Feor took Raesinia down a long flight of stairs and into a long underground corridor, lit by hanging lanterns. They passed a heavy-looking door, which a young man in a gray robe bolted behind them, then bowed and withdrew.

“You’re not a Penitent Damned,” Raesinia said. “Obviously.”

“No.”

“But you’re . . . you have a demon.”

“My people would say I am a naathem.” Feor smiled slightly. “As are you.”

Raesinia blinked. “How—”

“Naathem can sense one another’s presence. As you sensed mine.”

The old woman at the warehouse, and that priest, Ionkovo. Raesinia hadn’t fully considered the question, but it made sense that if she could somehow feel other demons, then they could feel her, too. That might make it more difficult to hide than I thought.

“Janus asked me to speak to you,” Feor said. “In fact, his plan was eventually to move me into the palace, to be a . . . tutor to you. Obviously, that scheme has been overtaken by events.”

“You work for Janus?”

“I suppose I do, though I prefer to think that we are allies.” Feor chuckled. “In truth, it is Winter Ihernglass to whom I owe a debt. He saved my life when by rights we ought to have been enemies.”

Raesinia had met Winter only briefly, at a few official functions before the departure of the Army of the East. “He’s the one commanding Janus’ battalion of women, isn’t he?”

“Yes, I believe he is.” For some reason Feor’s smile grew wider. “In any event, Janus and I share an enemy, and that is what is most important.”

“The Church,” Raesinia guessed. “The Priests of the Black.”

“Yes.”

“Why? What did they have to do with you in Khandar?”

Feor hesitated a moment. “My own history is . . . complex. I was born to a secret sect of our religion, whose purpose was to safeguard knowledge of the naath. I learned very little of our history, but I believe the group I knew was a remnant, the remains of a once-mighty organization that had withered away over the years. We were taught that the abh-naathem—you call them the Penitent Damned—would stop at nothing to destroy us, because they craved the power of the Thousand Names. When the Redeemers overturned Khandar, they got their chance.”

Raesinia nodded. “Janus told me their agents tried to kill him and take the Names.”

“The rest of my sect was killed trying to protect the Names. It was Winter who showed me that it was not my duty to die with them. The gods have another purpose in mind. I believe they allowed the Names to fall to Janus because he will use them to finally break the power of the abh-naathem once and for all. My task is to help him as best I can.”