While St. James dallies with Maggie and Hamral trains with the militia, the rest of the party is approached by a charming young man named Vandoren, who introduces himself as a traveling minstrel and a boon companion to Clement. Vandoren is concerned because he had expected to meet Clement the night before—and Clement had not shown up. No one in the party has seen Clement since yesterday morning, so everyone agrees to look into the matter.

The party takes Vandoren to the Bristling Boar, where they introduce him to Garnfellow. Garnfellow has not seen Clement for a couple of days—and the last time he saw him, Clement was meeting with a mysterious man dressed in brown robes in the north market square. When Clement realized that Garnfellow recognized him, he and the man in brown abruptly disappeared.

Tom Golding hasn't seen Clement for a few days, either—but does recall that a young boy was in the Boar just yesterday afternoon. inquiring about Clement's whereabouts.

Valerius, Mot, and Vandoren head for the merchant Carder's house. Friar Sidrach and Coric scout the market square, hoping to find someone who has seen Clement. Mendelor and Renton prepare to head for the Thistle, to see Tim.

At Carder's, Valerius and Vandoren find Cynthia very upset—she hasn't seen Clement for a couple of days, either, and is very worried. Valerius asks about possible money or family troubles, but Cynthia does not offer any more information.

Friar Sidrach and Coric run into Hamral, who adds a new sense of urgency to the mission: Clement's dagger was found lying in the streets in the market, early this morning by a town guardsman.

The party regroups and visits the disreputable Thistle and Briar. Inside, they ask if anyone has seen Clement: many know him from his frequent gambling spells, and Valerius asks if Clement had perhaps lost heavily recently—but no one admits to this. Vandoren sings a rude song about Lord Larry, and amuses the bartender. Valerius and Mendelor are ushered out back for an audience with Tim, and they gloat over Tim's recent setback at Haldale. Tim takes this ribbing in stride, and says that he hasn't seen Clement, but assures Mendelor and Valerius that their friend is probably quite safe and will turn up sooner or later.

Friar Sidrach and Coric find the young gamin who had been hired to find Clement—hired, it turns out, by none other than Geoffrey Carder. Further, Carder was accompanied by an old, creepy man, and a younger, shifty-looking man.

Valerius, Vandoren, and Mot return to Carder's house. They are greeted by Geoffrey's son Edmund and soon find that the Carder house is in tumult: only minutes earlier Cynthia became engaged to a rich merchant from Canglen. Vandoren's persuasiveness gains him and Valerius entry into the house, where they meet the prospective groom: one Hiram, a decrepit, lecherous man all-too-eager to consummate his coming nuptials. His nephew Joad is there as well, very quiet and sullen.

Vandoren convinces Geoffrey Carder to hire him to sing for the wedding; Carder is very nervous and tries to usher Valerius and Vandoren out of his house as quickly as possible. Cynthia is unavailable to receive visitors, Edmund says—she was "overcome" with the sudden news.

Valerius and Vandoren convince Edmund to share a drink with them back at the Boar. There they get the prig drunk and learn that the coming wedding has been very hastily arranged—Cynthia will be married in only two days, and then she and her new husband will leave immediately for Canglen. Further, Hiram is one of the richest merchants in Canglen, and this marriage will create a powerful economic alliance for the Carders. Finally, Hiram's only living relative is his nephew, Joad.

The next morning, the party looks for the mysterious man in brown, but has little luck. They consider breaking into Carder's house—but it seems unlikely that Clement is being held there. Vandoren returns to the Carder house, and finds Geoffrey even more nervous and eager to get him out of there and away from Hiram. Vandoren quietly gives the word to Joad that he has "information" on Cynthia. Joad seems very interested, but nothing comes of this.

The party speculates that Clement may be held at Tim's house. There are tunnels underneath where a prisoner could probably be kept, but those tunnels are also filled with traps. Mendelor approaches Tim with an offer of coin, convinced that Tim is behind Clement's disappearance; Tim only assures Mendelor that Clement is fine and not to worry. Later, one of Tim's men approaches Mendelor and tells him that Clement is being held in a house on Rede Street.

The party returns to the apartment and begins preparing for an assault. They arm themselves; they also ask Hamral to keep the militia away from Rede Street for as long as possible. Coric scouts out the house, and finds that Tim has assigned twelve men altogether to guard Clement: two men at the front of the house and two men at the back, and the rest inside.

The party moves: soon Tim's men are either frozen fast by the power of the Five or else unable to stand due to some other force. The party bursts into the house, and before anyone can react most of Tim's men are either held or greased; Mendelor and Renton cut down two lackeys before they can react.

Clement is found, quite unhurt—but he is completely incoherent and soon, unconscious. His 'kidnappers' had evidently treated him well enough, keeping him drunk and amused with games of chance. Mot and the other fighters bash the incapacitated men into unconsciousness, and the party drags Clement away. Meanwhile, two of Tim's men escape and sound an alarm that alerts the town militia.The party rushes to Roger's house for shelter; Roger lets them into a secret cellar for the night.

The next day, Roger is ashen: all of Heremac is in an uproar over the brutal murder of two citizens right in their own home, as well as the kidnapping of Cynthia Carder! The blame for both of these atrocities has been placed entirely on the heads of the party. The party is particularly taken aback by Cynthia's unexpected disappearance.

The militia scours Heremac for the party, but since Vandoren is unknown to the townsmen, he goes out to gather more information. He finds that Cynthia is indeed missing, and Joad, also. The party immediately suspects that a jealous Joad, angry at losing Hiram's inheritance, plans to murder her. Mendelor shaves his beard and his hair and ventures off into town, trying to track down Joad. Reasoning that the merchant is unfamiliar to the town, and has few resources, Mendelor begins searching in the seedier neighborhoods. After a few inquiries Mendelor discovers that a man matching Joad's description rented some rooms the night before. Mendelor tips off the town guard, which promptly storms the rooms and finds Cynthia, shaken but unhurt. But there is no sign of Joad.

Meanwhile, Garnfellow has discovered the identity of the man in brown robes: it is Father Trent, a priest whom Cynthia and Clement had been consulting as of late. It turns out that the two lovers had been planning to get married, because Cynthia is pregnant. Carder, it appears, had found all of this out, and had hoped to marry his daughter off to an unsuspecting Hiram before she and Clement could tie the knot. Once Father Trent reveals all of this, the wedding is canceled. Hiram, disbelieving that his nephew would have ever kidnapped Cynthia, and outraged at being duped, leaves town. A distraught Carder, convinced he has been ruined, is beside himself.

The party is thus cleared of kidnapping, but an angry Hamral points out that murder charges still hang over their heads. Hamral suggests out that the only person who could possibly rectify things is none other than Tim. With awful reluctance, the party approaches Tim, who seems to relish having the shoe on the other foot. Tim demands 1,000 shillings to make the murder charges "go away," pointing out that such a favor is quite extraordinarily. He further chastises the party for sloppiness and a general lack of style. A very angry party digs deep into their purses and pays up.

The next day Cynthia and Clement are formally married by Father Trent.