Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 156907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 785(@200wpm)___ 628(@250wpm)___ 523(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 156907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 785(@200wpm)___ 628(@250wpm)___ 523(@300wpm)
True wanted her to do it.
Serena, the harridan of the Nadirii.
She did not want that to feel good.
But she could not deny it felt good.
“How many names?” Serena asked.
“We think enough that taking them, along with seizing that building and what we hope lies within, will be a blow from which it will be difficult for them to recover. Especially if Mars and Cassius move just as swiftly to disable other agents of this organization.”
“It could also serve to press them into action peremptorily,” she pointed out.
“Perhaps, but it is difficult for an army to act without its generals.”
This made sense.
Serena looked between Gal and Brix.
“Are you both in accordance with this strategy?” she asked.
They shot each other glances, seemingly surprised she asked, before Brix said to her, “It is the will of our king.”
Serena nodded and turned her eyes to Tor.
“When?” she queried.
“Three days hence,” Tor told her. “These priests are located throughout this realm. True has sent word, and now awaits birds and riders. But True needs to hold for confirmation all are in place to make arrests before we seize that building. Therefore, be advised, it might be longer.”
Serena nodded.
“In the meantime, keep watch and eat,” Tor ordered.
It was odd it did not chafe when, at his order, she nodded again.
“You’ll get the go ahead from Gal or Brix,” he said.
“Right,” she replied.
“Not long, Serena, and you can be away home.”
Home.
Why did the sun and green no longer appeal to her?
“Right,” she repeated.
“Until it’s over, be careful,” Tor warned.
“You as well,” she said.
He tipped up his chin her way then dipped it to Gal and Brix.
Pulling the hood over his handsome visage, he then moved to and through the door.
When it closed behind him, Gal asked, “What do you wish to break your fast?”
She had no appetite whatsoever.
“Whatever you can lay your hands on,” she mumbled, falling to her arse on the pallet and wondering, even on the somewhat thick mattress and under the definitely warm blankets Gal and Brix had provided, thus getting a sound sleep, why she still felt exhausted.
Brix dropped down from the table and walked to stand by where she sat, putting his fists to his hips.
“If all happens as True wishes, you will have time to make Airen for your sister’s wedding,” he informed her.
Elena wanted her nowhere near at all, much less attending her wedding.
“That’d be good,” she said.
Gal had swung down from the mantel, and now he stood on the floor opposite Brix, her feet separating the two gnomes.
“She needs food,” Gal told Brix. “She’s been existing on grog for weeks.”
“She needs a kick in the arse and to open her mouth to share what is bothering her,” Brix returned.
“Nothing bothers me,” she lied.
“You lie,” Brix accused.
She fell fully to the pallet on a sigh, turning her back to them and muttering, “I just need more sleep. Then I will go back to my post.”
“Her arse is right there for me to kick,” Brix noted.
“You kick my arse, I’ll wring your gnome neck,” she told the wall.
“At least there’s some rise in her,” Brix said, not to her.
“Leave her be,” Gal retorted.
She closed her eyes.
“I will not. She is in pain. A pain that can be muted with words spoken, releasing some of it.”
She opened her eyes, partly in surprise he sensed this about her, partly in surprise he wished to do something about it, but mostly in disbelief that his assertion was correct.
“It can also be muted with time, my brother, give her more,” Gal said quietly.
“A friend does not let another friend wallow in pain, Galbdor.”
A friend?
“A friend does not push a friend further than they are willing to go either, Welbrix,” Gal retorted.
They thought they were…
Her friends?
She allowed herself to feel the warmth in her belly that brought.
And then she ignored it.
“I will note, you two here, arguing about me like I am not, no one guards that building,” she shared.
“Oh, right,” Brix muttered.
“You go, I’ll get Serena some food,” Gal said.
“A juicy steak,” Brix ordered for her.
“Nadirii do not eat meat,” Gal reminded him.
“Shite. I forgot.”
Serena ate meat.
And for the first time in days, her stomach rumbled.
She rolled toward them.
“Rare, with biscuits and butter,” she demanded.
“That’s more like it,” Brix stated tetchily, arms crossed on his little, but for his frame, wide chest.
“Don’t you have a troll to watch?” she asked.
He sent a glower her way before he turned on his boot and marched to the door. He swung up a rope attached to the wall beside the door for the purpose of allowing the gnomes to turn the handle, something he did.
And then he was gone.
“Steak, biscuits and butter,” Gal said, and she looked to him.
He was grinning.
“Coming right up,” he declared.
And then he was gone too.
106
The Missives
Queen Farah
Outside the Bedchamber of Sir Alfie, Birchlire Castle, Notting Thicket