Sabriel by Garth Nix
Three miles from the Wall into the Old Kingdom, a woman gives birth to a baby before dying. The band of Travellers who helped the woman thought the baby would die too but Abhorsen makes a dramatic entrance and equally dramatic declaration that there shall be a baptism tonight. The midwife holds the baby, and Abhorsen declares they shall see what Charter wills. Abhorsen takes a bottle from his pouch and annoints the baby, a great flash lights up the forest and he declares the baby’s name is Sabriel. The Charter has accepted the baptism and left a mark on her forehead, however, Abhorsen must go beyond the veil and to the First Gate, following the baby’s cries. He finds Kerrigor holding the baby. Sabriel does not like being held by Kerrigor and fights him and his shadow until Kerrigor throws the baby away. She is caught by the river and Abhorsen is able to collect her. Abhorsen then uses a silver bell to confuse Kerrigor who flinches and falls into the blackness beyond the gate. Abhorsen returns to the camp, Sabriel very much alive in his arms. At the camp, Abhorsen offers the midwife work to help him raise his baby and declares his intentions to join the band of Travellers. When the Charter Mage of the band asks what he does, Abhorsen explains he is not a normal necromancer; he lays the dead back to rest.
Sabriel has been attending Wyverley College since Abhorson came over the Wall from the Old Kingdom and dropped her off at age five. The school was established in 1652 for “Young Ladies of Quality” and Sabriel is one of the top students… just not in etiquette. Sabriel has already graduated but needs to make a decision, go back to the Old Kingdom and her father, or go to university further away from the Wall where she will likely lose the link to her magic and affinity with the dead, but is that a bad thing? That night, while waiting for her father to call by his typical magical means, one of the other students interrupts Sabriel’s vigil, alerting her that she may have accidentally perhaps opened the door to the outside and let in a monster. Oops. Sabriel dashes to the dormitory to find a shadowed figure shuffling amongst sleeping students, a Dead servant, who has no free will and was sent back to the living world and controlled from beyond the First Gate. Sabriel enters the place between life and death to see its true form and it’s carrying a sack. Sabriel claps her hands and whistles, shocking the creature, and it drops the sack and falls into the river. Sabriel takes the sack and returns back to the living. Inside is her father's sword and bandolier of bells. Decision made, Sabriel must return to the Old Kingdom.
The area around the Wall is like a war zone, trees are stripped of leaves and branches, razor wire spans the perimeter, soldiers carrying bayonets are stationed, and warning signs are everywhere. Sabriel arrives on a tour bus and while the rest of the visitors go to the watchtower, Sabriel declares to a fresh-faced soldier that she is a citizen of the Old Kingdom and is there to cross the border. The soldier asks to see her passports which Sabriel magically reveals. Her magic brings out a whole platoon of soldiers with their bayonets pointing at her. Colonel Horyse quickly examines Sabriel's documents and calls off his soldiers. He has known her father, Abhorsen, for twenty years. Abhorsen came to help keep the dead dead by installing wind flutes in the fence. Reluctantly Sabriel tells him she fears her father is dead or captured by Death, which means his flutes may stop working.
Sabriel has read the Book of the Dead so she may be able to help maintain the wind flutes, but the time it would take would be better spent in the Old Kingdom travelling to her father’s house and figuring out what has happened to him. They have until the next full moon, fourteen days away, before they find out if the binding on the flutes has failed. Reluctantly, Horyse permits Sabriel’s crossing. There really is no reason to stop her other than concern for her safety, so with good tidings and hope that she is able to find Abhorsen, Horyse and his men see Sabriel across the Wall. It’s snowing in the Old Kingdom, so it's a good thing Sabriel brought her skis. She is soon speeding her way over the snow and into the night to her first destination: Cloven Crest Charter Stone.
