoming than anyone else, informing Odessa of tunnels beneath the city meant to protect the people from the crux. The tunnels weren’t deep enough in the past, and everyone died. However, they’ve since been improved, and the town’s inhabitants are hopeful about the next migration. Cathlin also mentions that King Ramsey has withdrawn his soldiers from most towns, likely because he wants residents to move to the cities, where they can be better protected. Odessa suspects that he might be keeping his subjects under watch for some unknown reason. Her deductive skills impress Cathlin, who thinks the same. The clinking of warning bells around town interrupts their conversation, and everyone races inside as the clicks of bariwolves near.

Odessa and Cathlin run to take cover in the inn. However, Odessa spots a woman being stalked by a bariwolf and can’t stand to leave her. Odessa whistles, drawing the bariwolf’s attention to her instead. She is cornered between two bariwolves, but just as one launches itself at her, the Guardian tackles it. He urges Odessa to run for cover as he faces off against the monsters. Odessa becomes concerned when one manages to cut the Guardian’s arm. Several more emerge onto the street, leaving the Guardian alone against nine monsters. The blonde from the tavern the previous night lets Odessa and Cathlin into the inn and hides after pointing Odessa toward the crossbow. Odessa loads the weapon just before a bariwolf crashes into the inn. It kills the blonde before Odessa can react. Though she manages to shoot it in the chest with a bolt, the injury barely even slows it down.

Cathlin and Odessa run upstairs, where Odessa loads another bolt. On the street below are five dead bariwolves. The Guardian is bloodied but still fighting against the remaining three. However, Odessa realizes the Guardian is slowing and will lose the fight, so she climbs out the window and onto the balcony. Odessa then aims the crossbolt, shooting one monster in the leg, buying the Guardian time to behead it. A one-eyed bariwolf turns and flees, leaving its partner alone for the Guardian to kill.

As Odessa relaxes, the fragile balcony collapses; she falls to ground level but is relatively unharmed. However, at the Guardian’s panicked shout, she notices movement behind her. The bariwolf from inside the inn launches itself at her but is killed by the Guardian’s thrown sword before it can reach her. It lands partially on top of her, seeping green blood. The Guardian helps Odessa to her feet, but by the time Cathlin emerges from the inn, he has left.

Odessa helps dig graves for the 17 people who died in the bariwolf attack. When the Guardian returns to her room that evening, he is drunk. When he calls her by her nickname, Sparrow, Odessa asks him why. He simply states, “Because you’re a bird” (335), which she doesn’t understand. Odessa asks about the bariwolf that bled green. He reveals it is a sickness called Lyssa that has infected the monsters and made them more feral.

The following day, Odessa says goodbye to Cathlin, who is staying in Ashmore a little longer to visit a woman with whom she’s in love. Odessa is surprised when the Guardian hugs Cathlin before they depart. The Guardian and Odessa share a single horse as they begin riding toward Ellder, where Zavier is waiting.

Odessa falls asleep in the saddle and has a nightmare in which Mae holds a knife to Odessa’s throat after their father orders her to kill Odessa. Brielle and Jocelyn lie dead on the floor before them. When Odessa wakes, she is slumped against the Guardian’s chest. They are looking out over a cliff, and Odessa feels wonder and peace as she takes in the view. The Guardian tells her about how his mother took him here as a child just to sit in silence. While it felt like punishment back then, he has now come to appreciate it. Odessa finds that she doesn’t want to move out of his embrace and that she enjoys learning more about him.

They reach Ellder fortress shortly after nightfall. The Guardian escorts her to a private room, where all her belongings are, and she realizes that she won’t be returning to Treow. When the Guardian prepares to leave, Odessa grabs his wrist to stop him because she isn’t ready to be alone. He gestures to her hair and tells her that she doesn’t need to hide who she is in Turah or with him. When he leaves, she dumps her hair dye out the bedroom window.

The following week, Odessa falls into a routine of spending a few hours with Evie each morning. She quickly becomes deeply attached to Zavier’s daughter. Both Zavier and the Guardian have been gone since the night Odessa arrived. One day, Evie takes Odessa to the dungeons of Ellder, where there are secret books hidden. In the dungeons, they find Luella and Cathlin, and Cathlin loans Odessa a few books from the secret collection.

Zavier and the Guardian finally return. Zavier reunites with Evie and invites Odessa to dinner that night, which she accepts. She finds the Guardian waiting outside her room after she leaves Zavier and Evie. He gifts her a sword and invites her to train with him.

A week passes with the Guardian teaching Odessa how to wield her sword. Though their training is just as brutal as it’s always been, she enjoys it. A tension simmers between them, and Odessa feels increasing guilt that she is attracted to the Guardian instead of Zavier.

When Zavier leaves on business, Odessa overhears the Guardian calming a distressed Evie. He invites Evie to travel with him to Treow the following day to retrieve Odessa’s horse, Freya. He invites Odessa to accompany them as well.

On their journey to Treow, Odessa reveals her heritage to Evie, who learns that Odessa is a princess like herself. When Evie falls asleep, Odessa pries further into the Lyssa illness. The Guardian reveals that the infection spreads by bite and makes the monsters feral; they kill for enjoyment rather than necessity. He reveals that Turah has only known about the infection for the past four years. The Vosters have been studying the infection since then and don’t believe the crux are associated with it.

As Odessa learns more about the illness, she realizes the root of the Guardian’s abilities: He is infected with Lyssa. The Guardian removes the carved cuff on his arm to reveal a scar beneath it. The bite is from the one-eyed bariwolf they faced in Ashmore weeks ago. He is the only known human survivor of Lyssa. Odessa, who now considers herself part of his country and his family, asks what they can do to stop Lyssa from spreading. The Guardian states that they will kill all the monsters, including him. He jokes about how happy it will make Odessa’s father once she completes her mission, revealing that he knows she was sent to assassinate him.