Vitari wakes Glokta with news that a Gurkish ambassador has arrived at the Citadel, admitted by General Vissbruck without Glokta’s knowledge.

In the audience chamber, Glokta confronts the imposing Shabbed al Islik Burai, envoy of Emperor Uthman-ul-Dosht. With five Gurkish legions outside, Islik offers surrender terms: open the gates by sunset and leave with their lives. Glokta counters by citing the Union victory at Ulrioch, but Islik reminds him of his own capture during that war, and warns that the Union, fighting on two fronts, cannot win. He departs, promising to return at sunset. The three council members present argue for negotiation. Glokta announces he will consider the offer.

In the hallway, Vitari angrily confronts Glokta for wavering, but he explains his supposed equivalence is a tactic. Severard confirms they have captured the ambassador.

In the cells, Glokta demands the name of the traitor on the council from Islik. After Frost and Severard chop off Islik’s ear, Islik confesses: Korsten dan Vurms is a conspirator, and Magister Carlot dan Eider planned the entire plot to betray the city.

Ferro, Logen, and Quai reach an ancient hill crowned with standing stones. From the summit, Ferro confirms they are pursued by 13 riders. Unable to outrun them, she and Logen agree to make a stand on the hill.

Ferro begins digging pits, reflecting on her history of burying companions after battles. Logen assesses their odds—13 experienced fighters against two—and tells Ferro he would not blame her for fleeing.

Ferro declares she will stay. She makes Logen promise to bury her if she dies, and they shake hands on it. The physical contact feels strange to her. When Logen asks what happens if they both die, Ferro shrugs that the crows can eat them. They return to their preparations, knowing their attackers will arrive by dawn.

West watches from high ground as Ladisla’s army attempts to cross the River Cumnur. The King’s Own cross efficiently, but the levies descend into chaos, their formations dissolving into shapeless mobs.

West gives Lieutenant Jalenhorm a letter for Lord Marshal Burr and orders him to ride hard to Ostenhorm. The letter warns that Bethod is already behind Burr with his main force, that Ladisla has violated orders by crossing the river, and that the road to Ostenhorm (the capital of Angland) will likely fall open to Bethod after the coming defeat. Jalenhorm reluctantly accepts the mission. Before he departs, West asks him to deliver a message to Ardee, if he does not survive: simply that he is sorry.

West turns back toward the bridge, determined to impose some order on the floundering column.

At sunset, Glokta enters the audience chamber where General Vissbruck, Korsten dan Vurms, and Magister Eider await, accompanied by Eider’s mercenary captain, Nicomo Cosca.

Glokta upends a sack, dumping the severed head of the Gurkish ambassador onto the table. Vissbruck panics. Vurms, realizing Glokta knows of the conspiracy, shouts at Eider to act. She calmly announces to Glokta that Cosca’s mercenaries have already seized the walls, bridged the channel, and opened the gates to the Gurkish. Glokta reveals his countermove: Kahdia holds the gates, the Inquisition controls the Citadel, and Cosca has betrayed Eider, having accepted Glokta’s superior offer.

Vurms tries to draw his sword but is knocked unconscious. Vitari and other Practicals haul both conspirators to the cells. Vissbruck, terrified but sincere, pledges loyalty and is ordered to prepare the defenses. Glokta orders Cosca to place the ambassador’s head on the battlements. After the others depart, Glokta stands alone in the darkening chamber as night falls over Dagoska.

At dawn, Logen instructs the terrified Jezal to guard the cart at the summit with Quai while he and Ferro confront their pursuers among the stones.

Ferro kills three attackers with arrows before her ammunition runs out and draws her sword. Logen ambushes a spearman, then kills a giant wielding a club. An archer wounds Ferro in the shoulder, but during their struggle the arrow gouges out his eye and she finishes him with her sword. Logen battles the leader, Finnius, feigning weakness before launching a devastating counterattack and severing his foot. As another attacker chokes Ferro, Logen intervenes and breaks his neck.

At the summit, Jezal dispatches two attackers with his fencing skills. Exhilarated, he shouts in triumph—but a third attacker strikes him from behind, and he collapses unconscious.

West watches Prince Ladisla’s army deploy in a mist-filled valley. A thin line of Northmen stands on a distant hill, seemingly outnumbered. West suspects a trap, but when a single arrow is fired from the hill, the enraged Ladisla orders a cavalry charge despite West’s protests.

The Union cavalry drives the Northmen over the crest and vanishes. After an ominous silence, ranks of Bethod’s armored Carls appear and unleash flatbow volleys into the Union lines. West orders a retreat as the Carls advance through the thickening mist. The headquarters dissolves into chaos.

Pike and Cathil arrive to observe the battle. Horsemen approach through the fog—not Union cavalry, but Northmen in captured armor. They charge the headquarters, killing Smund immediately. West is knocked down and nearly killed before Cathil saves him by crushing his attacker’s skull with her smith’s hammer.

West finds the terrified Prince Ladisla hiding in the mud, and they flee with Pike and Cathil through the chaos. West draws a pursuing rider away from the others before an arrow kills the man. The Dogman emerges, having made the shot. He surveys the strange group he has found: a half-dead colonel, a young woman with a bloody hammer, a man with a badly scarred face, and the prince responsible for the disaster.

Glokta’s letter to Arch Lector Sult reveals the conspiracy. Vurms and Eider are the principals; Glokta’s predecessor, Superior Davoust, was killed by a hidden Gurkish agent. Glokta sends Lord Governor Vurms and the incompetent Inquisitor Harker back to Adua under arrest, and reports repulsing the first Gurkish assault—though 50,000 troops remain encamped outside and three massive catapults now threaten the city.

Eider is taken for interrogation. She believes Glokta’s conscience will prevent him from torturing her. Glokta delivers a cynical speech about his withered conscience and gives her one chance to confess. She explains that greed drove the Union to seize Dagoska, corruption made it ungovernable, and her surrender plan would have prevented a massacre. When asked for the Gurkish agent’s identity, she claims ignorance. Vitari begins strangling her, but Glokta, affected by Eider’s arguments, orders her spared at the last moment.

That night, as Gurkish catapults bombard the Lower City, Glokta’s servant Shickel reveals herself as the Eater who consumed Davoust. Glokta laughs at the irony that Harker accidentally captured her and it was Glokta himself who subsequently freed her. A chain trap briefly hoists Shickel, but she drags herself down, injures Severard, and hurls Vitari aside. All three Practicals struggle to subdue her, beating her until she is motionless, then watch as her broken arm heals itself. They bind her in heavy irons. Fully recovered, Shickel laughs and prophesies the arrival of the Hundred Words. Glokta tells her that sounds like a challenge.

Jezal dreams of Ardee. Their kiss turns violent as she tears at his face. He wakes into excruciating pain. Logen and Ferro are setting his injuries while Quai assists—forcing his dislocated jaw back into place, stitching his face, and setting his broken arm and leg.

Helpless and suffering, Jezal glimpses their scarred faces through blurred vision. Logen pats his face and tells him he is one of them now. Jezal lies there, absorbing the horror of his apparent disfigurement and his new place among the scarred and broken.