The safe haven appeared on the horizon like a memory of a world that no longer existed.
Elias had expected a fortress, a grim military installation bristling with weapons and barriers. What he saw instead was a green island, its slopes covered in trees, its shoreline fringed with pale sand. Smoke rose from cooking fires, and small boats bobbed in a sheltered bay. It looked like a place where people lived, not just survived. The sight of it made his chest tighten with something he couldn't name.
The Endurance was already anchored in the bay, its hull patched and its deck crowded with the survivors from Sanctuary. A cheer went up as the black ship rounded the headland, and Elias saw figures waving from the shore. Children, mostly. The ones they had saved.
"We made it," Lyra said, her voic
