The Pirrim Hills
- Four days after leaving Ellion's place, the group gets to Songisu and a way station there (7.1). The people in charge take bribes and stamp their way-leaves, demanding another bribe, but they go along with it. When in Rome, right?
- Tilja's annoyed that she's got to coil her hair and pin it up in a very specific way (6.3), all to maintain the fiction that she's part of an Imperial household. She has trouble keeping it up, but thankfully Tahl helps her do so (7.4).
- Tilja also notices the age of the Empire—even the irrigation systems look really old (7.7). Generations of people have been doing the same thing forever; the Empire is a "vast, vague oppression, like a fever dream as huge as the universe" (6.8). She notices magic eddying about like little dust devils—people practice magic in bits and pieces around the Empire, but hide it (7.13). Looks like somebody needs a magical vacuum cleaner.
- When the group is eating at the way station, a guy named Zovan tells them when and where to get into the convoy; our heroes pay up (7.17-18). The next morning at dawn, everyone heads out towards the Pirrim Hills (7.22)—bummer for Tilja, her stubborn horse, Calico, isn't fond of the hills (7.23).
- Suddenly it gets really foggy (7.27). Tilja's taken by surprise when something slams into her shoulder and Calico and Co. fall over (7.31). Tilja gets the horse up and the convoy hurries on (7.32-36). They all get back up and keep going—though Alnor is limping—but they're by themselves in the fog (7.42-45).
- A guy with a cudgel and knife appears in the fog in front of them (7.46). Tahl asks him for help, but when Tilja turns around, she's got a bag over her head and her wrists are lashed behind her back (7.48-49). It seems like the kidnappers were looking for them (they refer to the group as the "fourteeners," or the fourteenth-grade travelers) and the bad guys try to knock out Meena and the others (7.52-53).
- Our heroes are stuffed into a cave and are really uncomfortable (7.57). They're fed, but another captive is dragged in; when the bad dudes take Tilja's hood off (7.58-59), everyone's sealed into the cave.
- Tahl's wiggled free and he begins to take Tilja's scarf out from inside her mouth; she does the same for his gag (7.61-63).
- Tahl's about to try getting Tilja out of her bonds when someone says, "Wait. Not time" (7.68).
- The speaker identifies himself as a traveler. Once Meena and Alnor are free, the traveler warns them all to be quiet; Tilja's bonds fall away by wriggling off (7.83).
- All the cords and lacings on Tilja's clothing start to wriggle (7.84) except those on her wrists, which, when the stranger tries to get them loose, feel numb (7.87). Tahl unties Tilja (7.88). The stranger makes the ropes tug the boulders blocking the entrance loose (7.97).
- Tilja finally sees the stranger. He has a giant head with a "great ballooning growth of skull" (7.100). When she gets outside, she sees his face is normal, but he's wearing a huge headdress that made his head look large, and he's "thin, and gawky as some long-legged insect" (7.103). Tahl wonders if the trick the stranger did with the ropes was magic (7.109). Meena gets her bag of spoons back from the robbers (7.116), and they also take some of the robbers' money (7.122). Tilja brings up Calico and the stranger helps Meena mount (7.128).
- Tilja is annoyed that her hairpin and tie have come loose and her hair is all messed up (7.131). The stranger fixes her hair for her, but it feels weird when his grasp touches her, "as if she'd been able to feel its pressure but not the actual touch of his fingers" (7.143). Strange.
- The group goes off into the moonlight, but when the stranger gives Tilja a piece of flaming rope, hers goes out and Tahl's doesn't (7.149). Tilja has noticed that when the magician's cords come alive her touch makes them lose their power (7.152).
- Everyone continues to trek on through the night to get away from the bandits (7.160). The stranger stops just before sunrise and points toward a way station (7.161). Alnor thanks him and asks him his name, to which he responds that he doesn't have one and is just called "Ropemaker" (7.164). Meena retorts that he must have one—he just doesn't use it—but he just laughs (7.165-166).
- Meena asks the Ropemaker why the magicians in their group—Tahl, herself, and Alnor—didn't feel anything when he did magic (7.167). Instead of responding to her, the Ropemaker turns to Tilja and asks her if she felt anything, to which she replies, "'No. I don't. I can't... it doesn't matter." (7.170).
- Of course, Tilja was lying—she could feel magic when others couldn't—and she realizes she can feel magic sometimes when the other's can't (7.171). This reminds her of feeling alone when Anja discovered her powers—and now Tilja feels isolated again.
- The Ropemaker advises Meena to give Tilja the magical spoons until they get to Talagh so no one will notice their power (7.177)—the spoons should be strapped against her skin to avoid being detected. She's got a power he admits he can't quite understand.
- The Ropemaker says he's got to head north and, not giving them a chance to bid him farewell, walks off.