The order that chose the war

Six clans of the Tavan Mountains

The rukhin are the khagan's aerial cavalry on the southern continent — six clans scattered through the Tavan Mountains, each led by a hearth-mother who runs the clan and keeps its history as Story Keeper. Their mounts are ruks: giant eagles, more agile and far smarter than the Ironteeth wyverns, if lighter. Two riders share one bird. Prince Sartaq, the khagan's second son, commands all six clans and rides the great ruk Kadara, and it is to his family's aerie at the three Dorgos peaks — the Mountain-Hall Altun — that the story of the rukhin opens, Nesryn Faliq riding double at his back.

Story, not blood

What makes the rukhin the opposite of the Ironteeth is that they are a culture, not a breeding program. The hearth-mother Houlun is a Story Keeper before she is a general; her granddaughter Borte trains to inherit that seat and rides the dark ruk Arcas; alliances between clans are made and mended, never simply commanded. When Nesryn arrives as an outlander she earns the riders' regard the honest way — with her bow, shooting well enough that the whole camp takes notice. A ruk is not a weapon issued to a soldier. It is a partner, and the partnership has to be agreed to on both sides.

The old dark under the peaks

Houlun comes home with bad news: the ruk nests are being raided, eggs and hatchlings vanishing in the night. The raiders are kharankui — stygian spiders, kin to the ones in the north and a Valg thing themselves. As Story Keeper she knows why: a Wyrdgate once tore open in the Tavan Mountains, and the ancient Fae raised watchtowers to contain what came through. Sartaq and Nesryn work the ruined towers — the Watchtower of Eidolon, the Dagul Fells — springing traps and surviving spider ambushes, until the clans grasp that the war in the north and the horror in their own mountains are one war.

They cross the sea for it

Sartaq gathers the clans and pledges the rukhin to Aelin's war under the khagan's banner — then Chaol's letter arrives and they fly north. They save the Silver Lake dam at Anielle, stopping Morath from drowning a whole valley. And at Orynth, when a Morath arrow-storm falls on the ground cavalry, Borte leads the rukhin straight into it — riders and ruks taking the volley with their own bodies so the soldiers below live. Sartaq's charge, with Borte and Yeran and Falkan Ennar at his flanks, helps turn the last battle of the war.