18. Into Bondage

Amid wreckage and ringing ears, Kinch recovers enough to raid the slavers’ loot-wagon, reclaim Galva’s shield, and stuff his belt with coin. He tries to free Galva from the shattered cage, prying loose the chain’s mounting with a hatchet as the returning Egalitarians approach. He succeeds, but Bazl and his band arrive, offer foul-tasting water, and, after a tense exchange, disarm and re-bind the pair.

The slavers strip the fallen giants, adding trophies to their wagon, while Szymnal relieves Kinch of coin and his Catfall ring. They also capture a young giant—the distracted bird-watcher—using drugged javelins that would kill humans but merely sedate bigguns. Around the evening fire, Bazl explains the earlier massacre as thunderdust, powder from the “God Under the Mountain,” hinting at the half-giants’ terrifying munitions.

Refusing recruitment again, Galva and Kinch are chained to the wagon and forced to march after lost camels make the cage-cart unusable. Days under brutal sun leave Kinch burned and changed. On the third day they reach the Blood Road, stark boundary between wilderness and imperial law, and encounter five Erydoni half-giant soldiers—tall, olive-skinned, and superbly equipped with blackglass armor and weapons—who exude unquestioned authority.

Shaken by this display of organized power, Galva and Kinch are carried south into Tinthrax, the northern slave-market outpost of Erydon. As the red-walled city rises from black soil, Bazl points out cloud-ships drifting in the sky. Awe briefly eclipses Kinch’s pain: bondage deepens, but the world’s scope widens with proof of the half-giants’ gods and machines.