Help to Get Them Witches
- Back at the Larkin House, Mr. Clayborne also seems impressed by the flying branch innovation.
- Swamp Reeve says some stuff—he speaks kind of funny and is hard to understand, but we know he calls the branches a snag and he wants to talk to Rose.
- Just a couple things about Swamp Reeve: Who invited him over? Why is he named after a swamp? And why is he so bossy?
- Briony says something about Brownie who used to lie on a carpet by the fire. She says they were dangerous together, but without any real description all we can picture is a cute little brown puppy, so we're not sure what the big deal is yet.
- Briony starts craving the swamp like an addict, and Rose starts asking for Briony to read to her.
- Father asks Rose to come out from the table and act like a big girl.
- The constable asks to speak with Rose. While we're on the subject, who invited the constable over?
- Rose starts screaming. Briony makes a side note that Rose's scream is always on the note of B flat. B flat major, by the way, also happens to be the key to "I'll Never Break Your Heart" by the Backstreet Boys, so it can't be all that bad (on second thought, maybe it can be).
- Pearl takes Rose upstairs.
- The constable and the Reeve begin questioning Briony now instead. Briony thinks about not having a "proper witchy education" (5.36), and thus not knowing the rules about witch camaraderie. Is this a "snitches get stitches" situation or a "see something say something" type? It's all so complicated.
- When Briony doesn't give up much information, the two men take to questioning Eldric, who reveals that one of the witches was a redhead.
- They talk about the Chime Child, whose job has to do with catching witches and mention that she's actually not a child, but quite old. Later in the chapter they also reveal that this person "has a foot in both worlds… one in the world of the Old Ones, the other in the human world" (5.76). So basically, she represents the witches of the world, like a mystical defense attorney of sorts.
- Eldric brings Rose a paper rose he made for her, which stops her screaming and entices her to come downstairs. Aw…
- Rose commences to incessantly ask Briony to read to her, apparently forgetting that all of their books burned in the library fire. When she's reminded though, she mysteriously refers to her book, which did not burn in the fire, and is a secret.
- The men decide a walk to where the witches were spotted seems nice. Briony mentally opposes, but says nothing.
- Eldric happily gives the men an overview of what he learned about the Old Ones at the Alehouse. The Deadhand destroys hands, the Wykes lure, the Dark Muse sucks away spirits, and the Boggy Mun is king of the swamp.
- Reverend Larkin tries to convince them to go at a less dangerous time (daylight for example), but they insist the evidence would be gone by then.
- Briony has no plans of going, until she sees Death (personified by a bony skeleton that moves its mouth and points and waves) over Mr. Drury's shoulder. She convinces herself that she wants to go into the swamp with them to save Mr. Drury, not to fulfill her swamp craving.