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)
That made me stop us again.
“Truly?” I asked.
She nodded. “He is gentle. He is good. He is,” a small, sad smile, “true. And because of that, there is no balance.”
“But, we agree on all things,” I told her.
At that, she shook her head. “I do not know. I take men for pleasure. I took them to have my daughters. I did not take one as mate. But I would think, especially for you, it would be most boring to spend your days with a mate with whom you agree on all things.”
She started us walking again and kept speaking.
“You are Nadirii. You embody who and what we are, not simply because you are our princess, but because you are you. You are warrior. I know you and I know there will be times you’ll wish to put your feet up and enjoy a glass of wine and harmony. But it is in your blood to fight for what is good and right and just and to know those around you know and respect your mind. And so I do not think an eternity of peace is what would fill your heart with gladness.”
“I’m not like Serena. I don’t need to be at odds with everyone around me.”
“But you are like Serena in that you need things that you find challenging. True would never be a challenge to you. I fear, with the Dellish prince, you mistake friendship for passion.” She paused before she concluded, “I also believe you will discover the difference very soon.”
She couldn’t be more correct in her thoughts.
For I had no choice.
“All will be well, my sister-daughter,” she assured me. “And you will be happy.”
I thought of the Unicorn card I had turned some weeks before.
“How can you know?” I asked.
I looked at her through the cool night air as she answered, “For you are you, Elena. I know you. You will find a way.”
It was that compliment that penetrated.
And thus, we walked in silence the rest of the way to my tent.
Though the air was not silent as we approached.
What rose from my sister’s tent, set not far from mine, could easily be heard.
Womanly laughter. Manly laughter. Groans. Grunts. Moans. And whimpers.
I looked to Melisse to see she had her brows drawn as she studied my sister’s tent on our way to mine.
“It sounds, as ever, that your sister is seizing the opportunity afforded her,” she murmured.
My sister, yes. As well as, from what I could hear, her lieutenants, Heloise and Genia, her mentor, Darma, with a few more Nadirii included.
Hours before, when we’d arrived at the area where we were to make camp, we found the King of Firenze had provided us a welcome gift.
Dozens upon dozens of baths set in crimson tents attended by Firenz men (or boy-men, for not a one of them was probably less than seventeen, but not a one of them was surely older than twenty).
These baths had clean, but fragrant milky water floating with petals and there were a plethora of jars and bottles of oils and lotions and salts and elixirs for skin and hair.
Precisely what a man would think a woman would want after a long ride.
It was true, of a sort. And because it was, I took a bath (without using the male servants to wash my hair, scrub my back and…other) and it felt nice. The selections I used smelled lovely, worked beautifully and helped to relax my muscles and take the tightness of the sun out of my skin.
But…
Please.
“I bid you goodnight here, sister-daughter,” Melisse said on a squeeze of my elbow.
“Goodnight, my mother-friend,” I murmured.
We touched cheeks and she gave me a small smile before she wandered away.
I watched her for a moment before I turned my attention to Serena’s tent.
I had a mind to march over there, enter, and remind her I had an eight-year-old girl in my tent and I was not best pleased this was the lullaby she was hearing in a foreign land the night before we were all to enter a foreign city and attempt to win entire realms with drills and magic.
But I not only did not want to see my sibling as she likely was now.
I did not think I could keep my temper.
And my mother, and Melisse, had taught me well.
Therefore, I went to my tent and threw the flap back, only to have my own lieutenant, Hera, immediately approach me.
“Would that we were engaging in games on the morrow, not drills,” she hissed. “I’d select her, unseat her and humiliate Serena in front of Firenze, Airen, Wodell, Mar-el and the bloody Go’Doan.”
“How long has it been lasting?” I whispered back, my gaze flicking to the lump under the quilt on the pallet.
“An eternity?” Hera questioned in her sardonic answer.
“I’m sorry,” I replied.
“You attended our queen,” my friend said on a sigh. “And she is fine. She feigns sleeping, but Serena’s ways are not unknown to her.”