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I stood up suddenly from the table, ignoring the pain that stretched through my entire side.

“She won’t be able to hold the city. She doesn’t have the manpower or the experience,” I said.

“I thought the same,” Thanu replied.

“The small force that she gathered from her Isle…are they in Dretis?”

“Yes. And they roam freely all over the colonies like a guard force here, there, and everywhere.”

I rubbed my chin. “I suspect they are not united.”

“Of course not. Sanjit is sloppy. They are sloppy.”

“We’ll find and kill them all,” I said, taking the battle horn and tying it to my belt. “Send message to all my hordesmen. They should not hesitate if they see one of Sanjit’s men. When their bodies begin rotting, my message to Sanjit will be clear.”

Thanu called Elsayid into the room and spoke to her, telling her to have her girls get the word out to my warriors.

When she left the room again, Thanu said, “Elsayid and her group of stonecasters are loyal to you. And to me. They will not betray us.”

“I trust you, Thanu. You do not need to explain.” I began putting my armor back on and Thanu rushed to his axe and armor and began doing the same. “No. You stay here with your woman. You’ve done enough, Thanu. It’s your time to rest now.”

He nodded and put down his axe. “And Khol?”

I turned around just before exiting the hut.

“We spotted Zorfov south of here. He’d taken it upon himself to vacate a human-occupied shelter by force. I don’t know where the women were taken but they haven’t been heard from since that happened. Last I was told, he was dawdling around some nursery school full of nothing but human and half-blood Aurrakian children. The school is well protected by the citizens there and he was probably too scared to act.”

It was time for Zorfov to die. No one manhandled and dragged my mate into prison and lived to tell stories about it. And no one threatened the lives of innocents and was rewarded for it. Not on my watch. Who did he think he was?

“I’ll find him,” I declared.