As Thurvishar gestured toward a portal, Kihrin saw what had missed his attention earlier: the D’Lorus wizard wore an intaglio-cut ruby ring on each hand. One of those had been worn by Thurvishar’s father, Emperor Sandus. Which meant the second had to be one of the enchanted rings Sandus had distributed to his secret agents, allowing them to report back directly to him. Directly to Tyentso, now.

“Where did you find a second ring—?” Kihrin started to ask.

“It’s yours,” Thurvishar said. “From the items Gadrith stripped from you. I suspected it would allow me to contact whoever held the Crown and Scepter of Quur, whether that person happened to be my father Sandus or not.”

“May I see one of those rings?” Qown asked.

“Not right now.”

“Thurvishar, why didn’t you tell me we could—” Janel began, then shook her head. “Never mind. Smart thinking. I admit I had assumed we’d never see the army in time. The normal protocols—”

“Sometimes you have to move faster than the normal protocols,” Tyentso said.

“Where’s Relos Var?” Senera asked.

“Excuse me?” Emperor Tyentso said. “Relos Var’s here?”

“Not exactly,” Kihrin said. “He went over the falls. Either dead or so injured it doesn’t matter.”

Senera stopped walking for a moment, grief plain on her face.

“He’ll heal, though,” Qown said to Senera. “Relos Var will be back.”

“Not in time to help,” Kihrin replied. “And he hadn’t yet told us where to find Morios’s Cornerstone. Apparently, we need to destroy that too, if we’re to have any chance of permanently killing that damn monster.”

“Then you’re lucky I have that information,” Senera said.

Thurvishar glanced over at Kihrin. “I told you we’d need her.”

Imperial forces were leading refugees down the road from Atrine, past the hill where the army was encamped. Kihrin counted no fewer than eight magical portals, each with their own green-clad D’Aramarin Gatekeeper attached. Kihrin started to protest that he knew most sorcerers powerful enough to open a random magical portal, and these weren’t them. Then he realized these weren’t random. Someone had burned a complex combination of geometric and magical symbols at the base of each gate. Kihrin grappled with a sudden desire to question the Gatekeepers about exactly how Gatestones worked, but quelled the urge. At least someone in the Quuros army knew how to set up temporary Gatestones, and they’d been used to bring in troops and equipment.