Blake, Jessandra and Sturnus continue to travel, taking advantage of their head start on the slavers, until they camp down for the night at dusk. All the while, they are being spied upon by a strange scaly creature. The lizard, armed with a knife, makes an attempt on Blake's life, but is thwarted when Jessandra uses the chains to knock it out.
The attempt on his life throws Blake into a panic attack -- "Blades! Lizards with blades coming in the night! It's like a horrible ending to the bloody book of my life" -- but under Sturnus's suggestion, uses the lizard's knife to pick their ankle locks and remove their chains. As a precaution against both beasts, he chains the lizard to Jessandra. With much threatening from the wildcat, the lizard (named Quaddling, or "Quaddles" as Sturnus calls her) has promised to lead them out of the swamp in return for her life.
Sturnus, after a laborious thought process and much dredging of the sayings of his mother, has them chain Quaddling to him instead. They continue following Quaddling's lead until Jessandra and Blake fall slightly behind; the two hear a screeching, presumably of Sturnus, and several answering screeches.
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Sycamore and Cinder break the chains between them by pounding them repeatedly with a rock, while Phoebe does a bad job keeping watch. Cinder goes foraging for food and finds several tubers and some fresh fish, arousing the interest of a mysterious creature downstream. Meanwhile, Phoebe and Sycamore go in search of a new place to camp, Phoebe continually slighting her companion. Sycamore continues beating the chains between himself and Phoebe, which allows Cinder to find them. At the sight of Cinder cleaning the raw fish, Phoebe faints clean away.
While the rabbit is out cold, Sycamore manages to break the last of the chains, and Cinder has started a fire and cooked the food. Phoebe accepts and scarfs the food rudely -- "Even the best of us have to eat, you know. I'm not perfect, just beautiful" -- and isolates herself on the other side of the fire. When she realizes that it might be nice to join them, her attempts fail.
The three go to sleep for the night. In the middle of the night, Cinder awakens and hears a nearby rustling noise. She goes in search of it, only to find a horrible monster, and dashes back to camp. Sycamore is awakened from a hydrophobic dream by Cinder, who then wakes Phoebe. The creature comes into the camp. Sycamore bolts up a tree, where he hears the shrieks of his companions suddenly cease.
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Jickador attempts to break their chains with a rock, only to send himself, Dorog and Lalilly toppling into the mud repeatedly. Lalilly, constantly amused by their situation, decides that she needs to find a new walking stick with the aid of her companions (not so amused.) Ultimately, Dorog finds himself gang-pressed into carrying her on "the walk of a thousand sticks." Long after darkness falls, she finds her perfect walking stick -- at which point the three of them hear a loud, metallic clanging.
Realizing that the sound may be coming from other escaped slaves, they head toward the noise. Jickador is reminded of a former companion, a thief-rat named Lyonie, but his memories are interrupted by the discovery of three reptiles in their path. They attempt to back away without being seen, but Lalilly's long-sought stick breaks loudly and the reptiles give chase.
They run in the direction from which they have last heard the clanging, which has now ceased. Dorog is reminded of a heroic tale of his own invention, and spins it in his head. The tallest of the lizards catches up to them and leaps on Jickador, who beats its head with a rock and saves them. They continue to move, pausing as they discover the skeleton of a beast in chains -- a former slaver, they decide. Jickador sees something moving in the bushes.
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Jickador, Lalilly and Dorog burst into Cinder, Sycamore and Phoebe's camp. At the sight of the mud-covered, misshapen beasts, Phoebe faints, Sycamore bolts, and Cinder grabs her skewer from the fire.
Lalilly jokes that Dorog scared them with his scent. Dorog cracks that it was Lalilly's humor that frightened them, and Cin realizes by their chains that they were slaves too. The introduce themselves; Sycamore comes down from his tree and Phoebe regains consciousness. However, they realize the pursuers are still on their tails, and all six of them run. Phoebe, ill-suited for dashing through a swamp, is amazed by the concern that Cinder shows in the run, but before she can show gratitude is caught by scaly hands.
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What will come of this mad flight and surprise attack? Follow the link on the website for the full story -- and stay tuned as summaries continue to appear here on Fanfiction dot net!