The Beedle died because he would not stop screaming and Prim wanted him dead. That she had killed him was not obvious to the others, who found it puzzling when he ceased to exist. Yesterday she had tried to use her power on the Beedles in the distant galley, but it hadn’t worked—she couldn’t just kill a whole ship full of anonymous victims miles away; it seemed to be more of a face-to-face transaction.

Everyone in the camp was now going armed. Mard had belted the great sword of Elshield around his waist. Lyne had taken out a sword of his own: a family heirloom that he had brought from home and kept packed in his baggage until now. It was not much less magnificent than the one Mard carried. Given the circumstances, however, he was paying more attention to his bow and arrows. Fern was strapped with a cutlass and a dagger. Prim, like Lyne, had a bow strung and a quiver at her hip. But only because it would seem odd not to. She could kill all of the Beedles, she knew, one by one, and they could simply take the Beedles’ galley. But none of her companions, save Corvus, was aware of that. And so, once they had made sure no additional Beedle snipers were anywhere nearby, they turned their attention to the arrow lodged in Swab’s body. This had gone in her back, up high between spine and shoulder blade, and passed most of the way through her body. It had broad, vicious barbs, so deeply embedded that Fern ended up deciding that the only way to get it out was to push it all the way through and out the other side. And this she did after giving Swab a potion from her medical kit that in theory would dull the pain. To judge from the way Swab reacted, it didn’t work very well. Watching the operation from Swab’s front, Prim saw the flesh begin to bulge outward beneath the collarbone. Then the highest part of the bulge lost its form. A lesion appeared on the skin, and it was made of chaos. The point of the arrowhead erupted from its center and then the whole thing came through easily. Once the barbed head had been removed, Fern was able to pull the shaft out of Swab’s back. Blood came from the wound. They bound it up as best they could.

Intent as she was on looking after Swab, Prim paid little note when Corvus flew in from one of his reconnaissance sweeps and summoned Mard. But when they finally knotted the bandages round Swab’s wounds and made sure she had all the water she desired—and she had become very thirsty—Prim looked round and saw that Mard and Corvus were both absent.