Chapter 9 Summary

Piemur drudges through the jungle with his fire lizard queen, Farli, on his neck. They eat fruit and find the carcass of a runner beast on the jungle floor. The lizard eats meat from the bone and Piemur takes a supply of the meat with him. He is searching again for the sea when he comes across a grassland that leads to the sea. Herdbeasts are grazing on the lush grass despite the Threadfall from the day before. He saw no dragonriders blazing the grass to destroy the deadly stuff dropped by the Thread. Piemur pulls up a clump of earth and sees the grub worms eating the soil. He determines that they are eating the poison dropped from the thread. The grubs are doing the work for the dragonriders.

Piemur knows he must get back to Harper Hall but the demands of...