Samah refuses to help them. Alake returns to Grundle and Devon, and defies the dragon snakes, and one of them attacks her. Haplo can't use his magic, dissolved by the seawater, but he attacks the dragon-snake with his rune-enhanced daggers. Devon holds Alake as she dies. Grundle runs to Samah and Alfred, desperate for help to fight the dragon-snakes. Alfred transforms into a dragon and attacks the dragon-snakes, chasing them away. Grundle tells Haplo that the dragon was Alfred. Samah takes Haplo prisoner.