Synopsis
Sun Tribe warrior Veyra returns wounded to find sister-priest Nyssa claimed her title. She trades a beast core for a merfolk sacrifice and pries Thalos free. Branded unclean, she endures ten years in exile with him until a beast tide drives her back to save hunters Nyssa abandoned. Someone freed a beast-king cub whose fire-brand brought the tide killing eleven; Nyssa reports Veyra, demanding she bind with serpent Fenrik or burn. On the clan stage Thalos's salt-crystal memory reveals Nyssa opened the cage. Fenrik long crossed into godhood, and to finish what he failed before he drains Rhus's blood to become dragon. Thalos drops his guise, lifts the sea-god's trident, shields Veyra with his last pearl. Before, she died at the pass while Fenrik watched; Thalos found her body, sank the tribe that let her fall, paid his life to turn time back. She wakes in a sea-floor hall after a thousand winters, scarless, his face bearing the mark he kept for her, lets him carry her into the sea.