“Keep up!” Cetina yelled behind her, uncaring about the snow falling constantly over their heads. “Even though it’s cold we need to keep exercising. We must always be strong and ready for what is to come.”

“You love to try and wear me out in the morning.” Anton laughed. “Are you sure there’s a reason for that?”

Cetina shook her head and continued to run at her normal fast pace. Anton another person had joined them for their morning run. Rasha, wearing thick clothes that left the short fur on her legs exposed, ran alongside him. Her long legs effortlessly strode through the thick snow. He knew that she could move much faster, judging by the extensive muscles barely straining with each stride, she didn’t want to leave them behind.

“Is…” Rasha shook her head. “Is this normal?”

“What do you mean?” Anton asked. Cetina began to slow to their speed.

“I mean…We’ve…We’ve had sex last night. I couldn’t move after you were done and then you just went on to them, to do the exact same thing. Not to mention this morning you left Verona and Kal…” Rasha rubbed her face. “In quite a state. And now you’re having a run with two of your concubines…Is this normal?”

“Probably not.” Anton smiled. “Certainly not, not outside of some depraved noble…The fact that neither of you are denying that I am one is a little disappointing.”

“Oh.” Rasha began to panic slightly. “I don’t. Oh. Right.”

Anton waved her concern down. “Don’t worry about it. But I do enjoy these. Cetina is right. Mages, especially Mages, need to be physically fit. I don’t think it’s going to have much of an effect on how much mana you have, otherwise Mezot would have virtually nothing, but it’s going to be a surprise if someone tries to kill you.”

“Those assassins might have been able to kill us if you didn’t do any training.” Cetina smiled warmly. “And I’m always glad that you did listen to me, and still do.”

“True. True.”

“This is so strange.” Rasha shook her head. “Not what I was expecting.”

Anton kept his eyes forward, not because he was afraid of getting caught looking at Rasha, but because her chest was very distracting. Even though she wore her Arachnid silk shirt and bra they still bounced dangerously, dangerous for his focus. Cetina was not immune to such distractions, though it was mainly due to envy, not that Cetina was particularly small.

“So what’s the plan for today?” Rasha asked as they passed the western gate. She looked up and caught the gazes of the guards. When they ran past none were doing their duty, fully focused on something else. “Normally you have an idea of what you have planned for the day and then…You do that. Normally I’m left here but…”

“But?”

Rasha stopped. She looked to the wall, none of the guards could see them so close to the stone. She wrapped her arms around him and brought him into a tight hug. Not for the first time, Anton felt smothered by Rasha’s softness and unbelievable strength. He crooked his head up, his chin nestled deep in Rasha’s breasts while his legs dangled above the snow.

“But now I have someone to wait for.” Rasha leant down to kiss him but hesitated, tilting her head so the base of her orange horn would not hit his forehead. “And that alone gives me so much strength.”

Anton gripped onto Rasha’s arms and pulled himself up before she could. For a moment she was incredibly surprised that he kissed her but that quickly faded. Her larger and stronger tongue quickly submitted to his and began to pull him tighter. It was very similar to the night they had just shared; though Rasha could easily overpower him she was like putty in his hands once he started playing with her, especially her breasts and the base of her horn.

“Hold up.” Anton pulled himself free. Rasha breathed heavily and kissed him again. “I think someone is getting a little jealous.”

“Not really,” Cetina mumbled. The smirk she held failed to hide a faint redness. “But…Now that Rasha’s here, does that mean we can’t do our special thing?”

“What’s that?” Rasha continued to hold him tight with one hand and stroke his back with the other.

Anton tapped her arm. While it was a delightful experience to have someone so strong tenderly hold him he could not enjoy it forever. Rasha gently let Anton down but did not remove her hands from his shoulders, nor did she try and move his head away from resting between her soft breasts.

“That’s a really great sight.” Cetina laughed, shaking her head. “I know Verona would be proud of you.”

