The moon brightens the pilgrims’ path through the windy, spooky forest. They’re tired and want to stop and rest. Baudolino doesn’t want to, they have to get to a clearing first. The moon light doesn’t help much as sometimes it gets covered by thick clouds. They walk now in total darkness. Gradually, the wind subsides and it feels like being in a clearing; there are no trees and bushes to go through. Thus, they stop and go to sleep. After a while, Rabbi Solomon wakes up and seeing that it’s still dark, gets back to sleep. One at a time, the others do the same until they’re all awake, refreshed by a good sleep and wondering why it is still dark. “We’re in it, the Abcasian forest exists after all!” exclaims Abdul. “I hope it doesn’t”, says Ardzrouni, “it’s years to walk out of it and I can’t keep our course without the sun or moon.” “Let’s go this way”, points Rabbi Solomon “and hope that God will guide us.”
After walking for a long while in the darkness, sometimes through water puddles, they hear faint noises of steps and strange chirping whispers. There seem to be other beings surrounding and following them at a certain distance. The pilgrims stop, then go, and again trying to understand who is following and if there is a danger or not. Rather afraid, they start talking to those beings, expecting a response. But there isn’t one, just sudden silence. Abdul gets his cittern and strikes a riff on its chords. A harmonious chirping comes in response. Encouraged, Abdul sings one of his love songs and the beings in the darkness sing along. Their singing continues even after Abdul finishes his. The Poet takes over by singing tone-deaf an Irish song with dirty lyrics. The response from the darkness comes with a cacophony of chirping.
After a long time of walking in darkness and Baudolino asking questions in melodic lines, they seem to see a speck of light ahead of them. It’s time to farewell from the creatures of the darkness. Inspired by the musical communication, albeit reluctantly, Abdul decides to leave his cittern with them. He is grateful for the discovery that music works as a universal language. The pilgrims walk out, of what seemed to have been a huge cave, in the tunes of a chirping harmony accompanied by the cittern.