It doesn’t take long for Sabriel to come across the dead body of one of Horyse’s patrol. They’ve been dead for twelve days and there is no obvious reason why. Sabriel burns the body using Charter signs and continues on, but then she feels the pull of more dead, more of Horyse’s men. Unlike the lone soldier, these men have been hacked to pieces and decapitated, and whoever did this has taken their heads. Sabriel brings the bodies together, laying them out with their swords plunged into the ground where their heads should be. As Sabriel continues on to the Charter Stone, she happens upon a message left by one of the dead, one who was Charter Mage. “One of the Greater Dead! It came behind us, almost from the Wall. We couldn’t turn back. It has servants, Hands, a Mordicant! This is Sergeant Gerren. Tell Colonel...” Sabriel’s father was sworn to stop the Greater Dead… As the new moon is revealed by the clouds, Sabriel continues on her journey to Cloven Crest.
The Charter marks on the stone at Cloven Crest are dead, split when a necromancer sacrificed a Charter Mage to gain access to Death or help a Dead spirit break through into Life. Regardless, Sabriel needs to call a guide to take her to her father’s house and the sacrifice will actually make the connection to the dead stronger. Sabriel makes the Charter marks with her sword in the snow, and once complete and the way open, Sabriel steps though and into the river, launching a paper boat. After a long time, she hears the noise of the Second Gate growing still. Something is coming back from the deeper realms of death. Hopefully it’s what she invited.
The pale light of her guide approaches Sabriel, the spirit of her mother. Sabriel asks for directions to her father's house, Barhedrin Ridge, and the spirit gives her some very detailed instructions before telling Sabriel Do not tarry, do not stop, no matter what happens. Suddenly, the other creature who heard and felt Sabriel’s Charters, the creature Thralk appears. Thralk is dead but hidden from Death for three hundred years, and it wants Sabriel’s power to prolong its existence. Sabriel uses her father's sword to pin it and one of the bells from her bandolier to return him to Death. As Thralk is thrown back, it curses Sabriel, promising to tell the servants of Kerrigor. Sabriel can’t think about that now, she has a long journey to Barhedrin Ridge and must heed her spirit mother’s words: Do not tarry, do not stop, no matter what happens as all the way, she is stalked by a Mordicant, a creature that can pass at will through Life and Death, its body made of bog-clay and human blood molded and infused with Free Magic by a necromancer, with a Dead spirit placed inside as its guiding force. Sabriel makes it to Barhedrin Ridge but can't close the doors because the Mordicant’s taloned hand is reaching through.
Charter magic flares around the door and a Charter-ghost appears carrying a twin sword to Sabriel’s. The spirit brings the sword down on the Mordicant’s talons, allowing the door to close, but it’s a temporary solution. The Charter-spirit points down the corridor and Sabriel follows, she doesn’t need to be told twice, leaving her pack and skis where they fell, needing only her sword and bandolier. As she walks quickly, Sabriel hears the Mordicant’s howls behind her and a heavy crashing noise ahead. At the next door, a hooded Charter-ghost appears and opens the door to reveal a large waterfall. Perfect! The Mordicant will not be able to cross the running water. With care, Sabriel follows the ledge, then the steps leading down, then the stepping stones to the island in the middle of the fast running river where Abhorsen’s home sits. Sabriel is bone weary, she can hear the Mordicant breaking through the door above her, but thankfully it can not follow, though it stands waiting. Finally Sabriel reaches the door to Abhorsen’s home and on the mat is a white cat. Its red collar has some of the most powerful Charter signs inscribed and a tiny bell dangling from it. This is no ordinary kitty, it's a Free Magic creature of ancient power and greets Sabriel, telling her, “About time you got here.”
