For the journey south, Carred sat up front with the driver while Orix slept fitfully in the back, Noni seated beside him, watching the hills and the trees go by with childlike awe. Talia hadn’t said a word since the night before. The driver was an older Niyandrian man who responded to Carred’s attempts at small talk with grunts. Every now and again he would glance behind at Orix and shake his head disapprovingly while making a circle of his thumb and forefinger—the Niyandrian ward against demons.

Poor Orix. When Carred had bought food as they waited for the cart to pick them up, Orix hadn’t been able to feed himself, with his eyes and mouth in the wrong place. Carred had helped, but chewing had been messy, and Orix had gone hungry. He’d tried to speak, but his lips and tongue were uncoordinated, as if his brain had trouble communicating with them now they had been relocated to his forehead. Perhaps when this was all over, Talia would deign to restore Orix to normal, assuming her ability with the earth-tide was comparable to Tain’s. And if not her, perhaps Anskar would. He and Orix had been friends, at least until Carred had come along.

Little by little, the surrounding countryside grew familiar, until at last the cart drew up at the brink of a hill, where the road descended toward a vast building site a mile or so distant: Naphor, the place of Queen Talia’s defeat and, later, of Carred’s at the hands of Eldrid DeVantte.

“Here and no further,” Noni said, standing and climbing down from the cart. “We must not be spotted by a patrol.”

The sun was low on the western horizon, and there was no activity upon the scaffolding surrounding the massive keep that was nearing completion. A few dark specks were moving about the mud-churned streets, amid stone buildings that had been repaired with thatch and wood. The mainlanders lacked the skills of Niyandrian stonemasons, but even so… It was one step up from hovels built with dung.

Carred hopped down and reached into the bed of the cart to shake Orix awake. She felt guilty rousing him to the realization of what he had become. He groaned, the eyes on his chin blinking blearily and his misplaced lips curling into a snarl. She guided him to the ground.

She dragged the net that contained the armor from the back of the cart.

Carred paid the driver, who snapped the reins and headed back north without a word.

“Follow me,” Noni said as she walked towards the woods.

Carred hefted the armor to her back, looped her arm in Orix’s and followed.

“I have not been idle during my time in the realm of the dead,” Noni-Talia said. “It took some persuasion, but there are spirits here with me who are impossibly ancient, and who know a thing or two. Tain only discovered one of the missing ingredients, which is why he could not have returned even if he’d wanted to. Have you guessed what the other one is yet?”

Noni stopped and slipped her hand inside Carred’s shirt. She brought out the ring on its slender chain that Talia had left for Carred.

“Void-steel?”

“So, you worked out what the ring is made of.” She released the ring and walked on through the trees.

“I had help.” Marith had been the one to identify the ring.

“And do you know what it is for?”

“It saved me from the sorcery of Luzius Landav, when he took me some place to meet with some secretive rich types from the mainland in the hope that I would betray the rebellion.”

“Fortuitous,” Noni said, “but not the ring’s intended purpose.”

“Which was?”

“You will see soon enough.”

“Void-steel is demonic,” Carred said.

A pained look crossed Noni’s face.

“I used a little in an experiment with the vambrace Anskar now wears. It had unfortunate side effects, and the vambrace developed a sort of animal sentience, which I was able to train to some extent. The vambrace clings to Anskar like a loyal dog, and it does harm to others who may try to use it. I now need more void-steel to add to the armor you retrieved from the seabed.”

“Hence the ring?” Carred said.

“More than that. Ten times that amount, at the very least.”

They came to a clearing overgrown with brambles. The ruins of a mansion stood smothered by creepers, a huge oak growing up through the remains of the roof.

“Go inside,” Noni said. “There is a closet in the entrance hall. Within, there is a pouch containing star metal. Take this and leave the armor inside. It will be safe here. Few know of this place, and fewer would dare to come here.”

“Wait here,” Carred told Orix, then fought her way through the undergrowth until she reached the partially collapsed portico.

Inside, the vegetation had not only invaded but taken over. Crumbling walls had plants growing in the cracks, and the ceiling was bowed and split down the center. Black mold speckled every surface, and the air smelled of pepper and loam.

Farther in, Carred came to a hallway where the floor at the far end had rotted away, revealing the flooded basement below.

She opened the door to her left onto a large closet. As Talia had said, there was a drawstring pouch inside, partially hidden behind a bucket and a mop. She took the pouch and tied it to her belt, then removed the mop and bucket to make room for the armor.

She couldn’t leave the ruined mansion fast enough. Noni then guided them around the edge of the estate to a narrow stone path carpeted with moss. They followed it through dense forest for perhaps half a mile until they reached some kind of folly in a circle of yew trees. The structure at the center was the height of a tall man and perhaps three feet across. It had eight paneled sides of some dull metal, green with patina.

“What is this place?” Carred asked.

“Something my father built long before I was born.”

Carred looked Noni in the eye. Talia had seldom spoken about her father, and then only in hints and shudders.

“Tell me again,” Noni said. “Are you loyal? Can I trust you?”

Carred nodded.

“Hand me the ring.”

Carred pulled the chain over her neck.

Noni took it and ran her fingers over the surface of one of the panels until she located what she was looking for: barely discernible, a circular indentation largely obscured by an accumulation of patina and moss.

Noni placed the ring in the indentation, and that section of the outer wall swung open.

“Step inside,” Noni said.

Carred released Orix’s arm. “What about him?”

“Noni will look after him, don’t you worry.”

“Noni? Or you, Talia?”

“We will not speak this way again, my love. Anskar needs me, and your task is almost done.”

Warily, Carred crossed the threshold into the narrow chamber. The walls were eight panels of reddish stone, darker than ruby and veined with black. Her scalp tingled and she felt queasy. The air was filled with a low thrum that caused her innards to vibrate.

“This is a portal chamber,” Noni-Talia said from outside. “A crude version of the portal stones that were instrumental in bringing about the demon wars. It took my father a long time to construct. A very long time.”

“What now?” Carred asked. Every instinct told her to get out now, while she still could. Assuming Talia would permit that.

“You must go to Vulthrax. Trade with the ruling lord.”

“Where in the world is Vulthrax?”

“It’s not in this world. Tell him I sent you. That will intrigue him, if nothing else.”

“Trade?”

“Star-metal is inimical to demons, which is what makes it so valuable to them—for killing one another, but also for study, so that one day they might find a remedy for its effect on them. It is found nowhere in the abyssal realms, but void-steel they have, though it is rare.”

“You want me to go to—”

But Noni slammed the door shut.

The thrum built in Carred’s ears till it sounded like a cascading waterfall. The red stone of the walls started to glow, the black veins that webbed it throbbing…