The Lightlark Saga, #1
Lightlark
by Alex Aster
Contents
Chapter Six: Bondbreaker
Overview
Celeste warns Isla not to trust Grim, even though his clue suggests the first Centennial demonstration may involve a duel. The chapter shifts Isla’s focus from dangerous alliances and seduction schemes to the bondbreaker, a hidden relic that could break her and Celeste’s curses at a potentially fatal blood cost. To begin the search, Isla secretly steals disguises for infiltrating other realm libraries, deepening her role as an active schemer inside Lightlark.
Summary
Isla brings two smuggled swords to Celeste’s quarters, explaining that Grimshaw’s hints suggest the first Centennial demonstration will be a duel. Celeste distrusts Grim and warns Isla that he is likely trying to use them, not help them. Isla accepts the warning, reminding herself that Grim is a distraction and that she refuses to follow Terra and Poppy’s plan to seduce Oro for his power.
Celeste redirects Isla to their real strategy: finding the bondbreaker. Celeste has discovered a manuscript describing a giant glass needle that can break inherited bonds, including curses, but only at a deadly blood cost. Isla and Celeste plan to share that cost, hoping the relic will free both their realms without needing to win the Centennial’s promised power.
The bondbreaker is hidden somewhere in a Lightlark library, but Isla and Celeste do not know which isle’s library contains it. Celeste will search Star Isle’s library first, while Isla prepares to infiltrate the libraries of Sun Isle, Moon Isle, and Sky Isle. Isla needs disguises because her dark hair and clothing would expose her identity, so she plans to use Wildling hair-tinting elixirs and steal appropriate realm-colored garments.
After midnight, Isla sneaks out of the castle and memorizes landmarks as she travels toward the agora. The route stirs memories of how Terra used books as rewards for successful training, making Isla’s love of reading another tool her guardians controlled. When Isla reaches the marketplace, she finds it transformed at night into a lively, open, music-filled scene.
Isla avoids the main streets and breaks into the tailor’s shop through a back door, using lock-picking skills learned from watching thieves and later used against Poppy and Terra. Inside, Isla steals a white Moonling dress and a light-blue Skyling outfit, but finds no gold Sunling clothes and wonders why Sunlings may not use the same tailor. After hiding silently for half an hour while two men linger outside, Isla escapes with the disguises and returns to the castle, one step closer to searching for the bondbreaker.
Who Appears
- Isla CrownPowerless Wildling ruler; prepares for a duel, rejects seduction tactics, and steals disguises for the bondbreaker search.
- CelesteStarling ruler and Isla’s ally; warns against Grim and directs their plan toward finding the bondbreaker.
- GrimshawNightshade ruler; absent but influential through his duel clue and Celeste’s warning about his danger.
- TerraIsla’s guardian; remembered for training Isla harshly and planning for her to seduce Oro.
- PoppyIsla’s guardian; associated with Isla’s restrictive upbringing and the abandoned plan to steal Oro’s power.