Still in Natasha's wagon, the three women pool their wits to figure out how the necromancer is able to operate in the gypsy camp, and Natasha realizes it's because he must have linked spirits with her – that's why she always feels ills on the nights of attacks, to make sure that she doesn't find out about Bravil's tainted food.

Olivia suggests various cover stories to hide Natasha and the gypsies' involvement in the attack, and it takes a bit of fine tuning to hammer out something that works: the story will be that Natasha found an odd herb in Bravil's stew that made him act funny, and is taking him to the local witches for treatment. Djivan will have an excuse to watch over the cookpots at camp. Lili will be asked to listen for the sound of chimes, ostensibly from bones hung on local-monster Kevin's antlers.

Once Natasha and Bravil are at the Gnarly Tree, it will be safe to conduct some magical tests.