- Sabriel and Mogget explore the sinkhole, which has evidence of much use: a paved floor, evidence of old magic, and a passageway to another sinkhole containing a fleet of grounded ships.
- These are funerary ships: "the famous burial ground" (13.27) of the Kings and Queens of the Old Kingdom, Mogget explains, although some sort of magic prevents him from saying more.
- As Mogget leads Sabriel to a spring in the sinkhole, she notices figureheads on the prows of the ships. One particular figure of a naked young man catches her eye—he seems incredibly life-like for a carving, and Sabriel senses that he is not a carving, but someone caught between Life and Death instead. Sabriel decides it's safe enough to risk a short trip into Death to rescue him.
- Once in Death, Sabriel searches for the man and finds him trapped under the river, frozen like a statue. She begins to drag him toward the First Gate and back to Life, realizing that the man is attached to a long thread that will alert someone if he is moved.
- Sure enough, moving him alerts someone, and a hog-like creature chases Sabriel, nearly intercepting her return to Life, but Sabriel manages to drag the man out.
- The half-sleeping Mogget advises Sabriel to kiss the man in order to revive him. Sabriel's not entirely willing to act out Sleeping Beauty, but she bends close enough to breathe in his face, which wakes him up. He transforms from wooden carving into actual flesh.