The Merryweather, leaking gases, and having suffered great casualties, limps its way out of Gallis, and into the land of Kroz. There, it sets down, and Willow leads a group (consisting of Burr, Testament-Blaze and the Rhian Hammerhead) toward a castle in hopes of trading with the locals. They pass through a wooded area on a hilltop, where they discover a vine-covered statue of a Skreek. They are then attacked by strange, unseen creatures … until Willow stumbles into the open again, and a huntsman kills Willow's attacker with an iron-tipped crossbow bolt.

Willow and her friends learn a bit about the monsters that attacked them – snicjers – and then travel on to Castle Diamante.