“I’m sure she would.” Anton held Rasha’s arm. He couldn’t even begin to wrap his fingers around it, and to think someone as strong as this practically melted under his touch. “But I’m sure you’ll enjoy it too, Rasha.”

“Okay…” Her ears flicked back once. She had an idea but was not going to ask just yet.

“But, as to your first question, I think we’re just going to have a relaxing day. If such a thing is possible.”

“Really?” Cetina smiled and ushered them onward. “That would be an interesting few days. When…When is Wilford going to arrive in Frindal?”

“Probably two or so days’ time.” Anton began to move forward and slip through Rasha’s powerful arms. “And everything’s going well, so we don’t need to go anywhere to buy stuff. So I can actually spend some time in Atros. Won’t that be a delightful?”

Rasha smiled faintly. “It would be nice.”

They began to run once again. Once they reached the north Cetina slowed and guided them into Atros. Anton smiled as the people walking the streets slowed and took notice of the two women with him, one Beast-kin smacked his head into a building. He swore, rubbed his stubby nose but still managed to get a good look at their rears.

“This way.” Cetina slowed and slipped into a small alleyway.

“What’s in here?” Rasha asked. She glanced back towards the streets but still followed.

“Privacy,” Anton smirked. “Privacy. No one comes here.”

“Why…” Rasha coughed softly. “What are we doing here?”

Cetina led them to a small alcove between two buildings. It was not an entrance but merely a holdover from an older piece of construction, perhaps from even before when Anton arrive in Atros.

“I don’t get much time to be with Anton,” Cetina said softly. “Not alone. Not that I have a problem with it, but I do want to have some time to have him myself. And it is very difficult while we’re on the road, with Verona and Kal, and with the Twins.”

“Twins?” Rasha tilted her head. “Oh. Right. Calo and Sheso. They seem nice.”

“They are.” Anton softly sighed. “But it was kind of hard to do anything while they were there. Cetina’s not the quietest.”

“Shut up.” Cetina’s face reddened as she lightly punched him in the arm. “You’re not much better.”

“Wait.” Rasha looked back as she entered the alcove. “Are you going to do it here?”

“Do you have a problem with that?” Anton asked. Cetina began to lift his shirt, running her cool hands over his stomach and beginning to unbind his tail.

“I’ve…I’ve never thought of something…” Rasha looked out again. “Do Verona and Kal know about this?”

“I’m pretty sure Kal does.” Anton kissed Cetina’s red cheek. “Her sense of smell is incredible. And they know it doesn’t take this long to run a few times across Atros.”

“I just say that we’re going for our morning run.” Cetina loosened Anton’s tail and allowed it to hang free, a hand gently massage the base while travelling further to his rear. “Not how long we’ll be.”

“True…Are you going to join us or just watch?” Anton pulled Cetina close. “I don’t mind either way. Honestly.”

Rasha bit her lip, took a final look into the empty alleyway, and ripped her shirt off. She took Anton’s arm and placed it firmly on her breasts, sinking deep into the soft blue flesh. Rasha looked at him with misty eyes, so too did Cetina.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Anton tightened his grip on both, pulled them close and kissed Cetina as hard as he could.

---[]---

“Just a relaxing day?” Verona scoffed. “That will be the first in a long, long time.”

She placed his breakfast before him; a large selection of cooked meats, vegetables and cheesy baked potatoes. It was probably too much. His stomach was still filled with thick and slightly sour Minotaur milk.

“Too long.” Anton gently pulled her down into a kiss. “Maybe I’ll just spend all day at home with you.”

“That would be incredible.” Verona kissed his head and ruffled his hair. “But there are some things that we should do today. Besides, we all need to eat something. Otherwise we won’t be able to think clearly, on one of our days off, of all the times such a thing could happen.”

Kal took her seat next to Anton. Her plate was slightly more modest but she and Verona were starting to eat more as their pregnancies progressed. It probably wasn’t necessary, given the size of the baby but he wasn’t about to stop them. And it wasn’t that much either.

