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Primarily, though, the subject causing Hector the most concern was not himself. It was the Rainlords. Or rather, what would become of them. Several more Sandlords had arrived in Moaban not long after Abbas, and despite how supportive they’d been so far, Hector had seen the discontent in their ranks.

Those were the meetings that Hector was the most interested in. He’d been dreading what the Sandlords would decide to do--not just with the battered Rainlords but with Asad, too. And it didn’t help that so many of them were still unconscious.

Or dead.

Xuan Sebolt and Ismael Blackburn had not been the only losses that the Rainlords had suffered. Far from it, Hector had learned. Caster and Ivan had not been the only big threats in Dunehall that day. Hector had since heard about two other terrible opponents who were present, only one of which the Rainlords had managed to kill--through the combined efforts of Salvador Delaguna, Joana Cortes, Diego Redwater, and Horatio Blackburn.

But even that feat had not been accomplished before the Lord Delaguna lost his wife Elba and his son Lorenzo--both of them, along with seventeen of the man’s cousins, nephews, and nieces.

Word was, emergence had factored into that fight enormously, and Hector didn’t doubt it--especially after seeing for himself how vacant-eyed Salvador had become. He seemed like a totally different person, compared to the raucous man that had laughed while testing him in Luzo.

And yet, even with how badly House Delaguna had been hit, House Sebolt had been hit even harder.

Among the family’s thirty-nine casualties, Lord Abel and Lady Amaya had both been among them. Xuan, too, of course. Dimas, however, was still alive, though he had not yet awoken.