He took a step closer, needing to investigate, but Eno grabbed his upper arm, stopping him.
“Don’t.”
“But—”
Eno shook his head. “Vale said not to give people a reason to start a fight with us. We don’t know what this is, what’s going on. We can’t even ask about it. This could be their local hospital. We don’t know.”
But he couldn’t let this go. Not if they were using an image that was far too reminiscent of a godstone. He had to know what was going on.
“Drayce, go find Vale now. Bring her here.” Caelan wasn’t a fan of flexing his royal muscles, but he couldn’t wait. This could affect their entire trip to see Nyx, affect all of Thia.
“Got it!” Drayce darted off, running back down the street toward the store.
Caelan pulled free of Eno’s grasp and continued past the massive black tent to an open field beside it where even more bodies were stretched out in the rough grass. Some moved while others were frightening still. He stared at some of them, willing their chests to rise and fall with breath. Why were so many people dead or dying here? Maybe this was a hospital. Or worse, could a plague be sweeping through Zastrad?
If that were the case, wouldn’t they be taking more steps to protect their people?
Except that logic didn’t follow in Zastrad. Would these people see a plague as a gift from their god? Maybe there were actually trying to spread it to as many people as they possibly could to honor their Dead God.
Shit. They needed to head to the car. He and Rayne were getting handy at healing injuries, but he had no clue if their gift from Tula could heal a plague if any of them caught this.
“Let’s return to the car,” Caelan murmured, trying to ignore the sick feeling in his stomach. Every time he thought he was starting to get his head wrapped around this place, something else would happen to knock him off-balance.
“You’re worried about the flag,” Eno said as he fell into step next to Caelan.
He was fucking worried about a lot of things, but yeah, the flag was definitely troubling. “Do these people know about the godstone? Queen Noemi was confident that godstones were a secret of the leaders. But that…that’s the godstone of Zastrad. I know it is.”
Eno shrugged one shoulder. “If there’s one place in the world where she could be mistaken, Zastrad would be it.”
Caelan clenched his teeth against the sigh that tried to break free. That was so true. Zastrad seemed to be poised to break all the rules of Thia. If they were going to survive this place, he needed to do a better job of remembering that.
With any luck, Vale would be able to clear some of this up. Not that she seemed at all happy about that prospect. She was currently marching up the center of the street, a frown pulling down her lips, while Rayne kept pace with her. Drayce was a step behind, looking a little embarrassed. It seemed a safe guess that Vale had given him an earful already.
“You’re lucky we were done with the shopping. What the—”
“The black yurt. I want to know about it and the flag,” Caelan snapped, not willing to give her another inch. Yes, they were dependent on her assistance to get across the country to Temit, but Caelan was at the end of his patience. He needed answers.
Vale needed to give the tent only a brief glance before her eyes were returning to him. Her tone was a shade more respectful and warier when she replied. “It’s a church. They tend to be traveling affairs, moving from village to village with their supplies and newest teachings handed down from Mrtyu’s High Luminance.”
“What did you see?” Rayne inquired cautiously. He sounded as though he wanted to tack on “Your Majesty” on the end of that question but restrained himself.
“Lots of dying and dead people,” Drayce said softly.
“That flag. What about the flag hanging on the yurt?” Caelan pressed.
Vale gave him a look that clearly meant she thought he was freaking out over nothing. “That’s just the symbol of the Dead God. Why?”
When he didn’t answer immediately, Rayne pressed, “Cael?”
“Go check it out and then meet us at the car. I need to think.” He stepped around Vale, striding back toward their vehicle. He just trusted that everyone fell in line behind him. His focus was entirely on what this might mean. There was no mistaking it. The symbol on the flag was the broken godstone. Why would they use that if these people didn’t know there was more than one godstone in the world?
Caelan shoved a hand through his dirty hair and scratched his scalp. None of this made any sense. Maybe he was making a bigger deal out of this than he should. So what if the people of Zastrad knew their Dead God had likely died in his fractured crystal? Did that mean it was going to be any less difficult for him to reach the godstone in Mrtyu? Probably not.