Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 104842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 349(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 349(@300wpm)
“Of course,” Balon agreed, then looked at me. “And I thank you for wanting to help.”
In Ødger’s quarters, he was about to be placed by the servants in an enormous bed, when I saw the blood-stained sheets.
“These need to be changed,” I informed Balon. “And you should have him bathed.”
Keres agreed with me, and the two of us supervised the cleaning of his room, the drawing of his bath, and the placement of the man in an oversize marble tub that my new courtier sprinkled various herbs into that she brought from her room. Apparently, she’d thought she’d been summoned to Ophir, along with Carice, and the courtesan did not correct her. No one had informed Keres that it was a one-way trip. But when she and Carice arrived and both were locked in their rooms, everything had become clear.
Balon started out wary of us, but once his brother was bathed, and both his skin and color looked better afterward, the open wounds having closed only because of whatever was sprinkled in the water, I saw him calm.
“We have been a horror to you and still you would help,” he said to me, watching as I used the clean water from the basin the servants brought, along with the soap, to wash myself, making certain to get the pits, my face, and my wound, which Keres told me already looked much better. She covered it in a salve of her own making that smelled like cinnamon and clove.
I held it in my hand and regarded her. “Could this help if we slathered it on his face?”
She shook her head. “What ails Ødger is, as you probably surmised, working from the inside out, not the other way around.”
I moved to stand close to her, out of Balon’s earshot. “You know what this is?”
“Of course,” she said as though it were obvious. “As will your prince the moment he arrives. As would any who know better.”
I didn’t want to ask any more questions until we were alone.
“How long will he sleep?” I asked Balon moments later as the four of us were walking out of the room with him and his guards, Carice leaning heavily on Cirillo.
“He will not rise until tomorrow evening.”
“Good,” I said.
A servant came toward us with folded garments she gave to Balon and he then passed to me. The first was a simple cotton tunic, the second a thick, padded coat that was well worn but not threadbare and was very warm. It was made for a much bigger man than either Ødger or Balon.
“The garment belonged to my father’s champion when he yet lived,” he told me.
“When did he pass?”
“My father killed him when he first spoke of us returning Ophir to the king’s realm. It was ages ago.”
“Why did your father’s champion think that was necessary?”
“He thought my father had gone mad.”
Interesting. “His name?”
“His name was Skarde.”
“Where is your father now?”
“He sits in a chair in his room and looks out at the water. It is hard to tell when he is awake and when he is asleep.”
I had gone with many friends over the years to visit their parents and grandparents in nursing homes where they sat unmoving in chairs all day. I was betting it was similar.
“Do you want to see him?” Balon asked. “Pay your respects?”
I felt the rage and hatred rise up so quickly, I had to turn away from him so I could breathe. Trying to keep the anger from surging out of me and drowning everyone in the room felt like being stuck by a thousand pins at once. What he’d done to Leda, to Zev…and to Skarde, a man I’d never met whose jacket I was wearing, and who, it seemed, had died only because he felt that the king’s rule was better than that of Decimus.
“My consort?” Balon prodded me.
Slowly, I turned until I was facing him again. Instead of spewing hateful words he didn’t deserve, I simply said, “No. I will pay no respects. I was stolen from my home, after all, and am held here against my will.”
“Oh, yes, of course,” he rushed out. “I keep forgetting this is not a sanctioned visit.”
“You don’t have visitors here, do you? Ophir is closed to outsiders.”
“Yes,” he agreed, looking pained suddenly, though it was hard to read much on his ruined features. “I wish that were not so, and I wish your prince was not coming to kill me.”
I squinted at him. “Varic’s not coming to kill you.”
“My father, then.”
“No,” I assured him, shaking my head. “Varic is coming to bring you all under the rule of the realm, but he doesn’t kill randomly. That’s not how he does things. If you’d ever been away from this place, you’d understand that.”
Balon escorted us to the suite of rooms where he’d locked Carice and Keres the day before. The rooms were lavish, and I was thrilled to see a fireplace. I had no idea where the wood came from that was being burned, until Balon explained that in the fall, trees were cut down in the valley for use in the castle during the winter, though few were actually needed. It took a lot for vampyrs to get cold.