The Only

The third and final installment of the Endling trilogy is set in a world where six "governing species," dairnes, felivets, natites, raptidons, terramants, and humans, share a fraught coexistence shaped by an ancient peace pact. The narrator, Byx, is a young dairne, a doglike creature with silky white fur and the innate ability to detect lies. Once believing herself the last of her kind, an "endling," after the Murdano's soldiers slaughtered her family and village, Byx has since discovered a tiny surviving colony of dairnes and joined the Army of Peace, a force assembled not to wage war but to prevent one.

The army is led by Kharassande Donati, known as Khara, the Lady of Nedarra. At her side she carries the Light of Nedarra, a sword enchanted by theurgy, a form of magic in this world. The army's purpose is to stop a brewing conflict between two tyrants: the Murdano, who rules Byx's homeland of Nedarra, and the Kazar Sg'drit, a valtti (a rogue, outcast felivet) who rules Dreyland to the north. Both leaders want war; their peoples do not. Byx's closest companions include Tobble, a small, foxlike wobbyk with three tails and fierce loyalty; Gambler, a massive black felivet; Renzo, a former thief; and Sabito, a sharp-eyed raptidon, one of the great predator birds.

Khara asks Byx to serve as ambassador to the natites, an aquatic governing species whose cooperation could prevent the Murdano from invading Dreyland by sea. Byx, Tobble, and Renzo travel underwater to Jaureggia, the sprawling undersea palace of Queen Pavionne. The golden-scaled queen reveals that natites communicate over vast distances through whale song. Her true demand is that the next ruler of Nedarra must allow a natite observer at all council meetings, ensuring transparent governance. In exchange, she will fund the Army of Peace and stop the Murdano's navy. Byx returns with a firm alliance and a fortune in jewels, and Khara agrees to the terms.

At a war council, new allies arrive, including mountain warriors from the Perricci Mountains led by Woad and Stimball, a raptidon who serves as adviser to the powerful Lord Rorid Headcrusher. General Varis, Khara's chief military commander, explains the strategic threat: the Kazar has enslaved terramants, giant insectlike creatures, forcing them to tunnel beneath the mountains. His army will pour through onto the undefended Zebaran plains. Tobble proposes a bold idea: raptidons could airlift wobbyks over the mountains, since wobbyks are light enough to carry and ferocious when provoked. Khara sends Byx and Tobble to recruit fighters from Tobble's home village of Bossyp. Before they leave, Byx says farewell to Maxyn, a fellow dairne still recovering from injuries, who reveals his own mission: to sail to a lost dairne colony and recruit truth tellers for the hoped-for peace.

Traveling alone on horseback, Byx and Tobble pass through Gaziko's Ezkutak, a cursed forest where an ancient sorcerer annihilated an entire species called the Caddalites. They encounter Stump, the last Caddalite, a severed head fused to a tree stump, condemned to speak in forced rhymes for eternity. The encounter devastates Byx, who sees a mirror of her own possible fate. In the Lucabena Wood, they meet ragglers, tiny glowing creatures covered in poisonous spikes who communicate telepathically. The ragglers offer to help: carried by wobbyks, who are immune to their poison, and transported by raptidons, they could form a combined airborne strike force.

At Bossyp, a vibrant underground village of 61,000 wobbyks, Byx proves her identity by correctly detecting truths and lies before the bileraka, the wobbyk governing council. Elder Diggle agrees to commit wobbyk fighters on one condition: that Byx advocate for wobbyks to become a governing species. She promises without hesitation, and 609 fighters assemble.

Lord Rorid Headcrusher, a legendary raptidon of breathtaking size, leads hundreds of raptidons in the airlift. Each raptidon carries a wobbyk holding a raggler. A violent snowstorm kills three teams, but Rorid pushes above the clouds. They arrive at the village of Broog, where Woad's surviving 50 mountain warriors face a thousand Dreylander soldiers. The raptidons dive from the sun, dropping ragglers whose poisonous spikes incapacitate soldiers on contact. Wobbyks pour into the broken enemy lines. Rorid kills the Dreylander general, and Byx saves Rorid by throwing her sword to deflect an arrow. The Dreylanders surrender.

