The Water of the Wondrous Isles · Chapter
VII: The Three Damsels Take Birdalone Out of the Witch’s Prison explained
Birdalone thanks Atra for her tale and learns more about the witch's cruelty from Aurea.
What happens
Birdalone thanks Atra for her tale and learns more about the witch's cruelty from Aurea. The three damsels—Atra, Aurea, and Viridis—coordinate to free Birdalone from her prison at dawn. Atra shackles Birdalone again temporarily to avoid suspicion, then returns at grey dawn to unlock her irons and lead her out through the orchard to freedom.
Themes in this chapter
Female Agency and Autonomy
The three damsels actively conspire to free Birdalone, demonstrating their agency and solidarity against the witch's tyranny.
Power and Sorcery
The witch uses wizardry to destroy those who defy her, as recounted by Aurea.
Class and Servitude
The damsels serve the witch as thralls, and Birdalone is held as a prisoner, highlighting their subjugation.
Characters to notice
- Birdalone
The imprisoned maiden who is freed by the three damsels.
- Atra
One of the three damsels; she takes the lead in freeing Birdalone, shackling her temporarily and returning at dawn to unlock her.
- Aurea
Another damsel who tells Birdalone of past victims of the witch.
- Viridis
The third damsel; she serves the witch and participates in the rescue.
- The Witch Wife
The witch who imprisons Birdalone and has destroyed other visitors to the isle.
Key passages
“None of these folk might the damsels help so as to do them any good, though they tried it, and went nigh to suffer therefor themselves.”
The damsels were unable to aid any of those victims, despite their attempts, and nearly suffered punishment themselves.
Aurea recounts the witch's past victims and the damsels' helplessness.
“Now must we twain begone to wait upon our lady, as the wont is: and that is now for our good hap, for if we be with her all three, and especially, to say sooth, if I be with her, we may well keep her from visiting thee here”
We two must go attend our lady as usual; this works in our favor because if all three of us are with her, especially me, we can prevent her from coming to check on you.
Atra explains the plan to keep the witch occupied while Birdalone waits for rescue.
“Look up, dear friend, to thy prison windows, and behold the dawn beginning to break on the day of thy deliverance, and ours maybe.”
Look, dear friend, at your prison windows and see the dawn starting on the day you will be freed—and perhaps we will be freed too.
Atra announces the dawn of Birdalone's liberation.