Then—as the sun cleared the treetops and the first ray of light struck the Oathstone—the ground shivered. The Oathstone itself sank slowly, finger by finger, into the green grass. Kieri struggled to keep his voice steady. As the Oathstone sank below ground level, leaving a smooth shaft behind, the ground heaved up, then down, as if it were an ocean wave. Kieri staggered as it subsided beneath him, around him and the Oathstone’s shaft, spreading as it lowered until he stood below a circular dyke.

The Oathstone, once more almost waist-high, stood in front of him. An old skull, the earth still clinging to it, poised delicately on top, its ancient grin challenging. Though he had not seen the skull in the dark at Midwinter, he knew this was the same one.

Kieri looked around. His court lay scattered in disarray on the dyke; most had fallen as the ground rose, but Arian stood, arms outstretched for balance. He looked at them, then at the skull and the level circle around it. On two sides, sunrising and sunsetting, gaps in the dyke led away into the King’s Grove.

He bowed to the skull. “Elder,” he said. “Be at peace.”

Justice is worth more than peace.

“True, but you have earned your rest.” He picked up the skull and once more kissed its forehead. “There will be green leaves for you, or a place in the royal ossuary, as you wish.”

My people were here, and here their bones remain, but scattered. Build them a house, O king, and you will have my blessing.

“It shall be done,” Kieri said, laying one hand on the skull and one on the Oathstone. “My word on it.” A song of thanksgiving seemed appropriate; he began the one he knew best, and his court—somewhat raggedly—joined in. As they sang, bones rose from the soil, through the grass, and the grass grew together again beneath them. Soon the ground within the dyke was covered with bones—bones that slid clicking against one another to form assemblages—one skeleton after another.

Kieri felt the hairs standing up all over his body, prickling, but he sang on even as other voices faltered, welcoming the bones back to the light in words he had never heard before. Was it even his voice singing? He was not sure.

Finally all the bones lay still. Their arrangement resembled the layout of the royal ossuary, with aisles between the rows of skeletons. Kieri walked among them. They had been long in the earth, but under the dirt he could see some trace of color here and there, less crude than he had expected.