In this chap­ter, a char­ac­ter named Sol excit­ed­ly reveals to her com­pan­ion that she has stolen a con­sid­er­able amount of mon­ey from Richard, whom she refers to as “King Richard.” Though ini­tial­ly cau­tious, she has tak­en the oppor­tu­ni­ty to clean him out, know­ing var­i­ous hid­ing spots with­in his prop­er­ty. There’s ten­sion between the two char­ac­ters as they con­sid­er the reper­cus­sions of their theft, wor­ried that Richard might pur­sue them out of retal­i­a­tion.

Sol dis­miss­es the idea that Richard will catch them, point­ing out his incom­pe­tence. How­ev­er, as they nav­i­gate their boat, the char­ac­ters have a con­ver­sa­tion about Richard’s boat, reveal­ing it to be an old, slow tug named “Relax,” which reas­sures them. As they con­tin­ue down the water­way, they observe herons and murals depict­ing fig­ures that appear to come alive dur­ing their jour­ney. Sol express­es curios­i­ty about the paint­ed fig­ures, pon­der­ing the sig­nif­i­cance behind these rep­re­sen­ta­tions.

The nar­ra­tive shifts as they reach Blink­er, where they encounter Alis­tair at a bridge. He ques­tions their pur­pose for pass­ing through, reveal­ing the high toll for using the bridge and the com­pli­ca­tions of being a first-time trav­el­er. Despite being robbed of their mon­ey for the pas­sage, the pro­tag­o­nist remains deter­mined to con­front the unfair prac­tices of the bridge toll sys­tem. Alis­tair appears apa­thet­ic and insis­tent on col­lect­ing the fee for cross­ing the bridge, empha­siz­ing the expens­es linked to its main­te­nance.

As ten­sions rise, Sol push­es her com­pan­ion to act deci­sive­ly, dis­play­ing a cer­tain cun­ning and resource­ful­ness. They decide to dock for the night rather than pay the toll, amidst an omi­nous atmos­phere filled with dis­tant screams and gun­fire. The chap­ter con­cludes with whim­si­cal moments shared between the char­ac­ters, as they try to dis­tract them­selves with sto­ries despite the night’s earned weari­ness.

Over­all, the chap­ter blends ten­sion and humor, reveal­ing char­ac­ter dynam­ics and estab­lish­ing an intrigu­ing con­flict against the back­drop of a treach­er­ous land­scape and author­i­ty.