Chapter Summaries

Xolotl inspected the valley and planned to extend his rule over the northern tribes through conquest, settlement, trade, and religious influence. He ordered Caca’s warriors to campaign under Miwa, then reached an abandoned Red Crow camp where an elderly priest was near death.

• Xolotl surveyed the captive Guachichil and considered a long-term strategy for controlling the northern wilderness.
• Caca described the wilderness tribes’ varied food sources and explained that his warriors preferred hunting and warfare to farming.
• Xolotl ordered Caca’s three thousand Red Frog warriors to join the campaign against the Red Dog Alliance, appointing Miwa to lead them while Caca stayed as his attendant.
• Xolotl ordered army priests to establish the Main God’s emblem in the valley temple and require the captured Dog-kin tribes to pray there regularly.
• Xolotl and Bertad reached the abandoned Red Crow camp, where Bertad reported that only an elderly, dying tribal priest remained.

Xolotl visited the dying wilderness priest Kakalot, who explained the wilderness inheritance and its beliefs in nature’s balance and the cycle of life and death. Kakalot recognized Xolotl’s true name and emblem, then died after giving a cryptic prophecy about Alan and an eastern journey.

• Xolotl learned from Caca that Kakalot was the Red Crow Tribe’s chief and priest, left behind when the tribe migrated.
• Xolotl entered Kakalot’s longhouse and asked him to explain the wilderness inheritance panel paintings.
• Kakalot described nature’s coexistence and the cycle of birth and death, while Xolotl asserted that the gods held authority over life and death.
• Xolotl noticed a wooden board bearing his wolf emblem and true name, and Bertad threatened Kakalot until Xolotl ordered him to let the priest speak.
• Kakalot prophesied that Alan’s sought-after soul was in a place he avoided and that hardship awaited in the east, then died.

After Kakalot died, Xolotl ordered his burial and investigated the escaped Red Crow Tribe. An envoy reported that the Guachichil Dog-kin were attacking Giova’s eastern army and raiding its supplies, so Xolotl promised to march east after securing the valley.

• Bertad confirmed that Kakalot was dead, and Caca repeated the Priest’s final prophecy to Xolotl.
• Xolotl ordered Kakalot buried with his prophecy inscribed on a tombstone and told Bertad to investigate the surrendered Priests and their teachings.
• Xolotl ordered the Captain of Warriors to track the fleeing Red Crow Tribe and capture its leaders if possible.
• An Otomi envoy reported that five Guachichil tribes were confronting Giova while raiding parties plundered his supply convoys.
• Xolotl told the envoy that Giova should hold out for five more days while he organized the valley.
• Xolotl left troops to guard the valley and its captives, then marched east with more than thirteen thousand warriors and three thousand Red Frog warriors.

Chichica used a feigned retreat to lure Otomi People warriors into the woods, where Dog-kin fighters ambushed and defeated them. He then ordered Uman to lead a night raid on the weakened camp and set it on fire.

• Chichica ordered his guards to use the old wolf-pack hunting method against the Otomi People warriors.
• Red-hair Warriors baited more than eight hundred Otomi People warriors into pursuing them into the forest.
• Dog-kin warriors surrounded the Otomi People and killed more than four hundred, losing about half as many ordinary males and a dozen Red-hair Warriors.
• Chichica sent Red-hair Warriors to harass the camp again, but the Otomi People stayed behind its closed gates.
• Chichica told Uman to lead a night raid with several dozen Red-hairs and set fire to the camp.

Chichica ordered Uman to taunt the Otomi with the heads of their fallen warriors, and Giova led a sortie to restore his troops’ morale. As Giova began withdrawing, Uman sprang his ambush and shot an arrow at him.

• Chichica ordered Uman to pile the dead Otomi warriors’ heads outside their main camp and provoke them.
• Giova fought his anger, then led one thousand Otopan Warriors out to attack the taunting Dog-kin and drove them back.
• Giova stopped short of the forest and sounded the conch for his warriors to retreat.
• Uman launched his ambush with eight hundred Red Dog warriors and personally fired an arrow at Giova.

Giova’s Otomi forces and Uman’s Guachichil warriors fought a costly battle on the mountain road, where longbows and a shielded formation checked the surprise attack. Chichica ordered a retreat and Giova stopped his troops from chasing into the forest, leaving both armies to return to camp with heavy, roughly equal losses.

