Can These Bones Live? Those eerie words haunt Velius's thoughts. The Great City Pistin is dead. The inhabitants have died of despair, the walls and gates are gone, and written over the remaining archway is the word Ichabod. Everywhere among the ruins are slabs on which lie the bodies and bones of the people. Will Velius and Farrah be able to resist the despair sent from the enemy to which Pistin and its citizens have succumbed?

Histami has stood fast against Nawshaw's evil plan. He is one of two residents who are still alive, but all his efforts to protect the citizenry have failed. He watched as they climbed onto Nawshaw's slabs, first one by one and then by the hundreds, and died. Though his resolve remains staunch his hope for the city is dead.

Sophia is locked in the darkened tower. She can do nothing but look down on the ruins of her broken life. Her dead husband and the ruins of her home are visible from the parapet where the Great Stone once stood. Yet hope is still alive.

Can These Bones Live?