CHAPTER 37

Pham and Ravna emerge from ultrajump near Tines’ World, discovering a seventy-kilometer-per-second velocity mismatch. Pham, increasingly paranoid and blaming sabotage, expels Blueshell from the deck and executes manual burns and risky micro-jumps. Amid shifting sunlight from repeated short hops, Ravna struggles to restore comms.

As the planet swells in view, Ravna establishes radio contact. Jefri exults, then urgently reports that Woodcarver is attacking. Steel takes the transmitter, claiming a devastating ambush surrounds him and demands immediate help.

On the ground with Woodcarver, the consequences of Vendacious’s exposed treachery are reversed: his capture yields intelligence that enables Woodcarver’s own ambush at Margrum Climb. Her forces seize superior, lightweight long-range cannons and pound Steel’s castle, breaching walls. Scrupilo warns of Flenserist guerrillas flanking her army and of unknown advantages behind Steel’s weapon quality. Woodcarver insists on pressing the attack before supply lines are cut by raids and spreading fires.

Inside the besieged castle, Steel rages over losses and wildfire smoke, then regains composure to plan. The Flenser Fragment, operating as a singleton in radio cloaks, reports orchestrated fires and scouting successes that will strangle Woodcarver’s logistics in days—too slow to save the castle today. Steel pivots: he needs the starfolk’s help first, then intends to trap them using the castle’s “Jaws,” assigning the Fragment to manage Amdijefri while he coordinates defenses and contingency control over the Fragment.

Back in space, Pham continues ultradrive “roulette,” scoring an accurate hop to the planet’s nightside. Greenstalk reports the Blight fleet at forty-nine light-years with an ETA of forty-eight hours; seven more ships have fallen out, but 152 remain. Ravna questions Countermeasure plans as Pham, shaken by conflicting memories and failures, insists other possibilities remain.