Sabriel wakes in a nice soft bed, the talking cat not far away. He introduces himself as Mogget, a servant of Abhorsen for a very, very long time and judging by the over thousand year old binding spells on the collar, that is an understatement. One of the house's ghost servants comes in to bathe Sabriel before dinner. In the dining hall, she meets the many other house servants and Mogget explains each new Abhorsen likes to create one as the longer serving ones become sassy and above their station, which Sabriel encountered first hand during her bath. The ghost servants acknowledge Sabriel as their new master before serving her and Mogget dinner. Mogget refers to Abhorsen like a title not a name and insists her father must be dead since she holds his sword and bandolier. Sabriel disputes this and is sure her father is still alive and means to find out. Mogget tries to make Sabriel promise she will not raise her father back to life if his physical form is dead, she can’t promise but will take his advice into consideration.
In the study, Sabriel has located the Book of the Dead as well as books on Charter symbols. She only knows up to chapter 4, so she has a lot of studying to do. Mogget comes in and warns her the Book of the Dead can change, so though she may think she has read it cover to cover, likelihood is she hasn’t. One of the ghost servants comes down a ladder through a trapdoor in the ceiling and gestures for Sabriel to follow them up. On the roof there is a glass dome and telescope, it’s an observatory! The ghost spirit points in the direction Sabriel came from, the Mordicant is still there, standing sentry, but it’s surrounded by living human servants and a man-shaped blot of blackest night, a necromancer’s shadowhand directing operations. The servants are building boxes, filling them with grave dirt and fixing them between the stepping stones on the river so that the dead may cross. That’s not good. Mogget points out there is a defense, a ritual to raise the water of the river which will wash away any intruders. It will take several weeks for the waters to go back down, but not to worry, one of Sabriel’s ancestors built a flying machine with paper that will allow her to leave. If they are to use this ritual, they must start now so it will be ready by the following evening.
The wave was easy to summon and caused absolute devastation along the river. Mogget tells Sabriel to hurry up, she must be on her way to Belisaere, but also that she doesn’t have a map so he’ll just have to come with her. Sabriel agrees, but still wants a map which again Mogget can help with. Convenient. Soon, they are ready to go, since Mogget is coming too, he vomits a small silver ring, with a ruby gripped between two silver claws that grew out of the band, telling Sabriel she needs to take it too. When she puts it on (there is no mention that she cleans it first) Sabriel feels an overflow of Free Magic connected to Charter marks. She doesn’t understand but Mogget reassures Sabriel that she will when the time is right. Now, to the Paperwing.
The Paperwing looks like a canoe with hawk-wings and a tail, and is lined with many Charter marks. Sabriel needs to use Charter marks in mind and whistles to summon the right winds for the flight. The journey is smooth and freeing, until Sabriel decided to push on against Mogget’s recommendation to stop for the night and a particularly hairy moment with gore crows meant Sabriel went off course and lost the right winds for stable flight. The Paperwing goes into freefall, Mogget screams at Sabriel to loose his collar but remember the ring. Sabriel loosens the collar and something indescribable happens to Mogget, he becomes light or power and is able to stop the Paperwing’s free fall, landing the Paperwing on the lip of an enormous dark hole directly in their path.
Sabriel falls in and out of consciousness, eventually managing to stay awake long enough to look in her pack for a candle. Once she has light, she is able to see that the Paperwing did not survive the crash. She looks for Mogget, there is no sense of Death, just Free Magic, so he must be around somewhere. Suddenly she sees flashes of white and the Paperwing on fire and a humanoid figure appears. It has no legs and its torso and head are balanced on a whirl of force and it speaks with Mogget’s voice, dripping with malice, as he mocks and taunts her. Sabriel tries to think, but she is terrified and Mogget is relentless. Sabriel unsheathes her sword and she and Mogget fight, but really it’s a game of cat and mouse (pun intended). Eventually Sabriel remembers the ring. Looking at it, she realizes there are instructions for the bells on her bandolier. Finally with the bell still ringing, Mogget returns to his cat form, red collar in place.
