Tané waits anxiously in her luxurious chambers at Salt Flower Castle for dawn, when she is to meet Nayimathun on the beach and together approach the Sea General with the truth. An earthquake strikes in the night, spraining her ankle and aggravating her old wounds. Shortly after, six masked soldiers from the land army arrive, claiming the Governor of Ginura has summoned her. Despite her suspicions, Tané decides to comply rather than flee and appear guilty. Fellow dragonriders Onren and Kanperu confront the soldiers on her behalf, but Tané ultimately agrees to go, asking Onren to alert Nayimathun if she does not return within the hour.

Inside the palanquin, Tané realizes the soldiers are not taking her to the Governor's residence but to the southern outskirts of the city—to Ginura Jailhouse. At the gate, she sees severed heads displayed, and recognizes the freshest as Sulyard's. Inside the jailhouse grounds, she finds Susa—her childhood friend, only seventeen—kneeling by a ditch, bound and shorn, awaiting execution. Tané screams for the execution to stop, invoking her status as a dragonrider and Nayimathun's wrath. She confesses that the crime was hers, not Susa's. But the executioner is unmoved. Susa tells Tané to look away. The sword falls, and Susa is beheaded. Tané collapses to her knees, devastated.

Meanwhile, on the beach, Niclays Roos waits for Tané, who never arrives. He reflects on his plan to use a dragon scale to create the elixir of life, his only leverage for returning home to Ostendeur. He considers reporting Tané's crime to the Warlord to save Sulyard, but delays. As dawn approaches, the dragon Nayimathun descends to the beach, searching for Tané. Nayimathun announces aloud that both Sulyard and Susa are dead. Niclays hides behind a rock, close enough almost to touch the dragon's scales.

Before he can act, a blade is pressed to his throat by an unseen assailant. The beach erupts in black smoke—firecloud, a kind of gunpowder—and Nayimathun snarls and fights against attackers. Niclays is dragged through the smoke, struck by the dragon's tail, and left dazed on the sand. A voice demands he prove his worth to the Fleet of the Tiger Eye, the pirate force that has been raiding the coast. His satchel and scrolls are taken from him, and he is knocked unconscious by the hilt of a knife.