Ransey met up with Rian and Halbert at the edge of Fiddle at sunrise. The three of them set off further across the plains. By midday, they were in the forest at the border between Caerulis and Haren. At night they reached the small village of Marl on the cold plains of Haren. It was cold all year in Haren, but there was less snow in Green. Rian and Halbert could stop feeling the cold. Ransey shivered, pulling his cloak closer around him.

Ransey stopped at the inn for the night. Rian and Halbert rested on burial ground again, so they would both have energy if there was a fight. Hopefully there wouldn’t be a fight, but they were on their way to find a cult that was sacrificing people. They reached Noantha the next night. It was at least as big as Chayer, but it didn’t have a wall. The city looked much older than Chayer.

“I will go to the inn for the night,” Ransey said, shivering against the light snow. “I’ll meet you at the graveyard in the morning.” He walked away without another word.

Rian and Halbert went to the graveyard. It looked as old as the city, surrounded by an iron fence, with an iron arch at the front. Halbert seemed to stare at a tree at the far end for a while. It was hard to tell where he was looking with his hood up.

“This is where I met Norris, the night he went the same path as Arwel,” Halbert said.

Norris was the one who led Arwel on that path.

“Why here?” Rian asked.

“His plans brought him to Noantha,” Halbert said. “This is the only graveyard in Noantha.” He shook his head. “We should prepare for tomorrow, for finding the first cult.”

Neither of them said anything more as they took their cloaks off and let the burial ground swallow them. When the sun was rising, Ransey met them at the far end of the graveyard, right as Rian and Halbert were putting their cloaks back on.

“Where will we find the cult?” Halbert asked.

“Rian and I will find them further in the city,” Ransey said. “You must stay behind. If they discover you are undead, it will undo all I’ve done up to this point.”

“And Rian?” Halbert asked.

“The amulet Mortua gave him will only work for him as she created it for him,” Ransey said. “It will keep it hidden that he’s undead. I don’t know how it will work, but I’m sure Mortua thought this through.”

The last thing Rian wanted to do was put the amulet on, but there didn’t seem to be much other choice. He took the black stone hanging from a leather strap from his pocket. The rock felt wrong against the bones of his fingers and hand, but he tried to ignore it. He put the amulet on over his cloak. Nothing happened.

Ransey frowned. “I’m not sure what it’s supposed to do.”

The feeling of wrongness became much stronger, spreading all over him. Rian drooped to his knees, unable to stand for another moment. He was shaking all over. A pressure built up where his lungs ought to be. He breathed in suddenly, a long wheezing sound.

“Don’t touch him yet,” Ransey said quietly, somewhere behind him.

The wrongness remained, but the shaking had stopped. Rian reached up to take the dreadful amulet off, but it was gone. He caught sight of his hands. He had skin. He looked alive. He was also breathing, a strange feeling after so long of not doing it. Rian got to his feet slowly.

“What did it do?” Halbert asked, sounding worried.

Rian hesitated, then lowered his hood, feeling his messy black hair as he did. He turned to face Halbert and Ransey. The feeling of wrongness was still there. Every part of him felt wrong, like it shouldn’t be there.

“The amulet’s gone,” Rian said. His eyes were getting dry and he remembered to blink.

“What did it do?” Halbert asked again.

“It’s likely temporary,” Ransey said. “An illusion. We should hurry, before it wears off.”

Rian hoped it would wear off soon, but they did need to stop the cult. “Where are we going?” he asked.

“The cult is meeting this morning for a sacrifice,” Ransey said. “I’m hoping we’ll be in time to stop it.”

Rian looked at Halbert.

“I’ll be waiting here.” Halbert sounded reluctant.

Rian followed Ransey away from the graveyard, further into Noantha.

“I was told I could bring a trusted friend,” Ransey said. “You will play that part.”

They stopped outside a small, weathered stone building. Ransey took a rusty iron key from his pocket and unlocked the door. The two of them went inside. The main room was empty, but Rian heard something from below them. Stairs led up along the right wall, looking about to collapse. A door that led beneath the stairs was open a crack. Ransey opened it further, with a hand on the hilt of his sword.

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“They know you’re with the Sancta?” Rian asked.

Ransey nodded. “They have no reason to believe yet that the Sancta wouldn’t be on their side. They believe they’re doing the will of Mortua.”

The door opened to stone steps leading down, likely to a basement. Rian and Ransey started down. Halfway down, a torch on the wall lit the stairs. More light came from the bottom of the stairs. The basement was as big as the room above, but it looked much smaller with so many people crowded into it. The people in the room, women and men of various ages, hardly glanced at Rian and Ransey.