• Uman led Red-hair Hunters in an ambush, but their Bone Arrows failed to pierce Giova’s Bronze Armor.
• Giova’s Longbow Guard returned fire, inflicting heavy casualties on the Red-hairs as the Otomi Warriors formed a defensive battle line.
• Uman ordered his warriors to flank the Otomi formation while the archers exchanged volleys; Tuohe killed several guards before concentrated return fire killed him.
• After learning Tuohe had died, Chichica ordered Uman to withdraw and planned to ambush the Otomi if they pursued into the forest.
• Giova ordered nearby troops toward Chichica’s hill, then sounded a conch horn to stop his warriors from chasing the retreating Guachichil forces.
• Both armies withdrew to their camps, having lost more than a thousand men combined, with casualties roughly equal.

Red Dog chief Chichica punished and rewarded Uman after the failed attack, then ordered the Red Crow Tribe to send its Red-hair warriors to join the war. He persuaded the Guachichil chiefs to hold Pamus Valley against the advancing Cactus army, leaving them to prepare their defenses.

• Chichica ordered Uman to take five lashes for the failed attack, then rewarded him with an Otomi noblewoman for his bravery.
• Uman reported that the enemy leader survived several volleys of arrows, and Chichica recalled that the Cactus Tribe used thick-hide armor.
• Chichica ordered a messenger to conscript the Red Crow Tribe’s Red-hair warriors and bring its chief to serve at his side.
• Ozoma suggested withdrawing after Red Fox Valley fell, but Chichica refused to abandon Pamus Valley and challenged Ozoma to stand with the alliance.
• Chichica convinced the tribal chiefs that their numbers and Pamus Valley’s fertile land gave them a chance to resist the Cactus army.
• Chichica ordered the tribes to burn and cut trees, pile stones, strengthen their mountain camps, and ready their bows and arrows.

Xolotl arrived at Giova’s camp and assessed the Red Dog Alliance’s tactics before repelling its attack on the Royal Banner. As the Dog-kin retreated, Amoxi feared the Red Crow Tribe had little chance of escaping the coming battle.

• Xolotl raised the Royal Banner, summoned Giova, and learned how the Red Dog Alliance used night raids, forest ambushes, and attacks on leaders.
• Red Dog hunters attacked the hill, but Bertad’s Longbow Guard held them off with arrows that pierced their armor.
• Two hundred Dog-kin warriors charged the Royal Banner, and Xolotl’s Jaguar Warriors killed many with javelins before driving into their ranks.
• Amoxi pulled Uman out of the Longbow Guard’s return fire and urged him to retreat after the surprise attack failed.
• Amoxi recalled that Chichica had sent him to join Uman’s attack and worried that the Red Crow Tribe would not escape now that Xolotl had arrived.

The Mexica allied army defeated a Dog-kin surprise attack, withdrew safely, and gathered nearly twenty thousand troops before Xolotl launched an assault on a Guachichil camp. The chapter ended as the Guamare warriors charged up the hill toward its palisade.

• The Jaguar Warriors routed the Dog-kin fighters and pursued them to the forest, killing many before Xolotl ordered them to stop.
• Amoxi gave Uman a Psychedelic Mushroom, then led him away as the Red-hair Hunters covered their retreat and the Dog-kin forces scattered.
• Xolotl ordered his army not to pursue into the woods and withdrew to camp, where the two sides remained in a standoff for two days.
• Reinforcements brought the Mexica allied army to nearly twenty thousand troops, and Xolotl ordered more than ten thousand of them to form ranks outside camp.
• Chalki agreed to send his eldest son and two thousand Guamare warriors as the vanguard, and they charged the Guachichil camp defended by more than a thousand warriors.

Kino led the Guamare warriors in a fierce assault that captured the Red Deer camp and routed its defenders. He pursued the fleeing Red Deer Chief into the forest, prompting Xolotl and Chalki to urgently order a retreat and try to call him back.

• Kino directed the Guamare warriors’ attack, and they fought through the Red Deer defenders while breaking down the camp gate.
• Kino led his guards through the breached gate, and Guamare warriors overwhelmed the camp and forced the Guachichil defenders to flee.
• Xolotl questioned Chalki about how Guamare distinguished their own tribes, and Chalki described shared worship of the Ancestral God and intermarriage.
• Kino tore down the Red Deer banner, and the Red Deer Chief fled with his warriors through the rear gate.
• Kino pursued the Red Deer Chief into the forest with three hundred warriors, and Xolotl and Chalki shouted orders to sound retreat and bring him back.

Kino’s Guamare force was ambushed by the Dog-kin and Red Deer warriors, and Kino was captured as the Mexica reinforcements arrived. Ozoma and Masat retreated to the Red Monkey Camp, where Ozoma urged a defensive withdrawal strategy against the Mexica and prepared the camp for another attack.