Among the fallen, Byx and Tobble discover Naleese B'del, Lenka of the Urbik River Valley, a wounded young female felivet. Back with the Army of Peace, Naleese reveals she is Gambler's former mate and that he has three kits held hostage in the Kazar's dungeon. Her true message: the oppressed felivets of Dreyland need Gambler to lead them against the Kazar. If the Kazar is removed, his army will not invade. Gambler agrees and departs for Dreyland with Naleese.

The Murdano's navy has left port, though the natites will stop it. The army begins a grueling march across the Perricci Mountains, battling snow and altitude sickness. From a stone ziggurat at the highest pass, Khara surveys the converging threats. She decides to ride ahead on a new horse, Victory, with only Byx and Tobble, hoping to negotiate before the armies clash. On the descent, bandits ambush them, and an arrow strikes Khara in the chest. Renzo, who has secretly followed against orders, rides in to rescue them and performs emergency surgery, chanting theurgic healing spells for six hours. Despite her wound, Khara insists they press on.

They reach the Zebaran plains as both armies converge on Soraskivelt, a site whose name means "Field of Slaughter." The Murdano's 20,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry, and Knights of the Fire face the Kazar's terramant swarm and Dreylander spearmen. Khara rides Victory into the no-man's-land between the armies and challenges both tyrants to single combat under ancient ritual. Byx publicly reveals that Queen Pavionne will stop the Murdano's navy, undermining his strategy. The Kazar accepts the challenge. The Murdano sends his champion, Chimera, a massive theurgically created monster.

Khara kills the Kazar after a fierce exchange of blows. Gambler and Naleese, who have infiltrated the Kazar's retinue, block his guards from interfering with felivet allies Gambler recruited from within the Kazar's own forces. Chimera hurls a spear into Khara's wounded shoulder, and she falls to her knees, but she props the Light of Nedarra upright on the ground. When Chimera kneels to finish her, he impales himself on the blade. The Murdano then advances on the helpless Khara. Byx and Tobble stand between them. Tobble charges the tyrant and is flung aside. The Murdano disarms Byx, but Khara, barely conscious, extends the hilt of the Light of Nedarra. Byx grabs it, steps inside the Murdano's swing, and drives the blade through his heart, crying out for her slaughtered people.

With both tyrants dead, the armies agree to a truce. Over eight days of negotiation, representatives of all species produce the Declaration of the Seven, proclaiming an end to interspecies war, governance by rulers chosen by their people, and the placement of dairne truth tellers in every realm's council. Wobbyks are recognized as a seventh governing species. Gambler and Naleese receive temporary rule of Dreyland. Khara accepts temporary leadership of Nedarra but refuses the title of queen.

Byx and Tobble depart to bury the bones of Byx's slaughtered family. The entire Army of Peace lines the road to see them off. At the massacre site, Byx gives in to long-suppressed grief, digging a grave and laying her family to rest while Tobble plants a sapling. Riding home, Byx discovers Phantom Mere, the lake where she was always too afraid to swing from the vines as a pup. This time, she climbs the branch, kicks off, and lets go.

An epilogue set 10 years later finds Byx working as a Gharri, an honored scholar, at the Academy on the Isle of Scholars, restoring the dairne level of the Pillar of Truth, a monument commemorating the governing species. Khara, now Kharassande the Great, serves as elected High Governor of Nedarra. She and Renzo have five-year-old twins. Tobble has married and works alongside Byx. Gambler and Naleese have visited with their four children. When Khara asks whether any of them miss the dangerous old days, all four say no. Byx notes, with a dairne's certainty, that all four of them have lied.