“I would like to have some time to work on a few things of my own.” Kal began to tear into the cooked meat with her jagged teeth. “Verona, of all people, is making those beautiful feather cloaks. So…I’m a bit lacking there.”

“Of course you’re not.” Anton rubbed her ear. Kal tilted her head so he would rub deeper into her ear. “But what did you have in mind?”

“I wanted to speak with some of the Dwarves that were working on that rifle of yours. They have to whittle wood…And that spoon that I managed to make isn’t really good enough.”

“When did you make that?” Rasha asked. She sat at the head of the table, opposite Anton. They had the woodworkers reinforce a special chair for Rasha. Anton would not have her sitting on some empty crate at his table. Especially now that she was his.

“Probably…Probably a little time after I fled Danafra.” Kal smiled. “Really, when mother threw me from the wall.”

“Right…” Rasha smiled as she began to eat her baked potatoes, the only thing she constantly asked for. “It still feels strange that we’re not slaves anymore.”

“True.” Kal shuffled close and kissed Anton’s ear. “Make sure they wash out their mouths before you bring them back. Normally Cetina does but today it’s really strong.”

She pecked his cheek and returned to her meal.

Well…I was a little excited this morning.

“We should move Rasha’s stuff in.” Anton said. Verona took her seat opposite Kal while Cetina sat between her and Rasha. “No reason that she should have to walk across Atros just to get something. Especially since she’ll be living here from now on.”

“I…I think that would be a great idea.” Rasha smiled and her ears flicked backwards. “Though…Though the bed was a little crowded.”

“Might want to finally get that bed from The Shadow Isles.” Verona said nonchalantly. “Maybe a special one, really big and comfortable. We’ll be moving it into the Sovereign Palace…Maybe we should just build one for that and not worry about this one?”

“I’m not going any further to the edge.” Cetina muttered. “And Rasha needs to sleep on Verona’s side.”

“I thought someone was grabbing me during the night-”

“It must have been Anton.” Verona whistled softly and looked away. “Surely. But a bigger bed would be nice.”

“Speaking of.” Anton began. “When Wilford arrives in Frindal…I can’t bring any Beast-kin with me.”

Rasha glumly nodded. “One day…”

“So…I was thinking of bringing Mezot and Axia.” Anton lightly shrugged. “They have very, very powerful magic and I think they need something to do…Being on the road and exploring will help them not think about what happened to them in Graterious.”

“How old is Axia again?” Verona asked softly.

“Fourteen and a half.”

Verona laughed. “There’s still a bit of time for her to grow up first…What about the twins? They’re probably older than either of us. How-”

A series of sharp horn blasts stopped Verona’s mental wandering. Everyone stopped as the short horn blasts repeated themselves.

“It’s not an enemy.” Kal quickly finished her mouthful of food. “Someone unknown is approaching.”

“Let’s go.” Anton stood up. “Everyone, get your weapons and armour. It’s not going to be an assault, but who knows what we’re going to find.”

“Damn it.” Verona hungrily devoured what she could off her plate. “This had better be damned important. Someone’s going to be in a lot of trouble for interrupting the first time I’ve cooked in a long time! I wanted to show off how much I’ve improved.”

---[]---

Anton ran up the steps to the most southern gate. Rasha and Cetina had already cleared a small area while Verona and Kal were close behind. Behind them Eider had gathered the few people of his personal guard, she stood in front with her two bodyguards either side.

“A lovely little squad.” Anton smiled. “Now…It feels like we’re having another Kal.”

A horse and a short heavily cloaked rider stood almost a hundred meters away from the wall. Both looked to be on the verge of collapse; snow and frost covered the horse’s coat, something Anton knew was incredibly uncomfortable while the riders gloved hands shook uncontrollably.

“Have they said anything?” Anton asked a nearby guard.

