Chapter 24

At dawn in the Ketreyid camp, the Sorqan Sira releases Rin and Kitay with provisions, warning that their bond ensures leverage if Rin becomes a threat. She challenges Rin’s faith in righteous violence and cautions that gods corrupt shamans. Rin argues action is better than inaction; tensions over faith and history simmer.

They discuss the captive Hesperian missionaries. Rin pleads for mercy, and plans are made to let them attempt a river return without weapons. Rin then speaks with Chaghan about the Seal vision of Altan, grief, and the steppe peoples’ cosmology. Chaghan warns Rin she is vulnerable to manipulation and must eventually find a purpose beyond vengeance.

As Rin and Kitay ready a warhorse to depart, gunfire erupts: the camp is ambushed by the freed Hesperians. Augus, panicked and zealously praying, points arquebuses at Rin. The Sorqan Sira orders her riders to fire, but they refuse. Bekter reveals his betrayal—he had freed and armed the Hesperians to stage a deniable assassination and settle old scores against Nikara shamans.

Augus shoots the Sorqan Sira dead. When he fires again, Qara leaps before Chaghan and is mortally wounded. In fury, Rin immolates Augus, killing him. Bekter hesitates, claims Rin is at fault, then flees with his loyalists. Chaghan, shattered, composes himself and declares that Bekter, now chieftain by technicality, will lead the Ketreyids into war against the Naimads.

Rin and Kitay urge Chaghan to take their horse north to warn his people. Grief-stricken but resolute and newly alone, Chaghan departs. Rin and Kitay are left without the Sorqan Sira’s protection as steppe politics fracture and a broader conflict ignites.