Contents
22. A Blind Cat’s Luck
Overview
Kinch recounts how a Takers recruiter lured him from wartime conscription into the Guild, shaped by his brother’s maiming and death and his own devotion to Fothannon. This past collides with the present when shipmate Malk Na Brannyck—son of the musterman Kinch burdened—recognizes him and issues a veiled threat. The encounter intensifies the voyage’s danger and stokes Kinch’s shame.
Summary
The chapter opens with wartime context: Manreach’s brutal goblin wars forged the Glorious League and demanded mass musters, where green recruits died by poison, beasts, and fear. Fourteen-year-old Kinch faced conscription in Platha Glurris during the Daughters’ War, as letters from King Conmarr empowered local mustermen to fill the ranks.
A Takers Guild recruiter, Cavanmeer, targeted Kinch with a seductive pitch: his nimble hands suited thievery, not a shield wall. Cavanmeer dangled coin, glamor, and specialized service, contrasting Kinch’s gifts with the army’s mud and maiming, and hinted at future usefulness to the war—after training and survival.
Kinch weighed this on the Isle of Ravens, recalling his failed-thief stepbrother Pettrec’s maiming in the royal mint and later death in Gallardia. Concluding that “a man does as he pleases,” Kinch prayed to Fothannon and chose the Guild. He left with Cavanmeer for Pigdenay, forcing the local musterman, Coel Na Brannyck, to pay the fine; Coel later died to goblins.
Returning to the present aboard the Suepka Buryey, Kinch confronts Coel’s son, Malk Na Brannyck, now a hardened harpooner who recognizes him. Malk greets Kinch with cold hostility and, in Galtish, warns him to watch himself. Kinch replies obliquely—“I have a blind cat’s luck”—masking fear with fatalism.
The exchange revives Kinch’s buried shame over deserting the muster and foreshadows acute personal peril on the voyage. Malk’s enmity transforms a dangerous journey into a personal reckoning that may demand payment for old choices.
Who Appears
- KinchNarrator; recalls dodging the muster via the Takers, shaped by Pettrec’s fate; meets hostile shipmate Malk.
- Malk Na BrannyckGaltish harpooner; son of the musterman Kinch burdened; recognizes Kinch and issues a veiled threat.
- CavanmeerTakers Guild recruiter who persuades fourteen-year-old Kinch to skip the muster and join the Guild.
- PettrecKinch’s stepbrother; maimed by mint work, later killed by goblins; his fate drives Kinch’s choice.
- Coel Na BrannyckLocal musterman forced to pay when Kinch deserts; later slain by goblins; Malk’s father.