Torches and candles were set up around the room, along with black cloth hanging on the walls. There was a wooden table at the front of the room, with a young woman in a black dress laying on it. Her black hair was long. She struggled against the leather straps that were buckled around her wrists and nailed to the table. The man on the other side of the table wore black robes. He held a dagger with a dark, jagged blade. He was saying something about sacrifice and eternity.

“Follow,” Ransey whispered.

Rian followed Ransey along the back of the crowd, toward the right wall. A candle sat precariously close to the black cloth on the stone wall. Ransey knocked the candle over with his boot. The candle fell against the cloth, the flame quickly catching and spreading all along the wall.

“Fire!” someone shouted.

The man at the front of the room had paused with his dagger raised. Ransey ran at the man, making his way through the panicked crowd quickly. Rian followed. The air was barely breathable, thick with smoke. The other people in the room were running up the stairs. Rian felt something inside of him, a feeling that was odd even among the wrongness all over him. Ransey drew his sword, the blade glowing with light. The man at the front of the room dropped the dagger and ran after the others.

Ransey sheathed his sword, the light along the blade going out. He took up the dagger and slid it into his belt, next to his sword. He undid the leather straps on the woman’s wrists and helped her to her feet. By then the room was empty, other than the growing cloud of smoke. Ransey, Rian, and the woman hurried up the stairs and out into the brisk Noantha air. The cultists were nowhere to be seen.

“You have a home to go to?” Ransey asked the woman.

She nodded. “Thank you.” Her voice shook. She ran off into the city.

“I’ll inform the knights of the fire,” Ransey said. “Meet me at the graveyard.” He walked away without another word.

The odd feeling from before was gone again, but the wrongness wasn’t. Hopefully the amulet wouldn’t last long, but if it had disappeared, how would he use it for stopping the other cults? Not that he wanted to use it again. He decided to worry about that later and headed back to the graveyard. Halbert was still waiting there.

“We stopped the sacrifice,” Rian said. “Ransey has the dagger. He started a fire and went to tell the knights.”

Halbert laughed. “I’m sure he won’t tell the knights that he started the fire.” He was silent for a moment. “The amulet hasn’t worn off yet.”

“Hopefully it will soon,” Rian said.

“You want it to wear off?” Halbert asked.

Rian nodded. “It feels…wrong. It’s uncomfortable.”

“Mortua wouldn’t want to make it pleasant for you,” Halbert said.

Rian thought about that odd feeling he’d had in the cult’s basement. What had that been? Was it because of the amulet?

“That was quicker than I expected,” Ransey said, walking toward the two of them. “I have the dagger. We should return to the Sancta.” He frowned. “I doubt the other cults will be so easy. It took me a long time to infiltrate this one.” He shook his head, regret in his eyes. “There were a lot more sacrifices than the one we stopped, ones we weren’t in time to stop.” He turned away. “Let’s go.”

The three of them started back through Noantha, back toward Caerulis. They reached the village of Marl at night. Rian felt something he hadn’t in a long time. He was tired. It was a different sort of tired than needing to rest on burial ground.

“You look weary,” Ransey said, staring at Rian.

Rian nodded.

“Are you hungry?” Ransey asked.

“No,” Rian said.

Ransey frowned. “I’ll have a room at the inn if you want to sleep somewhere warm.”

Rian and Halbert followed Ransey inside the inn. They sat at the table with him while he ate.

“The dagger?” Halbert asked.

Ransey set the dagger on the table without a word and continued eating.

Halbert took the dagger carefully and looked it over. “There’s a dark enchantment on this, but I don’t know where it came from, or who could have created it.”

Rian stared at the dagger. Something dark moved in the blade. He had a bad feeling when he looked at it, but it wasn’t the same as the bad feeling from Mortua’s amulet. Halbert was right about the dark enchantment.

“Do you see it too?” Halbert asked, looking in Rian’s direction, though it was hard to tell with the hood of his cloak up.

“There’s something dark in the blade,” Rian said.

“At least Mortua’s amulet hasn’t interfered with your magic to that extent,” Halbert said. “If you need sleep, I will stay here as well.”

Ransey frowned. “There’s a graveyard nearby.”

“I will stay here if Rian does,” Halbert said.

Rian didn’t protest this. He didn’t want to be left alone with Ransey. When Rian woke up in the morning, he didn’t feel rested. Somehow he felt worse, and the effects of the amulet still hadn’t worn off. After Ransey had breakfast, the three of them set off across the plains, which had a layer of frost on them. It was still a long way to the forest, where it would get warmer the closer they got to Caerulis. Rian shivered, pulling his cloak closer around him.