"The Plain of Tartarus. Have you seen it before?" asked Kismet, and Henry shook his head.

"Only heard stories."

They perched high up, in the entry to a tunnel, looking down on a vast cave. Henry could only see with his echolocation, yet the sight was still impressive. Far below him, the floor was taken by the single largest gathering of rats he had ever encountered. They must have been hundreds—sleeping, fidgeting, nursing their wounds.

The three of them had left Luxa with Howard and their fliers behind in the cave where they had camped. Their chances of being spotted sank with the number of people going, and this mission was too risky to endanger the queen. If we do not return by tomorrow, you will press on without us, he recalled Kismet's final words to Howard before she, Henry, and Thanatos had departed. Bring her home.

"So what wait we for? Can you not smell where she is?" asked Henry.

"You really ought to practice patience. I know how to reach her, yet the tunnel we must enter lies close to the ground." Kismet pointed at an entrance with the tip of her tail. "They will spot us instantly. We wait until they leave or their attention is diverted, then we move."

Henry made a face but understood they had no choice. Waiting—how much he hated waiting. What was there to do? Out of sheer boredom, he started rummaging in his backpack, and suddenly an enticing smell caught his nose. How had those even gotten in here? Henry reached for and produced the almost empty pack of . . . cookies. Right, he had taken all the food items from the Overlander during the quest to follow the nibblers. He must have forgotten to give them back.

The unsuspecting pack brought with itself a pang of unwanted memories, but he ignored it for the sake of focusing on the delicious smell it emitted. He had not eaten dinner, and the cookies may have been old but still utterly irresistible. "Want one?" He held the pack up in front of the others.

Thanatos shook his head, but Kismet sniffed curiously. "I was wondering about that sugary smell."

Henry passed Kismet a cookie and ate another. At least now he had the sugary sweetness he had been so deprived of for such a long time, distracting him from his boredom.

"Oh, no, these are exquisite," exclaimed Kismet after gobbling hers up and snatching the entire pack from him, only to discover it was empty now.

Henry managed a crooked smile. "There's a taste to die for."

They fell silent again after that; maybe an hour went by as they watched the gnawers go about their business. He and Thanatos told Kismet more tales about their adventures in the uncharted lands, and Henry found himself glad to be away from Luxa, at least. Here, the atmosphere was almost relaxed.

At one point, Thanatos moved closer, yet he did not bring up his earlier outbreak. Henry made himself aware that he still needed to talk to Thanatos about what he had announced to Nike and Howard, but then the cave below finally seemed to liven up.

As though it were morning, the gnawers began chatting and gathering in small groups. Henry peaked his ears and was able to make out some of their banter. To his disdain, it was nothing they did not already know. Mere mindless chitchat about the war, about the Bane, and gloating about how the humans would never crack their code.

When he picked up the line, "—should have really pursued the diggers. We could have used their tunnels," Henry frowned.

He turned to his companions to ask how in the world the gnawers had presumed they might involve the diggers of all species in yet another war that did not even concern them. Yet before he could, a clear voice suddenly cut through the murmur below: "Gnawers!"

Henry stared at the giant white mass that emerged from one of the tunnels on ground level, flanked by two rats half his size. One of them carried a man-made lantern, and for the first time, Henry could take the scene in with his eyes, catching instant sight of the Bane. The white rat seemed to have grown in both size and in the way that he could carry himself imposingly now since they had seen him in the Firelands.

As he strode through their rows, the Bane easily seized all attention. "What do we do?" whispered Henry, like he was in any danger of being heard.

"Wait and listen," said Kismet. "We cannot do anything else. Not as long as he is down there."

The Bane took another step, then he leaped onto a rock so that he towered above the others even more, holding his gaze on the entrance from where he had emerged. Henry instinctively looked out for Twirltongue, yet she was nowhere in sight.

"Proceed," snarled the Bane, and at his command, three more gnawers emerged—two smaller and one bigger. But they were not following—they were being escorted. The one ordering the escort was following behind, driving the others forward with his tail. His fur was silken black, and Henry made out scars on his shoulder and his forehead.

