“Wake, woman,” a deep, commanding voice slithered through her shell again.
“Astegur?” she mumbled.
A hot plume of air blasted her face, forcing her eyes open.Horns and heated breaths.He leaned over her, his face right above her own, and she smiled lightly, remembering that he’d returned to her.
“The centaurs have surrounded Prayer,” he said.
The throes of slumber crashed and burned, and met their deadly end.
Fear replaced it to envelop her back in reality. Her brow furrowed, and her eyes widened. Astegur filled her vision, and between them was his smoke and the mist.
“What?” she asked. Confused, she looked down at herself, to the hearth, and the bowl on the ledge. “I fell asleep.” She shook her head, raising her hands to scrub her face.I shouldn’t be sleeping.More memories came back to her as she stared at the bowl, recalling its strange taste. “You put me to sleep? You drugged me.” Anger chilled her voice, but it didn’t last long as a shuffling, muffled form screeched beside her.
She twisted to find her mother bound in the corner, a linen hanging from her mouth, her throat working and constricting over and over as if she was trying to swallow it down while her jaws snapped as if to shred it at the same time. A constant gag.
Calavia’s mouth slackened in horror at the sight. “Mother?” She climbed to her hands and knees, heart pounding.
Astegur grabbed her and yanked her around to face him.
Calavia gasped and narrowed her eyes as furious ones met her own again. “You!” she shrieked. “What have you done?”
“I tried to save your mistfucking life!”
She slammed her palms against his chest and dug her nails into his skin. “What did you do?” She looked back at her mother, but Astegur caught her chin and refused to let her.
“I tried to leave this rotting heap of tepid swamp water, nest of bugs, and dead sediment behind to meet its end alone.Shewill not let us leave!” he roared in her face, making her hair flutter back.
Let us leave?Calavia jerked her head out of Astegur’s grip. Her eyes shot around the room once more, stopping on her mother’s form struggling in the corner before looking back at him. She noticed the bags hanging from his hips, the weapons strapped to his form, and the strain in his muscles.
She drew back. “You tried to steal me away?” Her mother made a gurgling sound. “And her?” The remaining fog in her head evaporated.He tried to steal me.She startled and drew farther back from him, crawling toward her mother. She made it several feet before he grabbed her ankle and dragged her back. “I thought I could trust you!” she cried out as she slid across the rough floor, reaching for her mother.
“I saw what we are up against. They are burning out the swamps. By tomorrow morning the centaurs will have us surrounded with giant bonfires and light. Their light will pierce through your barriers and light up the settlement for all to see. We’ll be trapped here to die!Youwill die--”
“Then you should have left when you had the chance! Go now, bull, because I will not leave.”
He surged over her form and clamped one large hand over her neck when she fought to rise. She reached up and grabbed it, matching his snarl with one of her own. She knew he would not harm her, but in that moment, she didn’t care if he did. Fury brightened her eyes.
“Is that what you really want me to do, Calavia?”
Her eyes watered as they stared at each other. She didn’t want to back down nor fight him. She didn’t want him to leave, but she knew she could not stop him, nor keep him here against his will again, not when death could be a very real option.
She gripped his hand harder as she kicked out her legs once, her feet sliding across the thick fur of his legs, his boney hooves. They shared several angry breaths as she continued to struggle out from beneath him. She searched his dark eyes as he searched hers throughout, and when he began to draw his harsh face closer to hers, she released her grasp on his hand and slid her hand into her dress, drawing out a small clump of wax.
Fierce eyes became hooded, the space around them burned with their body heat. Her mother's struggles filled her ears. His lips came upon hers, ravaging, and she slammed her waxen hand right over his eyes.
A roar filled her ears, echoing off the stone walls, trembling the ground. Astegur shot into the air, clawing his face as she scrambled out from under him and rushed to her mother’s side.
“Calavia!” he bellowed.
She winced as she tore the linen from her mother’s mouth.
Her mother snapped her teeth at her and howled, straining against the reeds that held her limbs.
Horns sounded off in the distance, drumming the fear of battle right into her. Calavia worked at the reeds on her mother’s legs, trying to rip the fibers coated with her own wax apart with her hands.
“What have you done to me!” Astegur demanded.
Astegur’s rage made her clumsy.
