Spring arrives, and the king comes to visit Irene again. He seldom visits because he is often traveling about the country, getting to know his people and searching for new men to recruit. Irene asks her father about the ring and where she got it, and he answers that it was indeed her mother’s. When he tells Irene that “she’s gone where all those rings are made” (100), he begins to cry, implying that she has died. The king decides to go up the staircase and is gone for a couple of hours; Irene thinks he must have seen Grandmother. The king appoints six more guards to keep watch upon hearing about the goblin creatures but takes comfort in the fact that Irene now wears the ring. Irene spends the next several days admiring the flowers in the garden. Goats wander the mountainside; some belong to miners, but others are wild. The goblins often trap the wild goats at night, presumably to eat.

One night while exploring the goblin caves, Curdie’s string seems to lead him in the wrong direction, deeper into the caves and towards the goblin homes. He feels a sudden tugging and follows the string to a hoard of goblin creatures who attack and bite him.