Summary
Klen explains that his human form is much weaker than his true one and that he intends to keep it until Luna is king. Their captors are the Crows, slave traders based by the Mineshaft of Elbe. Alicia is brought before the boss, Vroko, and his pet troll Betty, while Klen is put to work in the kitchen under the cook Carme. There he meets Nell (Nelluru), a slave girl who nurses Luna and is beaten for it.
Klen kills the men who hurt her and asks about her past. When she has told her story he offers to hire her as Luna’s wet nurse, but she turns him down. Vroko, meanwhile, wants Alicia to lead him to the weapons of the fallen heroes. When she refuses, he takes her to a flooded mine swarming with monsters, at the bottom of which lies the Waterfall Slicer, the sword of the hero Kodwar. When the blind bandit Feeto threatens her on the bridge above the shaft, Alicia sends them both falling, trusting Klen’s curse to keep her alive.