Emily and Ariadne spend the day pushing onward while mounted, courtly Folk repeatedly thunder down the path. Each time they hear hoofbeats, they have only seconds to dive into cover, and Emily cannot get a clear look at the riders or their horse-like mounts, only flashes of shadow and pennants.

That night, cold rain drives them to accept shelter beneath an enormous yew whose branches form a dry hollow over mossy ground. Although Emily distrusts such “convenient” faerie shelter, signs of prior use—a blackened fire ring and a stump-seat—persuade her to camp there. Emily sets out her jar of glowing “lint” as a lantern and takes first watch.

Emily’s watch passes without attack, though a rider or two races by. In the quiet, Emily’s thoughts return to Wendell: whether he has woken, whether assassins have found him, and how much she relies on the idea of Shadow guarding him. After waking Ariadne, Emily intends to continue watching because the yew’s stillness feels wrong, but exhaustion overtakes her and she falls asleep.

Ariadne’s scream jolts Emily awake. Ariadne has strayed only a short distance to gather branches, and a deara—a frog-skinned faerie beast—has seized Ariadne by the hair and is dragging her into the shadows. Knowing deara are dangerous to mortals near wet places, Emily reacts immediately by flinging her cloak over Ariadne.

The cloak unfurls and wraps Ariadne tightly, and the deara erupts in a piercing howl. It releases Ariadne at once, presses itself to the ground in submissive retreat, and then slides backward into the forest, still howling, leaving Emily and Ariadne shaken but alive.