12. Birds and Flowers

Kinch wakes on cool stone to unfamiliar birdsong and flower scents, realizing he and Galva have been sent to a new, warmer land. They find themselves in the courtyard of an ancient temple built around a colossal, time-worn, three-headed god statue. Gathering scattered gear, they try to make sense of what followed the god’s judgment in the Thralls.

Galva confronts Kinch for destroying the sentient Book, accusing him of dooming their mission and stranding her far from Queen Mireya. Kinch argues the Book was murderous and untrustworthy, revealing it contained a bound human soul and other shades, and that it hid the Guild’s secrets from him. He speculates about the third Book-copy that passed through the wall, while Galva clings to the belief that wiser counsel wanted the Book taken west.

The air’s perfume intensifies, turning personal and comforting, and both nearly succumb to drowsiness. Galva recognizes the danger first and forces Kinch up, dragging him from the temple courtyard despite his irritation and exhaustion.

They then encounter a dazzling “carpet” of tiny birds feeding on a large carcass that has been lured by the flowers’ intoxicating scent. When one bird slashes Kinch’s nose, Galva instantly cuts it in two, sending the flock wheeling skyward. The heaviest birds regurgitate blood into the trumpet-flowers before gaining height, revealing a gruesome symbiosis.

Realizing the flowers sedate victims for the flesh-stripping birds, Kinch and Galva pull back from the site. Shaken, they leave the beautiful but lethal courtyard, newly wary of this land’s alluring hazards and the uncertainties ahead without the Book.