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 had no doubt.
“As far as I know, Varic is out on the ice, near the sea, with Alrek. They’re surveying the rock, seeing how they can put in an airstrip so that the many needed supplies can be flown in. There’s so much necessary infrastructure to build, so many items to bring in, generators first, solar panels later, but also wind turbines to produce heat so the panels remain ice-free, and the list goes on. It feels endless to me, overwhelming, but as always, Varic has a plan, and it begins with the airstrip so he can bring this place into the modern age.”
I knew how far away he was. I’d walked it myself, and he was even further away on the other side of that mountain. “So he and Alrek, how’s that going?”
“I am at a loss, but the change in Alrek is unprecedented. You’re the one who said, from the beginning Varic tells me, that the children of the king needed focus and purpose to succeed. It seems you were right.”
“It only makes sense.”
“I never thought of them as needing purpose. I thought they would find their way out of the palace if they wanted to. My own sons were born to lead, so there was never any question of what they would do. I had no idea that the children of courtesans needed to be engaged with.”
“Well, they’re just like everyone else. They need something to do.”
“Apparently so, and Alrek, who ran instead of trying to help you and Nerilla,” she reminded me, as if I would ever forget, “has asked for and been given forgiveness.”
I scoffed.
“You doubt my word?”
“No. I just know your son. He’s never going to trust Alrek, not after he ran. He will trust him to do the work he’s asking of him, but he’ll always have someone keeping an eye on him.”
“Yes. And that appears to be Cirillo.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Varic has placed Cirillo in charge of Ophir, and he’s to live here and run it, as Count Cirillo Ormiston of Ophir.”
“It sounds good.”
“It is very good for him and his family. They have always been nobility, but not titled. Now Cirillo is a count, and his son, should he have one, will be one as well.”
“That’s great.”
“Alrek has been given the title of Senior Builder and will remain here for the foreseeable future. As far as I can tell, he wants to be. Looking back, I think he’d always wanted to be close to Varic, and now he is. Both Alrek and Cirillo have taken rooms in the castle, those that Carice has already redone.”
I was surprised. “Carice stayed too?”
“Yes,” she replied, her brows crinkling together in thought. “She…did you know she knew anything about interior design?”
“No, but I’m not surprised. People have to find things to do if they’re going to live for hundreds of thousands of years,” I teased her.
“Well, she’s very good and has a whole group of artisans who work with her or for her, I’m not certain, and her son is here as well, heading a school in the main level of the castle. They ring a bell every morning, and all the children, from iceni to dene, come to learn. He and others he brought with him, and still more who arrive every day, are testing the children and finding out what they need to be taught and what they already know.”
“So Chryos is here teaching, his mother is here turning the castle into a palace, and Cirillo is governing. Do I have it all?”
“You do, except that you and Varic are going to be making lots of trips here, as we both know he wants to make certain everything goes to his plan.”
“That makes sense. Much like the king, he almost lost both of us. I’m sure he’s going to expect so much more from everyone going forward.”
She nodded.
“Did you find out how Decimus kept himself from wasting away?”
“Yes. Apparently, he had his private guard secretly leave Ophir every hundred years and paid handsomely to have members of the nobility open a vein for him and bleed into bottles.”
“Without giving a drop to his sons or the nobility here.”
“That’s correct.”
“And the guards were fine with it and didn’t question anything because none of them were suffering from the wasting disease.”
“Yes,” she said with an exhale.
“He was truly a monster.”
“There is no defense to be made.”
I didn’t want to talk about Decimus anymore. “I saw Nerilla.”
“How did she look?”
Not how did you see Nerilla, or you were dreaming, just immediately to how did she look? You had to love people who believed. “She looked beautiful. She was in a lavender dress I never saw before.”
“She loved lavender. It was her favorite color even before Cassius gave her his seal.”
“Well, she said to tell you she loved you and that she was in the Otherworld with your son. He waved to me, but I didn’t speak to him.”