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)
Not to mention Aramus and Ha-Lah arriving at sail down the Great Wohd with an impressive armada in tow under a sun darkened by a sky filled with dragons.
Bloody dragons!
Where had they gotten dragons!
The town was agog and remained so, unsurprisingly, for the dragons were lolling about on a sparsely forested rise north of the city and you could see them from anywhere in the capital. Not to mention, one, or two, or twelve would often take flight apparently just to spread their wings. And when they did, it didn’t matter who you were or what you were doing, they were dragons, they were magnificent, so you stopped, looked to the skies and watched.
In awe.
That was, all did this, save Serena and Chu.
Serena and Chu couldn’t think of kings and queens, princes and princesses, royal weddings and dragons.
They had a mission.
And it had been a big shock along this journey to come to the understanding that they both were of one mind about a variety of things.
Most especially the fact that, when you had a mission, even if dragons were on offer, you focused on that mission.
So they were not with the revelers in the streets. They also had not rushed to the parade route to jostle with the crowds lining it in order to garner a glimpse of the wedding procession. Nor had they booked their table at a pub for a wedding feast followed with a slice of leaf cake and sparkles. Further, they had not made their way to the rise to see if they could view the dragons from up close (as scores of others had done).
They were at work.
And Serena wondered why she’d spent so much time fighting Trajan of Airen.
She should have found a disguise, infiltrated the Sky Citadel, and spied on the bastard.
Then toyed with his mind.
It would have been a lot more fun.
Unless, of course, to do that she’d had to do the sweeping.
Whilst debating whether or not to use her magic to hear what was happening in the chamber beyond, in that moment, mostly her thoughts were on something that had been nagging at her for days.
Those notes.
And the mention of AM.
What was AM?
She swept, she tried to listen, and she went over those missives in her head, which she now had read so many times, she had them memorized.
AM.
But they have been told to hold until after we AM.
C reports M a growing threat. Plan to commence has been ordered. LLTR.
M, was Mercy, they were sure of it. After we AM had to be an event. Or an action. Or…
Their plan, whatever it was, had commenced.
If M was Mercy…
It hit her like a bolt, and she shot upright, dropping the broom.
“Zsst, zsst,” she hissed, quickly moving down the hall.
Chu did not materialize.
“Zsst, zsst!” she called.
Goddess damn it, he was always close to her and he needed to—
“Ssst!” she heard and saw him (or part of him) hidden in a doorframe some ten feet away.
She hurried there.
“We have to go,” she whispered urgently.
“Did you hear something?”
“I decrypted it,” she said.
He knew to what she was referring, for he ordered immediately, “Talk.”
“If M is Mercy, then AM is…”
It hit him then too.
“Assassinate Mercy,” he whispered in a dire tone.
They stared in each other’s eyes.
Chu then took command.
“You, to Birchlire, warn them. I’ll work those priests.”
Without a word in protest, Serena nodded.
And without thought of who might see, she tore that damned kerchief off her head and raced out of the temple, her copper hair flying.
79
The Royal Wedding
Prince True
Quarters of the Crown Prince, Western Turret, Birchlire Castle, Notting Thicket
WODELL
“Your mother,” Luther murmured.
True turned from the full-length, oval looking glass where he was inspecting himself in his dress greens, what he’d be married in, toward the double doors to his bedchamber, where Luther stood.
He nodded.
Luther looked over his shoulder and nodded to Wallace, who was in the sitting room.
Luther then disappeared, and True’s mother walked through.
She was dressed for the ceremony in a russet-colored gown that was subtly extravagant. The top was made entirely of a delicate lace with a demure V-neck and stitched minimally throughout with something that sparkled. The skirts were yards and yards of shining satin.
Her hair, the color which she had given him (though hers was beginning to silver), was a wonder of swirls and poofs, the poof being bunched at her nape.
She was wearing one of many sets of royal jewels. These, her amber and emeralds surrounded by diamonds. A large round amber at her lobe falling into an even larger tear of an emerald. The same in a curve adorning her neck.
And the same as a tiara threaded into her hair.
It was not the first time he thought this, and it probably wouldn’t be the last, but his mother was a beautiful woman.
He and she had not had a great deal of time together since his return.