Stumbling into the gardens of the House Absolute, Severian is reunited with Dorcas, Dr. Talos, and Baldanders, who are preparing to perform the play they performed in the first book. Severian participates again, but the play is cut short when Baldanders flies into a rage and attacks the audience, revealing that aliens are among them. Talos and Baldanders part ways with Severian and Dorcas at a crossroad, Severian heading toward Thrax, and the giant and his physician headed toward Lake Diuturna. Jolenta tries to have Talos take her with him, but he has no more use for her now that the plays are no longer necessary, and Severian takes her. As they head north, Jolenta is bitten by a "blood bat" and falls ill. Severian realizes that she had been scientifically altered by Dr. Talos to be gorgeous and desirable, but is quickly becoming sickly and unattractive. Soon the trio meets an old farmer who tells them they must pass through an enigmatic stone city to get to Thrax. In the ruined city, Severian sees a pair of witches initiate a dream-like event in which ghostly dancers of the stone town's past, led in a ritual by a teacher named Apu-Punchau, fill the area and fight with the witch's servant, who is Vodalus's lieutenant Hildegrin. The book ends with Dorcas and Severian emerging from a stupor in the stone town, Jolenta dead and revealed to be the waitress whom Dr. Talos had promised to make beautiful, and the witches and Hildegrin gone.