The next day Sabriel and Mogget don’t mention Mogget’s attempted murder of Sabriel. At one point Mogget goes to investigate the sinkhole they are stuck in while Sabriel nurses her wounds. Mogget returns having found a tunnel that is interesting, and resigned, Sabriel grabs her pack. After a while, Sabriel and Mogget emerge into another sinkhole, this one bigger than the first. Interestingly, in the middle of the sinkhole, amongst the vegetation, there are paved areas and royal funerary ships. Together they explore and on the third ship find a highly detailed carved figurehead of a (naked) man. Sabriel sends out her magical feelers and discovers the man’s spirit is in neither Life nor Death. While Mogget naps, Sabriel decides to go into Death to find the man. She finds him in Death looking exactly as the figurehead. He is not dead but in a spirit-form, his living body preserved as wood. Sabriel grips the spirit-form and pulls him from the river to Life. The man’s spirit is back where it belongs, but according to Mogget, he needs a kiss to bring him back… well, a breath will do. Sabriel leans over and breathes on the figurehead. After a few moments the man starts to breathe and color comes back to him. Sabriel realizes he’s still naked and goes to get a spare shirt and blanket. Mogget licks the man’s forehead where his Charter mark is. Mogget is surprised and a little angry, his little bell tinkles.
The man wakes up while Sabriel is getting washed, Mogget is there though and remembers him and he remembers Mogget being bigger. Neither of them can talk about their history though because of a magical compulsion. Mogget instructs the man he names Touchstone after a court jester to get ready and be useful to the new Abhorsen. When Sabriel returns, she tells Touchstone to call her Sabriel, and as they talk, he becomes increasingly frustrated he can’t remember anything other than trying to protect the Queen. This makes him more than 200 years old since the Old Kingdom hasn’t had a ruling monarch since then, only chaos. Using Mogget’s map, the three plan the next phase of the journey to Belisaere. It’s six weeks on foot, but Mogget suggests they take a ship.
The next morning, the party leaves the sinkhole by a hidden stairway Touchstone remembered. It’s a narrow and steep climb leading to a large room with a set of double doors. They exit into a clearing in a pine forest called The Watchwood. They follow Charter stones through the forest like beacons to a cliff overlooking the village of Nestowe where they hope to find a boat. It looks deserted, and Sabriel can feel the dead. She makes the decision that they will go down to the village while the sun is high.
They walk into the village, the streets are empty, but in the houses the dead hide from the daylight. It’s pretty creepy. At the end of the main street on a well-tended lawn is a broken Charter stone and the Charter Mage sacrificed to break it is still crumpled in front. This happened only three or four days ago. After Sabriel burns the body, they carry on to the harbor when they see an island with signs of inhabitants, but the bridge across to it has been destroyed. Arrows are shot at them, so Touchstone announces them, the Abhorsen and her sworn swordsman, demanding to speak to their elder. A very old man shambles out who remembers the Abhorsen from his youth and Sabriel carries some of the Abhorsen’s tools. When she flashes the sword, the Elder commands the plank be lowered on the bridge so they can cross. Good thing too as darkness is falling, thick clouds are rolling in and the dead have been watching them the whole time. Waiting.
There are a small number of survivors of Nestowe, they are on an island but think a dead thing is there with them because something is killing them off. Sabriel walks amongst them, noticing one person wearing a big thick boat cloak despite the warmth of all the bodies and the candles in the small shed. The man isn’t dead, he has a dead parasite attached to him, a Mordant. Sabriel wants to remove the Mordant from the man, but the creature has other ideas and sucks the man of his life. As he rises, dead, Touchstone stabs him and Sabriel uses one of her bells on the Mordant to still it, and a second to send it back to Death. To make a horrible situation worse, Sabriel can sense the Mordicant in Nestowe, searching for her. She insists the Elder give them a boat for their own safety as much as hers because the Mordicant is after her and should follow her. The Elder complies. Sabriel climbs aboard the boat, Touchstone will steer and Mogget will guide them.
