Keeper of the Lost Cities

Sophie wakes briefly and hears men talking. They staged a deadly tidal wave that supposedly kills Sophie and Dex, whose identity pendants are found by searchers on the sea floor. Sophie sends out a desperate mental call for help, but she’s in a place that blocks outgoing thoughts.

A captor tells her, “You’ve served your purpose” (422). They try but fail to erase her memories, then drug her again into unconsciousness. When she re-awakens, a man who talks in a whisper asks her to tell him what’s hidden in her mind. Again she sends out a desperate plea for help but aims it at Fitz. He struggles, thinking she’s supposed to be dead. Sophie insists she’s still alive but not for long.

She asks the whispering man if he’s Fintan or at least part of the Black Swan. He merely laughs. Despite his best efforts, he can’t read her mind. Frustrated, he tells his henchmen to prepare a poison: “I’m done with both of them” (426). Someone places a cloth over her face, and she blacks out.

She feels a person carrying her. He says he’s rescuing her.