The Flayed Dog comes to Cady in a dream. He's been sent by a group he won't name, who see either alternative - Grimme winning and getting more power, or the posse successfully subverting his ritual and destroying him - as undesirable. The Dog tells Cady that it's inevitable that some of her friends will die in the process - Tobey is a sure thing, as she's being burned at both ends. Robert he pegs as most likely to survive. The group that sent him offers another way - a weapon which can destroy Grimme utterly. The only catch is that if she accepts it she has to use it.

Cady won't accept those terms - maybe she would take it if she were free to use it or not. Flayed Dog presses a little more on the fact that people will die. He tells her that the one behind her friends (he won't mention God) is using them, using them up for his own purposes. Then he threatens her - the ones who sent him can shut off her own power, make the little spirits stay away from her. Cady stands firm, and Flayed Dog doesn't push for too long. In the end, he says that while the ones who sent him will be displeased, he personally has always appreciated that she has been a Lady in her dealings with him.

After hearing about the dream - though Cady doesn't provide the information about who will certainly live or die - the posse heads in to the city, which is even drier, dustier, and more packed than it was last time they were there. They have to pass through a checkpoint and get their papers on the way in. Cady fills them all out, noting them as the Black River Gang and saying that their purpose is to sell horses. Strangely, they get no trouble about that, and when their horses are searched for contraband, the Guardian Angels doing it carefully don't search the ones the posse is trying to smuggle explosives in on.

In the city, they board their horses for far too much money (later learning that it's because an armed guard has to be posted on them) and note that there is no trash in the city, even in the tent city outside the city proper. They have to change their real money for red Lost Angels dollars, and note the locked spy-holes in every room of every building, and the plaques with biblical quotes. They get some rooms, with water (Dr. Neptune's desalinated sea water, but drinkable if fizzy) included.

James takes Nicodemus out to scout the layout of the city, and has a few little hallucinations, mostly involving eating or food. It's unclear whether this is because of the aura of the city or because he's had some of the fizzy water. Robert finds out about getting passage by ship out of the city - it turns out to be expensive, but doable - and finds out that Grimme has announced a special sermon on Friday and retreated to the prison island in the bay for solitude until then.

They get back together and Nicodemus tells them that the ritual will definitely be in the cathedral, and Friday seems very likely. Since Grimme wants them to be there, they shouldn't worry too much about getting into the service. Then there follows a lot of debate about how to properly forgive him and disrupt his ritual.

"You can't shoot his kneecaps as part of the forgiveness ritual!"
"It is the sort of forgiveness we go for: stay there while I'm forgivin' ya."

That night, Nicodemus turns himself invisible on Elder Tanner's watch and escapes (though while it's going on no one knows it's Nicodemus, that only becomes apparent afterwards). No one is harmed in the attempt other than Joseph who jumps down the stairs after him, and Jacob didn't steal anything. Past sight reveals that he spent the whole night awake until the attempt, often mouthing:

"I don't want to die!"

Tuesday morning dawns with the usual bitter brightness of the city of Lost Angels.

"If he's not coming into the lion's den, he's not redeeming himself, and therefore can be killed!" - a happy posse member's moral judgment of Nicodemus's flight