By the time Scarlett made her way out of the village and across the stream, Pakuri and Voty had rescued over forty girls and one boy who had been visiting his mother. She had searched for other kids as she rode through the village, but it seemed that most of them had run away with their mothers or sisters.
Voty was desperately trying to calm the infants, who were terrified, sleepy, and hungry. Pakuri looked like she wanted to murder them all.
"Do you know where we're regrouping?" Voty said, holding a fat blonde baby in her arms. She kept thrashing and hitting her.
"We have to go find help. I don't think we can resist the Hova for much longer. There… were a lot of casualties in the meadow near the arena," Scarlett said, trying to hold it together. She feared that if she started crying, the scared-looking kids would all start wailing. Luckily, a few of them seemed to have no idea what was going on, and they were just excited to be taking a trip to the
Not a man.A Hova.Several things happened at the same time. Pakuri hurled a fireball at the Hova before he started coming down the slopes, and Voty and Scarlett tried to usher the kids into the forest. But it was impossible to move them as a single group, and the little girls ran in all directions.Voty called out to them, grabbing some while at mid-run, yelling at them to follow the group.Scarlett left Voty to deal with the children and went back to see what was going on with Pakuri and the Hova. Pakuri wasn’t the only one fighting him. A group of human soldiers was after him, and instead of fighting back, the Hova ran down the shallow stream and its winding path. The soldiers, clad in gold and silver heavy armor, had trouble following him down the slope, but they continued after the Hova down until Scarlett could no longer see them.Pakuri was seething, looking just as hos
"Then we have to leave now,” Scarlett said. "It won’t take them more than two or three days to get there, and once they cross, we will never be able to find them again.”As she turned to leave, Luca grabbed her by the arm.“Wait. You can’t go alone. Wait until the women have mourned their dead and regroup. Talk to your friends. Maybe we can help you, too,” he said.“I think you’ve done enough for us. Under normal circumstances, we can take care of our own,” Scarlett said, analyzing Luca’s face.She could tell he was being sincere about wanting to help. And there was truth to his words. Tomorrow they’d figure out how to get the girls back. If she went alone, she'd probably get captured along with the rest of the girls.Voty returned with the kids who had run out into the forest about an hour later. Their mothers and family members were so grateful to see the young ones return, that th
THE MEETING OF THE SURVIVING KARAINAS WAS NOT GOING WELL. At all. At first, Scarlett thought everyone was in an even worse mood because they still hadn’t eaten anything. That, besides the fact that everyone had lost someone they loved the day before, would be reason enough for the women to be at each other’s throats.However, a few minutes into the meeting, Scarlett was beginning to understand that not everything had been running smoothly even before the attack.A group of about fifteen Karainas was saying that they had been unhappy with Grina’s decision to keep them away from the fighting going on in the nearby kingdoms. That their influence had waned over the years because the High Chieftess refused to let them intervene until it was inevitable. And that that had given the Hova the confidence to strike the way they did the night before.The other women defended the High Chieftess’ decision, saying that she made that decision in our best
“He’s probably saying that just to save his life. I say we burn his head off and be done with it,” a Karaina said, taking a step towards the prince. Her hands were glowing as if she were getting ready to strike.Scarlett stood immobile near the door. There was no credible way that the prince of the Hova himself was here, captured by the Karainas, was it?“What was your great grandfather’s second name?” Wenna said all of sudden.The two men from the golden company looked at each other in disbelief. They were clearly perplexed as to what Matron Wenna was doing.“Ah, you’re a smart one,” said the Hova. “No one but a member of my family would know that. My father tried to erase it from most history books, but alas, I see some of them slipped through his sneaky fingers.”“Speak, Hova. Or you burn,” Wenna said, raising her hand.“Ok, ok! His second name was Assbot,
MimbiOn the other side of the Paran River, the remnants of the Hova army who had attacked the Karainas moved steadily towards the wall. Towards the rear of the marching soldiers, twelve iron cages filled with women and girls of all ages rolled steadily forward. One of them had carried a few men and boys, but they were the first ones the Hova drank from.The girls and women learned early on that crying, wailing, or yelling was not a good idea. It was up to the older ones to try to keep the younger ones silent, but it was an impossibly hard task with so many of the girls being so young. They were hungry, tired, and dirty, and all none of them understood exactly what was going on.The older ones had no idea where they were going, but they understood what was going to happen to them unless they were somehow rescued by their fellow Karainas. Some had lost all hope and merely clung to the iron bars that held them as prisoners.In the last cage following the re
In the end, the Karainas chose a relatively young woman named Seika as their leader. She had to be around thirty-nine years old. With her head cut short and her broad back, anyone would confuse her with a man if they saw her from behind. There was not an ounce of fat or curves on her body; she was all muscle.Seika had been Grina’s third in command, and her mother had been High Chieftess before Grina. She was clearly shaken by Grina’s death, and she was among those who had supported the former High Chieftess’ ideas that the Karainas should only fight when called to.Scarlett, Pakuri, and Voty all voted for her, if only because she had also been one of their trainers. They knew her better than the other two candidates.“I promise I will lead you wisely, with Grina’s spirit as my North,” Seika said, bowing to the other Karainas. “Normally we would celebrate that our former High Chieftess’ spirit has joined Karai in t
Scarlett’s plan led her to the barracks, where the wounded were being taken care of by the surviving healers and herbalists. As soon as she entered the brick building, she was overwhelmed by the smell of alcohol.There weren’t enough cots or beds to hold all the women, so some were resting on makeshift mattresses made of hay. Most of the patients were sleeping. Others talked softly to their friends and relatives who sat near them, still comforting each other for their mutual losses.With a clearer vision of what she was going to do, the weight of the previous two days was finally starting to catch up with Scarlett. It was as if she had been dreaming up until now, to be awakened by the crude reality of everyone’s suffering.Some women had open gashes that seemed to have been quickly and sloppily sewed. Others had linen cloths wrapped practically all around their limbs. Some had suffered concussions and burns when the roofs of ceilings had collap
Mimbi woke up with a sudden jerk of the iron cage. A young girl of about seven who had fallen asleep with her head on Mimbi’s legs also woke up, scared by her sudden movement. “Where are we?” Mimbi said to no one in particular. There were twelve other girls in the cage with her, but no one answered. No one knew. The road where they had stopped was narrower than the one they had been traveling on, and the trees’ lumbered over it, making it hard for Mimbi to tell the approximate time. She was hungry, thirsty, and she longed for a bath. As the Hova escorted the prisoners towards the wall, a routine had settled in among the captors and captives. Every two hours or so, a Hova would come around to give the girls water, some fruits they picked up along the way, and they’d select one of them to feed off. Mimbi had been lucky that she hadn’t been selected yet. Four girls from her cage had already been fed off, and they bore the stained wraps that marked