“They asked if this was the city to the north…” The Guard shrugged. “I said yes but she hasn’t come in. And…I heard there were Goblins and some kind of cultists. We didn’t know what to do.”

“That’s alright.” Anton slowly nodded. Movement along the wall caught his eye, Jeff ran towards him along with their elite guards, guards wearing complete metal armour with their bright Chelium swords. “Jeff? How have you been? I haven’t seen you or Sam for a while. Everything going well?”

“Me? Yeah.” Jeff roughly shook his shoulder. “But I’ve heard that there’s someone new hanging around your house. Someone that didn’t leave the other night.”

Rasha made every effort not to move.

“I think you’re all used to it by now.” Anton smiled. “But, what do you think we should do?”

“Some little girl in the middle of winter, coming from the south with all that mess down there?” Jeff shook his head. “Seems suspicious.”

“True. But there were people there. And I recognised one of them from Surdon, a small village in Graterious…I wonder…”

Cetina stepped to the stone wall. “Hey! Remove your hood and show us your face!”

The person slowly tried to remove her hood but her hands could not move quickly, nor did they have much strength. When the hood came free Anton was not completely surprised when he saw it was the young girl from Surdon that had been offered to him to remain in the village, her name he could not remember. Snow covered her face, skin had turned blotchy and red in an early state of frostbite while her whole body shook uncontrollably.

“Remember her, Verona? Kal?”

“I do.” Verona slowly nodded. “I…I don’t think we got a name.”

“No. I was getting angrily glared at by Kal.”

Kal said nothing, merely raising her dark aqua brows.

“Send someone out and bring her in. Oh, and someone get Mezot here. We need someone that can tell if she’s got some sort of magical…curse on her or something.”

Dana arrived shortly afterwards and sent forward two of her newest recruits, another to get Mezot. The two riders took the reins from the shaking girl and led them towards the city. Archers and crossbowmen kept their weapons trained on her. It was better to be safe than sorry.

As they opened the gates Anton saw Mezot running towards them, running for Mezot, while clutching her staff tight. Behind her ran Axia, in a slightly better state than her mother.

“What…” Mezot’s face was already red from the short exertion. “What is happening?”

“Check the girl for any sort of magic.” Anton pointed to the gate. “Make sure she’s not carrying anything dangerous, whether she knows it or not.”

Mezot nodded and stepped to one side, only at the behest of her daughter. The young girl continued to shudder as Mezot held her Charm close to her. Her eyes watched the disk of silver and gemstones with curiosity, Anton presumed it was heavily influenced by delirium caused by the severe cold.

“There is something,” Mezot said softly. “An amulet around her neck.”

Immediately every guard readied for combat, every range weapon creaked as they trained on Sally’s shivering form.

“Dangerous?” Anton stepped in front of Verona and Kal.

“No…No I don’t think so. But it’s very strange. I haven’t seen anything like it before, but I know it’s not harmful. Probably.”

“If you’ve never seen it before how do you know it’s safe?” Verona asked dryly.

Mezot took a slow breath. “I just do.”

She gave no further explanation. Axia shrugged lightly, clearly Mezot was not about to give anything more.

“Take her down and get her near a fire. We’ll take it from here.”

Dana’s riders began to take the girl down and walked her to a nearby fire brazier. She offered no resistance or thanks, she was too disoriented to do much more than follow basic instructions.

“Do you want me to heal her?” Kal asked.

“Not with that.” Anton gave her stomach a quick rub. “I’ll do it.”

“You think that we don’t feel the same way?” Kal softly replied.

Anton ordered Eider to make sure they had space as he approached the young girl. She was placed in front of the fire. The moment the warmth began to enter her body so too did a measure of life.

Anton crouched next to her as life continued to return to her. “What is your name?”

“S-Sally.” Her body began to shiver violently. “M-M-My…”

Anton touched her shoulder and chanted a healing prayer. Almost immediately the shivering stopped, the blotchy redness receded from her face and her breathing calmed.

