The First

The second installment of Katherine Applegate's Endling trilogy follows Byx, a young dairne, a member of a sentient species whose defining trait is the innate ability to detect lies. In this fantasy world, several governing species coexist, including humans, felivets (large, catlike predators), natites (aquatic beings), raptidons (intelligent birds of prey), terramants (horse-sized insects), and wobbyks (small, foxlike creatures). Dairnes' truth-sensing gift makes them both valuable and threatening to those in power. In the first book, the Murdano, the despotic ruler of the nation of Nedarra, ordered the slaughter of Byx's entire pack, leaving her apparently alone. She joined a band of companions and set out to find more dairnes, defying the Murdano's orders to capture them for his own use.

As the story begins, Byx travels toward the mountains of Dreyland, a neighboring country, with her companions: Kharassande Donati (Khara), a young human woman who carries the Light of Nedarra, a legendary sword disguised as a rusty blade; Tobble, a wobbyk who is Byx's closest friend; Renzo, a fifteen-year-old human thief; and Gambler, a felivet. They head north to find Tarok, a sentient island where Byx recently glimpsed what she believes was another dairne. While resting on a cliff-side meadow, they are attacked by razorgulls, knife-beaked birds that slash at them in formation. They retreat into a cave system and spend hours in total darkness before reaching a vast underground cavern.

There they encounter the Subdur natites, a translucent subspecies living beside a subterranean lake. Their queen, Lar Camissa, is hostile until Byx reveals her ability to verify truth. The queen demands they retrieve three sacred objects lost in a volcanic chamber as the price of their freedom. Renzo uses mathematical analysis to navigate through falling drops of magma, retrieving a shield and a stone box containing a jeweled crown and a leather cylinder. The cylinder holds glass lenses that magnify distant objects. Tobble claims it and names it the "Far-Near," a device of immense strategic value.

The group escapes through the volcano and descends to a Dreyland village, where they learn that a rogue felivet called the Kazar Sg'drit has seized power. The title is an ancient felivet designation meaning "absolute ruler without compassion," associated with a dark tradition of demagogues who provoke hatred of other species. A massive army camp blocks the river crossings the group needs, forcing them to seek a northern route to the sea. Along the way, Khara gives her beloved horse Vallino to Mailley, a young girl they happen to encounter on the road who clearly loves horses, in an act of compassion and sacrifice.

The group encounters Luca, a scholar from the rival Corpli family who previously betrayed them to the Murdano. Now a chained thrall, Luca is freed by Khara and provides intelligence about Sg'drit's methods: poisoning terramant food sources to force the insects into servitude, imprisoning tens of thousands, and systematically crushing species into obedience. The group then enters the Crimson Forest, which turns out to be an engineered worm farm feeding enslaved terramants. They fall into a massive pit, and Luca is killed by a flying creature. Khara, Renzo, Gambler, and Renzo's dog are captured and buried alive in tunnel walls by terramants serving the Kazar's agent, a monstrous hybrid creature called the Foreman. Byx and Tobble find their imprisoned friends. Tobble dons the natite crown, impersonates a wobbyk king allied with the Kazar, and bluffs the Foreman into releasing the captives. They also learn the terramants are digging a tunnel beneath the mountains for a surprise invasion of Nedarra.

The group reaches the Dreyland coast and steals a fishing boat, leaving a gem as payment. Tobble captains them to Tarok, where they find not a thriving dairne colony but an elderly dairne named Elexor and his son Maxyn. Elexor works for the Kazar as a truth-teller, verifying the stories of spies transported between countries on the sentient island. He is hostile rather than welcoming, but reveals that a dairne colony may still exist near the Pellago River in northwest Nedarra. Before they can leave, soldiers from a Kazar galley arrive. In the fight, Elexor is killed by an arrow. Maxyn, devastated, blames Byx but reluctantly joins the group as they commandeer the galley and free its enslaved rowers.

They escape a pursuing vessel by threading through a submerged reef, which destroys the enemy galley. Natites then intercept them and bring the entire boat, encased in an air bubble, to an underwater city. A natite official named Grendwallif questions them and identifies a powerful destiny spell woven into Khara's sword: a prophecy that it will be drenched in blood in a coming war. Pressed to reveal her purpose, Khara admits her dream of raising an army to stop the war, fighting for neither the Murdano nor the Kazar but to impose peace. Grendwallif releases them but warns Khara to remember her debt.

Back in Nedarra, the group travels overland to find Khara's father, Baron Donati, dying in a hidden treetop camp. The baron urges Khara to claim leadership of the Donatis despite her youth, warning that her cousin Albrit will challenge her. The challenge takes place on elevated platforms in the trees. Khara chooses Tobble as her second; in a display of wobbyk fury, Tobble defeats Albrit's massive second, Mountain Morgoono, in under twenty seconds. Khara then faces Albrit alone, revealing the Light of Nedarra and fighting with agility until she leaves him hanging from the platform by one hand. Rather than kill him, she offers him a position as her general, and he accepts.

Khara reveals a three-part plan: rally the Donati forces, make peace with the Corpli family and other exiled clans, and build a new governance rooted in truth, which requires living dairnes. She asks Byx to lead a separate expedition to find the Pellago River colony, since only a fellow dairne could earn their trust. Byx departs with Tobble, Maxyn, and Sabito Seventalon, a young riverhawk (a type of raptidon) sent by an allied raptidon chief.

The small group crosses the Nedarran plain, but soldiers spot them and Maxyn is captured when his horse is struck by an arrow. Byx agonizes over whether to attempt a rescue, but Tobble and Sabito convince her that the mission must continue. Tobble confesses his jealousy of Byx's closeness with Maxyn and his guilt over having wished the other dairne would leave. Byx reassures him, and they press on.

Following clues along the coast near the border with Marsony, a neighboring realm, they discover a hidden dairne fishing village at the bottom of a steep ravine. Dozens of dairnes live there, the colony having survived in isolation for ninety-two years. However, two Marsonian raider ships are blockading the harbor, and the village faces starvation. Byx devises a plan: Tobble sails an old boat packed with dry straw into the larger enemy vessel and sets it ablaze, while Sabito uses the updraft from the fire to carry Tobble to safety. Both ships burn and sink, and the grateful colony agrees to support Khara's cause.

Departing the colony, Byx and her companions are pursued by Murdano soldiers. Just as capture seems certain, thousands of armed riders pour from a nearby forest, flying banners of a "Free Nedarra." A lieutenant identifies himself as sworn to "the Lady Kharassande," now styled the Lady of Nedarra. Among the rescued prisoners, Byx finds Maxyn, alive but badly beaten. The group is escorted to Khara's camp, where Byx reunites with all her companions. Khara returns the carved stone Byx gave her, bearing the dairne motto "In truth lies strength," and declares it is time to stop a war and save the world. The story ends with the group reunited and a massive conflict ahead, setting up the trilogy's final volume.