Thanatos, beside him, perked up. "Bonebreak," he mumbled, and only then did Henry recognize the black gnawer. With something like pride, he thought the scar on his forehead must have come from his own slingshot, where he had struck two years ago during Bonebreak's attempt to execute Thanatos.

"At last—the prisoners! Very well, let us begin the trial!" the Bane roared, and the gnawers around him cheered as they cleared a little space in front of the rock he perched on.

The three gnawers Bonebreak had escorted were pushed out into the open, and Henry saw they were in bad condition. All bled heavily; the biggest was covered in a number of nasty cuts. One of the smaller ones was missing half its tail, and the other looked like its front paw was broken. They all hunched on the ground, at the mercy of their new king's wrath. Only then did it sink in that the prisoners were fellow gnawers.

Before Henry had time to properly wonder what they might have done for the Bane to imprison them, he continued speaking: "Gnawers!" he repeated his call. "As you all know, we are at war." He began pacing, as well as his size permitted, on the narrow rock. "And a nasty war it is. The latest battle cost the lives of many—too many."

Bonebreak settled beneath the rock, shoving the prisoners spitefully.

"Yes, we are still strong," the Bane continued in the same silken, persuasive tone that he had used in the Firelands. "Our code remains unbroken, but we must not rest on our laurels. Instead, we must think of why we are so strong and do everything in our power to preserve that strength." He stopped to stare accusingly at the three imprisoned gnawers. "We must be, first and foremost, sure of the loyalty of our own kin. There is no room in our midst for the halfhearted."

Henry's eye widened as he understood.

"We will not tolerate traitors!" the Bane confirmed his suspicion.

"Oh, I see," said Kismet. "Perhaps there is more we can do than I thought."

"We might save these . . . traitors too?"

Kismet's reply was drowned in the ear-splitting cheers coming from below. "Especially those who dare question my position," called the Bane. "Is that not what you have been doing, you filth?" he asked the largest gnawer, whose fur had a gentle cream color and who had now positioned protectively in front of the two smaller ones.

"I never questioned you!" Her voice rang loud and clear.

"Oh? And what are those rumors I've been hearing? That you belong to the despicable sort of gnawer who is friends with the scoundrel Ripred?" the Bane retorted, and an offended uproar echoed through the cave.

"Ripred?" exclaimed Henry. "Oh, so that is why they are traitors."

"As they would be, to the Bane," said Thanatos."

"I knew Ripred a while ago, yes," said the cream-colored gnawer. "But I haven't seen him in a long time. Wish you to condemn me for something that happened while you yourself were still a pup?"

"No! No!" The Bane silenced all ensuing agitated cries. "Twirltongue says you have conspired with him recently! You and your whole family! Tell it to my face," he roared. "Tell me that it was a lie, Lapblood!"

Lapblood! Henry racked his brain as to why the name rang familiar . . . Then he recalled the jungle and the fruitless quest for the cure. Of course! "She was with us in the jungle," he whispered to Kismet. "Us questers, Ripred too. She is—"

Before he could say more, Lapblood declared, "Alright, I will. I will tell it to your face. Have you ever considered that Twirltongue might be lying?"

Her words sent the Bane into an enraged frenzy. He wailed and lashed at her with his tail, but caught one of the smaller rats by her side instead, who had pushed Lapblood out of the way. "Leave Mother alone—she did nothing wrong!"

Mother. Henry stared at the two smaller gnawers, crouching in front of her . . . They were her pups.

The Bane bared his teeth, but Lapblood cried out before he could: "Leave them! Condemn me if you want, but leave my pups alone! They have never even met Ripred! They have never expressed any sort of disloyalty!"

"So, you two are loyal to me then?" the Bane asked the two, staring at them coldly.

"We are!" one cried. "We never betrayed you!"

For one moment, Henry thought the Bane might have believed them. But then a shadow darted across his face, and he rose to his full height atop the rock. "Very well, in that case," he said, "you will not mind proving your loyalty? In return, you will be accepted as full-fledged members of my army. All you must do is . . . kill the traitor."

