After their moon-vow, Kinch and Norrigal go to the Stone Baths, which are widely known to be a safe, neutral place for all comers. Norrigal leaves Kinch in a pool, and a small, frog-like man approaches him. After annoying Kinch with inane conversation, the man transforms into Sesta, the Guild’s Assassin-Adept. Sesta warns Kinch that his relationship with Norrigal makes him a liability to the Guild’s mission.

Sesta threatens the safety of Kinch’s family if he does not comply with the Guild’s commands. Specifically, she reveals a magical beating-heart tattoo on her chest, a dead man’s switch, and states that if she is killed, the Guild will automatically be ordered to kill his family. To prove the veracity of her threat, Sesta recites intimate details about Kinch’s family and reveals that she knows his full name. Kinch silently reflects on his hatred for her and for the Guild. Sesta then resumes the guise of the old man and departs.

The following day, the companions meet at the Quartered Sun tavern. Galva formally invites Kinch, Norrigal, and Malk to continue into Oustrim to rescue Queen Mireya. She explains that their next step is to meet her sword instructor at an Ispanthian army camp. All three agree, with Malk stating that his motivation is the financial reward.

Kinch notes Malk’s new gear, purchased with money from the goblin ship. He then teases Galva about the famous lace in Grevitsa, earning a slap. Laughing, Kinch offers to buy her wine and charges it to his Guild account.

That evening, Kinch takes Norrigal to Edth harbor to see a statue of Cassa, the goddess of mercy, and abruptly confesses that the assassin Sesta is secretly inhabiting his cat. Norrigal devises a plan to neutralize the assassin.

Back at their inn, they drug the cat, and Norrigal begins tattooing Kinch’s arm with a magical “sleeper” image of Bully Boy. As she works, the physical cat dematerializes and is absorbed into the ink. Norrigal explains that Sesta, ensconced within the cat, is now dormant within the tattoo. However, she warns Kinch that this situation will cause Kinch bad dreams and may allow the assassin to break into his thoughts. She urges him to be vigilant, and she also warns that the assassin might break free if someone speaks her true name or if a bolt of lightning strikes nearby and unravels the spell. Kinch concludes that continuing west into the potential grasp of giants is his only hope of escaping the Guild’s reach, as Mireya has expelled the Guild from Oustrim.

After several days of travel, the group finds the Ispanthian army encamped by the Vornd River. They meet the commander, Count Marevan da Codorezh, and Galva has an emotional reunion with her swordmaster, a woman named Nadalle Seri-Orbez, whom she calls Yorbez.

Later, Kinch, Norrigal, Galva, and Yorbez meet privately. Yorbez and Galva outline their plan: to travel to Grevitsa and buy a map of Hrava (Oustrim’s capital city) from a thief. Afterward, they will continue to the Bittern Mountains to consult a magicker. They also discuss their plot against the tyrannical King Kalith of Ispanthia, detailing his cruelty and use of assassins.

That night, Kinch dreams that he is a child choking on a chicken bone; in the dream, the bone transforms into a knife blade and emerges from his throat. Sesta’s voice speaks from the wound, threatening his family if he does not release her. When Kinch refuses, she begins to cut her way out.

Kinch awakens with a jolt. Annoyed by the noise, Malk throws a boot at him. Deeply disturbed by the nightmare, Kinch realizes that even while Sesta is trapped in the tattoo, she can still torment him.

The next morning, Kinch watches Yorbez’s exhaustive training routine. Later, Yorbez and Galva spar with soldiers, easily defeating Malk when he joins in. After the session, Yorbez removes her shirt, and Kinch sees that she, like Galva, has had her breasts surgically removed.

Galva explains they both underwent a ritual mastectomy as a devotional act to Dalgatha, the goddess of death. This act signifies their complete dedication as warriors. Shortly afterward, the group breaks camp and crosses the border from Middlesex into Molrova.

