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)
“I can speak his tongue,” he told Zev. “At least some. I left Ophir a year ago with the others to seek the draugr.”
“And you learned English so you could speak to him?” I asked.
He nodded.
“I have no doubt Varic can speak Old Norse,” I told him.
“We know nothing of him.”
Which was not great. He was their prince. They should have known everything about him.
He moved quickly and grasped the bars of the cell. “But truly, you are to be wed to the draugr?”
Back in the day, the king was called the boria, the queen the mavia, and the prince the draugr. Antiquated titles most people didn’t use anymore. It didn’t mean I hadn’t learned them, and Varic, because he had a bit of showman in him, liked the dark, Gothic, ominous sound of the word draugr and still used it. The queen hated mavia and had forbidden its usage. I couldn’t blame her.
“I am to be wed,” I responded. “Now would—”
“How will the prince marry a man and secure his line?”
It should have been obvious, but maybe not to him. “Surrogacy,” I told him.
His eyes searched my face. “And does the prince have many sons from others?”
“No. The prince has no children.”
He looked confused. “But then, without the benefit of other children, how will you know if the prince’s issue will be a son or a daughter?”
“Either is great. A queen can be next in line as well as a king. Just because there hasn’t been one doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be wonderful.”
“Wonderful?”
I nodded.
“I don’t know this word.”
“Best,” I offered. “Awesome.”
“I see.” He nodded. “You would sit a girl on the throne?”
“A woman, yes. No problem.”
“But again I ask, without records, how would you know if the prince is able?”
“We’re gonna go on faith here,” I told him.
The man looked utterly stunned.
I turned to Zev, having no idea what to say.
“Normally,” Zev began, “you would know from courtesans giving birth if the prince had strong seed or not.”
“Got it,” I said, turning back to Sorin. “Well, like I said, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
I understood from the look on his face that the uncertainty was not something he was used to considering.
“Things are different in Ophir,” Zev explained. “Something like what you’re suggesting could never be considered there.”
“How would you know?” Sorin asked him.
“Because I lived there.”
“You lived in Ophir,” Sorin stated, clearly astounded.
“I did. Until I was seven.”
His gasp was loud. “Do you bear the mark?”
Zev shook his head. “I was taken before it could be given.”
“What mark?” I asked Sorin.
Unzipping his jumpsuit, he turned sideways to show me the brand on his left shoulder, the sun cross—a circle with a cross in the center. It was raised and had to have hurt like hell.
“How old were you when you were given that?”
“Eight,” he answered, then slipped the sleeve back up over his shoulder. “It takes many days, as it must be done several times with various knives, and as we are young when it is done, we cry out.”
“And Decimus puts that mark on everyone?”
“On his word are the marks given by his sons.”
“To everyone?”
“No. Only to the iceni.”
“To the iceni,” I repeated.
“Yes. We who live and work by the water.”
“The water?”
Quick nod. “We live away from the castle in the dark with the…” He turned to Zev, lifting his hand like he was carrying something.
“Lanterns,” Zev offered.
Sorin faced me again. “We live with the lanterns and our beits.”
“Beits?”
“It’s like a paddleboard,” Zev told me. “They normally only hold one person and a basket or a pail or something.”
“Go back,” I said to Zev. “What about the water?”
“The iceni live at the farthest edge of the holding, near the lake. In Ophir, from where everyone lives, you have to cross the water,” Zev enlightened me. “They use the paddleboards to move around. All their homes are built on stilts in the lake that connects to the river that runs, eventually, to the sea.”
“Okay,” I said, taking a breath, then to Sorin, “So that’s where you live?”
He looked confused. “I live closer to the castle in a home built on the rock, but there are homes built on stilts as well. The nobles live even closer to the castle, and still others live inside with Lord Decimus and his sons.”
“Thank you for explaining.”
“We all live inside the mountain, as we still must be close enough to feed the nobles and the lord and his sons.”
Now I was confused. “Don’t iceni feed iceni and the nobles feed each other?”
“No. All feed on the iceni.”
I looked at Zev. “My understanding was that if you’re a noble, you have to have the blood of other nobles to sustain you.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, turning to Sorin. “I don’t understand. You’re saying the nobles drink iceni blood?”
“Yes.”
“If everyone is drinking from you, how do you have enough blood to sustain your number?” Zev asked him, sounding confused.