Are you sure? We didn't meet any of them until Giva. Nothing... trying to eradicate Life entirely.

[Which makes Sabriel wonder if they'll ever encounter a dead world, scoured of life entirely.]

If we can't free Newt, then our priority has to be dealing with the precursors, and making sure they cannot seek out the orbs. But I believe that freeing Newt is possible- he's still in there.