4. The Killers

As the trio traverse a snowy pass, insults in Gunnish precede an ambush. Galva deflects a spear from Worrig only for it to pierce his hip, and arrows pin them in a deadly kill zone. Galva bares her chest tattoo to release Dalgatha, who launches onto the ridge and scatters the brigands. The narrator wounds a young archer and chases the braided leader, Ylda, whom Galva subdues.

Returning to the trail, they find Worrig staggering with the Book of the Full Shadow latched to his head, inky tendrils animating him. Before Galva can strike, the Book retracts its filaments and drops Worrig dead, proving it can puppet only the dead. They recover the Book into a bear trap.

Guided by Ylda and the wounded archer to the brigands’ cave-fort, they secure the site. With four brigands dead and two missing, they interrogate Ylda and learn Worrig’s infidelities and likely plan to betray them. Weighing the risk of leaving witnesses, they decide on execution.

To spare a struggle, the narrator shows the Murder Alphabet; both captives die in agony, their minds fatally snagged by the script. Dalgatha’s cry sounds like censure as they reseat the Book in the trap.

After a night’s uneasy rest in the well-provisioned cave, they debate wintering to study the Book but reject it, fearing the Guild. The narrator tests Norrigal’s twin-stone pendant, which weakly points back east, and they choose to march away from all safety, deeper into the Thrall Mountains.