- Spring is in the air, and Selim announces they'll be going to Kars.
- Vahan rides with a lean soldier who is cranky about everything. He tells Vahan to zip it, so he does; he's thirteen years old now, but he's still undersized and unarmed.
- As he's riding along, Vahan sees the bones of Armenian victims on the side of the road, along with some of their tattered possessions.
- He remembers someone asking when he was on the march why the soldiers didn't just hurry up and kill them already, and wonders about that same question now.
- At Kars, Vahan notices that most of the population is gone. He realizes that this is war—there might not be battles but people are being killed for no reason at all.
- Once they arrive at the consulate, Vahan is taken to the stables and given a blanket and pillow.