The Blood of Giants
Author: Jon Del Arroz Series: The Adventures of Baron Von Monocle, Book 2
The Blood of Giants is the second novel in The Adventures of Baron Von Monocle series by Jon Del Arroz. The story is narrated in first person by Zaira von Monocle, captain of the Liliana. The novel spans Rislandia, the Golgmarsh Ocean, and the continent of Zenwey, including its coastal jungles, the Artacala Desert, and the underground city of the Nightmen.
Plot Summary
The Border River Skirmish and the Iron Emperor's Visit
The novel opens with Zaira commanding the Liliana in a ground-support operation near the Border River, assisting Grand Rislandian Army infantry in capturing a new Wyranth explosive artillery piece. The ship takes a hit from a Wyranth shell, damaging a forward propeller, and is forced to make an emergency landing. Harkerpal repairs the propeller, and the commandos successfully secure the artillery weapon.
That evening, Zaira returns to her apartment in Rislandia City to find Ivan, the Iron Emperor waiting inside. He reveals his true name—Ivan—and explains that the destruction of the evolved giant beneath Devil's Mountain eliminated most of the Wyranth's supply of giant's blood serum. His soldiers, addicted to the serum, are now suffering violent, uncontrollable withdrawals and rampaging without discipline. He asks Zaira to travel across the Golgmarsh Ocean to find a cure, warning that the chaos will spill into Rislandia if nothing is done. He departs after renewing his offer of marriage, which Zaira refuses.
Planning the Expedition
Zaira visits the war room in King Malaky's Palace, where she finds her father, Baron Theodore von Monocle, and Talyen von Cravat—now Talyen von Monocle and visibly pregnant. Zaira presents the Wyranth soldiers' erratic behavior as her own observation and proposes an expedition to Zenwey, recalling her father's account of shamans there who possessed ancient knowledge of giants. Talyen is skeptical but her father is enthusiastic. King Malaky XVI grants approval, setting a three-week time limit.
Zaira and Talyen visit Commander Marina du Willet at the Gretoria Asylum, where she is being treated by Dr. Estrella du Clockhand for serum withdrawal. Zaira invites both Marina and Dr. du Clockhand to join the expedition. Talyen reluctantly agrees.
Zaira inspects the Liliana's repairs with Harkerpal, who warns her about the dangers of the Zenwey continent, particularly the beast-like men to the north, and recalls the city of Great Jerohm in the desert.
Departure and the Ocean Crossing
Two days later the Liliana departs. The crew includes Major Edwin Ral, Lieutenant Colwell, Harkerpal, Marina, Dr. du Clockhand, and two Knights of the Crystal Spire: James Gentry and journeyman knight Ethan von Lantern. Before boarding, Princess Reina, heir to King Malaky, kisses James farewell, to Zaira's distress. Zaira's ferret Toby accompanies the voyage.
During the ocean crossing, Zaira visits Marina in her locked cabin and brings her to the deck. They observe James and Ethan sparring shirtless, which Marina teases Zaira about. The four share a meal in the mess, where Ethan offers to train Zaira in swordsmanship, creating tension with James.
Arrival at Zenwey and the Jungle Village
After four days at sea the Liliana reaches the Zenwey coast, landing near a volcano on the Ebony Sands Coast. Zaira leads a scouting party into the jungle—including James, Dr. du Clockhand, and six commandos—while Ethan remains aboard. The party discovers hunting traps and is surrounded by camouflaged native warriors who take them captive and march them to a hidden village.
In the village's central longhouse, the shaman Seeva, attached to one of the Zenwey chiefs, recognizes the name "Vonmoncal" and initially threatens to execute Zaira as an impostor, since the von Monocle she knew was a man. Zaira explains she is his daughter and has inherited his station. Seeva accepts this and shares kava with the group. She tells them the giants—called Tayzwif in her language—do not originate near the volcano and directs Zaira to cross the Artacala Desert to find a wizard who lives at its heart.
Before Seeva can say more, Nightmen bat-gliders attack the village with explosive bags. Seeva orders her people to flee into the jungle and tells Zaira to leave. Zaira's party fires on the gliders but cannot stop them. Nightmen foot soldiers—large, blue-brown, tusk-jawed creatures—emerge from the trees. James pulls Zaira away and the party flees through the jungle, pursued by Nightmen. One commando is killed. Zaira fires a signal flare and the party takes cover.