They travel for six days before coming in sight of Belis Mouth, the gateway into the capital city of the Old Kingdom, Belisaere. Much of it in silence as Touchstone isn’t too chatty, but then Mogget realizes that due to the constant movement and deep water, any magics on them will have weakened, meaning all the magic keeping them from speaking aloud what they remember from two hundred years ago is not going to stop them now. Touchstone explains he was a Royal Guard, friends with the Queen’s son Rogir. Rogir went off the rails… meaning, he swapped real Life for power and came back from years of study in a Free Magic construct, his real body hidden. He killed his sisters and his mother to break the great Charter Stones and succeeded in breaking two of the six great stones. The Abhorsen of the time intervened, but was too late. The Old Kingdom descended into chaos and Rogir would soon try to come back. Sabriel realizes that Rogir is Kerrigor. Before any more answers can be gained, they reach shallower waters and the secret keeping magic is back in force.
They head toward the busy harbor. Sabriel can feel the Dead there but they seem to be further inland, and she is concerned the people of the city have a deal with the Dead. Once moored, Touchstone pays a lad to take them to the best inn. As they make their way through the bustling streets, Sabriel sees a giant flowing aqueduct with guards posted under and around it. So this is how the living are keeping the Dead at bay, the Dead can’t get under moving water any easier than over. Once in the inn, Sabriel takes her disgustingly matted, dirty and smelly clothes off and has a bath whilst unfortunately listening to the dulcet sounds of the couple in the next room having sex and she jealousy thinks it's Touchstone, but he's in the bar waiting for her to finish her bath so he can use her tub. After they are clean, they plan their next steps. Sabriel believes her father's body will be in the cave with the great Charter Stones and Mogget agrees. They’ll go on a sunny day, but the cave will have at best twilight levels of brightness so basically it will likely be filled with the Dead. Great.
The next day, they set off for the cavern with the great Charter Stones. Mercenaries are waiting to enter the city, they need their decoys and bait before going anywhere near the Dead, meaning they are taking in small enslaved children manacaled together. Sabriel wants to stop them, but Mogget warns against setting them back further and exposing that she is the Abhorsen. Surely this won't cause any problems later. After handing over their fee (bribe) to enter the city, Touchstone leads them on the best path and eventually they find themselves entering the cavern. It’s dark with only some light holes letting the sun in and even those darken as clouds go by. They wade through the still waters, Sabriel feeling awful at the feel of the corruption in the place. In the dark, Sabriel sees a faint light and walking closer, she sees it’s a diamond of protection and in the middle is a figure rimmed in frost and ice. It’s her father.
Sabriel and Touchstone join hands, with Mogget watching on, and with no little effort, they create their own diamond of protection. As Sabriel prepares to go into Death, Touchstone clumsily kisses her cheek, seeing Sabriel as a woman and not just the Abhorsen for the first time. Sabriel enters Death past the first gate but before reaching the second, a creature with characteristics of something from the fifth gate moves towards her. Luckily Sabriel has her sword and lops off its head. Continuing on, Sabriel hears a thunderous crash and screams, cries and shrieks of an approaching wave and needs to run to the third gate. Meanwhile, Touchstone and Mogget watch the Dead shuffle into the cavern. They don’t approach, but line the walls. In an offhand comment, Mogget says they’re like an honor guard. Kerrigor must be coming…
Sabriel was able to reach the third gate before the wave crashed and is now making her way through the fourth and is able to feel the presence of her father. After some wandering, she sees him inside the fourth gate, buried up to his head. With some winks and side eyes, Daddy Abhorsen indicates to Sabriel a Dead creature like the one that brought her the sword and bandolier. Using one of her bells, she gives the Dead a white fleshy tongue and her father is able to speak. He tells Sabriel to use two bells, typically a very dangerous combination, but the pattern and sound help bring Daddy Abhorsen out of the trap. Once free, and with urgency, they start toward Life. Daddy Abhorsen explains that Kerrigor, or rather, Rogir’s body is in Ancelstierre and Sabriel, with her knowledge of the land beyond the Wall and the assistance of beings who can see the future called The Clayr, will be able to find Rogir’s body and kill him at last. Once that is done, they can awaken the bastard Prince from his sleep as a wooden ship figurehead and…. Yeah too late, that’s been done and he’s called Touchstone now and he’s with Mogget in the cavern with their bodies. Well, since matters are moving faster than Daddy Abhorsen expected, and he only has a hundred hundred heartbeats left in Life, they’d better get a wiggle on. Meanwhile, the Dead continue to circle Touchstone and Mogget.
