57. Behind the False Wall

Kinch emerges from a sewer into a ruined merchant house once used by the Full Shadow to hold Queen Mireya. Bracing for discovery, he finds it empty but trapped, and uncovers a hidden dungeon behind a false-stone wall. The cells, tools, and bloodstains confirm the house was a site for interrogations.

Failing to find further passages below, Kinch discovers a concealed tunnel beneath the hearth ash. Advancing cautiously with a poker, his senses primed for magic and mechanisms, he avoids several traps. Along the way he encounters a dead boy spitted by a spike—evidence of previous raiders and the tunnel’s lethality.

As Kinch proceeds, he reflects on Ürmehen’s claims that the Thieves’ Guild, disguised as Oustri, provoked the giants and engineered Oustrim’s fall, and that Mireya hunts traitors like the Queen in Towers. The tunnel continues for miles, hiding tripwires, a bear pit, and a false ladder designed to behead the incautious.

Kinch finally reaches fresh air and daylight in the Starehard Hills. He finds signs of a tethered donkey and tracks ascending a goat path, indicating the Full Shadow’s party, likely with Mireya, passed more than a day earlier. Recognizing the need for Norrigal’s tracking and magic-sensing, he postpones pursuit, uses the clovenstone, and falls asleep to return for his companions.