The Trouble with Peace
Chapters - Joe Abercrombie
Part 4
Chapter 1: The World's Wrongs
Orso convenes his Closed Council in the White Chamber, where the old men rebuff his plans for a grand tour of the Union and dismiss his proposals for workers' rights. He pushes for justice in the case of the rapist and murderer Fedor dan Wetterlant, but Bayaz and Glokta counsel delay and expediency over principle. Bayaz delivers his cold verdict on the purpose of power - not to right the world's wrongs, but to profit from them.
POV: Orso dan Luthar·On page: Bayaz, Sand dan Glokta·Mentioned: Savine dan Glokta, Leo dan Brock, Jezal dan Luthar, Stour Nightfall, The Dogman, Judge
Chapter 2: A Long Way from Adua
Vick arrives in Westport on orders from Glokta to prevent the city voting to leave the Union. She meets Superior Lorsen, who warns her not to target the charismatic pro-Styrian leader Solumeo Shudra, but Vick has broader authority. The Aldermen debate fiercely in the Hall of Assembly, with Shudra making a compelling case for joining Styria, and Vick resolves to keep Westport in the Union at any cost.
POV: Vick dan Teufel·Mentioned: Sand dan Glokta, Jezal dan Luthar, Orso dan Luthar, Queen Terez
Chapter 3: A Sea of Trouble
Savine attends a meeting of the Solar Society, struggling with failing investments, pearl dust addiction and the aftermath of Valbeck. Orso arrives and publicly snubs her, a devastating humiliation. Afterwards, Zuri gently suggests what Savine's nausea truly means - she is pregnant with Leo dan Brock's child. Savine decides to watch Broad work rather than go home.
POV: Savine dan Glokta·On page: Orso dan Luthar, Zuri, Ardee West·Mentioned: Gunnar Broad, Leo dan Brock, Jezal dan Luthar
Chapter 4: A Routine
Broad enjoys a family dinner with his wife Liddy and daughter May, then heads to a warehouse where he interrogates a labour organiser named Gaunt on Savine's orders. Zuri asks him to dissuade Savine from watching, but he fails. Broad threatens Gaunt's son to break the strike, following his grim routine of violence while telling himself it is for his family's sake.
POV: Gunnar Broad·On page: Savine dan Glokta, Zuri
Chapter 5: The Art of Compromise
Vick works to secure votes for the Union in Westport, courting the moderate Alderman Filio and bribing the merchant Mozolia with Glokta's trade rights. When the boorish Rosimiche insults her and threatens her with Casamir dan Shenkt, Vick snaps and beats him bloody with brass knuckles, forcing his vote through fear of Valint and Balk's debt collectors. She concludes that Shudra must be taken off the board if they are to win.
POV: Vick dan Teufel·Mentioned: Sand dan Glokta, Jezal dan Luthar
Chapter 6: Some Things Never Heal
Leo trains with Jurand, Glaward and Antaup, but his wounded leg buckles beneath him. His friends suggest campaigns abroad, but Jurand talks sense into him. His mother Finree urges patience with the Closed Council's tax demands and suggests a trip to Adua for Lord Isher's wedding. A surgeon drains Leo's corrupted wound and warns that some things never heal, leaving Leo to wonder if he will be a cripple for life.
POV: Leo dan Brock·On page: Jurand, Glaward, Antaup, Finree dan Brock·Mentioned: Stour Nightfall, Rikke, The Dogman, Sand dan Glokta
Chapter 7: With the Wind
Clover leads his small band - including Downside, Flick and the scout Sholla - to hunt Shanka on Stour Nightfall's orders. They discover a village destroyed by flatheads and set an ambush in a gully, using spears, arrows and axes to slaughter the Shanka pack. Clover orders the heads collected as trophies for the Great Wolf, reflecting on how no one sets off intending to fill sacks with severed heads.
POV: Jonas Clover·Mentioned: Stour Nightfall
Chapter 8: Visions
Rikke's fits from the Long Eye are growing worse, bringing visions of a river of corpses, old men duelling in the Circle, and a dead woman with golden wire stitched through her face. Isern recognises the woman as a sorceress sent back from the land of the dead, living at a forbidden lake in the High Places. Shivers visits and reports on the Dogman's fractious moot, while Rikke sees Uffrith burning in visions she cannot shut out.
POV: Rikke·On page: Isern-i-Phail, Caul Shivers, The Dogman·Mentioned: Stour Nightfall
Chapter 9: Man of the People
Vick trails Solumeo Shudra through Westport's crowded markets, preparing to neutralise him. She spots a hooded assassin closing on Shudra and intervenes, tackling the man and saving Shudra's life. Vick reveals herself as a Union agent and tells the shocked Shudra that the Styrians sent the would-be killer, turning the charismatic leader's loyalties in the Union's favour.
POV: Vick dan Teufel·Mentioned: Sand dan Glokta
Chapter 10: Safe Hands
Orso visits the accused Wetterlant in the House of Questions, finding him contemptible, then endures his formidable mother's threats. In the palace gardens, Bayaz announces his departure, telling Orso the Union is in safe enough hands. Orso then meets Lord Isher, who proposes a compromise - a life sentence secured with the Open Council's support and a full confession, avoiding the divisive spectacle of a hanging.
