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)
It was echoed by five hundred Nadirii sisters.
And the call of the Sisterhood rent the air.
It was the sweetest sound she’d ever heard.
And then they rode.
Even fading, she noticed that, as the Nadirii attacked, charging through the rift into Wodell, pressing the Go’Doan collaborators back and into disarray at this surprise attack, the hooves of every sisters’ horse flew over her, not a single one striking.
They sensed her.
They might be sacrificing her.
But she would do the same.
Their home must be defended at all costs.
Death was close, she knew as her blood seeped into the soil, and all she wished was to drag herself a few feet so she’d die in her beloved home.
Instead, before she could begin her last endeavor on this earth, she felt herself dragged farther away from the melee, but on the Wodell side.
She was then lifted.
Put on a stretcher.
A man ordered a terse, “Go. Fast.”
She blinked up at him as he jogged beside the stretcher.
She knew him.
“Please, I wish—” she began.
G’Liam of the Go’Doan, their Education Minister, looked down at her.
“Don’t speak. Save your strength,” he ordered. “I am uncertain I can repair the damage. This effort will be impossible if you do not help me.”
She was near to losing consciousness, therefore she’d have no choice but to “help.”
She was also confused.
“You wish to repair the—?”
“We are not all like them, and we are not all ignorant of their intrigues. Last, there are some of us who do not fear them, but instead are intent to do something about it. Now be quiet. I have a makeshift operating theater up ahead. It is not the best, but it will have to do.”
Melisse had no choice but to be quiet.
She’d blacked out.
78
The Decryption
Princess Serena
Go’Doan Temple, East Side, Notting Thicket
WODELL
Chu had managed to find Serena a better-fitting disguise, but still, she would be glad to see the back of that heavy gown with its tight bodice and never-ending skirts.
This thought was only vaguely on her mind.
Mostly, she was considering those notes they’d stolen.
She was doing this with her hands on the handle of a broom, her hair bound up and hidden under a kerchief, not doing very well sweeping a hall in a Go’Doan temple.
In disguise, she had approached the priests, declaring her desire to become a Go’Ella.
They had explained that, before she could be initiated into the sect, she would have to demonstrate her faith in all three of their gods as well as her desire to serve its priests.
And wouldn’t you know it…
The way they expected her to do this was by sweeping floors, polishing candlesticks, cleaning windows, and the like.
This was not surprising.
But it was annoying.
Though it had to be done for her to get close enough to overhear.
So it was done.
Chu had likely become one with a wall somewhere, such was his ability to grow invisible.
But he was never far.
Not ever.
And not because he didn’t trust her.
Also not because he had a mission he wished to see through (or not only because of that).
But because the bloody man was intent at all times—and in all ways he could—to protect her.
She was a goddess-damned Nadirii for fuck’s sake.
But would Chu let her take the risk and not risk himself, or instead, divide their efforts and go find someone else to spy on?
No.
So he was there.
She couldn’t see him.
Fortunately, no Go’Doan could see him either.
But she knew he was there.
She also knew she found this protective bent endearing.
She had no idea why. It made no sense in the slightest.
But it made her feel like she felt when she was home, by herself, next to a creek after she’d had a swim, and she was lazing in the sun.
It was a romantic notion, and she wished to hate the very fact she had it.
She simply…
Didn’t.
This was only partially on her mind for also on her mind was trying to listen, since the priest they’d ambushed was in a chamber just beyond where she was sweeping.
But the bloody door, not to mention the walls, were too thick.
She couldn’t hear a thing.
She suspected the other priest he was with in that chamber, which was the one he’d been walking with the night they’d set upon them, was also of The Rising.
She suspected this because, outside of those two, the temple was vacant.
It was Prince True’s wedding day.
It seemed the entire city was festooned with streamers, the air had smelled for days of leaf cakes baking, and excitement was heightened day to day with extraordinary occurrences so now it was at a fever pitch.
First, there was Mars and Silence arriving in the city to great fanfare then proceeding to take it by storm, appearing so often (to the glee of the citizens of the Thicket), it seemed they had to have been cloned.
And then there was her bloody sister and Cassius coming with a parade of Nadirii warriors behind them. The spectacle of a contingent of the Nadirii Sisterhood with its princess and the Prince of Airen at the lead was blathered about like the Great Goddess herself had led that parade.