The army swells toward five hundred. Defectors stream in from Kane's crumbling a patrol here, a garrison there, men and women who've heard how Wilma Deering treats her prisoners and want to fight for something worth believing in. Rock Rogers leads raid after supply depots, work camps, spring settlements where families huddle under Kane's boot. Every rescue adds soldiers. Every freed prisoner becomes a fighter. Maps returns from captivity with intelligence that makes the final battle detailed layouts of Mi-Ah-Mi's defenses, the location of Kane's citadel, the route to the Temple where dark power sleeps. Forty-eight hours remain until the assault. The expedition sharpens its knife. And somewhere in Mi-Ah-Mi, the man called Briggs waits for the rematch he knows is coming.