Summary

In Chapter 30, there is nothing alive here except the trees. The Spindle creates a pool where a huge heart-tree stands. There is a mound in front of that tree, and Agnieszka recognizes the Wood-Queen's body because of the clothing she was wearing in the vision they witnessed in the tower. While Agnieszka knows she came here to destroy the Wood-Queen, she gets no comfort from imagining pouring fire-heart on the Wood-Queen, even though she knows the Wood-Queen is the heart of the evil of the Wood. Sarkan pours the fire-heart on the Wood-Queen's body. She heals almost as fast as the fire burns her, and Agnieszka knows she does not know “how to die at all” (404). Agnieszka realizes the Wood-Queen plans to use her in the heart-tree, but cannot stop as the tree “closed around me like a coffin-lid” (407).

In Chapter 31, Agnieszka is...