The Overseer berates Janner, threatening to give him three days in the coffin if he tries to escape again. As Mobrik leads him out, Janner sees fruit baskets near the exit. He distracts Mobrik by suggesting that he eat an apple. While Mobrik scrambles after a dropped melon, Janner steals four apples and hides them in his pockets.

He searches for Sara all day but cannot find her. After his shift, he spots her in the dining hall. He asks for help in escaping, promising to get her back to her parents. Sara is afraid of the box but remembers Janner’s siblings from their encounter in the past, so she agrees to trust him. Janner knows that his plan will land him in the coffin and that he will need the memory of her smile to endure it.

General Khrak is eating in his palace in Torrboro when his servant announces a visitor. Khrak receives the fur-clad Gammon, who meets his gaze without fear. Gammon reveals his knowledge that the Fangs seek the Jewels of Anniera and that Gnag has a fortress in the Phoob Islands. He offers to deliver the Jewels in exchange for the Fangs leaving Skree. Gammon then threatens that his army will kill the children if Khrak double-crosses him. Khrak recognizes that losing the Jewels would make Gnag blame him, so he agrees to meet in the Ice Prairies in two weeks. After Gammon leaves, Khrak bursts into laughter, scheming to take the children and crush Gammon’s army.

Janner lies in the coffin, reviewing his plan.

A flashback shows him bribing Mobrik with an apple and the promise of two in exchange for a favor. Mobrik agreed and later confirmed that the favor had been done. At lunch, Sara confirmed that Mobrik had kept his word. Janner staged a deliberate second escape attempt, taking his last apple with him, and ran into the Overseer, who whipped him until Janner begged for mercy. The Overseer then ordered three days in the box.

Now, in the coffin, Janner eats the last apple, haunted by his past mistakes. He questions whether he deserves freedom more than the other enslaved children. After three days, despite his exhaustion and wounds, Janner emerges grinning, eager to face the Overseer.

Janner is led from the dungeon at night. The Overseer reveals that he knows about the stolen apples, but Mobrik lies, claiming to have confiscated them. Impressed by Janner’s resourcefulness, the Overseer offers him a promotion to Apprentice Maintenance Manager. Janner hesitates, tempted. The Overseer then announces that he and Mobrik are leaving for Tilling Court, and this complicates Janner’s escape plan.

At the thought of Podo, Janner feels a surge of strength. He has a vision of Leeli and Podo hiding safe among snowy mountains, then of Tink bruised and caged, watched by Claxton Weaver. Resolutely, Janner grabs Mobrik, pins him to the wall, and reveals his true identity as Janner Wingfeather, Throne Warden of Anniera. He asks Mobrik to stay quiet for 10 minutes. Mobrik swears to help but then immediately betrays him, screaming and running toward the carriage room.

Janner chases Mobrik, trips him in the doorway, and renders him unconscious. He rams the door into the Overseer, knocking him down. Running across the room, Janner grabs the man’s fallen top hat and screams for Sara to open the portcullis. Sara and a young boy hold the chain, and the gate begins to rise. Janner seizes control of the nearby horse and carriage and urges the horse forward. He tells Sara to come, but she refuses, saying she would rather stay than be caught by Fangs again. As the injured Overseer arrives, the boy lets go in fear, and the portcullis lurches downward. Mobrik revives and attacks Sara, who screams for Janner to escape. The carriage rolls over the Overseer’s foot and clears the gate as it slams shut. Through the bars, Janner hears Sara crying.

Janner lets the horse run through Dugtown, and a Fang on a torch tower mistakes him for the Overseer. Janner puts on the stolen top hat and claims that he is going to Tilling Court; his act fools the Fang, and he passes without incident. However, Janner realizes that an alarm will soon be raised.

At Dugtown’s edge, he abandons the carriage and runs to the house where the burrow is hidden. He hears alarm bells and sees Fangs marching up the road, so he descends into the dark, silent burrow, but his family is gone. He lights a lantern and is shocked to see one of the “hags” from Tilling Court. He drops the match in terror. The “hag” laughs and whispers to him, and he faints.

