Total pages in book: 218
Estimated words: 205594 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1028(@200wpm)___ 822(@250wpm)___ 685(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 205594 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1028(@200wpm)___ 822(@250wpm)___ 685(@300wpm)
“Not her duty to her husband?” Nemeth raises a heavy brow at me.
I make a face. “No. Theirs is a marriage of state.” I don’t mention Isabella, and I suspect my sister will not, either. She protects Isabella, because if anyone found out how my sister truly felt about her, Isabella would be in danger. “I don’t think anyone loves Lionel.”
“His men do.”
Nemeth isn’t wrong. “His men have poor taste,” I say cheerfully. “Shall I go on?”
He nods.
I continue. My sister goes on for pages about Allionel, how he’s a clever baby and so very smart and already has several teeth. That he unfortunately looks just like his father and Lionel is besotted with him. How Allionel was born with Lionel’s golden curls but they immediately fell out and now he has the dark hair of the Vestalin line. He’s healthy and well (no blood curse) and everyone adores him. He’s become somewhat of a talisman for Lios to get them through tough times.
Of course, my sister never says what those tough times are, and it frustrates me. Her letter goes on talking about court, about some political marriages that have been made, visitors from outlying territories (that I suspect are there due to the war) and the unusually cold winter we recently went through. Her tone seems to be cheerful, and she closes her many-pages-long letter with a personal note.
I took your friendship for granted when you were at my side, Candra. Now that you’re gone and out of reach for the next seven—six (here seven is crossed out)—years, I feel very alone. I didn’t realize how dear you were to me and I think of all the times I scolded you for rolling out of some fool’s bed. I would take back all those scoldings in a heartbeat just to be able to see your happy smile. Please take your medicine every day, and think of your sister, and know that she loves you and misses you dearly. Yours forever, Erynne Vestalin.
Tears blur my eyes again, and Nemeth’s hand touches my knee. “Piss off, I’m not crying,” I say as I sniffle through my tears. He chuckles and gives my knee a squeeze, knowing me too well at this point. “I just miss her. That’s all. I want to see her babies and I want to go back to court and I hate this gods-damned tower.” I carefully fold Erynne’s letter again, knowing that I’m going to read it over and over while I’m trapped here in the tower. “It’s just surprisingly good to hear how much someone on the outside misses me. I love my sister, but…”
“But she’s always been the dutiful one and you were not?” Nemeth guesses.
I nod. “Lionel almost sent her here when I refused to go.” Surely that can’t be a betrayal of state secrets to mention that? After all, I am here. Clearly it didn’t work. “My sister was heavy with his child and he was still going to lock her away in this tower to prove a point to me. He’s a loathsome man and I despise that he’s king of such a good nation.” With a little sigh, I run my fingers over the letter again. “Oh, and it’s not as if that’s a secret. The entire world knows that King Lionel does not get along with his wife’s squat, sickly sister.”
“Squat? Sickly?” Nemeth snorts. “You are neither of those things. You are a goddess and I have no doubt that if he would have sent your sister to the tower, he would have taken you to wife instead, all to keep his clutches on the throne. You know his family’s claim to it is weak. Of course he wants a Vestalin wife at his side. It doesn’t matter which one, I suspect.”
Nemeth’s words make me pause. He…isn’t wrong. Lionel’s family line—the Rivertree family—is a younger branch, and they are only on the throne because two generations ago, a general overthrew the puppet king and slaughtered the existing king’s family, only sparing the Vestalin line due to the Golden Moon Goddess and her curse. Ever since then, Rivertrees have been marrying Vestalins. My mother was married to a Rivertree cousin, and Lionel’s father was married to one of my great aunts. I’m not sure how incestuous it makes our family line…I’m just glad I didn’t have to marry Lionel myself.
Poor Erynne. She’s just as trapped as I am, she’s just not in a tower. Instead, she’s being forced to make babies with that odious man. I give Nemeth a tight smile. “I suppose it’s a good thing that I’m here, then, and not Erynne.”
“I am glad of it,” he says, a hint of fangs flashing in his smile. “Call me selfish.”
Maybe it is selfish to say such a thing, but I don’t mind hearing it. Not from him. And I know what he means. I wouldn’t wish this tower upon anyone, but if I must be here, I’m glad to be here with him. I smile. “You’re lucky it’s not Erynne anyhow,” I comment. “She snores dreadfully.”