“Where we are now.”
Korwahk.
It could not be said I was a geography whiz but I was thinking I had no freaking clue where Korwahk was. Or Hawkvale, Bellebryn, Middleland or the Green Sea.
What I knew was, none of them were home.
I already had a feeling I was screwed, seeing I was in sacrificial virgin attire and in a corral. But now I was thinking I was way screwed.
My attention focused back on her when she went on to say in a dire tone, “The Wife Hunt.”
Uh-oh.
“The what?” I asked, my voice breathy.
She dropped a hand, kept the other one and slid an arm around my waist so we were even closer before she asked, “What’s your name, my lovely?”
“Circe,” I answered.
She gave me her small, weird smile and whispered, “Circe… that’s pretty.”
“What’s yours?” I asked.
“Narinda. I’m named after my great aunt who, they said, looked like me. Though, I wouldn’t know because I never met her.”
“That’s pretty too,” I told her and her arm at my waist gave a squeeze.
Then she continued in a gentle voice, “So, the tales of the Korwahk Horde were kept from you.”
“You could put it like that,” I replied and she nodded with understanding.
“Many girls, my father told me, were sheltered from this information. It’s understandable. I spent my life mostly on ships with men. I was loved,” again with the small, weird smile, “but not sheltered.”
I knew what that was like.
“So you know where we are, why we’re in this pen?” I asked.
“Indeed,” she whispered but before I could ask more, a strange, expectant vibe stole through the crowd, most of the girls in the enclosure came alert and then suddenly there were drums. The steady, deep, thumping beat of very loud drums.
Oh crap. I did not get a good feeling about that.
“The parade,” Narinda breathed.
Oh crap!
“What parade?” I asked but her eyes weren’t on me though she kept her hands on me. She was looking outside the corral so I shook her hand. “What parade, Narinda?”
Her eyes came to me and she said urgently, “We’ll walk together and we’ll talk. Stay close to me. We’ll try to hide you. You do not want the Dax to see your hair.”
“What?” I whispered but the girls were moving, pushing in toward a swing of the stakes that was being opened by a guard.
Narinda moved me with the girls, keeping me close, her hands on me, her eyes scanning.
“We will not be able to hide you from the warriors. They will see you. The Dax, though, I hear does not leave his podium and gives scant attention to the parade. It is said he is prepared each Hunt to claim his bride, should he see something he likes, but he has never seen something he likes. We should try to keep it that way.”
We moved through the opening and out being jostled by some of the girls who clearly could not wait to start the parade.
Very weird.