Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 137958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 690(@200wpm)___ 552(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 690(@200wpm)___ 552(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)
Mars grinned.
But his grin died and another expression altogether came over his face.
“I am glad of it for you too.”
“The fates have not been kind to me.”
“Then it is your time.”
And yet another expression came over Cassius’s face when he noted, “You found your father murdered in this very room, Mars. The fates have not been kind to you either.”
“So it is my time as well.”
“We go forth against the Beast with these women,” Cassius said quietly.
“Our might will be enhanced, their magic. A witch does not fight a battle with a blade. We do. They’ll be nowhere near.”
“Says the man not marrying a warrior,” Cassius murmured.
“Her sister was simply disagreeable, as is her way, and you sent in Chu. She’ll eventually be humiliated by him. He will enjoy their play, but he will not form a bond with a woman like Serena. And she will be lost when he deems he’s done with her. This, after one conversation of spite. You will find a way to protect Elena. And you will find a way to make her accept your protection.”
“Perhaps the prophecy also gives us power to make miracles,” Cassius joked.
“Perhaps it shall.”
The men held each other’s gazes.
Mars broke it off to call for some whiskey.
23
The Dethroning
Prince True Axelsson
Diplomatic Table, First Floor, West Corridor, State Wing, Catrame Palace, Fire City
FIRENZE
“I think, at this unprecedented juncture, all the realms together, as we have spoken much about a great many things that will ally our lands in ways beyond the matrimonial, an important issue has not yet been addressed,” Gallienus began pompously. “This being the abolition throughout Triton of the bounden.”
By the bloody damned gods.
True shifted in his seat, his gaze moving instantly to Aramus after Gallienus’s proclamation.
Aramus was relaxed, his arm thrown over the back of his chair, his gaze steady on the Airenzian king, his expression bland.
“It is, of course, unconscionable,” Gallienus went on.
And the king was, of course, correct.
But that wasn’t the way to go about bloody doing something about it.
True turned his attention to Cassius, seated at corners at the table from his father.
The Airenzian prince was sunk so deeply in his chair, his head rested on the back of it, his hands were one on top of the other on his stomach, and he appeared to be napping.
Cassius Laird was not his favorite person at that moment.
And this had suddenly turned into a volatile meeting.
But seeing him thus, True fought smiling.
“All the realms, save Mar-el, outlawed the binding two centuries ago,” Gallienus carried on.
True looked to his father, who was nervously adjusting the front of his shirt into his waistcoat.
This could be explosive.
But there was no help there.
He shifted his gaze to Mars at the head of the table.
The dark king was staring in a brooding way at his fingers, which were drumming a beat on the table.
Although war could very easily break out at that moment, True (somewhat) understood Mars’s preoccupation.
Silence was being prepared for her piercing ceremony which would commence in an hour’s time.
True had always admired Mars as warrior. And from what True had heard as Mars took up the mantle of his father’s civilian advancements and the modernization of his realm, True admired that as well.
He still did not think Mars would make a good husband for Silence.
It would take more than a generation to wring the barbarous out of the barbarian.
He was being proved wrong.
Apparently, women did not attend a boy’s piercing ceremony.
Men did not attend a girl’s.
Silence was no girl.
But traditions were to be held.
Mars was brooding because he was worried about her. Silence was about to endure a ritual no one (outside the lobes of ears, piercings Silence did not have) did in her world, and it included pain.
When True visited Silence that morning, she didn’t seem resigned to it. Nor did she seem to fear it. Perhaps she was not eager, though she was curious, as she had an active mind and was wont to be.
She was also keen to do something for Mars.
They seemed a good match.
Surprising.
But gratifying.
And this was where Ophelia was, and why she was not at that diplomatic table.
She would attend the ceremony.
But as she would just be an observer, and it didn’t start for some time, there wasn’t actually an excuse not to be there at the present time.
Thus True had the sense that something else was keeping her away.
“Well, is no one going to say anything?” Gallienus demanded with narrowed gaze at True’s father.
True felt his jaw tighten.
He could not believe this.
Gallienus had negotiated something with Wilmer.
And his father had not shared with True what they’d negotiated.
This being a direct confrontation with a mighty king that was bound to bring discord.
It was just, without Carrington whispering in his ear, and in the face of uncertainty since no one else had backed Gallienus’s declaration, his father was holding silent.