The Liliana's Air Battle and the Volcano
The Liliana arrives in response to the flare. Commandos descend on rope ladders and the ship fires a warning cannon shot. The Nightmen retreat. The party climbs back aboard, losing two more crew members to Nightmen explosive bags during the boarding.
A larger Nightmen troop-carrier bat-glider and five escorts then attack the Liliana. Major Ral uses the volcano as cover, maneuvering the ship around it. Nightmen board the Liliana's deck. James and Ethan fight them off with swords and pistols. Toby saves Zaira by leaping onto a Nightman's face, allowing James to kill him. The Liliana's riflemen shoot down the remaining bat-gliders. One glider is destroyed by the ship's turbine blades.
The volcano then erupts, engulfing the Nightmen's troop-carrier in lava. The Liliana escapes, losing several crew members. Ethan escorts Zaira to the mess for tea and advises her to rest. She sleeps through the day.
The Desert Crash and the Giant Bats
That night the Liliana flies into a colony of giant bats. The creatures damage the turbines and a bat becomes lodged in a propeller shaft, forcing an emergency landing in the desert. The night-shift pilot, Ensign Devon Sams, manages a rough but survivable landing. Harkerpal diagnoses multiple engine problems and says repairs may take days; he mentions needing supplies from Great Jerohm.
Zaira organizes two overland expeditions to search for the city and for information on the giants. She leads one party herself, taking James, Ethan, Marina, Dr. du Clockhand, Sergeant Babington, and Corporal Fox.
The Desert Wizard Juiyan
The party treks through the desert at night. The ground trembles repeatedly—James speculates there may be another giant burrowed beneath Rislandia, since the quakes in Rislandia City never stopped after the destruction of the Devil's Mountain creature. A massive sand-burrowing snake—a gagantemidae—attacks the group. A robed figure on a dune drives it away with an electrified staff.
The figure introduces himself as Juiyan. He speaks their language and confirms he has heard of giants in old tomes, saying they came from the Mitis Mountain Range when the desert was fertile. He leads the party to his castle, which rises mechanically from beneath the sand. Inside, servants provide food and drink. Juiyan tells Zaira there are others who know more and insists they rest through the day's heat.
During the night, assailants place cloth bags over the party's heads and knock them unconscious. They wake outdoors in an underground city, surrounded by Nightmen guards. The Nightmen's leader, Oyette, reveals that Juiyan sold them to the Nightmen in exchange for protection. Zaira and her crew are enslaved.
Captivity in the Nightmen's Underground City
The Nightmen's city is built inside a hollowed dormant volcano. Oyette assigns Zaira to kitchen cleaning duty under the chef Cappa. Marina is assigned to a human councilman named Rhys. Dr. du Clockhand is assigned to a seamstress. The male crew members—James, Ethan, and Corporal Fox—are placed in the arena fighters' compound.
Oyette publicly punishes a slave named Wayde with electrified staffs as a warning to all new arrivals.
Zaira is taken to the arena to serve food to Oyette and his guests. There she meets Rhys, the only human among the Nightmen's council, who mentions he has Marina working for him. In the arena, Zaira watches Sergeant Babington fight the Nightmen champion Takala. Babington is killed. Rhys offers Zaira sympathy and walks her back, where she sees Marina working at Rhys's door.
Weeks pass. Zaira scrubs floors and learns the Nightmen's raiding culture. She maps the city mentally but cannot act. Marina eventually tells Zaira that Rhys knows everything about them and is willing to help them escape. He has also been treating Marina's serum withdrawal with an enzyme concoction he developed from fossilized giant bones. Rhys explains the Nightmen are descended from a union between a giant named Takala and a human woman called the High Maiden, which is why they can tolerate the serum without the side effects humans suffer.
Rhys proposes escaping via stolen bat-gliders during an arena event. He also privately asks Zaira's permission to eventually propose marriage to Marina, which Zaira grants.
Zaira attempts to negotiate with Oyette, offering Rhys's serum enhancement in exchange for sparing James from the arena. Oyette refuses and forbids her from speaking with Rhys again.
