54. The Dogs of Hrava

Kinch enters the annihilated city of Hrava alone, carrying a map Galva entrusted to him and hoping to find the thief Ürmehen, whose help may lead to Infanta Mireya. He reflects on Hrava’s former pride and now-total ruin—toppled statues, blood-slick canals, and rubble-strewn streets—while avoiding looters.

Near the shattered temple of Tuur, starving dogs encircle Kinch atop the fallen god’s statue. A gang of street children drives the dogs off with thrown rubble, then crowds Kinch for payment. Kinch promises silver if they guide him to Ürmehen, but a deep giant horn interrupts, sending most children fleeing as Kinch pays the ginger-haired leader and hides.

Giants emerge into Temple Square with six collared human thralls used as leashed looters. Seeing Kinch, the giants slip their “hounds” to chase him. Kinch shoots one attacker and flees through a narrow, debris-choked alley the giants cannot enter, killing another pursuer with an arrow to the eye while the drunken giants bellow and sound their horn.

Breaking into a more open, ruined street, Kinch spots a shifting sewer cover and heads for it. He wounds a tackling thrall with a Guild-taught knife move, retrieves his dagger despite a struggle, and drops into the sewer stair as the giants close in. A giant peers into the opening; Kinch fires upward, causing the head to withdraw, then descends further as a corpse is hurled down after him.

The pursuit stalls at the sewer’s mouth. Kinch survives by speed, precision, and ruthlessness, confirming the giants’ organized predation and the city’s utter fall, and continues underground to seek Ürmehen and a path toward Mireya.