Bugg shows once again that he is not an old servant when he calms a nasty monster and gets it to agree to stay in an abandoned temple.
He then heads to the Azath tower to find out what id going on, and how the monster (a former god) got out of its imprisonment.
So of course he talks to Kettle.
Kettle tells him he has given the sword to the Azath's champion, btu the champion cannot break out. It turns out that there is a female spirit hanging on to him, so when he breaks free, she can be free, too.
There are five really really really bad things that have killed most of the others. They are close to breaking out.
The king and his adisors are preparing for war. Turns out that the queen and the prince and her personal legion are out doing their own thing rather than being part of a united front.
Tehol is plotting with the three women. Their poor sexually used and abused bodyguard has fled from them for the dead thief, and the women are all upset.
Kettle has a meeting of sorts with the Azath champion. The champion tells her she is carrying around a Forkrul Assail souls in the body of a dead human child. She was once the child of the Nerek goddess Eres, who would have chosen an important male to father her child. So Kettle has the two souls - the Forkrul Assail soul, and the daughter of the goddess soul, in the body of a dead human child. Things must be crowded and confusing in there.
Brys visits Tehol and Bugg to warn them that they are in terrible danger from assassins, sent by people who hate Hull due to his betrayal of their people.