POV: Orso dan Luthar·On page: Bayaz, Sand dan Glokta·Mentioned: Leo dan Brock
Chapter 11: An Ambush
Savine wheels her father Glokta along the Kingsway, where Bayaz accosts them with veiled threats disguised as flattery, hinting that Savine might one day lead the Union. At home, Savine finds her mother Ardee and Finree dan Brock waiting with a proposal: a marriage between Savine and Leo. With her pregnancy revealed by Zuri and her ambitions in ruins, Savine accepts the match.
POV: Savine dan Glokta·On page: Sand dan Glokta, Bayaz, Ardee West, Finree dan Brock·Mentioned: Zuri, Leo dan Brock, Orso dan Luthar
Chapter 12: Gentle Temperaments
Leo meets Lord Isher in the Lords' Round, where Isher poisons his view of Orso and the Closed Council with tales of the Wetterlant case. Back at his quarters, Leo's mother Finree and Ardee dan Glokta ambush him with the proposal that he marry Savine, revealing she is pregnant with his child. Leo steps onto the terrace and proposes, and the two seal their engagement with a kiss above the Agriont.
POV: Leo dan Brock·On page: Savine dan Glokta, Finree dan Brock, Ardee West·Mentioned: Orso dan Luthar, Sand dan Glokta, Jurand, Antaup, Stour Nightfall
Chapter 13: Minister of Whispers
Vick celebrates Westport's vote to remain in the Union - 159 to 54 - having turned Shudra to their side with a staged assassination attempt using a hired actor. As she prepares to leave, the real Casamir dan Shenkt and Shylo Vitari ambush her, revealing they know the assassin was a fake. Vitari offers Vick a job as a double agent and drops hints about Bayaz controlling Valint and Balk, but Vick refuses, declaring her loyalty to Glokta.
POV: Vick dan Teufel·Mentioned: Sand dan Glokta, Bayaz, Yoru Sulfur
Chapter 14: Late
Rikke's visions blur past, present and future together as she journeys into the High Places with Isern and Shivers to find the witch Caurib. She sees fragments of the forbidden lake, Shivers holding her hand, Shanka guards at ancient standing stones, and a childhood memory of playing with young Leo in Uffrith. The chapter weaves through time as Rikke struggles to distinguish what has happened from what is yet to come, each vision ending with her insistence that it has not happened yet.
POV: Rikke·On page: Isern-i-Phail, Caul Shivers, Leo dan Brock·Mentioned: The Dogman
Chapter 15: An Infinite Supply
Clover teaches Flick swordcraft in Stour's courtyard, imparting his philosophy that a drawn sword means at least one mistake already made. Summoned to Skarling's Hall, Clover presents the Shanka heads to the Great Wolf, who has caged the dissenting Gregun Hollowhead as a warning. Stour reveals his plan to travel to Uffrith, where the treacherous Oxel wants to hand the Dogman's territory over when the old chief dies, and orders Clover to come along.
POV: Jonas Clover·On page: Stour Nightfall·Mentioned: Calder, The Dogman, Leo dan Brock
Chapter 16: The Demon That Breaks All Chains
Rikke wakes at the forbidden lake and meets Caurib, a sorceress whose skull was split by an axe and stitched back together with golden wire by the Shanka. Caurib explains that the Long Eye cannot be understood but must be shaped by will, like a potter shapes clay. She has painted temporary runes around Rikke's left eye to cage the visions, but warns they must be permanently tattooed or Rikke's mind will shatter. Isern and Shivers are away hunting while Rikke agrees to the painful procedure.
POV: Rikke·Mentioned: Isern-i-Phail, Caul Shivers
Chapter 17: The King's Justice
Orso presides over the trial of Wetterlant in the Lords' Round, but the carefully arranged confession collapses when the accused pleads innocent, and Leo rises to denounce the proceedings as a travesty, calling the king a puppet. Gorst bodily removes Leo from the chamber, and a furious Orso sentences Wetterlant to death by hanging. Savine watches the announcement of her engagement to Leo from the gallery, then hurries outside to manage the damage, steering her humiliated husband away while coaching him on how to apologise to the king.
POV: Orso dan Luthar·On page: Leo dan Brock, Savine dan Glokta, Sand dan Glokta, Bremer dan Gorst
Chapter 18: The Choice
Rikke endures a harrowing ritual at the hands of the sorceress Caurib, with Shivers and Isern holding her down while wards and runes are tattooed around her eye. Visions of past and future flood through her - battles, deaths, a crack in the sky - as pain and prophecy blur together. In the end, she is told she must sacrifice one eye to control the Long Eye, and Caurib forces the terrible choice upon her.
POV: Rikke·On page: Caul Shivers, Isern-i-Phail
Chapter 19: Let Ring the Bells
Savine and Leo are married alongside Lord Isher and his bride Isold in a grand ceremony at the Lords' Round, with Orso watching bitterly from the front row. Broad observes the lavish festivities with quiet resentment at the gulf between rich and poor. Leo learns from Selest dan Heugen that Savine and Orso were once lovers, and a tormented Orso leaves the celebration for the company of Tunny. On the terrace, Glokta warns Savine to have nothing to do with Bayaz.
POV: Savine dan Glokta·On page: Leo dan Brock, Orso dan Luthar, Gunnar Broad, Sand dan Glokta, Ardee West, Finree dan Brock, Zuri, Bremer dan Gorst, Corporal Tunny·Mentioned: Bayaz, Queen Terez