"Aye," he says simply. "I am looking for the both of you, and for Lord Elrond. I had aid from Lady Galadriel and from Rhy, and from others -- Lucifer, Kyle, the vampire girl. They are all searching too. Everyone is. Might be that I am aiding them, not the other way around, but -- well, almost everyone is trying."

Ghost sits near the foot of the bed and rests his chin on the edge of the mattress, sniffing once, then twice in Alicent's direction, without moving any closer.

"What sort of ritual?"

He's been through one, though he doesn't remember it. It had yanked him back from the great sweet nothingness of death.