Chapter 30

On Ringday, fourth of Ashers, Galva leaves Goltay with the lanza and corvids, witnessing Queen Mireya personally feeding refugees and gently rebuking a Sath high priest who refused to open the Vault of Mysteries for housing. The queen’s kindness and poise unsettle Galva, which Inocenta teasingly punctures to keep her focused on the mission.

North of Goltay, a dam and boy lead the lanza to signs of a large goblin party with war boars. They soon find Unthern Far Banners survivors collapsed from heat after an ambush: crossbow dams crushed by a felled tree, others poisoned by bolts, and boar riders scattering the flails. Too weak to retreat, the remaining Untherns beg for mercy killings if captured; Nouva instead promises vengeance and leaves a knife.

Following tracks in brutal heat, the lanza scouts a farmstead where goblins butcher prisoners and play a grisly game with severed heads. The horror rattles Galva, and the attack begins amid dust, bolts, and war boars. A comrade from Seveda falls gruesomely, and Galva, disoriented, slips out of formation as a boar rider charges her.

Seeing a vision of Dal‑Gaata bearing down, Galva panics until Inocenta yells the oath. When Galva cries, “Short life, bloody hand,” the terror lifts; the goblins perceive Dal‑Gaata while Galva becomes coldly focused. She executes a practiced fall-and-slice, severing a boar’s leg and gutting it, the beast killing its rider in its death throes.

The corvids finally unleash their fearsome screams, breaking goblin resolve. Some flee, some freeze, and Galva methodically cuts down eleven foes. With the field turning, her awareness fades, and she collapses into blackness.