The Arena and the Escape
With James scheduled to fight Takala in three days, Rhys decides they must escape immediately, as Oyette has also been making threats against Rhys himself. Rhys gathers Zaira, Marina, Dr. du Clockhand, Ethan, and Corporal Fox. He carries a bag containing a vat of serum and the living blob creature from his laboratory.
The group moves to the glider dispatch building. Rhys stuns the two guards with his electrified stick. Marina and Fox disarm them. Inside, Rhys bluffs past the attendants, but a slave worker alerts the returning raiding party of Baymet. The group runs for the hangar and boards the large Nightmen troop-carrier. Zaira grabs explosive bags from a supply crate. Nightmen fire on them as they take off.
The glider crashes into the hangar ceiling on takeoff, then flies over the arena. An explosive bag blows a hole in the floor of the craft. Dr. du Clockhand nearly falls through; Ethan catches her with Zaira's help. The glider circles the arena where James is fighting Takala. James wounds Takala with his electrified sword. Ethan and Fox reach through the floor hole and pull James aboard. Corporal Fox is shot and falls from the craft, killed. A Nightman boards the craft and knocks Zaira unconscious.
When Zaira wakes, the Nightman has been subdued. The glider exits the cavern through the auxiliary tunnel but is shot by pursuing bat-gliders and crashes in the desert sand. The group escapes the burning craft. Rhys is trapped in the cockpit; Zaira and James pull him free. Oyette and armed Nightmen surround them.
Rescue and Return
The Liliana appears overhead. Lieutenant Colwell and the crew had tracked the Nightmen's gliders from the desert and located the underground city. Cannonballs scatter the Nightmen. Commandos descend on ropes. Ethan, James, and Marina fight off Nightmen on the ground. Zaira is shot in the shoulder while trying to reach a rope ladder. She is hauled up to the Liliana.
On deck, Zaira orders the cannoneers to collapse the cave entrance with cannon fire to prevent Nightmen reinforcements. Ensign Wandrey removes the bullet from her shoulder. A Nightman boards the deck and shoots Wandrey. Zaira tackles the Nightman and uses Wandrey's ether-soaked rag to knock him unconscious. The crew defeats the remaining Nightmen and collapses the cave entrance.
With the battle won, the Liliana departs Zenwey. During the return voyage, Zaira recovers in her cabin with Toby. Harkerpal explains how the crew found them: they traded with Great Jerohm for supplies, then extracted information from Juiyan under Sergeant Wright's pressure, and finally tracked the Nightmen's gliders to the underground city. Ethan visits Zaira and asks her to take tea with him alone when they return to Rislandia City; she accepts. James visits on crutches and makes a pointed remark about Zaira and Ethan, upsetting her. On the deck one evening, Rhys and Marina are seen holding hands.
Portsgate Destroyed and the New Crisis
As the Liliana approaches the Rislandian coast, Zaira spots through the telescope that Portsgate has been razed to the ground. The crew lands outside the ruined city and finds a young girl named Heather hiding in the rubble, the only person they encounter. Zaira takes her aboard.
At Rislandia City, Zaira's father and Talyen meet the ship. Zaira realizes the Iron Emperor manipulated her into removing the Liliana from Rislandia's defense, enabling the Wyranth to attack along two fronts—the western coast and the Oler Mountains—while the army was deployed at the Border River. Her father tells her the Liliana must go back into action immediately. Rislandia's scientists have reverse-engineered the Wyranth's explosive shells and will restock the ship with them. Zaira resolves to earn her father's pride and returns to the Liliana.
Main Characters
- Zaira von Monocle — First-person narrator and captain of the Liliana; drives the expedition to Zenwey and leads the escape from the Nightmen.
- Baron Theodore von Monocle — Zaira's father; now a general in Rislandia City who authorizes the mission and commands the war effort in her absence.
- Talyen von Cravat — Zaira's stepmother and senior military advisor; pregnant throughout the novel; skeptical of but ultimately approves the expedition.
- Marina du Willet — Zaira's closest friend aboard the Liliana; suffering from giant's blood serum withdrawal; enslaved by Rhys in the Nightmen city, where she assists his research.
- Dr. Estrella du Clockhand — Brain specialist recruited from the Gretoria Asylum to treat Marina and serve as expedition medic.
