Vis wakes at night in a hut, bandaged, cleaner, and stronger than before, but anxious because Cian had said there would be only one chance to escape. Two warriors escort Vis through the rainy settlement toward a larger building where a feast is underway, but both guards suddenly collapse into an unnatural sleep. Cian appears, has Vis help hide them, and explains that King Fiachra and his warband are occupied with arranging Vis’s death with Ruarc, who is expected before dawn to claim the body.

Cian leads Vis through the sleeping caer's lower paths toward the palisade. Near the gate, Cian stops to speak casually with an older white-cloaked man while three large dogs mill around them, using the exchange to avoid suspicion and neutralize the animals’ threat. When a young redheaded warrior spots Vis and tries to intervene, Cian calmly advances, the dogs cut off the man’s retreat, and Cian knocks him unconscious with his staff. Vis and Cian slip through the gate, reach two horses outside the walls, and flee as alarm bells and shouts rise behind them.

During the hard ride through rain, mud, woods, and open country, Vis endures exhaustion and pain while trying to understand where he is and who is pursuing him. At a brief stop by a brook, Cian insists that trackers will still find them despite the weather and crossed streams because Ogan, the older druid from the gate, is skilled and knows Cian is helping Vis. While Cian sits in a trance-like state with blackened eyes, three mounted warriors pass by without noticing them; afterward Cian says they were not the true pursuit, because the real hunters will come with dogs and will not miss them.

When Vis presses him, Cian refuses to explain the sacred workings of the draoi, though he acknowledges Vis may know enough of such power to be tested later. He does reveal more about the political danger around Vis: Ruarc is a rising power in the Grove, the draoi High Council, and has pushed it to abandon the Old Ways. According to Cian, the Grove now secretly kills anyone who arrives at the white temple as Vis did, acting out of fear and at Ruarc’s urging rather than justice or sacred duty.

Cian says he is opposing this corruption, even though capture would mean being returned to Dun Bhailcnoc to await the Grove’s judgment. He takes Vis toward King Rónán’s lands, explaining that Fiachra will not risk war by pursuing them across the border and that Rónán dislikes Ruarc. After one more grim check on their pursuers, Cian drives the horse onward. They ford a river at false dawn, and Cian says they have crossed into Rónán’s territory, but his doubtful tone makes clear that even over the border, safety is not yet certain.