They walked their horses right to the forest’s edge. Then under the first few moss-covered branches. Then deep into the shadows. The cliffs behind them disappeared. The Shataiki let them march ahead, content to watch from the cliff. There was evidently no need to guard trespassers who’d already committed themselves to the pit of death.

Johnis put his hand up to stop them, dropped from his mount, and handed Silvie his reins. “Wait here.”

“Where are you going?”

“We’re not the only ones who want this,” he said, tucking the Book of History under his arm.

He hurried into the forest, counting trees. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. He scanned the trees above him—no Shataiki that he could see—then he kicked at the ground, which was covered in ash and moss. He set the book in the hole he’d made and quickly covered it with moss. Satisfied that it looked pretty much untouched, he hurried back to where Silvie waited.

“Forty-nine trees in, seven trees south,” he said, swinging back into his saddle. “You and I are the only ones who know.”

Johnis wondered if he’d made a mistake telling her where he’d hidden the book. But if he couldn’t trust Silvie, he could trust no one.

The first Shataiki didn’t show up in the trees for another half hour; then they made themselves known with flapping and hissing high above. If Johnis wasn’t mistaken, some whispering was mixed in with that hissing. These beasts could speak.

The farther in they went, the thicker the trees grew and the darker it became. They’d grown accustomed to the smell, but the thought of this putrid air working its way into their lungs made Johnis nauseated.

“How far are we going?” Silvie asked in a thin voice.

He looked at her and saw that she’d resigned herself to following him. Truth be told, he wasn’t sure he could be trusted, but they were committed now. From the beginning of this whole mess, since battling over the Horde football, he’d trusted his instincts, moving when and where his gut told him to move. So he would continue doing the same.

But look where it had gotten him! Elyon help him. They could use Billos and Darsal now.

“ ‘In the west, the Dark One seeks Seven to destroy the world,’ ” Johnis said, recalling the inscription on the stone. He looked up at a bat that swooped down and then shot back into the canopy, screeching. “We’re here because the Dark One lives here.”

“And he’s seeking the six missing books,” Silvie said. “So we go until we find this Dark One.”

“Teeleh.”

She set her jaw and stared ahead. “The worst he can do is kill us, right?”