• Masat revealed the Dog-kin ambush, and Ozoma’s warriors overwhelmed Kino’s smaller force, killing more than two hundred Guamare warriors.
• Zukata’s Tarasco Copper Spear guards incapacitated Kino and captured him, taking his Bronze Cloth-covered Armor.
• Ozoma and Masat continued fighting the Guamare reinforcements until the approaching Mexica Jaguar Warriors forced them to sound the retreat.
• Ozoma persuaded Masat to abandon the forward stockade and retreat through the mountain camps to delay the Mexica until the corn harvest.
• Masat agreed to advance and retreat with Ozoma in exchange for the captured armor, and Ozoma ordered scouts to track the enemy and supplies moved to the rear.

Xolotl’s forces captured Red Deer Camp, but the Guamare warriors suffered heavy losses, and Chalki learned that his son Kino was missing. The next day, Chalki’s army attacked Red Monkey Camp with Temple Crossbowmen support, and Ozoma ordered the Dog-kin to set the camp ablaze and retreat into the forest.

• Xolotl ordered the Jaguar Regiment back to guard the center army, sent Guamare warriors to the main camp, and garrisoned Red Deer Camp with Otopan Warriors.
• Chalki learned that more than two hundred Guamare warriors had died and Kino remained unidentified, then secured Xolotl’s promise to seek his enfeoffment as a hereditary noble.
• Chalki led two thousand Guamare warriors against Red Monkey Camp while Balda’s Temple Crossbowmen supported them with crossbow fire.
• The Guamare warriors broke through Red Monkey Camp’s gate and fought the Dog-kin in brutal close combat as Red-hair Hunters and Temple Crossbowmen exchanged volleys.
• Ozoma ordered his warriors to ignite dry timber and fodder, cover the retreat with arrows, and abandon Red Monkey Camp for the forest.

Xolotl’s vanguard captured the Red Monkey camp, but Ozoma’s deliberate fire spread into a mountain wildfire that forced both armies to retreat. After stopping the flames with a firebreak and sacrifices, Xolotl considered how the disaster had affected the Dog-kin on the far side.

• Xolotl ordered Bertad to restrain the vanguard and recall it when the burning camp threatened to ignite the surrounding forest.
• Chalki withdrew with the surviving warriors as flames engulfed the camp and killed fighters from both sides.
• Ozoma admitted to Masat that he had set the fire, and Masat fled with him as the wildfire spread into the woods.
• Xolotl retreated, ordered warriors to cut a firebreak, and sacrificed 260 Dog-kin captives to calm his panicked army.
• The fire stopped at the firebreak, and Xolotl wondered what condition the Dog-kin were in on the other side.

After a mountain fire forced the Guachichil tribes to abandon three camps, Chichica punished Ozoma, secured the chiefs’ submission through rewards and threats, and rallied the survivors to defend the fertile valley. Amoxi watched Chichica’s rule with growing ambition while recalling the old chieftain’s warning about leaving when the shadows could no longer be resisted.

• A mountain fire drove Ozoma and Masat’s forces from their camps, and thousands of Dog-kin fled to the newly built defensive camp near Pamus Valley.
• Chichica learned that only five thousand of the alliance’s seven thousand warriors had gathered, and Axolotl explained that many conscripted tribesmen had fled back toward the valley.
• Chichica sentenced Ozoma to fifty lashes for setting the fire, but Masat offered captured thick hide armor, reducing the punishment to twenty lashes.
• Chichica made Ozoma submit, then rewarded him with the armor and healing herbs, while also ordering Masat’s Red Deer Tribe to rest.
• Amoxi watched Chichica command the chiefs and reflected that a powerful warrior was a chief who could command all warriors.
• Chichica rallied the tribes to hold the mountain stronghold and occupy the fertile valley, while Amoxi recalled Kakalot’s warning that the tribe should leave when it could no longer resist the shadows.

Xolotl’s army reached the Dog-kin’s fortified mountain pass, where Chichica prepared to defend against the Mexica. As Giova led an Otopan vanguard toward the camp, Alan and Chipawa watched the approaching army and spoke of their grievances and fears.

• Xolotl learned that the Dog-kin had built a blocking camp at a dangerous pass and judged its defenses crude but well positioned.
• Xolotl ordered Prince Giova to lead two thousand Otopan Warriors in a probing attack, supported by a thousand crossbowmen.
• Chichica watched the Mexica army from the camp and warned Uman to stop using Peyote now that his wound had improved.
• Alan encouraged Chipawa, then learned that the Black Wolf banner represented the Mexica god of death and vowed to shoot Xolotl if he came close.
• Giova’s Otopan Warriors advanced behind large wooden shields, and the Temple Crossbowmen fired a volley at the camp.

Alan and Chipawa defended a Dog-kin stockade as Giova led repeated Otopan assaults up the steep slope. The attackers reached the wall but were beaten back, and Giova prepared another charge.

