CHAPTER 24

Weeks after Scriber Jaqueramaphan’s death, Johanna lets Woodcarver move into her cabin. By night, Woodcarver ignores military topics to master human history and science, revealing her age-old, inbred fragility and surprising intellectual agility. The two form a quiet friendship as Woodcarver confides her pack’s declining health and will-driven cohesion.

At Johanna’s first High Council, Vendacious reports Steel is rapidly fortifying the region around the starship and plans to dismantle it once enclosed. The deadline shrinks to eight–eleven tendays, endangering Woodcarver’s strategy. Woodcarver orders immediate full-scale artillery tests; the council’s resolve is tested by the compressed timetable.

Two days later, Scrupilo demonstrates a cast gun. Despite Johanna’s fears over crude fabrication, the cannon fires successfully, notching the old wall and surviving intact. The success electrifies the army and restores hope that they can challenge Steel’s defenses in time.

Amid the celebration, Woodcarver collapses. Guards rush her to Johanna’s cabin, where Johanna discovers not a wound but childbirth: Woodcarver is delivering pups. The Queen reveals these births mark the end of her centuries-old, tightly inbred soul; she will incorporate the pups and renew herself with outside genes.

Peregrine Wickwrackscar appears and confirms he is the father; he is also expecting pups. Woodcarver and Peregrine banter with affection, framing the renewal as both an intellectual upgrade and a loosening of rigidity. Johanna, comforted by the familiar family dynamic, ends the day with renewed hope: artillery now works, yet the attack must come sooner while Woodcarver’s planned transformation promises continuity of leadership.