Gale ran into the graveyard, stopping to catch his breath. “The Sancta attacked Blossom and Leaf’s village. Only a few Ectu escaped to Veron.”

Eiva was on her feet swiftly.

“Leaf and Blossom are on their way to the castle,” Gale said, then he rushed off. His mother, Odell’s first wife, had been an Ectu from Blossom’s village.

Rian, Halbert, and Eiva went to the castle. Ninette and Odell were seated on their thrones, with a smaller chair beside Odell, where Gale sat. Leaf and Blossom were already there, both of them pale, but not wounded.

“The Sancta Knights attacked late in the night,” Blossom said. “We met up with other Ectu on the way here…” She looked away.

“The Sancta attacked all the other Ectu villages in the forests.” Leaf’s voice shook. “Those of us in Veron are the last of us.”

Gale’s hands clenched the arms of his chair. He stared at the floor.

Blossom looked at Ninette and Odell, but Ninette spoke before Blossom could.

“If the forest at the mountains, north of Veron, is truly Tarthala, it is yours,” Ninette said. “The legends say Ectu magic opens the way. Clearly the forest belongs to the Ectu.”

The tension went out of Leaf’s and Blossom’s shoulders.

Blossom smiled a little. “Thank you. The Ectu will aid Urvus against Acra.”

Leaf nodded. “Those of us who can fight will remain in Veron, then we will retreat into Tarthala with the wounded and the young.”

With that, the preparations for the war moved even faster. The Ectu helped prepare for the war. Gale wanted to learn more about his Ectu magic, so Leaf agreed to teach him. As the heir to the throne of Urvus, Gale wouldn’t be allowed to accompany them to Isley, but he said if the war came to Veron, he would fight for Urvus.

The same morning the Ectu arrived, Leaf had gone to the edge of the forest and had opened the way with his magic. The Ectu could enter Tarthala. The children and those who had been wounded by the Sancta went to the forest while the rest of the Ectu and half Ectu stayed to help with the war.

Rian helped at the forge through the day. He kept his cloak on with the hood up, not wanting to frighten the others at the forge. Few knew that Rian and Halbert were undead. The sun had long since set when Rian and Halbert returned to the graveyard. As Rian let the ground swallow him, he wished he could believe Trivius was just lying, but then why did Rian have Ruari’s memories? The memories felt real, but they didn’t feel like his own memories. As soon as he was beneath the ground, he saw a familiar musty cave.

It was dark, but he could see the cave all around him. No hands reached for him in the darkness. The dead knew they had his attention.

“Stop fighting your memories,” the raspy woman said. “Ruari is needed again. You are needed again.”

“I’m not Ruari,” Rian said. “Those aren’t my memories.”

“That is who you are,” a man said. “It is who you’ve always been.”

“It’s who you always will be,” a young girl whispered right behind him. He didn’t dare turn around.

“These memories are yours,” the raspy woman said.

The cave faded away. Rian knew what was coming and tried to fight it, tried to wake back up in the graveyard, but he couldn’t. The dead weren’t going to let him wake up until he saw the memories. Ruari stood on the wall of Derwen early in the morning.

A low fog hung across the plains, obscuring anything below the wall. Behind him, he could barely see Derwen itself through the fog. Dion joined him on the wall. This time, the memory wasn’t silent.

“I went to the library and found out more about Trivius,” Dion said.

“What is he?” Ruari asked, looking over at his friend, away from the fog obscured plains.

“There wasn’t much about him,” Dion said. “Trivius is a being Quidvis and his children defeated long ago. His bones are said to be in the forest, around where we found that shrine. That’s all I found.”

“There has to be more to it than that,” Ruari said.

Dion shook his head. “I don’t care if there is. I want nothing to do with that shrine, or with Trivius.”

Ruari looked out at the fog again.

“Don’t go back out there,” Dion said. “Think of your wife.”

Ruari looked at his friend again. “I didn’t tell her what we saw that night.”

“Good,” Dion said. “Don’t tell her. Don’t tell anyone. And stay away from that shrine.” He turned and walked away, vanishing into the fog.

Ruari left the city late that night, heading out to the forest. He found the shrine more quickly this time, standing before the stone slab that was the altar. There were no apparitions this time. Trivius didn’t appear. Ruari headed further into the forest, not going far before he found what he was looking for. The huge bones were barely buried in the ground, barely obscured by the forest. Half a giant skull was uncovered, with a long, curving horn. A flicker of red light came to life in the eye of the skull.

“Who are you?” Ruari asked. “What are you?”

“I am the true God of Death,” Trivius said.

“Then what is Mortua?” Ruari asked.

The red light flickered again, then it flared brighter.

“She is an impostor. A pretender,” Trivius said. “Quidvis and I had a disagreement and he sought to replace me. But he cannot truly replace me. His weak children cannot take my place. I know Ivrua now worships these children of his. They used to worship me, and Virida worshiped me the most. Quidvis created his children, and together they tried to destroy me, killing all the undead they could find. They also killed my priests, but they could not take the true land of the dead from me.”

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Ruari thought about this. “Then what is the place Mortua takes the souls of the dead?”

“It is a lie,” Trivius said. “She calls it the land of the dead, but it is not. She does not allow all to enter it. Some souls are held captive in her Sanctum.”

Ruari sat on the big rock behind him. “Her Sanctum?”

“All of Quidvis’s children have a Sanctum, a place that is theirs to control,” Trivius said. “Quidvis has a Sanctum of his own.”

“And you?” Ruari asked.

