“You weren’t listening to what Sooth had to say!” said Elshield, sounding like a disappointed uncle. “We maintain the balance of the Land by seeing to it that the Sprung never get too organized, too powerful, out there on those Bits. Brindle was the best king among them. Having him free was unacceptable. Holding him prisoner would have been better—though not without risk. Having him dead—by his own hand, no less—now, that is the best outcome I could imagine. I think we’ll leave him just where he put himself.”

Hearing this, Prim became so wrathful that she rolled to her stomach, got up on hands and knees, and staggered up to her feet. She turned to face Elshield and took a step toward him, wishing she could get her hands around his throat. But then his mind was inside hers again, and he forced her to stand where she was. Controlling her like one of his mounts.

“You,” Elshield said, “we’ll keep around. You’ll make a lovely little tame princess to reign over Calla from a high tower.”

She knew he could do it, too. He would not even need to put her in chains. The Autochthons, once they had got into your mind, had no need of such crude restraints. The only way to be free of Elshield’s power was for him to cease existing.

She wished he were dead.

His black cloak, empty, collapsed into a heap on the pavement. The steel hilt of his sword clattered on stone as it slid half out of its scabbard. Elshield was gone. Gone from the quay and gone from her mind.

Above she heard Sooth give out a shriek. Other than that, the whole place was silent for a few moments. Then it erupted into a welter of voices, mostly in the crude simple version of Townish spoken by Beedles. They all wished to know where Delegate Elshield was. Very few had seen him cease to exist, and so all they knew was that he was nowhere to be seen and that his clothes and weapon lay on the quay as if he had discarded them.

The only possible explanation seemed to be that he had disrobed and jumped into the water in an effort to rescue Brindle, and so a lot of Beedles who had only just climbed out from trying to rescue Prim now jumped back in again. All was wildly confused.

It wasn’t merely that no one knew what had happened. The removal of Elshield’s mind from the top of the chain of command had left not only the Beedles but the Autochthons uncertain as to what they should do.