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)
“And that regret strengthens.”
Cassius fell quiet.
“You will live with love and you will die with love, that is my gift to you, my son,” she whispered.
“It will be cherished, and it will be protected, that is my promise to you, my mother,” he vowed.
She stared right in his eyes, the weakness in hers gone, all he saw was strength.
And then she said, “I’m counting on that.”
72
The Duo
Princess Serena
In an Alley, Outside the Go’Doan Temple, Notting Thicket
WODELL
Serena watched Chu run down the narrow alleyway, leap toward the wall, land halfway up it, press off it with his foot, and fly across to the wall opposite, reaching out to catch a beam under a roof.
She did this thinking she must ask him to teach her that leaping thing.
She then watched him swing from the beam until he’d rotated over it, his body disappearing under the eaves.
For her part, she was crouching under a moldy, holey blanket, the edge pulled well over her forehead. However, her visage could remain hidden and she could still see beyond it with her head dipped, looking out from under her brows.
They both stayed in place as the minutes dragged on, and not many people moved by at this time in the eve.
She was patient.
Not because it would please her Master (all right, partly because of that).
Not because it would please Chu (though it was partly because of that too).
But because this spy business was everything.
“Zsst, zsst,” she heard Chu’s low signal.
She adjusted her place, her gaze, and saw them coming down the alley in the white robes and golden belts of the Go’Doan.
She positioned, kept the blanket about her, and shuffled out when they got close.
“A piece for a pauper,” she muttered, affecting the Dellish accent to hide her Nadirii birth, and keeping her head ducked under the blanket.
“Begone, woman,” one of the priests spat, kicking out at her with his foot.
So much for their god Go’Vicee, who demanded service, she thought, avoiding his kick, staying low, and maneuvering around him, pulling at his robe, as was her directive.
This was to get their attention, and keep it, so that Chu could drop down in that utterly silent, stealthy, remarkably appealing way of his, whereupon he would pick from their robes whatever they carried and be away before they even knew he was there.
“A piece for pauper who has not eaten in a week,” she begged.
The one who had addressed her stopped, turned, aimed a kick that she allowed to land, expelling a surprised and pained, “Oof,” for the arsehole packed some power.
“Begone, bitch,” he hissed.
She crawled back toward him, grasping the hems of his robes, beginning to chant, “Piece for a pauper, piece for a pauper…”
But she barely got that out before Chu ruined their ploy by dropping soundlessly from the eaves, taking the priest who had kicked her by the head, and slamming it viciously into the stone wall.
He fell unconscious to the cobbles as the other one started to whirl, saying, “What on—?”
That priest got no more out as his head was slammed into the opposite wall and he dropped, out cold, to the ground.
Chu swiftly started searching the folds of the priest’s robes as Serena took her feet, dashing off the blanket and pressing it into a ball, snapping under her breath, “That was practical, but hardly our plan, Chu.”
He tipped his head back to look up at her from his squat, and she saw his face.
Therefore, she fell quiet.
He found nothing of worth on the one priest, but he took his purse, she knew, so this would appear as a robbery, and not what it was.
He then moved quickly to the other, searched him, and she saw him take some missives bound together with silver string.
Silver was not the color of Go’Doan.
Gold was.
A frisson slid over her skin.
The letters disappeared in Chu’s cloak, along with both priests’ purses, and before she could say anything, he had her hand and was dragging her down the alley.
She decided to remain quiet as he pulled her out of that lane, down a wider road, into a narrower passageway, and finally he shoved her under the lintel of an unlit doorway.
“You might want to give me a warning if you’re going to change…ho!” She ended on a cry as he shoved up the skirts of the tatty Dellish gown she wore as a disguise.
“Silence,” he bit.
She said nothing as he continued to push up the skirts, his actions not meant to be titillating, and he kept pushing, even the loose bodice of the too-large dress, until he exposed what he wished to expose.
He then bent to the side and studied her ribs.
“Chu,” she whispered as what he was doing penetrated. “I am all right,” she promised quietly.
He straightened abruptly while dropping her skirts and catching her gaze.
“He kicked you,” he ground out.