The Black Horse of the Night
- Meggie tells Fenoglio that Capricorn captured Dustfinger and a woman… who Meggie thinks is her mother.
- Meggie insists that Fenoglio tell her about the old friend/executioner that Capricorn wants her to read out of the book—Fenoglio protests but finally does.
- This character is known as the Shadow, and it's a figure of a man, either red as fire or gray as ashes, that does Capricorn's bidding. According to stories, he was created from the ashes of Capricorn's victims, and he's completely ruthless.
- Best yet? The Shadow is pretty much immortal. So if Meggie reads him out of the book, there's no way to defeat him.
- After telling her all this, Fenoglio gently disagrees that Resa the mute servant could possibly be Meggie's mother—but Meggie insists that Darius somehow read her out of the book, and because he's not a good reader, that's why she's voiceless.
- Surprise, surprise: Meggie has trouble sleeping that night, and when she finally does drift off, she has nightmares.