"I'm cold," Brezia told her brother Graco in a whisper. She did not want the warrior that advanced a few paces ahead of them, to hear her and lash her with his whip, as it had happened to a fellow young prisoner who dared to ask for a drink of water. "Sister," said her brother, who was walking hand in hand with her. "Let's not make things worse." "What will happen to us?" The girl asked again. "I am scared." Dusk fell rapidly and the persistent rain that had accompanied them during most of the journey contributed to increase the inclement cold that went right through their bones. All prisoners; men, women, and children went almost naked, covered just by a loincloth. They walked side by side in rows of two, bounded by their wrists with hemp ropes. That was part of the ordeal they had to endure as punishment, before being sacrificed to the God of the Oracle, in a ceremony of oblation that would take place as

"Be careful morons!" shouted the captain of the battered felucca "you're going to make the barge to capsize!" The crew of the felucca made enormous efforts to prevent the barge from capsizing before the onslaught of waters from the bayou of the Snake River, which flowed into the Gulf of Pelair. Although seemingly gentle, the majestic tributary unloaded a huge volume of water into the gulf, so making very difficult the navigation through that area. Because of that, it was the least watched. Nobody in their right mind would have dared entering the river through that channel, for it was the most violent of all. The azcangorians had successfully built a series of locks that had allowed them to tame the raging river, and enabled them to bridge the gap that existed between the waterway at the mouth and the Gulf of Pelair. They had left but a channel with its natural watercourse to allow the excess of water to flow, especially in the rainy season t