997: Very early the next morning, Alain makes an entry in his diary and writes a letter to his father. Then the party returns to the Four Groats. While waiting for their contact, Mariam sees Thomas, whom she had last seen in Norcastle. A man arrives to take them to "find some henbane", and leads them to Gwen, who is hiding in a small hut at the place where the great battle between Fraubard's and the King's men took place. Gwen has been beaten to within an inch of her life. Her face is a mass of bruises, at least one rib is broken, and her right hand has been mangled. She is being cared for by Ham, a young man who is absolutely smitten with her. Gwen tells them that after she was beaten for singing her songs, she sold some of Ash's possessions and used the money to pay others to sing them, figuring that they couldn't all be silenced. She also paid the river people to take Ash's body down to the sea and cast it adrift there. Mariam manages to reset the hand into some semblance of its original form, and when Alain lays hands on her, the rib moves back into place. An officer of the Watch, Matthew, comes to ask if Alain will accompany him to see his superior, Sergeant Baryan, and is told he will have to wait. Mariam goes herb-hunting with Laughing Bear, and accidentally stumbles upon the hiding place of the supposedly-dead Crown Prince Edmund and his last remaining Knight of the Table, William Greycloak de Guescelin. Edmund was wounded in the battle with Fraubard. Laughing Bear and William carry him back to the hut, where Mariam tends him. William and Alain talk about the current political situation, and then William (poorly disguised as a commoner) and Hamish go back to town for supplies. Moreau spends the afternoon identifying some of the items lifted from Savrishti's home. Much later that night, Alain and Matthew go into town to talk to Sergeant Baryan, who informs them that the white dwarf seen at Savrishti's has been killed in a mining "accident". He also agrees to let Matthew go for a price, and tells them he wants order in his town. Then they go to Mercy's Inn, where Alain apologizes for the recent troubles, tries to talk some sense into Mercy's daughter, Mirin, who is grieving for Ash, and picks up the clothes ordered from Savrishti. Afterwards, they visit the Pit Prop, where Alain tells Dain,the owner, that he wants to visit the Church of the Cliff "the back way" sometime the next evening. Then they head back to the hut, with Matthew a lot merrier than before. Meanwhile, Moreau fails drastically in one of his identifies, and becomes very ill. After they return, the Prince and William take Laurel and begin their journey. At about 1 am, the horses and Thistle start acting excited. Mariam wakes everyone except Moreau, who has been bitten by something and is in a deep sleep. The same something bites Laughing Bear, who manages to shout "Baby!" before he too falls. The attacker is eventually revealed to be the imp Blunt, Savrishti's familiar, which has chameleon-like qualities and a nasty bite. Before it is finally dispatched by Alain's sword Margaret, Matthew and Thistle are taken down as well. It would be nice to think that Savrishti felt something like this after the encounter. The hut is burned down during the battle, but villagers from North Trickle take the party in for the rest of the night.