Chapter 39

On the eve of sundown, a high priest of Sath stalks the royal pavilions with funeral myrrh, raving for repentance as engineers report subterranean digging. Bells and alarms rise while Galva, half-sober, soothes the traumatized griffin Dalgatha and coaxes her toward the east wall, grieving Bellu’s death.

At the Vault of Mysteries, the priest—eyes yellow from godsmilk—admits King Luvain’s captain and reveals the truth: goblins have tunneled into Goltay. The great doors open onto mounded spoil and a massed host, the city already breached from within.

Ghalls charge first, smashing royal guards in the Field of Flowers. Exhaustion finally slows them, but goblin skirmishers encircle and harry survivors, spreading fires as night falls. Then carnyxes blare and the elite Moth Knights advance under bone-sewn moth banners, their priests blowing nightmare-cap spores.

Prince Barwyn of Widmarch leads a stout counterattack with armored knights and masked faces, cutting down spent ghalls and clashing with Moth Knights. A rune-tattooed bull-man—likely Marrus—breaks out alone, while no crowned heads escape.

In the slaughter that follows, King Luvain and numerous rulers, including Yanusz, Augan, Elga, Laera, several Gunnish monarchs, an Istrean doge, and Barwyn himself, are killed. Goltay’s leadership is gutted as chaos spreads, while Galva continues forcing Dalgatha forward to rejoin the defense.