Chapter 15

As Galva’s squad returns across the bridge, the corvids grow agitated and angle their beaks toward the treeline beyond the lavender fields. Inocenta, as ranking leader, signals an advance in their standard formation with birds slightly ahead. The stench of goblins rises, and crossbow bolts snap from cover, one deflected by Dalgatha’s wing against Galva’s helmet.

Inocenta orders a charge and the birds’ wing-shiver. Closing with the treeline, Galva confronts the fear and the reek as the corvids crash into the hidden foe. Bellu and Dalgatha savage the goblins—spurring, wing-smashing, and shearing with beaks—severing limbs and scattering the ambushers.

Galva engages a wounded goblin that springs back from her shield, then pierces its belly; the corpse’s arm-hook snags her mail, anchoring her in place as another, swollen goblin approaches with a club. Dalgatha decapitates the attacker, drenching Galva in thick, oily blood. Shaken, Galva struggles free until Inocenta helps her break the hook loose.

With the skirmish ended, Inocenta counts eight dead and notes their poor gear, woven-hair leggings, and lack of armor—marking them as shipwrecked sailors, not warriors. An oar among the dead confirms it. When Galva asks about a distended body, Inocenta and Alisenne explain the goblins gorge and regurgitate for survivors, a revelation that makes Galva vomit.

Galva composes herself under Bellu’s watchful eye, recognizing both the corvids’ decisive lethality and the enemy’s alien resilience. The squad leaves with a clearer sense of goblin physiology, behavior, and the reality that stronger, better-armed foes likely remain ahead.