Contents
64. The Rabbit and the Wolf
Overview
Sesta breaks free empowered by Arms of Iron, killing Yorbez and fatally injuring Norrigal while crippling Galva. At Norrigal’s signal, Kinch slits her throat, triggering a witch-swap that brings Deadlegs to fight. Stone-wights rise to guard Mireya; Kinch wounds Sesta, Deadlegs strips her magic, and Mireya decapitates Sesta, ending the threat.
Summary
Kinch’s tattoo bleeds as Sesta forces her way back into the fight, activating Arms of Iron. She batters aside Galva and Yorbez, spitting into one of Galva’s eyes and turning Yorbez’s blade with iron-hard forearms. Kinch shoots but misses as Sesta uses an Up sigil to vault past, angling for Queen Mireya.
In a brutal exchange, Sesta crushes Yorbez’s throat, killing him, then pivots to Norrigal and smashes her head and chest, fatally wrecking her heart. As Norrigal dies, she offers Kinch her ritual knife, signaling the “rabbit and wolf” swap they once witnessed. Forcing himself to act, Kinch slits Norrigal’s throat.
Norrigal vanishes and the old witch Deadlegs stands in her place, furious and ready to fight. Galva, her back broken, struggles helplessly, while Sesta turns for Mireya. The cave erupts with powerful magic: corpses sink into stone and three rock-wights with glowing witchmoss eyes burst forth to shield the queen.
Kinch steadies himself and shoots Sesta through the belly as the wights batter her. Arms of Iron gutters out; Sesta reaches instinctively for spent sigils as the last wight kicks her down. Sesta taunts Kinch, but Deadlegs mutters in old Galt and strips all remaining tattoos from Sesta, leaving her kneeling, bleeding, and powerless.
Kinch lifts Galva’s axe but chooses mercy, telling Sesta to go. Before Sesta can move, Queen Mireya steps in and decapitates her, decisively ending the assassin’s threat.
Who Appears
- Kinch Na ShannackNarrator; fights Sesta, breaks a rib, and slits Norrigal’s throat to trigger Deadlegs’ return; wounds Sesta.
- SestaAssassin-Adept; uses Arms of Iron, kills Yorbez, fatally injures Norrigal, cripples Galva; stripped of magic and beheaded.
- Queen MireyaWitch-queen protected by stone-wights; retrieves Yorbez’s sword and ultimately decapitates Sesta.
- NorrigalWitch and Kinch’s wife-until-new-moon; mortally wounded, signals Kinch to cut her throat, enabling Deadlegs’ arrival.
- DeadlegsOld witch who replaces Norrigal via swap; summons stone-wights and strips Sesta’s magical tattoos.
- GalvaWarrior; partially blinded and has her back broken by Sesta; unable to free her corvid.
- YorbezSwordsman; fights Sesta but is killed when she crushes his throat and breaks his neck.
- MisfaWounded giantess; struggles to rise during the battle, ultimately collapses again.
- Bully BoyKinch’s familiar; senses Sesta’s breakout and warns with a cry.