The young gnawers cried in disgust when they saw his tail pointing at Lapblood. Both Kismet and Thanatos, beside Henry, gasped. "For how long should we remain passive?" asked Thanatos, and Henry's head whipped around to Kismet, but she shook her head.

"The Bane is too powerful. They will tear us to shreds if we attack now."

Disregarding his torn tail, the slightly bigger pup stepped in front of his family. "I'd rather die myself!"

The Bane snorted dismissively, then looked at Bonebreak. "Very well. Kill him."

Only Kismet's tail around his waist prevented Henry from drawing his weapon and leaping to save the young gnawer. "We cannot help him," she urged with so much strain in her voice that it dug a claw into his heart. "We cannot . . . help him."

I won't let any more pups die on my watch regardless, her words echoed in Henry's ears, and yet that was exactly what they had to do then. Not once did Henry avert his gaze, despite feeling utterly sick. He watched as Bonebreak leaped at the pup, and although he tried to defend himself, the versed general was the far superior warrior. He slashed the pup's nose bloody with his talons, throwing him to the ground. Then he lunged and dug his teeth into his neck. The pup wailed and whimpered as it crunched, then snapped in two. Blood sprayed on the floor, and at the sound of his body dropping dead, Henry flinched.

Lapblood gave a heartwrenching howl. She fell onto all fours, crouching to leap at Bonebreak herself, but then she met the eyes of her other pup in the grip of a different gnawer and froze.

"You can try to fight." Bonebreak sat up, spitting out blood. "But then he dies too." He laughed maniacally, and all it did was heighten Henry's desire to finally stab a blade into his wretched throat, like he should have two years ago.

"Do I kill them too?" Bonebreak asked the Bane. The knuckles on Henry's fists were white from how hard he clenched them, and Thanatos beside him trembled. His face pressed into Henry's side so hard that it was almost uncomfortable. Henry wrapped his arms around his neck—for whose comfort he could not say.

One moment of dreadful silence passed, then the Bane shook his head. "They might be useful to us alive later. Put them with the other prisoner." He gestured over to the same tunnel where Kismet, Thanatos, and Henry knew their goal was being held. The prisoner.

Then someone else suddenly strolled out of the mound, and Henry perked up. Was that . . . "I see I have missed most of the show," said who had to be Twirltongue, looking at the pup's body at Bonebreak's feet. "Was it really necessary to kill him?"

"It was," said the Bane, then leaped off his rock. "I am making an example of him. Anyone who so much as thinks of deserting me or questioning my place will meet the same fate!" he roared, and his gnawers immediately drew back—to make way for him, or because they had fear, Henry could not tell.

"Oh, what a wise choice. You are so wise, my king," purred Twirltongue, though Henry thought to hear in her voice that she was uncertain what to make of this. One thing was clear: the Bane had acted of his own accord here. This trial had been neither her command nor her idea.

"The trial comes to an end," announced the Bane, disregarding her entirely. "Now, we have more important things to do. We march on!" he commanded, leaping toward the exit. "My army assembles on the edge of the Firelands in no less than an hour."

This command sent the gnawers in the pit, who didn't seem to have anticipated the quick departure, into a frenzy. Yet, as chaotically as they fled the plain, they at least did so quickly; in no less than fifteen minutes, the Plain of Tartarus was void.

A solid five minutes passed before Henry realized that the only sounds he heard were the strained breaths of his companions and his own. His mind reeled with impressions of what had just happened—it had burned itself onto his inner eye irreversibly: Lapblood's desperate scream, her pup's neck snapping. He couldn't have been older than Luxa.

Then, a pungent wave of rage swept over Henry—at himself. "I have sat idly and watched death claim innocents without doing anything yet again," he mumbled, digging his fingers into the rock beneath. "Without—"

"Henry, we could not help them." Kismet sounded dull with sorrow. She placed a paw on his back. "We could not have saved them."

Her words stung like needles, not least because they were true. "I cannot . . . save anyone."

"You can save them." Thanatos nudged him in the back. "We can . . . save the others."

For one moment, the three of them huddled together silently, then Henry comprehended. As did Kismet, apparently, because she said, "If they really put her with the prisoner we came for, we may even save more than we had originally planned."