- James Gentry — Zaira's childhood neighbor, now a knight apprentice; accompanies the expedition and fights in the Nightmen arena.
- Ethan von Lantern — Journeyman knight overseeing James's training; skilled fighter who helps lead the escape and begins courting Zaira.
- Rhys — Human scientist and sole human councilman among the Nightmen; maker of the Nightmen's warrior potions and of the enzyme treatment that cures Marina's serum withdrawal; engineers the crew's escape and joins them.
- Ivan, the Iron Emperor — Wyranth emperor who secretly visits Zaira to prompt the expedition; manipulates her into removing the Liliana from Rislandia's defense.
- Harkerpal — Chief engineer of the Liliana; provides historical knowledge of Zenwey and keeps the ship operational.
- Major Edwin Ral — The Liliana's primary pilot; executes difficult maneuvers throughout the novel.
- Lieutenant Colwell — Senior officer aboard the Liliana; manages ship operations and helps rescue Zaira on deck.
- King Malaky XVI — King of Rislandia; grants approval for the Zenwey expedition.
- Toby — Zaira's pet ferret; accompanies the voyage and saves Zaira during the deck battle by attacking a Nightman.
- Seeva — Shaman attached to one of the Zenwey chiefs; directs Zaira toward the desert wizard.
- Juiyan — Desert wizard who shelters the party in his underground castle before betraying them to the Nightmen.
- Oyette — Nightmen councilman and Zaira's enslaver; the primary antagonist within the underground city.
Settings
- Rislandia City — Capital of Rislandia; opening and closing location; site of the war room, the palace, and the Gretoria Asylum.
- The Border River — Site of the opening artillery skirmish between the Liliana and Wyranth forces.
- The Golgmarsh Ocean — Crossed twice by the Liliana during the expedition.
- Zenwey — The continent across the ocean; setting for the jungle, desert, and underground city portions of the novel.
- Ebony Sands Coast — The black-sand volcanic coastline where the Liliana first lands on Zenwey.
- Seeva's Jungle Village — Hidden tree-hut settlement of the Zenwey tribe; attacked by Nightmen during the crew's visit.
- The Artacala Desert — Vast desert on Zenwey; home to gagantemidae sand-snakes and Juiyan's Castle.
- Juiyan's Castle — A mechanically retractable stone castle concealed beneath the desert sand.
- The Nightmen's Underground City — A city built inside a hollowed dormant volcano; site of the crew's enslavement, the arena battles, and the escape.
- Portsgate — Rislandian coastal city; found razed to the ground by Wyranth forces upon the crew's return.
Themes
The novel explores the costs of addiction and the search for a cure as the central plot driver, examining how the giant's blood serum corrupts individuals and destabilizes nations. It interrogates the nature of leadership and self-doubt, as Zaira repeatedly questions whether she is worthy of command while her decisions prove consequential for her crew and kingdom. The story also addresses betrayal and manipulation—by Juiyan, by the Iron Emperor, and by Zaira's own omissions to her father and king—and the moral weight of secrets kept for ostensibly good reasons. Captivity and the dehumanization of slavery are depicted at length through the Nightmen's underground city. Finally, the novel examines the tension between duty and personal connection, as Zaira's relationships with James and Ethan develop against the backdrop of war and responsibility.
In A History of Rislandia
A History of Rislandia treats The Blood of Giants as an established canonical work within the series and draws on its events as a historical source. The sourcebook's references to the novel are narrow but notable.
The Assassination of King Malaky XV
According to A History of Rislandia, The Blood of Giants is cited as a source for the assassination of King Malaky XV during the Wyranth invasion. The sourcebook uses the novel as a point of canonical reference for this event, suggesting that details of the assassination—or its broader context within the Wyranth invasion—are established or corroborated through the narrative of The Blood of Giants. The novel-based account on this page does not mention the assassination of King Malaky XV among the novel's plot events; the sourcebook's attribution implies the novel contains relevant information about this historical moment that the novel-based account on this page summary does not foreground.
The Artacala Desert and Juiyan's Castle
A History of Rislandia notes the Artacala Desert and Juiyan's Castle as locations mentioned in The Blood of Giants, consistent with the novel-based account on this page. The sourcebook does not appear to add further detail about these locations beyond acknowledging their appearance in the novel.