The Dead are chanting and clapping in a line, marching out toward them forming a corridor. The Mordicant arrives and waits like a dog waiting for his master. It howls when Kerrigor arrives and greets his little brother, Touchstone. Meanwhile, Sabriel and Daddy Abhorsen have reached the First Gate. Daddy Abhorsen gives final instructions to Sabriel to grab Touchstone, head to the southern stairs and to the Clayrs who should have a Paperwing waiting for them to fly to the Wall. Daddy Abhorsen takes the sword and one of the bells and they plunge into Life.
Kerrigor hasn’t yet attacked Touchstone and Mogget when Sabriel and Daddy Abhorsen come back to their physical bodies. Sabriel grabs one of Touchstone’s swords and his hand then drags him to the Southern stairs. From behind they hear Daddy Abhorsen ring the bell, the bell that calls everyone to their final Death. Sabriel and Touchstone can feel its pull, but Sabriel slaps Touchstone, feeling him slip away before pulling his face into a biting kiss. When the bell toll stops, they are exhausted. Daddy Abhorsen is dead, Kerrigor will come back, Mogget… who knows… though Sabriel still has his ring.
Sabriel and Touchstone make it out into the sunlight. She asks her sworn swordsman about being a prince, but Touchstone denies it, saying his mother was the Queen but his father was a nobody. As they climb the exhausting path up to the palace and the garden where the Clayr should hopefully have the Paperwing, Touchstone spots the slave mercenaries from that morning who are now hunting them. One fires an arrow at Sabriel and it hits her side. Touchstone picks her up and powers the rest of the way. At the top, Touchstone puts Sabriel down in front of two of the Clayr, twin sisters Ryelle and Sanar, and the Paperwings they brought. The sisters, using magic, show Sabriel their vision of where Kerrigor’s body is in Ancelstierre. They show her what was advertised as a recent folly, only two hundred or so years old, a fake cairn, but it’s not, it’s Rogir’s hiding place. And it’s not far from Waverley College.
At the Wall, a private reports to Colonel Horyse that there is aircraft approaching the garrison from the other side of the Wall. What?!?! Horyse comes out, grabs the binoculars from a soldier and sees Sabriel and a strange man riding what looks like a powered glider decorated like a bird. He orders a patrol to cross the Wall and find out just what the dickens is going on. On the Old Kingdom side, Sabriel and Touchstone have landed. They gather their belongings including The Book of the Dead, which now appears to be bleeding, and send the Paperwing back. The patrol takes them to Horyse where he confirms it will be the full moon that night. Time works differently over the Wall. Sabriel explains their situation requesting the Charter Mages from the company help her with the cairn and to advise anyone left at the garrison not to engage Kerrigor. She also insists that the strongest Charter Mage of the Company, who happens to be Horyse, comes too.
Sabriel and Touchstone get into Horyse’s car with the Colonel and his driver and head off to the cairn in a convoy of motorcycles, buses and tanks. They stop at the village of Bain on the way to inform the police superintendent what is happening and to sound the alarm bells hoping to prevent too much collateral damage from Kerrigor’s invasion. Whilst there they are informed that there is a thick fog rolling in from the Wall. Kerrigor is coming early and bringing the darkness with him. Communication to the Wall garrison is lost. The company proceeds to the cairn, and as they approach, Touchstone tells Sabriel he loves her and she confesses the same. As they start to dig the sarcophagus out of the cairn, rolling waves of nausea hit those around the company, and it worsens as they dig deeper. Horyse puts a call into the Bain police superintendent and finds out the fog is fast approaching. They have less than forty minutes.
