“It’s okay. It’s going to be okay. The keep could hold off an army and the town has walls. The villages just have to be evacuated and then the capital will send an army. And the Twins! And the Hunter’s Guild is already sending four [Undead Hunters] with their escorts.”

That sounded…good. But Cara was uneasy.

“How did that happen? Do those undead just—pop up?”

“We don’t know. Everyone thinks the [Necromancer] found some sort of graveyard.”

Cara had been trying to eat porridge. Now she stopped again.

“Graveyard?”

“It’s the only thing that makes sense. That’s the only way so many powerful undead could appear.”

Violetta looked at Cara. The [Singer]’s stomach twisted into a knot.

“Oh no.”

“What? It’s fine—Cara, Lady Risel says that even an army of two thousand couldn’t—”

Cara stood up.

“No, no. I need to—I need to tell someone. I know what he found. It’s—the tomb.”

The [Cellist] looked at Cara with confusion. Incomprehension. Then—mounting dread.

“What tomb? Cara? Cara? What tomb?”

——

“The Tomb of Afiele. The sacred place of our dead for millennia. In it rest…tens of thousands. Perhaps hundreds. Powerful bodies. That’s what he found.”

Lord Lantal stood there and stared down at the map. It was of Afiele, and old. A map only he was allowed to possess. Even then—it had no marker for the Tomb of Afiele. Only the Lord of Afiele knew where it was. To keep it hidden, to keep it safe.

But it was open. Cara, the strange foreigner, stood in front of him. Her face was pale. Her story…unbelievable.

She had spared him most of the details. But the ghost? Her accidentally arriving in the tomb and somehow breaking out? He wouldn’t have believed it if he didn’t see it with his own eyes.

But he believed her after he had heard her describing the grassy knoll, the location, right next to Idelt and Violetta’s village. He believed Cara.

And now, Lantal of Afiele knew how many the [Necromancer] had. Enough to bury Afiele in bodies. He had found the source of Afiele’s bountiful fields. The source of their magic.

An army of the undead.

“We have to evacuate Afiele. If we can—we need to head north. Grishen—your lands are at risk too. We might need to travel all the way to Ovela. Menorome needs to send Noelictus’ entire army.”

“You must be joking. Evacuate Afiele? It can’t be done.”

The old [Duchess] shook her head. She stared at Cara, and then at the map. Lantal rounded on her.

“What else can we do? That is the Tomb of Afiele. Can you imagine what a [Necromancer] could do?

With that many bodies and that much death magic?”