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)
As she’d been doing, she forced her mind from these things and again took in every facet of that slumped, immobile troll.
As far as she knew, trolls did not leave Airen.
They did not go to Firenze because they detested the heat. Their bodies ran hot, this why the troll in her sights wore only breeches and boots even in the chill that had finally settled into Wodell.
They also did not wander into Wodell, unless by mistake (and this could happen, for they were not the smartest of creatures). This was due to a war centuries ago, when the fairies, pixies and gnomes united in an unusual alliance to drive them and their blundering, heedless violence and gluttony out in order to claim the green land for themselves.
And they could not breach The Enchantments as they not only weren’t very clever, the Sisterhood forbade it for they were thoughtlessly destructive, quick to temper, did not know their own strength, and easily caused harm to human and charmed folk alike.
Thus, they resided only in Airen where many were captured and kept as pets whose sole purpose was not to receive affection from their owners, but to act as much larger and better coordinated guard dogs.
So why was that troll there?
She understood she was in the Shanty. And in the days she had been there, staking her claim to this crumbling doorway, being seen amongst the downtrodden, vagrants, criminals, addicts and lunatics, behaving uninviting, unfriendly, and faking being consistently drunk so they would not question her addition to the ranks, she understood that no one raised an eyebrow to a befuddled and constantly inebriated troll.
But Serena did not buy it.
She was noting a way about the Shanty.
A few left to go do jobs during the day, these jobs mostly being begging for money in the city, earning it for the sole purpose of buying drink or drugs (or both).
A few left to go to jobs during the night, these jobs likely nefarious or women and men who sold their bodies for the sole purpose of buying drink or drugs (or both).
The rest simply stayed.
Only the city guard came in, not frequently, but regularly, mostly to collect any dead. Those being the ones who had taken in too much ashesh or koekah, been too long at the drink, or perished of exposure to the cold.
The guard carted the corpses away, literally, in open carts, with no ceremony and no emotion.
And she suspected, but did not see, that they took them directly to the cess, which was adjacent to the Shanty, and dumped them in.
She could not think that True knew of the depths of misery in this place.
If he did, she had to believe he’d do something about it.
However, she could not think on that now either.
She could not think of True and his plans for his realm, knowing he was a man who would do something about this place, and how something settled inside her, knowing that. Settled for a land not her own. Settled knowing it had gone through an era of weak rule, but now found itself led by strength.
She could not think on Ha-Lah and Silence, off to their homes, the danger they were all in and how Serena would need weeks, nay, months, of training them so they could properly defend themselves if they were called upon to do so.
She could not think on how she could not fathom why she cared about that.
She could also not think on how it felt, spending time with them during the little she had. And even if they sensed all was not right with her, they did not goad her to anger or bitterness, as her lieutenants (and she had to admit, her mentor) would do. They did not press her to internalize it, feed on it, use it to make her a better witch, a craftier warrior.
They ignored it but did so seeming to endeavor to handle her with care, not knowing how to do that for they did not know her.
But they tried.
She could not think that if Chu had not ended things, if Elena had not been so hurt and angry she’d also ended things, Serena might have found…
Teaching Ha-Lah and Silence…
Their keenness to the task, their easy way of laughing at themselves when they did something wrong, but striving to do it right the next time…
She would have found it…
Fun.
She could not think on any of that.
She had to be in the now.
And in the now, she had to know.
She had to know why that troll was there, sprawled in the doorway, the area about him littered with empty bottles of spirits.
For his doorway was not crumbling, no longer the entry to nothing beyond.
His doorway was sturdy, with well-oiled iron hinges and a shiny-new lock at its latch.
And what lay beyond was dark, the windows boarded from the inside, and it was one of the few buildings in all the Shanty that was stout.