Total pages in book: 182
Estimated words: 165649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 828(@200wpm)___ 663(@250wpm)___ 552(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 165649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 828(@200wpm)___ 663(@250wpm)___ 552(@300wpm)
“I have never seen him do so. He has a disconnect in his mind with certain things, especially anything to do with magic or psychic abilities beyond Carpathian skills. His safeguards were always the weakest of the brothers’. They were always extremely cruel to him over his safeguards.”
“And you aided him?”
Elisabeta nodded. “I had to be careful when I was teaching him to weave more strands because he would get so angry when he couldn’t do it. I felt bad that I made him feel less intelligent. I didn’t mean to. I spent time studying how he learned things. Once I knew, it was so much easier to teach him things.”
The entire time they walked along the narrow winding path in the deeper forest that moved around and between trees, he could see she was scanning both sides of the path and noting every tree and bush along the way. She didn’t seem to miss anything even though the conversation they were having was obviously important.
“You taught him every one of his safeguards? He has never made up any of his own?”
“No. He is incapable of straying from utterly basic safeguards or the more intricate ones I taught him. He normally used those to keep his brothers and cousins away from his sleeping chambers. He was always paranoid, with good reason, that they might want him dead.”
“Did they want him dead?”
“Yes, they thought him the weakest link.”
“And without you, he was.”
She nodded. “I made certain that he became an asset to them, without making them feel as if he was in any way a threat to them. It was a difficult balance and I made mistakes. His ego, especially when they made fun of him, could make him especially cruel. He had to believe he was the one outsmarting them. It is strange that over the centuries I lost sight of that. I began to believe he was the one who was so powerful on his own.”
“Sergey had to know it was you.”
“He knew, but that made him angrier and more resentful. I suppose that was why he set out to convince me I was worthless to him.”
Ferro realized just what a terrible balancing act Elisabeta always had to have with Sergey. He would want to feel as powerful as his brothers. He had been a mean, cruel boy, killing animals in the forest and then, later, human children, preying on those weaker than himself in order to bolster his belief that he was every bit as formidable as his brothers. He was just cunning enough to hide his sickness from those adults around him in order to keep them from destroying him.
His father was off hunting vampires, preoccupied with his life. In those days, parents often paid little attention to the children as they reached the older ages. Other Carpathians took over training. A boy like Sergey could easily slip through the cracks. He would become a loner, going into the forest to carry out his ugliness while his much more intelligent brothers held the spotlight.
“He was close to his sister, Ivory. She protected him from much of the teasing from his older brothers. I think she softened it so it sounded less cruel and more affectionate. They were often together. When she disappeared, he was devastated. Even that was seen by his brothers as weakness. They wanted him to hate the prince, to turn on him as they had. To blame Vlad for her disappearance. Sergey blamed himself for not looking after her. The crueler his brothers were to him, the more that sickness in his mind came out and he started that ugly behavior, going into the forest and hurting animals and then children.”
There was compassion in her mind for the lost soul of Sergey Malinov and for all those he tortured and destroyed over the long centuries he lived. She was incapable of feeling loathing for him or any other. There was no such thing as hatred in her makeup. She sought to prevent Sergey from feeling the need to hurt others. On some level she simply couldn’t understand that driving compulsion in him and others like him to watch others suffer.
“You are certain Sergey will only use safeguards you have taught him to weave, then?” Ferro reiterated.
“I am very certain,” Elisabeta said.
“I think we have gone far enough,” Ferro decided. “Have you memorized the entire pathway?”
Elisabeta looked around her and nodded. “I believe so.”
He framed her face and kissed her again, just because there was no resisting her, especially not there in their forest. “Of course you have. We need to put in a little time with shifting fast, piŋe sarnanak. I know you have no objections to that.” She particularly loved shifting and flying and she’d become very adept at it.
“Right here?” There was a touch of eagerness in her voice.