Overview

Six searched the Aisling grounds for missing Four as the abbess downplayed concerns and assigned gargoyle minders. One by one, Two, Three, and Five vanished despite locked doors and barred windows, leaving Six and One trapped and desperate. Six attempted to seek help at Castle Luricht but found the king and knights gone to the Seacht, returning with nothing. After One also disappeared and Six was injured by a gargoyle, a man slipped past the barred window at night—revealed to be Rory.

Full Summary

Six spent the day scouring Aisling’s grounds for traces of Four, accompanied by the batlike gargoyle ordered by the abbess to shadow her. Frustrated by the abbess’s passivity and the lack of a real search, Six rejoined the Diviners at dusk, where One, Two, Three, and Five argued about whether Four had run off or followed the knights. They resolved to secretly search the holloways and Coulson Faire the next night if Four did not return.

When the Diviners tried to leave, they found their cottage door locked. By morning, Two had vanished from the shared bedroom. During a paying Divination for a farmer, Six could think only of her moth vision and the missing sisters. She sought the abbess, finding her hunched over the spring in the cathedral, then followed her to the cottage to report the disappearances and recount the vivid moth dream of living Omens and writhing Diviners. The abbess rebuked Six for Divining without permission, dismissed the dream, and insisted the missing had simply run away, promising only tighter locks.

That night Six tricked the batlike gargoyle and fled for Castle Luricht to seek help. The gargoyle followed, tearful and attached, and together they reached the castle, only to be barred entry after midnight. A guard revealed that the king and knighthood had departed for the Seacht and could not be summoned. When drunken men accosted Six on the drawbridge, the gargoyle brutally broke one man’s arm, and Six returned to Aisling empty-handed. Back at the cottage, One slept at the vanity; Five had vanished.

The next day, gargoyles barred the windows with iron, locked the door even at dawn, and delivered meager food. Six and One, confined, debated the abbess’s motives and the Omens’ silence. In a moment of defiance, One removed her shroud, gasped in horror at her reflection, then retied it without explaining what she saw. Exhausted, they tried to keep each other awake through the night with stories and promises to find the others, but Six awoke to find One gone as well.

When a serpentine gargoyle delivered more bread, Six tried to escape, was seized, and thrown so hard she blacked out, waking at twilight with blood matting her hair and a fractured mirror reflecting only herself. Tempted to remove her shroud, she stopped, smashed the mirror, and waited in despair as night fell.

A shadow blocked the moonlight at the barred window; a small object dropped and was caught by a man who slipped through despite the iron. Six attacked, only to be overpowered. The intruder’s sneering recognition revealed him: Rory.

Who Appears

• Six — Diviner protagonist; searches for Four, confronts the abbess, attempts to get help at Castle Luricht, witnesses Two, Three, Five, and One vanish, is injured by a gargoyle, and is confronted by Rory.
• Abbess — head of Aisling; minimizes the disappearances as runaways, criticizes Six for unauthorized Divination, orders tighter confinement and gargoyle oversight.
• Batlike gargoyle — Six’s assigned gargoyle; fretful and emotional, accompanies her to Castle Luricht, breaks a drunk’s arm, escorts her back.
• Wolfish gargoyle — guards and unlocks the Diviner cottage; part of the security around Six.
• Falcon gargoyle — delivers water and stale honey bread to the locked-in Diviners.
• Bear gargoyle — bars the cottage windows with iron.
• Serpentine gargoyle — delivers bread; violently restrains Six, causing her to black out and bleed.
• One — Diviner; argues to search for Four, later removes her shroud and reacts in horror, then disappears overnight.
• Two — Diviner; disappears first from the locked cottage overnight.
• Three — Diviner; pushes against the locked door and argues to seek help, later disappears.
• Five — Diviner; present during planning and consolation, later disappears.
• Rory — knight; reappears at the end by slipping through the barred window, overpowers Six, and identifies her as his “least favorite Diviner.”
• Castle Luricht gate guard — informs Six that the king and knighthood are away at the Seacht and refuses entry after midnight.
• Drunken men on the drawbridge — attempt to accost Six; one has his arm broken by the gargoyle.
• Sprites — a following presence in the holloway; observe Six on her journey.