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Strange, he thought. Besides the signature and a verse that looked like Vadhiian, the letter was gibberish.

“Ah. It’s some sort of encryption,” he told them. “A cypher.”

“A knot of words you can’t untie?” Aspar said. “I doubt that.”

Stephen nodded, concentrating. “Given time, I could read it. It’s based on Church Vitellian, and an older liturgical language called Jhehdykhadh. But written as it is, it doesn’t mean anything. There is this verse here, though . . .” He trailed off, studying it. It was Old Vadhiian, or some closely related dialect.

“There’s a canitu here,” he said, “in the language of the Warlock Lords, a canitu subocaum—ah, an ‘incantation to invoke.’ ”

“Invoke whom?” Leshya asked.

“Khrwbh Khrwkh,” he replied, shaking his head. “I’ve never heard of it, whatever that is. But not all the Damned Saints are commonly known. Actually, it sounds more like a place than a person—it means something like ‘bent mound.’ ”

“Could it refer to a sedos?” Leshya asked.

“Easily,” Stephen replied. “And given what we’ve seen so far, that makes the most sense. It’s just that they’ve prefixed the name with dhy, which usually indicates that the name following will be that of a saint. It’s quite puzzling.”

“In any event,” Leshya said, “it’s pointless to go back to Eslen to alert your praifec, since it seems perfectly clear he’s well aware of what’s going on out here.”

“Well, I’m not clear on it,” Aspar said.

“Neither am I,” Leshya shot back, “but we know now that the Church is waking an old faneway, and it seems just as certain that it’s not a good idea to let them finish it.”

“They may have finished it,” Aspar said.

“I don’t think so,” Stephen said. “I believe these are the instructions for the consecration of this Khrwbh Khrwkh, whatever exactly it might be. And the canitu appears to be part of a longer piece—or more specifically, the end of a longer piece.”

“You’re saying that we have what they need to finish it.”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. Listen, I’ll try to translate for you.” He cleared his throat.

And now to the Bent Mound

The Bloody Crescent

Blood for the Bent Mound

Blood of Seven

Blood of Three

Blood of One

Let the Seven be mortal in all ways

Let the Three be Swordsman, Priest, and Crown

Let the One be Deathless

Beat then the Heart of Bent Mound

Flow from the Spectral Eye

Flow from the Mother Devouring

Flow from Pel the Rage Giver

Flow from Huskwood

Flow from the Twins, Rot and Decay

Flow from the Not Dead.

Here it begins, the way is complete.

There was a moment of silence, and then Aspar grunted. “A drinking song it’s not.”

“I’m not sure about all of it,” Stephen admitted. “That bit about swordsman, priest, and crown, for instance. The words here are Pir Khabh, dhervhidh, and Thykher. The first is very particular, a man who fights with a sword. Dhervhidh means ‘someone who has walked a faneway,’ but not necessarily in orders. The third, Thykher, could be anyone of noble blood or it might mean a king specifically. Without better resources, better reference materials, I’ve no way of knowing for sure.”

“What was that about ‘deathless’?” Winna asked.

“Mhwrmakhy,” Stephen said. It really means ‘servant of the Mhwr,’ another name for the Black Jester, but they were also called ‘anmhyry’ or ‘deathless.’ ” We don’t know much about them except that they don’t exist anymore.”

“Didn’t exist anymore, you mean,” Leshya said. “That used to be true of a lot of things.”

“Granted,” Stephen agreed, a little diffidently. Something was gnawing at him about the list of “flowing froms.”

Aspar noticed his inattention. “What is it?” he asked.

Stephen folded his arms across his chest.

“A faneway has to be walked in sequence, and the whole faneway has to be awake, so to speak, for its power to flow properly. That’s why something strange happened when I set foot on one, probably because I already have a connection to the sedoi.”

“And so?” Leshya asked.

“Well, if I understand this invocation, the last sedos