Summary

In the Little Palace, Isaak passes on all the information he gained from Ehri. Tamar learned of a twin named Mayu whose brother serves in the Shu military whose brother may have been forced into the khergud program. They all meet with a Kerch named Schenck at the Gilded Bog. They travel onto the lake and Isaak gives a speech about the izmars’ya (which he has never heard of). The izmars’ya fires a few times, but its hull cracks. Isaak saves Shnek before a mast lands on top of him. All of them are thrilled as they had built that ship specifically to fail. They apologize for not telling Isaak as they wanted his reaction to be genuine.

Meanwhile, the night before the ritual, Nikolai sits with Zoya. He can feel the monster getting stronger...