The last of the blocks are removed to reveal the sarcophagus and the waves of nausea are even stronger than before. Sabriel will touch the sarcophagus, Touchstone holding her hand, Horyse his, and so on until all fourteen Charter Mages who came with them can assist in opening it. It doesn’t work. They need more Charter Mages. An offhand comment reminds Sabriel that her old school Waverley College is only a mile away and there are thirty-five Charter Mages she can use between the 5th and 6th years and teachers. There isn’t time to bring the students to them, so with great effort, they take the Sarcophagus with them to enlist the school. It takes a little Charter magic to shut the headmistress up, more intent on being mortally offended than defending anyone’s morality, but soon the other teachers take charge to either help or keep the heck out of the way until dawn. Which is good because Sabriel has noticed the warning bell stopped a while ago, and can see the thick fog rolling up the school driveway.
It’s only moments later that the dead reach the school. Soldiers start shooting and they start dying. Sabriel hurries inside the school and gathers the Charter Mages around the sarcophagus telling them to hold each other's hands to create a circle of power. The power grows and flows through the Charter Mages, Sabriel directing it. With a piercing scream, the sarcophagus opens to reveal Rogir’s body, and he looks like the spitting image of Touchstone. As Sabriel starts the final rites, cries from the corridor alert her that Kerrigor is here. However it isn’t Kerrigor who interrupts the rites, it’s Mogget who has blown an entire wall of the school off. In a whirlwind of energy, Mogget isn’t in his cat form, he is squat and misshapen. He hisses about delivering his last burden before he can seek his vengeance and lays down the bell and sword Daddy Abhorsen wielded in the cavern. Kerrigor enters and gets into a small screaming fight with Mogget over who gets to kill Abhorsen. Mogget attacks Kerrigor who seems nothing more than an inky blackness of presence. Mogget is dragged into the darkness by tendrils, his white flame flashing as he fights Kerrigor devouring him. Sabriel can feel more people dying, she sees Touchstone is hurt, his leg broken from Mogget’s dramatic entrance. He begs that she flee and start a new life, but Sabriel picks up the Abhorsen sword, and reading the inscription, she says “this is not their path” as she takes up the guard position.
Sabriel is nearly sick watching Kerrigor digest Mogget. Around her, all the dead and dying seem to have gone quiet. When Sabriel reaches for a bell, Kerrigor approaches, calling them “toys.” Suddenly one of the dying girls at her feet touches her ankle and Sabriel feels a spark of golden Charter Magic and rings the bells, forcing Kerrigor into his body in the sarcophagus. Sabriel takes her sword and thrusts it through the body of Rogir but Kerrigor only laughs and pulls the sword further into him. Meanwhile, Mogget’s ring falls into Sabriel’s hand and starts to grow. Kerrigor leans in to kiss her (yuck!!) but Sabriel turns her face, giving him her cheek. As he looms over her, Sabriel places the now huge ring over his head. At first Kerrigor laughs it off but then it starts to constrict, moving down his body, squeezing him so Sabriel can see the blackness inside, but also flashes of white. As the ring squeezes the flesh and blackness apart, Sabriel pulls one of her bells out and rings it. What is fatally wounded goes into Death, and what is alive falls into a healing sleep.
That isn’t the end of Kerrigor though. The mound of darkness has split into two forms, one black and one white. Gradually two forms emerge as a black cat and a white cat. At first they are bound together at the neck but the ring splits into two, forming red leather collars with a little bell on each causing them to separate. Two silver rings are coughed up by them and roll toward Sabriel, lying dead on the floor, but Sabriel is not allowed to die. She is the last Abhorsen and must have an heir before she is allowed into Death. Every Abhorsen tells Sabriel to Live, they won’t let her pass the Ninth Gate yet. Sabriel’s eyes open to Touchstone begging her to live.
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