At dawn in Orynth, Manon waits atop the castle’s highest tower with the Thirteen, Bronwen, and Glennis as Morath’s army begins to move. The castle has no usable armor for the wyverns, and Manon has rejected makeshift breastplates as too heavy, deciding that the Crochans and Ironteeth allies must rely on speed, blades, iron teeth and nails, and cunning.

As Ironteeth wyverns rise from Morath’s ranks, Bronwen explains the old horn she carries. It belonged to her ancestor Telyn Vanora, who warned the Crochans to flee after Rhiannon’s death and was killed by the Blueblood Matron for it. Bronwen intends to sound the horn not as a warning this time, but as a rallying call for the people who survived.

Glennis insists on fighting, explaining that her mother once chose to preserve the Crochan royal bloodline instead of standing with loved ones, and that Glennis has carried the weight of that choice for centuries. Her words make Manon and Asterin think of the invisible dead behind them, especially Asterin’s murdered witchling and lost hunter. Manon recognizes that they are fighting for the dead, the living, and a future where such losses are not repeated; Bronwen then blows Telyn Vanora’s horn.

Below the city, Lysandra enters one of Orynth’s hidden waterways, using a route suggested by Lord Murtaugh. She orders the Bane soldiers to lock the grate after she leaves, then plunges into the freezing current and shifts into a large aquatic form. Following the subterranean river beneath the walls and into the Florine, Lysandra swims along Morath’s eastern flank and waits for her signal.

On the southern wall, Aedion and Ren watch the Crochan army rise in a red wave to meet the Ironteeth host. Aedion knows they have no choice but to trust the witches and Lysandra’s dangerous mission. He confirms that archers, Mycenian firelances, catapults, and exhausted Fae allies are in position, then gives his soldiers a grim charge to make the coming battle worthy of a song.