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)
“Call out,” True urged, stepping away from him. “Call out now, Father, to the guard outside your doors. Call out.”
Wilmer, breathing heavily in anger, scowled at his son.
What he did not do was call out to his guard.
“You know they won’t come,” True said quietly.
Father and son stared at each other.
Wilmer broke the silence.
“I cannot believe you’re doing this to me.”
“I cannot believe you let my mother die.”
Wilmer closed his eyes tight and turned his head away.
True drew breath in through his nose.
Much more calmly, he asked, “Now, do you agree to sign those papers?”
“I loved her,” his father said in reply.
True’s patience, already unraveled, frayed even further.
“That wasn’t the question I asked,” he pointed out.
Wilmer looked at him. “I am grieving, son.”
“So am I,” True returned. “The thing you don’t entirely understand, Father, is that what we feel, what we experience, what befalls us matters not. Someone has to rule. Someone always has to rule. We don’t get to retreat and take time to lick our wounds. We don’t get to snivel and rail. We must rule.” He paused to drive his last point home. “My mother taught me that.”
Wilmer flinched.
“Now, we are under attack,” True continued. “We must rout this Rising and set about doing it immediately. You allowed one of their own in this very castle to toy with you and loot our treasury to fund their efforts, a happenstance that not only lasted decades but ended with the queen being murdered. You want to retain the crown because you fear what will be written of you for posterity. I want the crown because I fear for the safety of my people. Tell me, Father, in those instances, who should wear that crown?”
“You cannot possibly expect me to make this decision through my grief,” his father returned.
“Have you been listening to a word I’ve said?” True asked.
“True, be done with him,” Wallace called.
“You haven’t been given leave to speak,” Wilmer clipped at Wallace.
“I do not need your leave for I do not recognize you as my ruler,” Wallace shot back. “And not simply because my king does not make a man ask permission to speak his mind.”
True studied his men, particularly Bram, who demanded to be standing right there even if he should be flat on his back in a bed.
The arrow Bram took had not hit anything vital, but it had still gone through his midsection.
They needed rest, all of them.
And they needed this day to be done.
“Let us go,” True said wearily. “We’ll finish this on the morrow on the backs of our horses.”
The men nodded but hesitated as True moved their way, for they were preparing to flank him as they left.
“I’ll abdicate.”
All of them stopped and turned back to Wilmer upon hearing these quiet words.
“Say that again,” True demanded.
Wilmer leaned his way, his face twisted, and he shouted, “I’ll abdicate!”
True let out a long breath.
“And I will end this farce by sharing this,” Wilmer pointed to the floor, “precisely this is what Carrington warned me about.”
True felt his blood freeze.
The men around him shifted closer to him.
“He smirked at me when I made his cell this eve,” True told his father. “Triumphantly.”
Wilmer stared at his son.
“He was delighted she was dead,” True went on. “He planned her murder and you can even speak his name?”
Red crept up his neck as Wilmer spat, “You have what you want. Go.”
“I’ll tell you this only once, Father. For her. Because she loved you. Because she put so much effort into propping up a fickle and wayward reign. Because she would wish me not to do it. Only for those reasons I do not send you into exile, never to have your feet touch the fertile Dellish soil again. But do not test that. That will be the only warning you’ll get.”
True had no more to say and refused to hear another word.
Thus, he turned on his boot and strode out the door with his men.
The minute the guard outside the door closed it, True turned on Luther.
“Get them to bed,” he said, jerking his head to Bram and Florian. He then looked right at Bram. “And I don’t want you out of yours for two full days.”
“True—”
True interrupted him “Promise me.”
“I’ll want to visit Alfie,” Bram said quietly.
Of course he would.
“He needs time too, brother,” True replied in the same tone.
Bram nodded.
“All right, men,” Luther said, starting to herd them, “the king has spoken.”
Florian shot Luther a look.
Bram looked to True and shook his head.
But they all moved away.
True let out another long breath.
“You’ll be wanting Farah,” Wallace noted.
He looked to his man. “Yes. Though I hope she’s abed, asleep, and recovering herself and not perchance leading some charge against a Go’Doan temple with Elena, Serena, Silence and Ha’Lah riding at her back.”
Wallace’s lips quirked only slightly before he said, “She’s not abed, True. She’s in a chair by Alfie’s bed.”