Pregnant.
I looked at the others, and to my shock, recognized two others be in the same state. About midterm too, I theorized. Without being able to detect energies, I’d totally missed it.
What be Galeran up to? Why would they be pregnant? Liberi women had perfect control over their cycles. This had to be deliberate.
Ice traveled through my veins. There be only one reason that Galeran would want them pregnant.
He be trying to breed another Perditor.
But to do that, the mother would not only have to be of certain lineage, but, most importantly, she would have to die at birth. These Liberis be clearly dedicated to the cause. But be they willing to give their lives to it?
I pondered that as I carried Finn at the head of his ragtag bunch of thugs and Dires. The thugs be a mixed lot of several different species, all heavily armed, all mounted on Trantils. There be well over a hundred, with another sixty or so Dires running mostly as beasts. They’d left a bunch in the town, no doubt to keep the residents quiet.
The Bellatis stayed apart. It made me snort in derision. Physical distance did nothing to separate them. As far as I be concerned, the Bellatis be every bit as sullied as Finn’s lackeys.
After a few miles, we pushed into the forest off the road, and Isobel dismounted to build the gate.
I steeled myself for what lay ahead. I needed to be on these missions, or I might never get the opportunity to discover where the hideout lay. But I would be powerless to intervene. I would be forced to watch while Galeran wrought his chaos.
Just like before, when I’d stood beside him while he’d used his son to slaughter millions. Their lives rested heavily on my soul, and it had led me to break the most sacred rule of the Bellati code—that of loyalty.
Isobel’s hands glowed not blue, but red, as she built the gate framed by two arched trunks. It snapped into place, and Galeran led us through.
We be on a paved road that ran through a scraggly stand of trees. The scents hit me hard—primarily, that of death.
The single moon shone down on a devastated landscape. Stumps told the tale of a forest harvested well beyond sustainability—the only trees left behind be barely saplings, struggling to survive with the Mother Trees long gone. Even the shrubs be sparse, the grasses bleached and dead.
My nostrils curled from the reek of smoke. We crossed a bridge, and the river it traversed be choked with refuse from a civilization running amok.
Galeran reined in his Trantil until Finn rode me close. “Still think we should negotiate with this civilization, Sebastian? They have brought this entire realm to the brink of ruin.” He spoke loudly enough for his Bellatis and the coven to hear.
“They have lacked guidance,” I countered.
“They had the guidance of their own counsel,” Galeran snapped. “But they didn’t care enough to ensure the right voices were acted upon. Now they will pay the ultimate price.”
I be not able to read his energy, but I did not have to—his eyes, and those of the Bellatis, glowed crimson. And with some being in beast form, it be clear of its effect upon them.
The worduncleancame to mind. A word used to denigrate many that were undeserving of it, but in this case, it fit.
Yet, as it had before, a part of me agreed with him. To see nature so ravaged raised the ire of my Liberi soul. But no one person, no matter how powerful, had the right to be judge as well as jury and then, finally, executioner.
Only gods should ever be granted that kind of power. But Galeran viewed himself as one, and now he had infused himself with the ultimate life essence—bloodpower. Torn from its source, it could only be a thing of evil.
It served to prove that he be unworthy of this role as savior of these realms.
Which be why I had betrayed him.
We topped a rise, and a town lay below us. To each side, in the distance, streetlights reflected off low-hanging clouds—two others, not far off. The houses of the one below us be dark and quiet, most residents asleep.
Unprotected. Unaware that they would pay for their ancestors’ lack of foresight with their lives.
“What will killing them solve?” I fought to keep the desperation out of my voice.
“There is no hope of correcting the damage, so long as they live,” Galeran boomed, turning away from me. “You are weak, Sebastian. Too weak to do what must be done.”
He turned to his army and held up his arm. Immediately, they moved, shifting positions and splitting into three. Galeran stood at the head of forty Bellatis who linked to his unhealthy web of energy, with reddened eyes and burgeoning bodies.
It didn’t seem like many, but I knew what my kind could do.
