From hiding near a dry fountain, Charlie observes Hana, a towering, hideous giant enthroned amid human bones, singing bawdy verses and casually lancing boils. When Hana enters her kitchen, Charlie sprints through the passage between her conjoined houses into a vast pinwheel plaza by the palace’s rear.

He advances past warped, living-seeming architecture and green, tendril-filled buttresses to an alcove. There, a sun-topped pole overlooks a shaded pool holding an impaled mermaid’s decaying corpse—proof of Empis’s curse. Beyond it stands a massive sundial that Mr. Bowditch’s marks have led him to.

With Radar failing, Charlie lays her on the sundial and strains to turn it counterclockwise. As the disc accelerates, Radar visibly rejuvenates—from wheezing and skeletal to alert and strong. Before the spinning can regress her too far, Radar leaps into Charlie’s arms, fully restored.

Abandoning any thought of searching for gold pellets, Charlie and Radar retrace their route. They stealth past Hana—now carrying what looks like a human foot—while Charlie prepares to shoot if discovered. Unseen, they retreat toward the city’s edge, determined to exit before dark.

But Mr. Bowditch’s guiding initials have vanished. The rain-soaked, whispering city seems to shift, thwarting their path. Peterkin appears, taunting that he erased the marks with lye. Charlie unleashes Radar; she tears his britches and draws blood, but Peterkin escapes through a window. Still lost in Lilimar’s maze, Charlie and Radar press on, racing the coming night.