15. The Slave-Makers

Exhausted and ready to die, Kinch and Galva collapse at dawn until a violent storm pours over the plains. They collect precious water and continue south along the Thralls, only to be overtaken by camel-mounted Wostran slavers with catchpoles and cages.

Galva refuses capture and launches into the riders, maiming men and beasts and briefly breaking their ring. Her overcommitment on a leaping strike lets multiple catchpoles snare her leg and neck. Kinch’s arrows mainly strike hats and a camel. Overwhelmed, both are subdued and caged.

On the march, Szymnal, a jovial slaver-soldier, praises their fighting and strips Kinch’s ring for the chieftain’s loot-wagon, though Kinch’s half stone goes unnoticed. In camp, despite irons, the captives are fed wine and food and treated almost like guests, while the dead and wounded are tended or laid aside.

Bazl, the nose-less chief-elect with a brass prosthesis, joins Kinch and—speaking fluent Galtish—discusses languages, Wostran Egalitarian ideals, and the paradox of “finding” slaves in lawless lands. He claims he would farm if Wostra’s nobles truly shared power and dignity. Drums, flutes, and communal dancing follow; foragers return with water and game, and wells and the Three-Head crossing are discussed as shared resources to avoid bloodshed.

As laughter over crude jokes fades, a familiar goblin stench alarms Galva and Kinch—until a small goblin arrives peacefully with kynd, unloading water and gazelles. To their shock, the creature sits on Szymnal’s lap; Szymnal cheerfully declares the goblin is his spouse, overturning their assumptions about enemy “biters.”