“Where are our brothers?” Astegur asked suddenly.
Vedikus snorted. “I could ask the same of you.”
“You do not know?”
“Several weeks ago, when I arrived here with Aldora, only Dezetus was here to allow us entrance. Alone. Hinekur and Thyrius were missing, with naught left but hoof prints heading down the mountain.”
Calavia thought back to the five shadowy minotaurs who had appeared before her. She knew two of them now, although one of those two did not want to know her back, but she recalled the other three. All five brothers had been alive and well then…but now? Her eyes flicked between the minotaurs, finally landing on Astegur.
“And Dezetus?” he asked.
“When they did not return, he left to go find them.”
Astegur lowered his head, his horns pointing at the fire, and rubbed his brow. “The centaurs have captured one of them.”
Vedikus surged to his hooves. Calavia startled back and looked at Aldora for reassurance. She continued preparing dinner, but had a look of strain on her face. Calavia knew it mirrored her own.
Calavia turned to Astegur. “I did not know.”
Vedikus jabbed a finger toward her. “You’re a devious mist witch! Of course you knew!”
Astegur slammed his right fist into the ground then breathed a lick a fire into the air. They all stopped and looked at him as he spoke. He told them of all that had happened, including everything before he arrived at Prayer, and what he had found out in the season he traveled and roamed the lands to the south along the walls.
He produced several vials, not of her own making, and passed them to Vedikus.
“Orc and human blood,” Vedikus muttered as he lowered the vial. “And you found these on a hobgoblin?”
“I found many more than that.”
“Where are the rest?”
Calavia tilted her head. “There’s a tribe of nomadic orcs that live in the barrier lands around where Astegur was. I have seen them in my—” she swallowed, “—wax. They are the current rulers of the sacrificial zone there.”
Astegur added, “I drank them. But this is not all. The Enios centaurs have lost their sacrificial zone to the south, a place called Burlox.”
“Burlox?” Aldora asked suddenly, joining the conversation. “It fell before I was thrown over the wall. The Laslites…they were in Thetras for that very reason. The world borders of Savadon are being patrolled again. The capitol…” She looked at Vedikus with wide eyes.
“What about the capitol?” Astegur probed.
“There were rumors that they were delivering prisoners to the border towns to be sacrificed.”
“Are your people afraid?”
Aldora sat back and Calavia scrutinized the human woman. Calavia had lied to her when they first met, and had used those lies to intimidate the woman into doing what she had wanted. A twinge of guilt constricted her throat. She’d never encountered anotherlivinghuman in all her time in Prayer besides her mother.
But Aldora did not shy away from Astegur’s or Vedikus’s gaze, something Calavia herself had almost done now on several occasions. Her curiosity about her kind grew.
“Yes,” Aldora said after a moment, “very afraid.”
Astegur turned back to Vedikus. “The centaurs are heading north for Thetras now that their sacrificial zone is gone. The orcs are aligning with the goblins to keep what is currently theirs. The centaurs hate the orcs as much as we do.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“That we find our brothers and make a move.”
Vedikus sat back down heavily, his gaze moving to the fire, to Aldora’s hands preparing the food. “Dezetus left a week ago to find them and has not returned… Hinekur and Thyrius could be anywhere if they even still live. You know how distracted Thyrius can be, and how one-sighted Hinekur is when he is on a hunt.” His eyes briefly left Aldora to glance at Calavia before he quickly moved them away to look at the fire. “We cannot leave our females unprotected to retrieve them. And if the centaurs do have one of ours…”
“It would be dangerous,” Astegur finished, now looking at the fire himself.
