In the dead of night outside San Michon’s stables, Gabriel assembled a makeshift war band: Keepers Logan and Micah, a dozen blackthumbs, Nasir the archivist’s assistant, several kitchen staff, grooms Kaspar and Kaveh, and the newly released Baptiste and Aaron. After persuading Prioress Charlotte with his fears about a hidden Voss strategy at the Twins, Gabriel received keys to the cells and a gift of sanctus phials. He dispatched Kaspar to warn the Golden Host and Kaveh to chase Greyhand with Laure’s blood-marked map, charging both to ride hard.

The sky platform descended with an unexpected reinforcement: two dozen armed members of the Silver Sorority led by Charlotte, including Sister Esmée, Chloe Sauvage, and Astrid Rennier. Charlotte asserted authority in the absence of Khalid and Talon and declared the sisters would fight to defend the empire. Gabriel privately challenged Astrid’s decision, but she insisted the war had reached their doorstep. With little time to argue, Gabriel accepted the sisters into the column.

Gabriel rallied the small host with a speech acknowledging their fear and invoking courage and faith, then the group set out—around fifty souls riding into winter toward the Twins. They endured relentless cold and scant rest as Charlotte led hymns while they pushed west. The road worsened; a lead wagon broke an axle, two sosyas froze, and several riders—four sisters and a blackthumb—turned back with frostbite. Despite Gabriel’s concern, Astrid remained unbroken and rode on.

After days of ascent into the pass between the peaks called Blood and Fire, a storm on the twelfth day forced part of the party, including Chloe, to remain behind to direct the Golden Host if it arrived. The rest proceeded on foot, dragging barrels through deep drifts and inching through the gale in wary silence. By sunset, the survivors reached the pass and sheltered in the lee of the watchtower of Sanael, the companion tower of Gabriel half-buried in snow.

Gabriel, Aaron, Baptiste, Charlotte, and the remaining sisters and brothers scanned the Talhost-side valley through lightning-lit snowfall. The slope was a deadly expanse where no living army could safely traverse, and for long minutes nothing moved. Fearing they were too late or mistaken, they persisted, peering through spyglasses as the wind eased.

In a stark flash of lightning, the truth emerged: an army of the Dead. Gabriel and Baptiste sighted thousands upon thousands of vampires climbing toward the pass, confirming Voss’s plan to use an undead host to cross where living men could not. The chapter closes on that revelation, with the tiny company poised to face an overwhelming force.