“I…” Sally looked directly into his eyes. “I…I know you. You were in Soulthor. When those Mole Rats attacked.”

She looked at Verona. “You were there too and…I don’t…”

Sally’s eyes flicked over Kal, under a brief cursory glance she could pass as a human, but it landed on Rasha. She recoiled, pulling closer to the flaming brazier. Anton held her shoulder to stop her from going any further.

“W-What are you?”

“I’m a Beast-kin,” Rasha said softly.

“I…” Sally sat upright so Anton removed his hand. “I…”

Tears began to flow from her face along with terrible sobs. “They killed everyone! Everyone!”

“Who?” Anton held her cold hands. “Who killed everyone? Everyone in Soulthor?”

“Yes…” Sally grit her teeth, trying to hold back her tears and cries. “All but me. Because I was…useful to them.”

“And who is they? Just take a deep breath and start from the beginning.”

“Mihal and Ghenadie…No.” Sally’s shoulders dropped. “Mihal is dead…They called themselves The Ancient Listeners. I don’t know what they wanted but….But they could control Goblins! They did everything they wanted. They did everything I wanted.”

She fumbled around her snow covered cloak and produced an amulet, more like a horrific fetish amulet of bone, skin and even some teeth.

“We’ve seen that before,” Kal said softly. She crouched next to Anton and peered closely at it. “In The Shadow Isles. They were digging out that liquid silver and when we broke this they turned on that human.”

“All of the cultists wore one of these.” Sally passed it to Anton. “They told me never to go far as the Goblins would attack me.”

The amulet was as vile to touch as it was to look at but it felt completely inert. Anton was no master at determining if something was a magical artefact or device but it appeared to be nothing more than what it seemed.

Mezot leant close, so that her swept-back hair almost touched his, and tapped the amulet with her finger.

“It’s emanating a very weak magic. Very weak…But it doesn’t seem to be doing anything else. I don’t understand…And…” Mezot stood upright. “And without the equipment of the Royal Academy, I don’t think I can. There are many implements and devices that could help me…But they aren’t here.”

“We might have to try and get them from Seocuria.” Anton rubbed her beard, brushing away the accumulated snowflakes. “You wouldn’t have a problem with that. Would you?”

“Why?” Mezot tilted her head.

“The-The Graterious Royal Academy?” Sally asked. “But aren’t we…Aren’t we in the Kar Kingdom? How did you get here?”

“It…” Mezot ran a hand over her ear, touching the golden jewellery. “It is a long story.”

Sally clearly wanted to know more but held back her questions.

“Regardless.” Anton held her shoulder. “You’re safe here-”

“No!” Sally swatted his hand away. “No. There are thousands of them. Hundreds of thousands. They control an entire city…I think they called it Surdon? I think that’s what they called it. But they’re making metal weapons and armour, breeding Goblins and making houses…They have this Witch helping them-”

“Witch?” Cetina’s eye twitched. “What sort of Witch?”

“Um…” Sally scrunched her eyes tight. “I think he called her a Strega Witch?”

The moment those words left her lips Cetina rushed to Anton’s side, nearly knocking him over and into the fire, and grabbed her shoulder.

“Describe her.” Cetina’s body trembled in anger. Anton grabbed her shoulder, Cetina realised what she had just done and took a deep breath. “Forgive me. I…What did she look like?”

Sally gave a perfect description of Eluria, the Strega Witch who had murdered Cetina’s father, Duran, for the strange magical stone that had transformed Anton.

“So that’s where she is.” Cetina ground her teeth. She released her hold of Sally’s shoulder, Sally gently rubbed it. “That’s where she’s been hiding. Why hasn’t Ferula said anything? Surely she could find her? Does she already know and just didn’t tell us?”

