Sheridan, once well, betrays them into the hands of pirates, who seize the whaling ship. Pirates have replaced Octung as the R’loth’s power at sea, and the pirate fleet, ruled by Janx’s former boss and old enemy Segrul the Gray, worships the R’loth. The band is brought to Davic, a Collossum and Layanna’s former husband. He attempts to kill them, but they manage to escape, after having seen Sheridan be sent off on an important assignment, something to do with an Atoshan relic. She’d been dispatched to Ghenisa, but for what they don’t know.
They arrive at the mainland to find Prime Minister Denaris at odds with Grand Admiral Haggarty, a puppet of Sheridan’s and an agent of Octung. The Grand Admiral is trying to stage a coup and take over the government. Denaris gives Avery’s band refuge and allows them to set up lab in which they analyze the Starfish samples.
During this time the Voryses make contact with Avery. His late wife Mari was a distant relative of the old ruling family, the Voryses, commonly referred to as the Drakes. Despised and hated, they had been dethroned half a century ago and their members killed or driven into hiding, like Mari. Ani is a descendant and they want her to rejoin her family, led by a man called Idris, who would be King of Ghenisa like his forefathers. He wants to take power, using the turmoil to his own advantage. Avery refuses the request, but Idris asks him if Ani’s been having strange dreams. Sure enough, she has, and they’ve been bothering both her and Avery. She dreams of singing, and a doorway. Could these dreams be shared by other Voryses, and might they have some insight into what they mean?
Meanwhile the Starfish drive ever closer to the mainland, wiping out one island after another. There is no sign of Sheridan and no news of what her special assignment could have been. Finally Avery and Layanna have a breakthrough in the laboratory. They discover that the nectar of the rare “ghost flower” allows Layanna to establish a psychic link with the Starfish tissue. In theory, if she can ingest enough fresh nectar and can “plug herself” into the brain of one of the giant Starfish, she can send a psychic pulse out to all the Starfish, killing them and saving the world from the wrath of the R’loth.
The hitch is that the ghost flower only grows in the Crothegra Jungle, also known as the Atomic Jungle. A man named Losg Coleel holds the sole rights to the nectar, and he resides in the war-torn city of Ezzez. Avery leaves Ani with her “Uncle Id”, patriarch of the surviving Voryses, hoping for the best, realizing he can’t take her into the Atomic Jungle, and the four members of the band depart for Ezzez at once, only to learn that Sheridan knows where they’re going … and why.
BOOK SEVEN
They arrive in Ezzez to find a city torn by war. Octung's presence is strong but heavily disputed. The city is also half-overgrown by the Crothegra Jungle, the so-called Atomic Jungle, which is resurgent due to the recent conflict which has distracted those who'd tended it before. Avery and the others make their way through the chaotic city with the help of local rebels, are attacked by Octunggen-controlled soldiers and scatter.
Avery finds Losg Coleel in hiding in the Maze of Dark Delights, and the doctor and Layanna help the merchant find a place of relative safety in the rebel headquarters. In return, Coleel tells them where they can find the ghost flower. He is out of the flower and Layanna needs the raw nectar, so their only option is to journey into the Atomic Jungle itself to seek out the flower.
During all of this Avery's band is menaced not only by Octunggen-controlled soldiers but by a mysterious new enemy, a group of robed figures that appear to be walking, maggot-infested cadavers. The maggots are unnatural. The Infested beings want Layanna for some reason, though Avery's group doesn't know why.
The band ventures into the jungle, finding one of the villages Coleel employs to harvest the ghost flower, but still the flower's nectar is not strong enough. The band will have to penetrate into the "haunted" quarter of the jungle where the ghost flower "vines" originate.
They also discover more Infested beings and believe the source of the "Infection" may stem from the Gomingdon, the so-called haunted quarter ... the same place the vines originate from.
Troops led by Sheridan attack the village and the band is forced into flight. In the chaos Avery finds himself separated from the others. Lost in the Atomic Jungle, he nearly falls prey to local wildlife, but Sheridan, also separated from her group, saves him, and the two travel together. Along the way, they renew their bond somewhat, although neither quite trusts the other.
The Atomic Jungle ends, becoming a strangely mundane jungle, right where the Gomingdon starts, and there, right in the middle of the Gomingdon, is a long-abandoned, pre-human city of great size and eeriness. Avery and Sheridan explore the outer edge of the city and climb one of the spires to its top. Where are the others? They don't know.
They sleep beside each other that night on the building's rooftop, but Avery vows not to make love to her. Despite this vow, in the morning the two begin to make love ... when they are interrupted by the arrival of Layanna, Janx and Hildra, all of whom are horrified.
Janx begins to strangle Sheridan, but Avery convinces him to at least let her speak. She says that her party arrived by dirigibles and that she'll give the band one of the airships if Janx releases her. Reluctantly, he agrees. Without the airships they'd have to find their way back to civilization through the vastness of the Atomic Jungle on foot, a journey which would almost surely kill them.
It's then that Avery notices that Layanna, Janx and Hildra
didn't arrive alone. Several of the "Infested" are with them, and
they mean to take the group for an interview with the Colony.
Chapter 1
“Interview?” Avery said, as he was marched through the streets of the lost, inhuman city. “Colony?”
Layanna took the lead, with the rest filing along behind. Maggot-infested men and non-men hemmed the humans in from all sides, choking the street. Avery realized that the city belonged to them, or at any rate that they inhabited it. He and Sheridan, lacking binoculars, hadn’t been able to see them clearly from above. They’d assumed them to be normal humans and non-humans somehow working together, but instead each and every one of them was infested—as, he realized now, had been the priests of the Restoration. They must have been dispatched to Ezzez as agents of the so-called Colony, though why Avery couldn’t fathom. Something to do with Layanna, clearly.
“What do you mean, interview?” he asked Hildra. She was the only one of the group that would speak with him, surprisingly.
“We’re goin’ to meet their boss,” she said, jerking her chin at the maggot men. “Goin’ to meet the leader.”
“Willingly?”
“Willing ain’t got much to do with it.”
