After leaving Hollow Hall, Jude is overcome by exhaustion and realizes that returning to Taryn or Madoc would create new dangers or restraints. Jude decides Hollow Hall is the most practical place to hide, drinks water, finds Cardan’s old room, and sleeps deeply in his abandoned bed. When Jude wakes by moonlight, Jude dresses in plain black clothes from Cardan’s closet, eats a scrap of bread, and heads for the palace.

Because Madoc has barred Jude from entering the palace normally, Jude climbs the outside of the palace mound with knives, fighting weakness from captivity and injury. Jude breaks through a crystal window into the sealed rooms Cardan abandoned, uses the old passage through the wardrobe, and reaches Cardan’s royal chamber before dawn. Jude wakes Cardan by covering Cardan’s mouth and warns that Balekin sent Jude to kill him.

Cardan says Madoc told him Jude was resting, not that Madoc had ordered guards to keep Jude away. Cardan also admits that he knowingly paid a dangerous political price to the Undersea because Cardan wanted Balekin and Nicasia to believe harming Jude would have consequences. Cardan then speaks unusually openly about Cardan’s father, Balekin’s abuse, Cardan’s own cruelty, and Cardan’s self-hatred after Jude was taken beneath the sea, leaving Jude stunned and unsure how to answer.

The Roach and the Bomb burst in, having tracked Jude from Hollow Hall, and suspect Jude has come to assassinate Cardan. They search Jude and find the vial from Balekin, so Jude explains that Balekin tried to glamour Jude into killing Cardan because Grimsen requires Cardan’s death before making Balekin a crown. To prove Jude is not charmed, Jude reveals the old bargain with Prince Dain that makes Jude resistant to glamour, and Cardan tests it by ordering Jude to crawl to him; Jude remains unmoved.

Jude then confronts the Roach and the Bomb about the Ghost’s betrayal. They say they did not know the Ghost had turned until too late, and explain that the Ghost used the Court of Shadows’ own explosives to collapse their lair, part of the castle, and the old catacombs. Snapdragon survived and saw Jude climbing the palace, but many others were hurt, including Niniel, while the Ghost has disappeared.

With the group reunited, Jude argues for using Balekin’s planned assassination attempt or simply killing Balekin first. The Roach and the Bomb support violent solutions, even suggesting taking Grimsen’s hands, but Cardan refuses to kill Balekin because Balekin is Orlagh’s ambassador and killing him could hand the Undersea a pretext for war. Cardan instead orders food and tea, plans for the Roach to seize Grimsen, and decides they must show Orlagh that Cardan is not the weak, easily manipulated High King she believes him to be.