Chapter Sixty

The chapter opens with the history of the island’s vast perimeter wall—built after a pirate raid and library fire, argued over for decades, and ultimately poorly designed where it skirts the Garden at the Edge of the World. Maintenance is constant, and a narrow ledge runs beneath the parapet for repairs.

Hol Vabras sets the Seventh Trial: two anti-clockwise laps running along the slick ten-foot ledge. Tala starts first despite her fear of heights; Neema follows, then Cain, with Ruko choosing to go last. A storm masses as they begin, and Cain needles Ruko with talk of strategy and a forbidden “piggyback” for Neema before sprinting off.

On the ledge, Cain catches Neema and tries to pass safely. Sol, the raven born from Neema’s magic, arrives and silently warns that Cain’s Fox is partially awake whenever Cain is, undermining his self-control; Cain is unsettled but presses on. Neema reaches Tala at the north-west watchtower and together they discover dangerously loose stones and degraded mortar; they alert a Hound above and continue.

The storm breaks hard. Rain turns the ledge to glass, lightning and thunder hammer the wall, and visibility collapses. Neema completes her first circuit, confronts Vabras about safety, then refuses to withdraw to avoid conceding the throne to Ruko. Cain finishes both laps first and returns inside to warm up, while Shal anxiously watches and seeks permission to help, which Vabras denies.

Neema finally staggers in, hypothermic but alive. As they wait for the others, Sol taps at the window with urgent news. Neema listens, horrified, then reports that the entire north-west watchtower has collapsed—not just the ledge—confirming the earlier structural danger and leaving the fate of those still outside, including Tala and Ruko, unknown.