The Shepherd King, #1
One Dark Window
by Rachel Gillig
Contents
Chapter Twenty-Two
Overview
Ravyn reveals the blood-locked chamber where he hides the Providence Cards and explains that his infection is gradually costing him the ability to use Card magic. The chapter deepens Elspeth’s trust and attraction to Ravyn while showing the stakes of curing infection for both Ravyn and Emory.
The intimacy between Elspeth and Ravyn is interrupted by the gold-armored figure from Elspeth’s dreams, forcing a major revelation. Elspeth finally understands that the Nightmare inside her is not just a monster or Card-born presence, but the soul of the Shepherd King.
Summary
Ravyn leads Elspeth through a servants’ passage and out into the moonlit gardens, then across the ruined grounds to a doorless stone chamber by the cemetery. Elspeth recognizes the chamber from her dreams, and the Nightmare urges her inside. The chamber contains a central stone slab, the same setting where Elspeth has seen the armored knight.
Ravyn cuts his palm and presses his infected blood to the stone, causing the slab to reveal the hidden Providence Cards. Elspeth sees Ravyn’s collection: Prophet, Maiden, Chalice, Golden Egg, White Eagle, and the newly stolen Iron Gate, while Ravyn also holds the Nightmare and Mirror. The Nightmare explains to Elspeth that the chamber is an altar built for the Spirit of the Wood, where bargains are made with blood.
Ravyn tells Elspeth that only infected blood can open the stone, meaning Elspeth could access the Cards if anything happened to Ravyn. When Elspeth asks why Ravyn can use only the Nightmare and Mirror, Ravyn reveals that his childhood infection slowly stripped away his ability to use Providence Cards. Because many Cards do not work for him or against him, the King made him Captain of the Destriers, but if the Deck is not collected and his infection cured, Ravyn will eventually lose all Card use.
Ravyn also explains Elm’s loyalty. Though Elm is a Rowan, Hauth brutalized him after the Queen’s death, and Ravyn brought Elm into the Yew household; Ravyn trusts Elm because Elm would not betray them. After Ravyn returns the Cards to the stone, Elspeth insists on learning how to seal it herself. Ravyn makes a small cut in Elspeth’s palm, and her blood closes the chamber’s hidden compartment.
The charged intimacy between Ravyn and Elspeth becomes impossible to deny, and they kiss in the dark chamber. During the kiss, Elspeth sees the gold-armored knight from her dreams sitting on the stone, and the knight calls her by name and asks to be let out. Terrified, Elspeth pulls away and flees back to the castle.
Alone in her room, Elspeth demands the truth from the Nightmare. The Nightmare admits that the knight is not merely a memory, but the man the Nightmare once was. Elspeth sees the same armored figure and chamber woven into her carpet and remembers the verse from The Old Book of Alders, realizing that when she touched the Nightmare Card as a child, she absorbed the soul of the Shepherd King.
Who Appears
- Elspeth SpindleLearns the Cards’ hiding place, kisses Ravyn, and discovers the Nightmare is the Shepherd King.
- Ravyn YewReveals the blood-locked altar, his worsening infection, Elm’s loyalty, and his feelings for Elspeth.
- The Nightmare / Shepherd KingUrges Elspeth into the chamber, explains blood bargains, and is revealed as the Shepherd King’s soul.
- Elm RowanDiscussed as Ravyn’s trusted ally, loyal after being rescued from Hauth’s abuse.
- Hauth RowanAppears in Ravyn’s account as the brother who exposed and brutalized infected family members.
- King RowanUsed Ravyn’s infection strategically, making him Captain because Card magic affects him differently.