Chapter Seventy-Six

Exhausted and hunted at dawn, Neema and Cain hide near the Raven palace, seeking any exit from the island. With quays packed and the court evacuating under the new emperor’s orders, the Guardian Gate is their only option despite the Hound garrison. Sol, maimed and desolate, rallies when Neema invites him to fight as a flock of three.

Hol Vabras confronts them, claiming they are surrounded by twenty-four Hounds. Sol scouts and confirms the numbers and Vabras’s fatigue, prompting Neema and Cain to sprint for the open Gate. As guards begin to close it, Sol dives at the captain, buying precious seconds.

Hounds crash into Neema, pinning her—until arrows strike: Tala arrives, bloodied but resolute, with her Tiger Trial bow. Neema fights free and pushes for the Bridge. When the Hounds crush Sol, Neema’s fury breaks their line. She thrusts Sol’s broken body to Tala, insisting he isn’t dead, and Tala flees through the Gate with two Hounds in pursuit.

Neema allows herself to be taken when she sees Vabras holding Cain at knifepoint. Banter masks despair—until Vabras behaves oddly, sniffing and licking Cain, and speaking in a singsong taunt. Neema recognizes the distortion: the Fox is wearing Vabras.

Vabras lowers the blade from Cain as the Fox’s fangs emerge. With “no Dragon to answer to,” the Fox turns on the Hounds, and the scene dissolves into brutal, unspecified violence, leaving Neema and Cain trapped amid the Fox’s ascendant bloodletting.