“I do not need a Sanctum,” Trivius said. “I have the land of the dead.” The red light flickered angrily again. “Or I did before I was weakened, unable to leave this place. I do not need a Sanctum, but I have one. The Bone Garden.”

“And no one else knows you’re here?” Ruari asked.

“I have been forgotten,” Trivius said.

Ruari had an odd feeling Trivius was staring through him, looking at his soul.

“You have the potential for necromancy,” Trivius said. “I have already given you the magic.”

Ruari had a bad feeling about that. “You gave it to Dion as well, didn’t you?”

“I did,” Trivius said, “but his potential is not as strong as yours. If Mortua discovers the magic I have given you, she will destroy you.”

Ruari tensed. His wife would be in danger as well.

When Trivius spoke again, his voice was more gentle. “Help me take back Virida and show the world the truth Quidvis seeks to hide, that I and not Mortua am the God of Death.”

Ruari didn’t think he had much choice, but he wanted to do this. Trivius’s words had the feel of truth to them.

Ruari stood from the rock. “I will help you.” He hoped he wasn’t making a terrible mistake.

A red light flowed into him. He felt it spreading throughout him, burrowing deep inside of him.

“You will be my Speaker,” Trivius said. “Return to Derwen. You will know when the time comes to return to me. Then we will begin.”

Ruari returned to Derwen. The power Trivius had given him had no visible effect on him, but he could feel it inside of him, changing him.

At last Rian woke up, returning to the surface of the graveyard in Veron. The sun was rising. He put his cloak back on with the hood up. Halbert was already up, with his cloak on. Rian didn’t know what to think of what he’d seen, of what he’d heard.

“Did you see more of those memories?” Halbert asked.

“I did,” Rian said, “but they’re not mine. This time I heard Ruari’s voice in the memory. I’ve always heard the voices of the dead, but there was another voice, a separate voice. It was Ruari’s voice, but I haven’t heard it since Trivius was sealed back into the Bone Garden.” That had been when a part of Trivius went into Rian.

“What happened in the memory?” Halbert asked.

Rian told Halbert everything.

“It seems we have only more questions,” Halbert said, “but I think it’s safe to say you are not Ruari.”

“If he’s in me, why is he hiding from Trivius?” Rian asked.

Halbert shook his head. “Perhaps something happened to him when a part of Trivius went into you. Or the part of Trivius in you is not as strong as he seems. Maybe he and Ruari can’t interact.”

That didn’t explain Ruari’s silence. Even now, he remained silent. Had Ruari’s soul been destroyed when Rian sealed Trivius away? Eiva joined them in the graveyard, then the three of them set off to continue preparing for the war. Gale was at the forge again that morning, but his eyes were the same light shade of purple as Leaf’s.

“Did you make a pact with an animal?” Rian asked.

Gale nodded, smiling tiredly. “It took most of the night. I’ll be better able to protect myself now.” The smile faded. “And the city, if it comes to that.”

Late in the day, Rian returned to the graveyard. For a moment he stood there, letting himself not see, while the energy of burial ground flowed into him.

“Long day at the forge?” Halbert asked.

“We’ve finished with the weapons and armor,” Rian said, letting himself see again. “How did it go at the apothecary?”

Halbert sighed. “The apothecary saw my hands. He didn’t want to work with an undead, so I helped the Ectu with their preparations. They know the two of us are undead, but they believe Leaf and Blossom that we can be trusted.”

Eiva hurried into the graveyard. At the look on her face, Rian was worried Tierney’s army had come to them.

“Ransey was found outside the city wall,” Eiva said.

“Found?” Halbert asked.

“He’s badly wounded, but alive,” Eiva said. “We’ve taken him to the castle.” She frowned hard. “He had Knowledge Unending with him.”

Rian and Halbert went with Eiva to the castle. Ransey was in a small room upstairs. Blossom stood beside the bed, tending to his many wounds. Ransey’s dark brown hair was dirty and sweaty. His eyes, barely open, were even darker brown. The pupil and iris blocked out the whites. He breathed in sharply as Blossom wiped blood away from a deep wound on his arm, giving a glimpse of his sharp, brown stained teeth.

Ransey still wore the armor of a Sancta Knight, and the cloak was hanging over the end of the bed, but everything was stained and torn. Ransey looked too thin, as though eating flesh wasn’t quite enough to sustain him.

“What did Mortua do to you…” Blossom muttered.

“I do what my lady bids me to do,” Ransey said, his voice raspy. “Without question.”

“Maybe you should ask more questions,” Halbert said.

Ransey glanced at Halbert, his expression unreadable. “You asked too many.”

“You took Knowledge Unending from Tierney?” Eiva asked, joining Blossom in cleaning and bandaging Ransey’s wounds.

“I took it from his library,” Ransey said, “but I was discovered.” He closed his eyes, not opening them again until Blossom and Eiva had finished and Blossom had left. “Where is the book?”

“Leaf took it to the library here at the castle,” Eiva said.

Ransey stared up at the ceiling, a terrible hopelessness in his eyes. “Mortua knows what Dienia has done, but not why.”

“Then she hasn’t made a move against Dienia?” Halbert asked.

“Not yet,” Ransey said, “but the time has come.” He closed his eyes again. “I have failed my lady. I’m too wounded to face a goddess in her Sanctum.”

Halbert took a step closer to the bed. “You couldn’t have faced a goddess alone. All of us together may not be a match for Dienia.” He said nothing more for a moment. “I know you have doubts about the path Mortua has led you on. Perhaps we can help you. It’s not too late.”

“I don’t want your help,” Ransey said, but there was no conviction in his words. He didn’t open his eyes, his breathing getting deeper and steadier.