Total pages in book: 210
Estimated words: 200096 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1000(@200wpm)___ 800(@250wpm)___ 667(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 200096 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1000(@200wpm)___ 800(@250wpm)___ 667(@300wpm)
“I want to see her,” Romeria blurts. “Wendeline. Bring her here tomorrow night.”
I grit my teeth at her pomp. My, but she has grown. “Perhaps that can be arranged. Now, I suggest you leave so I can clean up this mess, or the next time you come through that stone, there will be fifty Saur’goths and Malachi himself waiting for you, and there will be nothing I can do.”
“What about my sister?” Zander asks.
“I have not met any sister to the king.”
“Her name is Princess Annika. She has long, blond curls.”
“There is no one here by that name or description. She must have perished in the rebellion.”
“If they had found the princess’s body, it would be well known,” the one-eyed warrior says.
“True.” The king is desperate to find this missing sister. I am not above gathering owed favors. “I can ask around.”
Zander hesitates. “Thank you.”
“The five of us are leaving now,” Romeria announces. “We’ll be back tomorrow, to see Wendeline and maybe with an answer for you.”
“Good. Run along, then.” I have no idea when more Saur’goths might wander in.
With another long, lingering look, they vanish through the stone.
I drop the shield and allow myself a deep breath.
Now to deal with this mess … I set to work, disintegrating the beastly bodies with fire until nothing but cinders and metal remains. The ash, I scatter with a gust of wind. Their armor, I bury under a surge of earth, hiding all evidence with fresh grass.
With nothing but an unguarded sanctum remaining, I return to the castle.
A small spark of hope ignites deep inside me.
40
Romeria
“How did he get those Saur’goth beasts to Cirilea?” Zander demands the moment we cross back to the cold, dank crypt in Ulysede. “They were nowhere to be seen when I was there days ago.”
“Likely the same way he got there so quickly.” Abarrane studies the gore on her blade with intense interest.
“How many are there?”
“Lucretia?” I call out and wait. Nothing. “Okay, good. She understood.” That, or she was being a defiant pain in my ass. But when I clearly specified that the five of us would leave, I hoped she would catch my unspoken order. “We’ll have answers tomorrow night.”
“Finally, she is useful,” Jarek mutters.
“There is nothing better than an invisible spy,” Zander agrees.
“As long as Malachi can’t sense her.” I know nothing about the sylx’s abilities except what she is willing to show us.
“Something tells me she knows well how to survive. But the important thing here is that Sofie is on our side.”
“On our side? She was two seconds from incinerating us,” Jarek argues. “And will likely incinerate us two seconds after she has no use for us.”
“Yes, but for now, we are of value to her. And whether she wishes to call our agreement an alliance or not, she will do for us what we may not be able to do for ourselves,” Zander counters.
“Yeah, if we can figure out how to perform an exorcism of a fate.” Is it even possible?
“That is what we went to such great lengths to bring these scribe minds here for, isn’t it? So, let us give them their task and plan to return to Cirilea tomorrow night to deal with Sofie. Until then, we have a city to reclaim.”
41
Tyree
I pull the canvas back to steal a glimpse beyond at the foggy, desolate road. Dawn approaches, the sky turning a murky gray. “Are we clear of Orathas?”
The burly farmer steering the supply wagon and its workhorses peers over his shoulder at me, giving me a good look at the nasty scar that runs from the center of his forehead down, deforming his left nostril and top lip. An unfortunate strike, one I’m surprised he survived. He points behind us. “Orathas.”
“Thank you.” I spare the young woman riding beside him a nod before ducking back inside. “I think he understood me.”
“If only we had someone who could communicate with them.” Annika looks pointedly at the balled-up form at our feet, who hasn’t moved since we left.
I grin. “We’ll give her another hour or two to sober up.”
“I do not know how she sleeps through any of this.” As if to punctuate Annika’s point, the wagon jolts over a pothole, rattling my teeth and shaking the contents of the stacked wooden crates around us. It’s a good thing Destry is so small because our travel quarters are tight. We had to shimmy through the front and wedge ourselves in the cramped space among the supplies. But I won’t complain. To the unaware, this looks like any other trade run, which is precisely the kind of cover we want.
“I think there is more ale than blood flowing through her veins.” Destry had a fresh mug in her fist when Annika and I arrived at the meet spot, after climbing down my moss ladder and retracing my escape route. I didn’t have the luxury at that hour of using passersby to distract the guards at the gate and was forced to kill them. We ran, our arms laden with their swords and daggers.