Chapter 8

Axlan's Point of View

The riders came in first. All leather armor and tight-fitting clothes. Preening as they went. Dewy-faced priestesses gawked at them. Openly giggled as the men wound their way up the path.

Next came the hounds. Dreery beasts with barely any fur to spare. Or those were just the front lines. The hunting dogs that had been used one too many times. Because the hounds that followed behind them were splendid. Black coats gleamed in the afternoon sun.

And at the very end came the hunting god himself. Ixion.

His attire was much like the men at the front. Just a whole lot more intricate. Woven with gold strands. Even his boots seemed to have gold woven into the leather. A peacock preening over his domain. Smugness lined his face.

Every priestess on the property had come out to see them arrive. Mooned over the steel-faced men who barely regarded them as anything more than cattle. They reminded me more of their goddess by the day.

Luckily, Marzanna would never allow her mai