What's a Fantasy, especially an Epic/Hard Fantasy, without some violence & heart-thudding action?? 

Enok works on the carcass of a creature, working to tan the hide for future uses; more carcasses are seen elsewhere, and a hidden cave boasts evidence of something having lived there a while---creature carcasses litter the space among remains of a meal at the fire pit, etc.  Enok bends over, losing his breakfast at the repulsive sight and smells.

Two Zmee, humanoid, intelligent, dragonlike creatures, are brutally murdered before Enok's eyes; a youngling struggles in the throes of death, but is finished off by a speak blow to the heart, to Enok's utter horror.  A crippled Zmee is found bound & fettered in the cave (mentioned above), signs of torture evident in its mangled limbs and fingerless hand.  A feverish "barbarian" lays on the bed covered in poultices.

Enok is clubbed on the head & knocked unconscious; later awakens in a cell.  A fight breaks out at an inquest; many are slain when a prisoner breaks his bonds and turns their own weapons upon them, impaling Zmee on tridents, other weapons, and debris.  One serpent is thrown into a cart with a sickening crunch.  A couple others are set upon by an agitated lizard-bird (as large as a horse).  A giant falls prostrate with a great bleeding gash on his back and a dark in his skull...

A Zmee is overcome & devoured by something called The Fear---apparently a swarm of innumerable-thousands of insects.  We hear screams until they are silenced... Poison darts are part of the weaponry.

A creature is badly injured when a sky balloon collides with his tree---ribs are crushed & one arm hangs limply; later falls to his death into the toxic swamp far below.  Other beings fall from sky-balloons, crash through tree limbs, escape freezing waterfalls, get knocked out, etc. etc.

The mating/animalistic breeding rituals of the Zmee are explained briefly.  Mention of how Zmee adult females achieve estrus every six years, and how a particular female character is "so ready for mating, she'd be entwining with anything before long."  Also, noted that there was only one "bull" on the continent of Zoar.

A prisoner inquires if Enok had seen her naked, to which he replies a hesitant yes---hesitant because of her serious tone.  No descriptions, nor anything graphic.  Imprisoned together, Naama & Enok plan an escape.  Exhausted, she falls asleep, but not before offering to him to "come to bed" to which he balks & reddens---completely at a loss as to how his kind behaves.  (Recall that he has lived as the only human slave to dragonlike creatures all his life.

A Zmee fertility pilgramage is mentioned a few times, where every six years of their adult life, the females trek to a place essentially to breed.

It's learned one male Zmee is not quite whole (if you catch the meaning), having been tortured "in the worst way a male could be."

Because Enok has never before seen a female more of his race, he wonders at the natural attractions a time or two.