After returning to the family compound, Tristana hurried into Nightwind Chapel.
The Nightwind Family's personal guards and elite soldiers sealed off the entire building and took control of every gate in the fortress. Entry was permitted, but no one was allowed to leave.
Only a handful of sentries remained in the military camp outside the bastion; the main body of the family's army was nowhere to be found. The priestess also temporarily handed command of the eight accompanying Lizard Cavalry to Renato, ordering him to remain outside the chapel for now and await the matron mother's instructions.
These Lizard Cavalry were the Nightwind Family's core assault force. Not only were the drow cavalry highly skilled fighters adept at mounted combat, but they also wore enchanted full plate and wielded long-handled adamantine razors. Their equipment far surpassed that of ordinary family soldiers.
Even their subterranean lizard mounts had armor covering their flanks and chests, protecting them against slashes and thrusts.
Sacrifices before the Holy Day, the "missing" main force, a matron mother about to give birth...
So many irregularities brought Renato's suspicions to a peak.
Infighting? A purge? Or a coup?
He vaguely sensed that an invisible thread must connect all these unusual events. Each fragment seemed insignificant on its own, but together, they outlined the shape of what was happening.
Unfortunately, Renato knew too little and had never entered the Nightwind Family's inner circle of power. He could not draw any reasonable conclusions, only waste his energy on pointless guesses, like a blind man trying to identify an elephant by touch.
He had the nagging feeling that the answer lay right before him, yet a thin veil he could not see through kept it hidden.
*Perhaps if I told Klauthsura all this, the wise mind flayer could untangle the clues