“Perhaps she’s still officially working for the other Strega Witches and she might claim that she was attacked unprovoked. I know it sounds unlikely but it’s certainly possible. Especially if they claim they’re looking for those stones.”

Cetina slowly nodded. She had been present in the tomb in The Shadow Isles when they had to watch two Strega Witches steal a fragment of the Frangitur Ira, whatever that was. They had threatened Atros, indirectly, should they attack them.

“So there’s nothing we can do?” Cetina sighed. “I know…I know. But I would like to see her suffer.” She smiled faintly. “At least we know where she is. Is there anything we can do? You flew near it before…”

Cetina glanced at Sally. She didn’t know about the Chiroks.

“I don’t want them to know that we know anything.” Anton sighed softly. “I’m sorry, Sally, but we are not currently in a position to do anything about the Goblins or The Ancient Listeners that destroyed your village. I’m sorry.”

Sally slowly nodded and looked down.

“But you are safe here. Did you see a series of towers as you approached?”

“I did.” Sally nodded. “It didn’t look like the Goblins made them, so I thought I was going in the right direction. At least, at least I thought I was. It was so cold…My head felt like ice…”

“There are Lightning Crows bound to them. They will attack any Goblin that gets within a mile of them, so we’ll know if they’re coming to attack. So you can sleep a little easier.”

“Do you want something to eat?” Verona asked. “You’ve clearly been riding all night.”

“We didn’t stop.” Sally pulled the cloak tight. “I think I was a bit cruel to the horse.”

The horse was quite belligerent and required large Beast-kin to get it to move. Nevertheless, it looked somewhat relieved to be with people and not roaming the cold wilderness.

“Don’t worry about it.” Anton gently rubbed her shoulder. “He’ll get well looked after here. Before we get you somewhere to sleep, is there anything you can tell us about The Ancient Listeners? Anything that might be useful?”

“Anything at all,” Kal said. “You never know if something might be important. Anything that seemed odd, odd in a place run by Cultists and Goblins.”

“There were a few things.” Sally took a deep breath. “There were two Goblins that were stranger than the rest. One was red and had some sort of crippled arm. And it always had a Black Goblin following him. And it looked dumb…It was always drooling.”

Verona sighed. “We’ve met those before as well. We couldn’t kill it…At least we know that The Ancient Listeners were causing all that mess for the Dark Elves.”

“We should tell them,” Anton said. “Hopefully Gerin will be willing to send us reinforcements when the time comes. Did you see anything else?”

“Um…There was this silvery metal. They had it and when I touched it-”

“You felt cold and anger?” Verona asked softly. “Anger like you’ve never felt before? Directed at every living thing?”

“Yes…”

Verona nodded. “Just like in The Shadow Isles.”

“Um…There was something else.” Sally’s shoulders dropped. “I killed someone. A young boy, Mihal. He was…A part of the cult. He was nice but he was still one of them.”

Anton wanted to ask if he was the young boy they had witnessed eating the flesh of a Red Goblin’s head. However, he didn’t have a good memory of what he actually looked like, especially without the blood covering his face.

“What happened?”

“I threw him from the tower. I didn’t have a choice. He would have warned-”

“You did what you had to do in order to escape.” Anton held her shoulder again. “Was there anything strange about him?”

“They were doing something to him. They had put all these…Tattoos on him. Made from that silver. They were using him for some sort of ritual. I don’t know what…But they wanted me for it.”

Sally looked at her stomach. Anton understood and still mentally recoiled at the mental imagery.

“Nothing good for anyone.” Anton murmured. “Thank you, Sally. You said you were riding the whole night. Correct?”

“Yeah…”

“I think you need to have some rest. A good rest. You are more than welcome to stay here, though I’m sure you’ll find it different to anything you knew before.”

Sally’s eyes rested upon Rasha, Kal and Eider. She clearly didn’t know what to think of the Beast-kin.

