“Shattered,” Ramin said. “He shattered when he hit the ground, and I couldn't just leave him there. But the rest of him was too heavy for the horse. So...”

Beko stepped forward and knelt before the head, just out of touching distance. He looked at it for a while, then stood and backed away. “He still has his silver earring.”

“And Ramus did this?” Nomi asked. “You saw him?”

Ramin shook his head. “He ran from us, hid inside a burial cairn. Konrad went after him while Lulah and I faced each other down. He wasn't gone for long, and when he returned he was already... infected.”

“How did Ramus do it?”

Ramin shrugged. “I don't know. But he said he'd given Konrad the words you seek, and that Konrad could carry them back to you.”

“This is bad magichala,” Rhiana said. “Very bad. This is cursed work, and we should have nothing to do with it.”

“Just where are we going?” Ramin asked. He darted at Nomi, his usually cheerful demeanor now hard as stone.

Nomi took a step back but the big Serian had stopped before her. “The Great Divide,” she said.

“I've known that for a while. But what's there? Where do those pages come from that you and Ramus are so keen to own?”

“I own them,” she said. “I bought—”

“Nobody owns such cursed magichala,” Rhiana said. “It's of the shadows and wilds. Beko, I'm telling you, we should turn around and go back.”

“What's there, Nomi?” Beko asked. “You said you'd tell me when the time is right. I believe now is that time.”

“I can't—” Nomi began, shaking her head.

“You will,” Rhiana said, “or I'll be the first to leave. And once one goes, others follow, and soon it'll be you, Ramus and that fool Lulah, with no one to protect you from whatever it is you seek.”

“Can't be protected,” Nomi said quietly. “Not from a Sleeping God.”

Silence fell like a mist of rain, cooling them all and concentrating their attention back on Konrad's head. His eyes were half closed, his mouth open in an endless scream of pain.

“They're a myth,” Rhiana said, but Nomi saw the fear in her eyes.

“A wanderer found the parchment pages at the foot of the Great Divide,” Nomi said, “on the body of someone who had fallen. I bought them. They showed what Ramus believed to be an unknown language that could have come from the top of the Divide, and images that hinted at a Sleeping God buried up there.”

“You should have told us,” Beko said.

“Would you have come?”

“No,” Rhiana said.

“Yes.” Beko nodded. The others were silent, but Nomi sensed their uncertainty.

“I can't tell you any more than this,” Nomi said, “because it's all I know. But Ramus has been edgy ever since we left. Almost afraid. He must have started translating some of the parchments. What happened to Konrad is a tragedy, and I'm sad for the loss of your friend. But it shows that whatever is up there has or had knowledge no one else on Noreela possesses, or has ever possessed. Except in story.”