• Crossbowmen and hunters traded fire as Otopan warriors charged uphill under Giova’s orders, suffering heavy casualties from arrows and stones.
• Alan shot an approaching warrior and joined Chipawa in pushing a boulder down the slope, forcing Giova to dodge as it crushed a Longbow Guard.
• Otopan warriors reached the stockade wall and fought the Dog-kin at close quarters while Alan covered Chipawa, who froze during the fighting.
• Alan shot a warrior who was about to kill Chipawa, and Chipawa stabbed the fallen enemy as Dog-kin reinforcements joined the defense.
• The third squad was driven back from the wall, crossbow bolts struck hunters above, and Giova ordered the fourth squad to charge.

Xolotl halted Giova’s costly assaults on the Dog-kin stronghold and had the Otopan Legion build catapults, while Chichica prepared defenses and celebrated the attackers’ apparent failure. After the catapults proved harmless and the Dog-kin lowered their guard, Xolotl ordered fire weapons and cannons prepared for a general assault.

• Xolotl ordered Giova to withdraw after the Otopan Legion suffered heavy losses against the stronghold’s steep defenses.
• Chichica celebrated the Dog-kin’s successful defense, while Giova accepted Xolotl’s order to cut down trees and build catapults.
• Chichica questioned Zukata about the catapults and ordered the Dog-kin to stockpile sand and earth and clear nearby trees against fire weapons.
• The Mexica tested their catapults with small stones, and Chichica reassured his warriors as they celebrated a bountiful maize harvest.
• Xolotl praised Giova’s plan to let the Dog-kin relax and ordered Bertad to prepare fire arrows, gunpowder fireballs, and eight Wooden Cannons for the assault.

Xolotl recruited the Red Frog Tribe for a risky night raid to sow chaos in the Red Dog camp, while secretly preparing a coordinated assault using fire, artillery, and elite troops. The chapter ended with Bertad accepting command of the force that would attack the mountain stronghold after daybreak.

• Xolotl dressed Miwa in Mexica noble clothing, gave him a Sun Amulet, and questioned him and Caca about their loyalty and contact with the Red Dog tribes.
• Xolotl ordered Miwa to lead five hundred Red Frog warriors into the Red Dog camp at night and create confusion when the Alliance's attack began; Caca volunteered, but Xolotl refused to risk him.
• Miwa agreed to lead the raid in Caca's place, and Xolotl explained that the warriors should infiltrate the rear camp and act when thunder and heavenly fire caused panic.
• Xolotl instructed Bertad to hold a divine descent rite, reassure the Otomi tribes, and deploy archers, crossbowmen, Wooden Cannons, and catapults to bombard the mountain stronghold.
• Xolotl assigned Bertad five hundred heavy-armored Jaguar Warriors, one thousand Medium Armor Longbow Guards, and one thousand Vanguard barbarian units to break the enemy camp after daybreak.

Amoxi and Alan sensed danger in the Dog-kin camp, and Amoxi discovered that Miwa and Red Frog warriors had infiltrated it to attack for the Cactus Tribe. Before Amoxi could stop them, thunderous blasts and firebombs struck the camp, triggering a panicked riot.

• Alan woke at night and joined her father, Amoxi, who said he sensed danger near the camp.
• Amoxi took several Red-hair scouts to patrol, then became suspicious when the night-watch squad grew unexpectedly large.
• Miwa confronted Amoxi with nearly thirty Red Frog warriors and accused him of abandoning the valley.
• Amoxi tried to persuade Miwa to join the Cactus Tribe, but Miwa declared that the Main God would destroy the Red Dog Alliance with thunder and fire.
• Explosions, fireballs, and flaming arrows struck the Dog-kin camp, setting shelters ablaze and sending the warriors into a chaotic panic.

A Mexica night raid with fireballs and fire arrows plunged the Dog-kin camps into chaos, scattering tribes and turning them against one another. Alan led the Red Crow warriors north while Ozoma held Red Monkey Camp and secretly arranged to question a captured Red-hair Hunter.

• Miwa attacked Amoxi during the camp's collapse, but Amoxi escaped into the woods, and Miwa chose to keep spreading chaos rather than pursue him.
• Alan and Moqi gathered the Red Crow elites, then Alan ordered them to fight north toward their old camp.
• Ozoma and Zukata restored order at Red Monkey Camp and held its gate as other camps fell into panic and slaughter.
• Ozoma learned that the Red Deer Tribe had fled and decided to keep Red Monkey Camp fortified until daybreak.
• Ozoma ordered his confidant to secretly bring the captured Red-hair Hunter to his tent.