Chapter Twenty-Four
If Ilsevel had been disposed to resent Tyllanthine for leaving her sister and Phineas to encounter all the risks of Warethorn Rose, she was shortly obliged to reconsider, for Tyllanthine certainly had not been idle. A succession of coaches brought the victorious party to the gates of Mirramay, and hastening through them shortly afterwards, Ilsevel found a city transformed.
When last she had stepped through those vast, majestic gates, she had discovered her erstwhile home to be abandoned, save for rag-tag bands of darkling fae wandering hither and thither. Her heart had ached sorely at the sight of its once-grand houses tumbling down, its wide, airy streets soiled with litter and debris. The palace had been worse, far worse, for it was stripped of its treasures; what r
