Overview

Six, Rory, and the gargoyle track the Ardent Oarsman to a hidden basin and stone castle above the waterfall. Inside, the Oarsman reveals his limestone body, his wealth hoarded by influence, and his power to traverse water with a stone oar. After he seizes Six and threatens her, Six wounds him and denounces his false divinity. Rory challenges the Oarsman to a match of vigor in three days, but the Oarsman demands that Six be the one to face him if they want answers about the missing Diviners.

Full Summary

Six and Rory shadowed the Ardent Oarsman through the shadows along the mountain path, seeing him lift a stone oar into the waterfall and vanish, revealing his ability to travel through water. Unable to climb the sheer cliff, Six persuaded the gargoyle to fly her and Rory up over the falls to a hidden tableland with a vast, still basin feeding the Tenor River and a crude stone castle guarded by sleeping shale sprites.

They crept past the sprites and knocked at the castle door. The Ardent Oarsman, tall and cloaked, answered; when he drew back his hood, he revealed a limestone face with fanglike teeth. He invited them into a cold, unlit hall that held a water pool, a stone throne, and mountains of dusty gold, which he said Aisling’s gargoyles brought him as tribute to an Omen.

When Rory declared the king would take up the mantle, the Oarsman ignored him, dipped his oar into the pool to teleport, seized Six by the throat, and dragged her onto his throne, threatening her and Rory while commanding the sprites. Seeing Rory’s signal to her tools, Six drove her chisel into the Oarsman’s leg, spilling his blood and escaping back to Rory and the gargoyle. The sprites did not attack, as the Oarsman was focused on himself.

Six demanded truths about Aisling and the fate of the Diviners. The Oarsman boasted of his river power and refused to yield, but offered knowledge if Six stayed. Six rejected him, calling him a mortal profiteer, a facade who hoarded wealth built on the suffering and dreams of Diviners, and asserted that without Diviners like her he would be nothing.

Provoked, the Oarsman laughed and refused to reveal the Diviners’ fate. Rory then challenged him to his craft, a match of vigor that ends only when strength is spent, potentially to the death, and demanded the oar and answers upon victory. The Oarsman granted three days to prepare but set a condition: because Six sought the answers, she must be the one to face him in the challenge.

Who Appears

• Six — Diviner protagonist; tracks the Oarsman, is seized and threatened, wounds him with a chisel, denounces his false divinity, and is named as the required challenger.
• Rory — the king’s knight; escorts Six, signals her to use her tools, challenges the Oarsman to a match of vigor with three days to prepare, but must accept that Six will fight.
• The gargoyle — companion; scouts the heights, carries Six and Rory over the waterfall, assists in the approach, and witnesses the confrontation.
• The Ardent Oarsman — Omen; limestone-bodied figure who teleports via a stone oar, hoards gold delivered by gargoyles, threatens Six, is injured by her, and demands she face him in a deadly challenge in exchange for answers.
• Shale sprites — stone creatures; guard the castle, awaken at the commotion, remain inert without command.
• Benji — the king; offstage undergoing the rite in the basin below, providing cover while the confrontation occurs.
• Aisling’s gargoyles (in general) — group referenced as the Oarsman’s couriers of wealth.