- Miri's father calls out and rushes in to save her, but Dan warns him that unless he lowers his mallet, Dan will kill Miri.
- Miri looks around and sees that the villagers have overwhelmed four bandits and taken in many of the girls. The remaining eleven bandits have managed to capture some of the girls though, including Britta, Esa, Gerti, Katar, and Frid.
- The villagers step forward and tell the bandits that if they release all the girls, they'll let their remaining men go. Dan refuses—he came all this way for a princess to ransom.
- Some of the other bandits, though, are less convinced, and let go of the girls they're holding, saying that it's creepy how the villagers showed up as though the mountain had called to them. Dan still holds onto Miri, though.
- As Miri stands there in Dan's grip and looks out at all the villagers who have come to save her, she realizes that she never wants to leave Mount Eskel. She loves it here. She belongs here.
- She grabs the linder hawk that Peder made in her pocket and realizes that she'll have to ease Dan toward the cliff. That's the only chance she has of surviving, but she can't do it alone.
- She uses quarry-speech to send Peder the memory of him falling through an ice hole, hoping that he'll understand that she needs him to herd Dan toward the cliff's edge.
- Peder comes forward and starts advancing on Dan to his left, forcing him to edge toward the right. The other villagers follow suit.
- When they near the edge, Miri reaches over and strikes Dan in the wrist with the linder hawk. He lets her go and rolls over the edge, grabbing a root to hold on.
- Then Dan falls over the edge completely, but at the last minute, he grabs onto Miri's leg; she struggles to hold on.
- She doesn't have to worry though—her father reaches down, striking Dan on the head with his mallet. Dan lets go of Miri and falls all the way down to his doom.