Chapters 20-23 Summary

Chapter 20

Darkness arrives and Lamia and Silenus have not returned. The pilgrims spot a figure approaching from the opposite direction from the far side of the valley. The figure is stumbling and struggling. The Consul cautiously walks out to meet it and learns it is Het Masteen, the first of the pilgrims to disappear.

Chapter 21

Martin Silenus is writing, page after page flowing easily. Silenus looks up from his work to find the Shrike standing before him in the darkness. He begs it to give him more time, to take one of the others. Silenus's hand is compelled to write out the Shrike's response. The Shrike tells him that it is time and refuses to give Silenus a reprieve. The Shrike impales the poet on the spike running out of its chest, and places him on a spiked, chrome tree of...