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)
“The heart knows nothing of futility,” I shared.
Those green eyes again came to me. “I’m finding the heart knows nothing at all.”
I wasn’t certain he was correct.
I didn’t debate the point.
“It’s my understanding we face troubled times. I think, as we do, and as I’m finding you are, and I would hope you would find the same in me, that we could also find some sort of companionship, no?”
“Farah, I think you’re very well aware that there are no times that aren’t troubled.”
It took a great deal of effort, but I did not allow my body to step away.
“You know of my father,” I whispered.
With a single nod of his head, he replied, “I do. It says much of your king that you’re standing right there.”
At that, I felt a frisson of fear in my chest.
“You would not have done the same?” I asked hesitantly.
“I would not have banished you,” he answered. “But I am not king. My father would have thrown you and your mother in his prison and allowed you to rot there, perishing in squalor, not thinking of you again. And King Gallienus would have had you executed. Also without thought.”
It must be admitted that I could only agree with Mars that Prince True was not at all like his father. I’d noticed that quickly.
“Sadly,” he looked back to the windows, “we suffer for our father’s sins.”
The skirmishes he was ordered to instigate to regain that tract of land.
Amongst, I reflected, other things.
It was shocking to learn that perhaps we had something very important in common.
“It will be good, through our union, that our countries will know peace,” I remarked.
“Eight hundred and seventy-three men,” he stated in a terrible, agonized way that made me hold my breath.
He looked again to me.
“All sons. Some of them brothers. Some of them husbands. Some of them fathers. All gone. And that was just in the last of our campaigns against Firenze.”
Oh my.
I was seeing that I did not have on my hands a future husband who was a man of a neighboring nation that we did not get along with who also was in love with another woman.
I had a broken soldier on my hands who knew the precise number of his men who had fallen to his father’s follies and he understood how terrible a price that was to pay in return for nothing.
It was at that my chest warmed, and I moved closer to him, reaching out a hand and wrapping my fingers on his biceps.
He looked down at it, and before I could speak, his gaze came back to mine, and he did.
“I know your nation’s ways, Farah. And I will not ask you to betray who you are. Your customs, your practices, your religion. I have agreed to take you to wife, and in doing so, it is you who I will take, not a you I force into a mold that is not your own.”
Could I believe what my ears were hearing?
He uncurled my fingers from his arm and then held my hand in both of his as he turned fully to me and continued.
“I will simply ask you to be of the Dellish in one thing. You will sleep beside me every night and you will take no other, except me, as I will vow to take no other, except you. I understand this is not your way, but it means much to me. I can imagine it is a great deal to ask, but I must ask you grant it. That I would know my wife was only my own, and I would give my wife the knowledge that I am only hers.”
And it was at that, my chest did not feel warm.
It burned.
“I will grant that, True,” I whispered.
And it was then, with his hands squeezing mine in an endearing way, I saw my betrothed smile for the first time.
When I witnessed that tender beauty, I was all of a sudden fiercely gladdened that this tall, straight man of feeling and character was only my own.
11
The Arrival
Queen Ha-Lah Nereus
The Plain, Dune Desert, Outside Fire City
FIRENZE
Aramus had forced me to ride to the Fire City in front of him on his steed.
And during our long journey by sea and by land, even if he had threatened other far more unforgiveable deeds he intended to do to me, that was the only thing he forced.
When we were at sea, my mind was consumed with this threat.
And even though my accommodation was his cabin (and his bed in his cabin), although he was a large man, and the bed was not large, in the night when he joined me, he turned his back to me and slept without an inch of his body touching mine.
And he ignored me the entire voyage.
As I did him.
When we hit land, I was consumed with understanding the fruition to his warning was nigh, and the fact I would absolutely not forgive him if he carried it through.