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“From whence do you hail?”
“Far,faraway.”
Then, he immediately added before Chiron could interrogate him further, “But that’s beside the point. We’re here to help you, so let’s get back to the virgins.”
“Why would you help us?” Chrion frowned. “We do not need help. We are simply here to collect the women as we have always done.”
“What do you do with the women?” Divina interjected, truly curious.
She might have broken some implicit protocol by speaking out of turn, but she’d never been one to abide by arbitrary rules anyway. And she wanted to know.
Chiron merely looked at her without answering, his thick brows gathering in a frown.
“Answer her,” Andros gave the low command.
It was the first time he acknowledged her since they arrived, however indirectly.
Gods! She hated this awful tension between them. But she couldn’t worry about that now. Not in front of an audience.
“We carry them on our backs to the mountains, where they will be paired with Mates.”
“Willbe paired?” she caught the word and emphasized it.
“Are you not the Mates for the women yourselves? There are exactly two dozen of you for the two dozen women.”
“To carry one each on our backs for the return journey,” Chiron answered.
Then he further explained, “We are the first battalion warrior centaurs. We do not have Mates.”
Something in his eyes flickered, and Divina recognized it immediately for what it was:
Longing.
“Why not?” she persisted, chasing this thread instinctively.
“Warriors are born to fight, and expected to die for the safety of the herd. If we Mated with females, when we die, we would leave them and any young unprotected. They would not be able to Mate with other males from our herd as the Mating bond lasts even after death. They would only be used for their bodies, passed around from male to male. And the young would be killed. Many females whose Mates die choose death themselves. It is better to not tempt this fate.”
Divina gasped and laid a hand reflexively over her heart, for it thudded painfully in her chest at the matter-of-fact, unvarnished explanation. She thought of the Mirror Pond when she first saw Andros as a colt. How he’d fallen under the massive hooves that tried to stomp him into the ground.
“That’s awful,” she whispered.
Chiron shrugged his massive shoulders.
“It is our way.”
“It’s a stupid way,” she couldn’t help challenging before she thought better of it.
The centaur glared.
“You understand nothing, female.”
She registered both Ere and Sorin nudging her to stop speaking, but she plunged on.
“Why can’t the herd treat the widows of warriors with respect? Why can’t the other families help foster the young who lost their fathers? There’s no reason for the violence you described. It’s ridiculous.”
“Divina.”
It was Andros’ deep voice that stopped her tirade. As she tried to calm herself by taking a deep breath, Ere regained control of the conversation.
