Total pages in book: 208
Estimated words: 209645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1048(@200wpm)___ 839(@250wpm)___ 699(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 209645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1048(@200wpm)___ 839(@250wpm)___ 699(@300wpm)
Three domed openings some two feet taller than a man on a horse and just wide enough for that horse to walk inside could be seen, like rents in the very air, these rents appearing to separate one world from another.
Cass had lost his breath.
For beyond these openings, as they sat astride their horses on a dreary day in Wodell where the leaves were mostly gone from the trees and the landscape was barren and dull (save the green of the grass that never quite went away in Wodell), before them was bright sunlight shafting golden rays through colossal trees that had leaves bright as shamrocks, others as striking as limes, still others as bold as a parakeet’s breast.
The grass was a sea of emerald and Kelly and apple green.
The dark bark of the trees was a stunning contrast to this feast of verdant green with the only backdrop being a sky of pure blue without even a single cloud to mark its flawlessness.
Cassius realized he’d been sitting in stunned silence, staring at his first glimpse of The Enchantments when Jazz called, “All right, men, ride on and welcome to The Enchantments!”
Rose rode through first, Ian following her through the opening Hera had made.
Mac rode through next, using the opening Jasmine had created, Jazz moving back to swing atop her mare and follow him.
Cass rode through last, tearing his gaze from the view to watch Elena as he passed her on her way back to her mount.
She was grinning up at him.
He shook his head down at her in disbelief at what she had just shown him, and that she was so damned cheeky in doing it.
Once inside, the women took lead, mostly because the men slowed their steeds in order to take it all in.
The openings had closed behind them directly after Hera, Jasmine and Elena rode through.
And Cass had noted instantly, the moment Caelus’s hooves struck enchanted soil, the temperature of the air was at least twenty degrees warmer.
It was not balmy. It was not hot. It was not chilly either.
It was perfection.
“I’m not sleeping with one of them, but I have to admit, that show rivaled the parade in Fire City and I had never seen anything that magnificent,” Ian replied to Mac’s comment. “In other words, I understand what you’re saying. Anything of that marvel should not be enemy.”
Cass turned his attention to Elena’s back.
Her frame seemed more relaxed in the saddle. She was chatting amicably to Hera at her side. And the sound of her voice carrying back to him was beyond lyrical. There was no wariness, no tenseness.
It was poetic.
She felt safe.
She was home.
“What do you think our reception is going to be?” Mac asked.
“I don’t care if we have to ride through a barrage of arrows, just as long as I get to dodge them with this view,” Ian said as answer.
“There won’t be a barrage of arrows, Hadrian,” Mac returned. “Triton is advancing, don’t you know. Peace is at hand. And we’re us. They’ll love us.”
Bloody Mac.
“What I know is that I’d aim a barrage of arrows at any being that might even come close to endangering this realm, I wouldn’t care if they were guests of the queen,” Ian retorted.
“I can’t say I disagree,” Mac muttered, upon which Jazz turned.
“You like it, possum?” she called to Mac, her face bright and her carriage relaxed as well.
“I’m never leaving,” he called back.
She smiled brilliantly at him.
Elena turned in her saddle too, her eyes catching Cassius’s.
She did not say a word.
He still read her expression.
Most especially the challenging grin quirking her lips.
And so, when she dug her heels into Diana, he was already doing the same to Caelus.
Female warrior and steed burst forward.
And the male equivalent chased after her.
Cass’s amazement of the lush, clement surroundings had not paled when he saw his first treehouse, the wide sweep of its steps that started at the ground adorned with the first flowers he’d seen in The Enchantments, and these were as rich and abundant as the leaves in the trees.
The wooden treehouse it led to had several levels, various balconies, blinking diamond-paned windows, and a droopy thatched roof that made it look as if it was from a gnome settlement in Wodell, except crafted for larger beings.
However, Elena did not slow the gallop of her horse, either keen to get home or keen to take him there, so he also could not slow and fully take it in.
Or any of the others they passed, which were not uniform in the slightest.
There were slate roofs and tin roofs painted green and shingled roofs, and tile.
The windows were square or arched or round.
The levels were stacked one on top of the other or had ladders or stairways leading up expanses of trunk to get to the next, or set away, farther down a branch.