36. Fate’s Cruel Hand

Kinch visits Galva at night, both alarmed by the goblin embassy’s interest in Erydon’s weapons. Galva presses for immediate action: assassinate the envoys to keep them from reporting home. Kinch outlines the near-impossibility of escape or success and the risk of escalation, but concedes that preventing the envoys’ report may be worth the danger. They agree Kinch will gather intelligence tomorrow and strike the following night.

Their plan is abruptly undercut when Renata announces an extra day of games to entertain the visiting goblins, who are soon to depart and may become “Friends in the East.” Kinch masks his dread as he learns the goblins are being courted, heightening the urgency of their plot.

At the arena, the crowd resents the king’s tilt toward the visitors. Galva is matched alongside her aging tiger, Jubel, against three foes: a goblin with a hooked spear, Apia the Bee with a lightning-fast slakesword, and a massive bear. The tiger and bear clash while the goblin and Apia try to flank Galva, who fends them off with positioning and feints.

The melee turns tragic when the goblin spears Jubel as she grapples the bear. The enraged bear rushes the goblin, dying on the same spear while crushing the goblin’s skull with its jaws—both perish. Apia’s speed continues to stymie Galva until Apia looks toward the deaths; Galva seizes the moment, sacrificing her left hand by impaling it on Apia’s blade to trap the line, then chops off Apia’s sword arm and lead leg, ending the duel.

As the crowd roars, Jubel and Apia bleed out. Only then does Kinch see Galva has been stabbed in the belly during the exchange. Galva finds Kinch in the stands and signs to him, You must kill them, before collapsing and being carried away, leaving Kinch with a dire mandate and little time before the envoys depart.