Two Eyes Cenote [m] tierra de nadie

eset's cries blurred into blood beating boiling hot within ears that heard his daughter screaming, screaming. it was only the horrendous blows dealt early to emotion which raised his head only for the man who had maimed safiya in a cool stillness which mercifully measured his shock.

later the guilt would be immeasurable. today khusobek let go of the briarwhip lead. "crawl." a moment ago this tribulation had only been the purview of slaver to palace; now it had become the personal obelisk settled in ground sand within the dunes of his heart.

to be carved in so precious a crimson that no trade could equal its color. the end of soto's rope trailed upon the sand. he would advance next if there was no signal that safiya was to be released; better that someone else now ran to her than the father who had failed her twice and might a third.

so proud he was of her warrior's cry, tantamount to his own self-loathing but untouched by the calculation his mind made of space and time and equational speed.