17. Spoils of Battle

Kinch rouses Norrigal by rubbing away the ear sigil from her palm. She remembers overreaching with her magic and laments her haste, but Kinch credits her staff strike for saving them. Nearby, Galva ritually executes the flail-woman, offering a grim Spanth benediction.

Norrigal dresses Kinch’s stab wound with yarrow and ointment. Kinch and Galva bicker about her priceless springwood shield versus the uses of gold, trading barbs until Norrigal laughs at their absurdity. While looting, Kinch discovers two more of Hornhead’s band dead—one strangled, one likely poisoned—implying an unseen intercessor. He calls out thanks to the possible watcher, but silence answers.

Dalgatha’s deep bond with Galva is on display as the corvid obeys commands, is fed, and affectionately roughhouses. Kinch inventories Marrus’s coins and trinkets and eyes the bull-man’s head for the bounty. Galva forbids beheading as goblin-sport; their argument morphs into a lesson in Spanth insults. When Galva stalks off with Kinch’s knife, Norrigal has already severed the head and bagged it, horns poking through.

The trio move along the river, keeping watch for the deerskin girl. Exhausted, they sleep; by morning Galva has concealed her corvid tattoo, and Dalgatha’s voice is gone, leaving them notably less fearsome. Near the last hamlet before Norholt’s capital, Kinch finds Bully yowling in the road, scoops him up, and, over Galva’s skepticism, insists it’s not the same cat as he tucks it into his pack.