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)
I blinked at the landscape again.
Aramus kept speaking.
“You did not think I would accept you as wife, the King of Mar-el, the Protector of the Seas, you having the actual blood of the seas?”
Carefully, I noted, “You don’t protect all beings in the seas.”
“A dolphin does not sleep beside me, destined to bring me an heir, Ha-Lah,” he returned.
Well, there was that.
It would seem it was high time I swallowed at least a bit of my pride and attempted real communication with my husband.
I had opened my mouth, determined to do that, though uncertain how I would, when I noticed it in the distance.
And my back shot straight.
Therefore, when the words came out of my mouth, they were not conciliatory. They were also not tentative appeasement or concession.
They were, “Wh-what is that?”
I was surprised when his loose arm at my waist became a tight one around my stomach.
“Do not fret, wife. It is the Wall of Fire around Fire City.”
Of course it was.
I had heard of it.
However, seeing it, even from our distance, I could not credit it.
And as our horses drew closer, I feared it.
Aramus had brought five galleons with us. He’d left some men to guard the ships, but the rest he brought with us. Five hundred rode at our back, with his seven lieutenants amassed right behind our lead.
But I did not have good feelings about this, as we approached that wall of fire and it got bigger, and longer, and more frightening.
What magic was this?
I knew not.
What I knew was that it was grave, and it was powerful.
As if he read my thoughts, Aramus spoke again.
This time, he bent to do it in my ear.
“There is much tar under this land. Tar that burns lasting and hot. The logs are magical, my queen, for they never burn away. The tar is not.”
I twisted in my seat to look up at him.
His visage and frame, from the beginning, had not been an issue.
He was not known amongst all as the most handsome man in our realm.
He simply was.
Large, bulky frame, massive shoulders, long trunks for legs.
His seemingly acres of skin the color of midnight.
His head was shaved, as all Kings of Mar-el kept their scalps, though his jaw was bearded.
His eyes were a warm brown.
His features broad and strong.
His teeth, so white and straight, the many smiles I’d seen him give his men over the past weeks made my heart feel oddly light.
And his scarrings were things of beauty.
They were the honored scars of a seasoned sailor.
And those of a ship’s captain.
And those of a royal son.
And last, those of a king.
I could see them on his arms and I knew under his sleeveless, belted tunic, they rode up his back, over his shoulders and pectorals.
They were also across his nose, his cheekbones, and around his temples.
These last were the scars of a prince (nose and cheekbones) and later, after we lost his father, the ones of a king had been added (temples).
He was magnificent.
And although I knew the Firenz had ceremonial piercings…
And the Airenzian had ceremonial ink…
Not a being in that land who I’d seen had our skin.
Or our scars.
And I was suddenly afraid.
I turned forward and watched coming closer that great wall that seemed now to stretch left and right across the entire horizon, rose stories into the air, its fire burning high and bright, forcing the very air around it to dance.
And I made my decision, not for myself—for my king and my people who followed us.
Then I called upon it.
It was weakened when I was not close to the sea (and I was definitely not close to the sea).
But I had to do what I must.
The shimmer started as a feel at the small of my back.
It grew as it traversed up my spine, my neck, over my scalp.
I then cast it out and it flickered the air before us, going wide, bending back behind us, until all were shrouded with its invisible shield.
It was a great effort so it took more of just that to remain straight in the saddle before my husband and not whither with the sudden fatigue.
I had thought I was the only one to see, as I was the only one (I knew) who held magic.
I was wrong.
“Calm,” my husband whispered in my ear, and at the sound, another shimmer slid down my spine, this one much different. “Wife, if we face other than we expect behind those gates, do you not think my men know how to use the swords and sickles at their sides?”
I stared at the wall of fire getting ever closer in front of us.
“We board ships, Ha-Lah,” he told me. “And when we do, we do not use canons.”
“Of course,” I murmured.
“You will be safe.”
“I’m not worried about me.”
I felt his surprise.
Then I felt his arm ever tighter around my stomach and there was a growl to his tone when he said, “They will not accept us, wife. Prepare. They will find us odd. They will be appropriate, or they will court the wrath of their king. But they will look on us as curiosities. Hold your head high, my queen, for you know our beauty, our bounty, our loyalty and our strength. It matters not what they think. We will ride through their city to their palace and endure their stares and we will know the mightiest of kingdoms rides through. And we are all that matters.”