The group arrives in Grevitsa, a city known for its lace and the tense coexistence of its human and goblin populations. The city bears a goblin quarter, and multiple written warnings state that goblin law does not apply in the human parts of the city, and vice versa. Any goblin or human straying beyond their designated territory becomes subject to the laws of their foes. The group goes to the Goblin Quarter and enters a tavern to find their contact, Chedradra, or Ched, an expatriate Ispanthian thief who sells them a map of the sewer system beneath Hrava. Ched also gives Galva the name of a contact there: a thief named Ürmehen, who is not beholden to the Guild. Ched then sells Norrigal a magical ring containing a single lightning bolt. Norrigal dons the ring, and the group leaves the tavern.

That evening, the group walks along the chain that serves as the boundary for the Goblin Quarter. A goblin approaches the boundary line and taunts Malk about his past military service, claiming to have eaten his friend. Provoked, Malk accepts the goblin’s challenge to a “pull,” a ritualized and deadly tug-of-war. Other goblins and local Molrovans immediately join on opposite sides, tugging at the respective opponents’ ankles in an attempt to drag one or the other of them across the line and into enemy territory. The loser will inevitably be killed.

The locals enforce the rules, which prevent Kinch and the others from using weapons or magic to help Malk; all they can do is join the tug-of-war for their side. The humans begin to prevail, but when a second man is caught in a pull, the Molrovans divert their strength to save one of their own. Without their support, Malk is overpowered and dragged into the Goblin Quarter, where he is killed and presumably eaten. As the horrified group of humans retreats, Kinch clutches Malk’s boot in shock.

Grieving over Malk’s senseless death, the remaining companions travel to Rastiva. There, Kinch sees a male sex worker bearing the Guild’s rose tattoo, a mark for failed thieves. Kinch reflects on having missed his own deadline for reporting to the Guild. The group then departs for the Bittern Mountains.

On the road, Galva reveals their destination: the home of Fulvir, the renowned and notorious magicker known as the “Father of Abominations” (314), the very same man who created her corvid tattoos. Kinch privately thinks to himself that he will steal one of Fulvir’s books.

During the group’s journey along a high, treacherous path, Norrigal chews fast-leaf to stave off her drowsiness and talks nonstop. A magical fog descends, and Kinch is separated from the others, lured away by an illusion of Norrigal’s voice.

Lost in the fog, Kinch realizes that the sound of Norrigal’s voice is coming from a clay golem. The creature attacks, and Kinch dismembers and decapitates it. A face forms on the golem’s chest, first mimicking Kinch’s features before transforming into an older man’s face: that of Fulvir himself. The man speaks, revealing that he knows Kinch had planned to steal from him.

The golem inexplicably sprays hot soup in Kinch’s face, and the scene dissolves. Kinch finds himself sitting unharmed at a table with Galva and Norrigal. Norrigal explains that Kinch simply fell asleep in his soup. Fulvir introduces himself and invites Kinch and Norrigal to his library.

Fulvir leads Kinch and Norrigal to his vast library, which lies within a strange, mobile house made of bone. Fulvir claims to be Kinch’s father, only to admit he is lying, but he also creates ambiguity by revealing his intimate knowledge of Kinch’s mother. He then mentions a former partner, a magicker named Knockburr.

During their conversation, Fulvir tricks Kinch into speaking Galtish even as he whimsically claims not to speak it. He says that Kinch is a good fighter but will never be a great wizard. Fulvir then sends them to their room, where he has left them two magical books: “Charming Plants and Taming Poisons” (326) and a treatise on magical tattoos.

Unable to sleep, Kinch decides to honor his patron fox-god, Fothannon, by daringly exploring Fulvir’s property even though the magicker warned him not to. He avoids a pack of war corvids and picks the lock on an outbuilding labeled “gods.” Inside, he discovers a jail holding numerous caged mixlings—hybrids of humans and animals. He is horrified to find a fox-headed boy in a cell marked with the name of Fothannon.

Kinch whispers the god’s name, and the other creatures awaken. A clay golem appears and breathes fire at him. Suddenly, Kinch wakes up in his bed to find Norrigal putting out a fire on his rear. She scolds him and explains that the events were not a dream and that she used her last dream-walk spell to rescue him from Fulvir’s trap. Just then, a knock sounds at their door.