Chapter 36

Livira attempts to flee Oanold’s cannibal camp but is shot and recaptured. King Oanold, deluded about Crath’s safety, threatens to cut off Livira’s toes and force her to open a door home. Lord Algar brandishes the black book and calls the librarians’ workings demonic, while the onlookers, including Acconite, remain complicit.

As Oanold counts down to mutilation, a pitch-black, tar-bleeding skeletal Escape erupts from an aisle and begins killing, throwing the camp into chaos. Livira runs, navigating aisles and scattered books, only to collide with two of Oanold’s palace guards who seize her.

Malar arrives and taunts the guards into drawing steel. He swiftly kills both, but Jons appears with a loaded ’stick and shoots Malar through the chest. Despite the wound, Malar advances while Jons frantically reloads. Livira hurls a bound book that strikes Jons’s head, buying a heartbeat.

Jons fires again, loses his weapon, and tries to flee. Livira trips him; Jons rises with a knife, but Malar impales him, ending the threat. Malar collapses, bleeding heavily, and Livira tries to stanch the wound, insisting he will survive.

Smoke from Jons’s second shot ignites loose pages, threatening a catastrophic blaze. As flames lick up, Yute’s white child appears and calmly stamps out the fire. With Livira’s hands still on him, Malar dies.