Hodge the Brewer must travel to Lindesfarne to acquire some bees and hives so that he has a supply of honey to make mead. Cearl, Richard and Christoph travel north on the coast with Hodge.
In Filey, the local village, the village priest drives Christoph and party out of the village for being heretics and diabolists.
The party spends the night in Scarborough.
About a half morning's walk north of Scarborough the bandits attack. Richard is cut down and killed. Cearl tries several times to save his life. In a magical botch, Christoph's left arm is turned into a branch by a spontaneous Muto Corpus "flesh to wood" spell gone wrong. It returns to normal at sunset.