“We’ll take you from here,” Eider said. “Atros has lots of wonderful beds and wonderful food. You’ll love it here, I’m sure. Nice and safe. And warm too. Every building has a small brazier and enough thick clothes to bury yourself in. It’s incredible. Trust me, you’ll love it.”

Sally was hesitant to go with a Cobra but Verona and Cetina offered to go with her as well. Once there were humans she was more than willing. She weakly trudged through the snow. Everyone else matched her speed, ready to catch her should she fall.

“What do we do now?” Rasha asked softly. She waited until Sally had left. “There are even more terrible things coming for us.”

“Not much we can do.” Kal murmured. “Especially with that Strega Witch with them. At least Cetina’s only slightly furious. You don’t think she’s going to go there, do you?”

“No. But we do need to deal with them sooner rather than later.” He looked to the guards as they began to return to their duties, especially the Beast-kin guards. “Getting more humans will be more difficult, even with our deals with Qaiviel, but there are ways we can get more help.”

“More raids?”

“Absolutely.” Anton watched Eider’s back. “And it’ll be the perfect chance to see if it can be done without us. Since we won’t be able to be with them all the time. We’ll never free a serious number of Beast-kin slaves if we’re the ones directing every raid, especially when we’re stuck halfway around the world.”

“Probably seducing some poor, unsuspecting woman.” Kal chuckled. “And what about her? Sally. She looks terrible.”

“I don’t know. But she came all this way to warn us, so that we could survive this cult. I think she’ll become a great help to us in the future. If nothing else she’ll be pushing hard to have all of the Goblins destroyed. I don’t think anyone would be able to match her wrath in having them slaughtered.”

“A worthy cause.” Kal smiled.

“Yes…” Anton looked to the south. “I don’t want to attack Surdon. Not as weak as we are right now.”

“But you can fly.” Rasha nodded towards the Chirok pens. “Just fly over them and release all that fire magic. Or…” She looked to Mezot, discussing something with her daughter. “Ice magic. That’s just as dangerous…Especially since it’s so cold. Or maybe not. Everything’s already cold.”

“And if they have a Strega Witch, or any other sort of magic user, just use a blast of magic to hit the Chirok? I’ll just come tumbling down and crash into Surdon. And in the off chance that I actually survive the fall then I’ll just be at their mercy. Not something I want to happen.”

“It was just a thought,” Rasha said defensively. “I don’t actually want you to fall to your death!”

Anton patted her side, Kal smiled and rolled her eyes.

“Don’t worry. But it is a thought I’ve had. Not to mention that if we go on foot, after landing at that stone fort, the same thing could happen. No. There’s not much we can do with our current strength and numbers. I’m just worried what’s going to happen once they realise that Sally’s fled and warned us.”

“The Goblins won’t be moving much in the winter,” Kal said. “And I don’t think a Strega Witch would work with those cultists beyond…Well. Cetina killed her daughter. So I think that’s enough reason to help one of our enemies.”

“Revenge will make you do crazy things.” Anton slowly nodded. “But it’s a hollow thing. It’s hard to keep that angry forever.”

Kal pulled close. “Something you know personally?”

“Perhaps…How many more times am I going to say that we need to work harder when we simply have nothing more to give?”

Kal held his hand. “As many times as it’s necessary. But more people in Atros means more workers and soldiers. So…I think our course is set for the next few days.”

“No relaxing for us then.” Kal murmured. Rasha agreed.

Anton glumly agreed as he looked to the south. Surdon was always a looming threat but the snow and sheer distance between them always made it seem like it would be a long time before they would actually interact in any way. Sally’s presence told them how wrong he was. And yet there was not much more they could do. Fighting Eluria could bring down the wrath of the other Strega Witches upon them, something they could still not deal with. Ferula wasn’t about to give them an answer that could allow them to turn on her, anything she suggested would be highly suspect. Anton did not like feeling so vulnerable, having a veritable Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads, but he knew it would not last forever. And seeing the looks of freed slaves was something he always loved.