Eighteen: Moonseye

Under Burl’s custody, Fitz is marched toward Moonseye, kept bound by day and isolated from the pilgrims. Through the Wit, Nighteyes reveals he has found a mental “place of his own” and shadows the column, hunting and watching. A night raid strikes Burl’s camp: archers ignite tents while others free smugglers, pilgrims, and ponies. Burl fixates on guarding Fitz, misreading the attack’s aim, and the raiders vanish with their people, including Starling.

On arrival at Moonseye, now a militarized town under Regal’s colors, Fitz is locked in a holding cell. He probes for escape by testing bars and baiting guards but fails. Attempts to reach the Skill-river bring only pain. Nighteyes tunnels beneath buildings and dens beneath Fitz’s jail, readying a possible escape route.

At night, multiple fires erupt across Moonseye—granary, haystacks, and barracks supports—set deliberately. As alarms rise, two of Fitz’s guards rush out to see the blaze, leaving a boy guard and the old jailer. Nighteyes bursts in, driving them into flight; the boy briefly attacks but pursues the wolf outside. The old jailer flees with the keys; Nighteyes retrieves the pouch, bloody from the struggle.

Starling arrives in a Farrow uniform, revealing the town is aflame and the lock still fast. With the recovered keys, she frees Fitz. They grab blankets as heat seeps through the wall and escape into streets where townsfolk salvage what they can amid collapsing buildings and screaming horses. Kettle drives up with a wagon; Fitz, Starling, and Nighteyes jump aboard and they bolt through unmanned gates into the night.

As they flee, Starling explains: the conflagration began as a smuggler vengeance and purge of corrupt guards who’d long colluded for payoffs and betrayed their promise to the pilgrims after Burl’s arrival and Nik’s sale of Fitz. The betrayal led to rapes and deaths among the pilgrims; the Holdfasts answered with fire and blood. Fitz, horrified by the devastation and the soldiers’ lawlessness, reflects that Shrewd would have hanged them all, while Starling urges him not to shoulder blame.