Balthazar and Baptiste struggle toward land on a miserable raft made from three galley oars tied together with their belts. The rocky inlet is almost as deadly as the sea, but Baptiste gets a grip on the rocks and Balthazar finally claws his way ashore, battered, freezing, and half naked. Once safe, they immediately fall into bitter, comic argument over gratitude, survival, and Balthazar's lack of trousers.

As Balthazar fights nausea and the aftereffects of the magical binding, Baptiste realizes the binding must still be active because Princess Alexia survived the wreck. That matters because it gives them a reason and an obligation to keep moving. Pressed by Baptiste, Balthazar admits divination is not his strongest talent but proposes using an old stone circle near Niksic to try to locate Alexia, so they decide to head east, find supplies, and continue the mission.

Moving inland, they discover that the region is deep in war rather than peace. A valley is strewn with hundreds of dead soldiers and horses, a nearby hamlet has been burned, and scavengers are already stripping the bodies. Since they need gear, Baptiste matter-of-factly begins robbing the dead and quickly outfits herself with boots, a military coat, daggers, and a cap, while Balthazar struggles clumsily to remove clothing and footwear from a corpse.

Baptiste's competence and her stories of previous corpse-robbing sharpen Balthazar's embarrassment, though she does help by finding him trousers. Before Balthazar can solve his boot problem, local corpse pickers confront them and try to claim the battlefield as their own. When Baptiste refuses to back him, Balthazar's humiliation turns to fury, and he uses necromancy to jerk nearby corpses upright, terrifying the looters and reasserting his authority. The chapter ends with Balthazar coldly introducing himself and demanding the wart-faced scavenger's boots.