Janner wakes, coughing dirt. The “hag” is Nurgabog, the Strander Claxton’s mother; she is now wounded, having been stabbed by her son. Janner helps her to drink and bandages her wound. Nurgabog reveals that Nia, Podo, Leeli, and Oskar left for the Ice Prairies three days ago. Janner is devastated.

Nurgabog reveals that she saw Tink walk past the burrow four days ago, choosing to join the Stranders. However, Claxton beat him, took back his pone, and caged him. Claxton then made a deal with the Fangs to supply children for the Black Carriage. Nurgabog was wounded when she tried to stop him. Hearing this, Janner’s anger turns to resolve. Nurgabog reveals that Podo left a hidden compartment with backpacks, swords, and bows, along with letters from Nia, Podo, and Oskar. Podo’s note instructs Janner to cross the Barrier and go east over Mog-Balgrik, the Witch’s Nose. Janner hugs Nurgabog and leaves to rescue Tink.

Janner runs eastward, sneaking past several Strander camps. At sunset, he reaches the East Bend, stashes the backpacks, and approaches the cages. He activates the release lever, but the first two cages are empty. In the third, he finds Maraly, Claxton’s daughter.

Maraly tells him that he is too late; the Black Carriage came early last night and took Tink, who was going by the name of Kalmar. The Fangs were also looking for a boy who had escaped Dugtown. Maraly is being punished for trying to help Tink escape. Janner is stunned with grief. Maraly warns that Claxton has seen him. She spits in Claxton’s direction and tells Janner to follow her. They flee with the Strander clan in hot pursuit. After hours of running, they climb a glipwood tree and sleep. Janner dreams of Tink screaming.

Artham wakes to find himself chained in a ship’s hold, along with many captured children. Suddenly, the ship stops, and a two-legged, armored wolf creature—a Grey Fang—enters and welcomes Artham to the Phoob Islands. Artham is thrown overboard, then pulled out. He sees a massive fortress crawling with thousands of other Grey Fangs. The first Grey Fang taunts him, saying that they plan to visit the Ice Prairies and may greet the Igiby family there. This news alarms Artham.

Janner wakes to find Maraly cooking a fazzle dove. When a quill diggle attacks Janner, Maraly kills it, saving him. He admits that he is going to the Ice Prairies, and Maraly agrees to accompany him. They reach the Barrier, a tall, rickety wall, and successfully traverse the obstacle. No Fangs are in sight.

They walk all day as the landscape becomes barren and cold. Maraly kills creatures for food. Late in the day, she charges and kills a snickbuzzard. From a hilltop, Janner gets his first view of the Stony Mountains and recognizes the highest peak as Mog-Balgrik, the Witch’s Nose. Both children are intimidated by the seemingly impassable mountains.

Artham is taken deep into the fortress and led to an enormous chamber. The Black Carriage arrives and releases several child prisoners, who are led to a dais where the tall, robed Stone Keeper waits by a large iron box. The Stone Keeper takes a girl and a wolf into the box. After red light flashes and a melody plays, the girl emerges; she has been transformed into a small Grey Fang named Scavra. The process is repeated with a boy, who becomes a Grey Fang named Ghrool. Artham faints in horror.

Later, Artham wakes in a cage hanging from the ceiling, where adult Skreean volunteers eagerly wait to be transformed into Grey Fangs. One Grey Fang tells Artham that the Stone Keeper offers to free all the captured children if Artham would undergo his own transformation. Artham refuses, unable to abandon his family or Anniera, so he is forced to watch as more children are led to the iron box.

Janner and Maraly travel for two days through rocky foothills. They spot a massive bomnubble eating a wolf outside its cave. The beast runs off, and Janner suggests scavenging pelts from the cave. They gather furs and escape, then sleep warmly that night. The next day, they fashion cloaks and hoods.

They discover a round lake with Mog-Balgrik rising beyond it. At sunset, thousands of yellow birds cover the lake, and the sight moves Maraly to tears. The next morning, a man with black hair and a sword appears and warns them that the Fangs can now survive in the cold. He is Gammon, and he says that Janner’s family is safe in Kimera. Janner tells him that Tink was taken by the Black Carriage. Gammon expresses sympathy and offers to guide them to Kimera.