We flew past the Dry Lands and into the Ring of Worship: a mountainous posy of craggy peaks and unscalable heights that protected a small, barren circle of sand. There was little that could be called life there; nothing but tiny, horned lizards and unhealthy shoots of brown moss. An unknown cataclysm—Vernasha perhaps, as Lord Garindor believed and Agnarr claimed—had corrupted what history swore was a lush, fertile greenscape, and four of the Five Great Heroes had met their ends here. How, no one had ever been certain.

The rest of the daeva were already present, but they gave the broken circle of mountains a wide berth, their reluctance to draw closer obvious.

“She is here,” the Dark asha murmured as we disembarked. “She is not even hiding it.”

“What happens now?” Zoya asked.

“Say and do nothing until Tea orders it,” Kalen told her. “You could have stayed with Kance, you know. Shadi would not be happy, you coming along.”

“Shadi isn’t here. And we need a representative from Kion to see this through. Empress Alyx would appreciate my efforts.” She leaped to the bone witch’s aid when the latter stumbled, her breathing uneven. Kalen sprang to her other side, arm hooked underneath hers.

“Are you sure about this, Tea?” the Kion asha asked, biting her lip. “You aren’t well. You cannot think to go there and confront Druj in your weakened state.”

“I am not going to get any better, Zoya.” The Dark asha straightened. “It would do you and the bard well to stay outside the ring and let the rest of us enter.”

“I didn’t come all the way here to be banned from fighting. I can feel the wards, and they’re far too strong to unravel.” Lady Zoya paused, looking down. A sob rose from her. “I’m sorry. I haven’t apologized, have I? All those years waiting for the right time, never realizing there would never be one until I made it so. I’m sorry.”

The Dark asha laughed her little, golden laugh. “You’ve apologized many times over with actions rather than words…but I am happy, all the same.”

“We’ll go in with you, and we’ll come out together. Years from now, we’ll laugh about our foolishness. Just you wait.”

“But how?” Lord Khalad asked. “With the wards in place, none of you can use spells.”