Back at Castle Stone, Ravyn prepares to open the frozen dungeon and retrieve the being occupying Elspeth Spindle’s body. Jespyr finds him with the skeleton keys and notices his strain, but Ravyn insists he is fine. He asks Jespyr to fetch a Chalice Card and meet him at King Rowan’s chamber while he goes alone into the dungeon.

In the last cell, Ravyn finds the Shepherd King—also called the Nightmare—inside Elspeth’s body. Ravyn uses his Nightmare Card to search for Elspeth within that mind, but he cannot find her. Before taking the Nightmare to Rowan, Ravyn demands answers: the Nightmare confirms he once bore the Shepherd King’s name, says Elspeth saw him as the Nightmare, and claims he knows where the Twin Alders Card is. He explains that the Card is guarded by the Spirit of the Wood and that obtaining it will require a price.

Ravyn also orders the Nightmare not to harm Rowan or jeopardize their chance to leave Stone and seek the Twin Alders. As Ravyn chains the Nightmare, he takes care not to bruise Elspeth’s body. On the way out, Ravyn overuses the Nightmare Card and hears a cruel inner voice blaming him for Elspeth’s death. The Nightmare taunts him about whether Elspeth’s feelings were truly her own, but then reveals that he forged a secluded shore within his mind as a place of rest and concealment. Ravyn realizes Elspeth may be hidden there, beyond the reach of the Nightmare Card, and demands that the Nightmare later tell him how to reach her.

When Ravyn reaches Rowan’s chamber, Rowan is absent, so Ravyn finds the King in Hauth’s sickroom. Hauth remains horribly maimed and unresponsive while Physicians attend him, and Rowan is drunk and still trying to reach his son’s mind. Ravyn brings Rowan and Jespyr back to the royal chamber, where the shackled Nightmare is waiting with wine and agrees to the inquest.

Under Jespyr’s Chalice Card, Rowan questions the Nightmare about the Twin Alders. The Nightmare says he was present when the Card disappeared and describes its hiding place as a deep, roadless wood that calls to those who smell salt. When Rowan asks whether Ravyn knew of Elspeth’s infection, the Nightmare answers that Ravyn knew nothing until it was too late. Ravyn realizes the Chalice may not fully bind the Nightmare because Elspeth and the Shepherd King together are both vulnerable to Providence Cards and able to void them.

Rowan presses the Nightmare to find the final Card, and the Nightmare agrees only if Rowan honors their bargain and releases Emory Yew. Rowan promises to release Emory that night if the Nightmare reveals the Twin Alders’ location. Instead of a clear map, the Nightmare gives a warning: the journey requires three barters—at a dark mirrored lake, at the neck of a wood, and in a timeless place of sorrow, bloodshed, and crime. He ends by telling Ravyn that the seekers may return with the Twin Alders, but they will never leave that final place.