Chapter 28

Galva’s force reaches Goltay on Ashers Eve and camps outside mostly intact walls, noting two collapsed breaches where earthworks and rubble mark fierce fighting. She surveys countless dead—kynd rotting in heaps and goblins unrotted among them—and reflects on the smallness of one life against such calamity.

Through the night Galva wrestles with fatigue, thoughts of Amiel, and unease over the goblins’ disappearance. At dawn, Nouva sends the lanza to scout. They patrol the university quarter’s statues and tight streets, marveling at Goltay’s artistry while asking how the biters withdrew so quickly.

Inocenta shares engineers’ thinking that tunneling signs are absent and predicts the goblins moved north to swing back, possibly pinching them against a rumored third army. The plan, she says, is to head north to stone fortresses harder to undermine. Debate over the third army exposes hope versus pessimism.

While Galva’s lanza refuses theft, they witness widespread looting by Unthern and Ispanthian units. Galva, torn between class empathy shaped by Amiel and moral outrage, condemns the despoiling of such a beautiful city, allowing only the need for food and wine as exception.

The narrative shifts to Amiel’s account from Holt’s camp with the wizard Fulvir. He describes Goltay’s serene Arve River, famed bridges, and the Field of Flowers now crowded with royal pavilions. Kings of Wostra, Unther, and Istrea, and Barwyn of Holt, are present; King Kalith stays away, leaving the Pragmatist to command.

Amiel notes the goblins’ single major demolition: the underdug, toppled Castle of Eights after savage underground battles. Across the square, the temple of Sath reopens; priests reclaim the Vault of Mysteries, offering solace as incense and helion lift spirits, even as the Vault’s shadow suggests lingering unknowns.