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)
G’Seph tired of the crop, tossed it aside and kicked him in the face, taking him to his back.
And he did this again.
Again.
And again.
When the soldier was curled into himself, his arms over his head, Seph stopped and squealed, “Disrobe him! Bind him to the slab, fifty lashes. And someone go to that bloody infirmary, find bloody G’Drey and bloody bring him back! Immediately!”
Men moved to the soldier on the floor or out of the room, but Seph moved his eyes to his lieutenants.
“We do not flee,” he declared. “The Go’Doan had naught to do with this coup no matter what one of those infidels might say.”
“Sir, we lost over one hundred foot soldiers to that—”
“We will replace them,” Seph stated offhandedly.
“This is our second failed—”
Oh yes.
He tired of this conversation.
“Silence,” Seph whispered. “Recruitment goes unabated in schools and hospitals. Firenz, Dellish, even Airenzian are brought to their bloody knees in gratitude for healing of loved ones and the promise of a bright future for their children. It’s ludicrous, but we all know how very well it works. And it will continue to do so. The Rising has had a setback, but we will recover, we will regroup, and we will rise again. Much more swiftly this time. So swiftly, they will not expect it.”
He turned to another of his soldiers.
“Send a bird to G’Fenn in Go’Doan. Report these events. Share our defeat but that we are not defeated. I will see to it that I ride with the cavalcade when they leave Firenze. We will rise again in Wodell.”
The man nodded and moved to push through those behind him.
Seph waited until the whipping started.
But he did not wait to see it end.
He wished to.
But he could not.
He had much to do.
37
The Mortal Blow
Prince Cassius
Guest Suite, Second Floor, East Corridor, Catrame Palace, Fire City
FIRENZE
His intended whirled on him the minute he closed the door behind them after following her into her bedchamber.
“Did I invite you into my chamber?” Elena asked.
“Where’s Theodora?” Cassius queried in return.
She crossed her arms on her chest and tilted up her chin. “The palace is no longer safe. I sent her to the Nadirii camp. With my sisters. They have might and they have magic. They won’t allow anything to harm her.”
“This is a good decision,” he murmured.
“I don’t care you think it is, or it is not,” she retorted.
His princess was in a snit.
This was not news. She’d been in that state since the attack ended.
Or, precisely, some moments before.
It was simply that Cassius was tiring of it.
“Elena—” he started on a sigh.
“You may leave. I must get kitted for the procession,” she interrupted him, dropping her arms and turning away, dismissing him.
He didn’t know what “kitted” meant. She’d already changed into her Nadirii tunic. Something he would have thought was a boon, considering she’d fought in a miniscule nightgown with thin straps and a hem that barely covered her arse. A garment that forced Cassius to the understanding that her long, shapely legs were miraculous, considering he wanted them wrapped around his back even if they were coated in blood.
Though, he knew what she wore under that tunic. And his brain had been seared with images of her stretching in the garden wearing nothing but her body stocking.
So it wasn’t the boon he’d wish it to be.
“I think it’s more important we discuss your pique,” he replied.
That saw the return of her attention.
And she did this twisting her neck to look at him with narrowed eyes.
“My…pique?”
“Allow me to take us back to yesterday morning, at the fountain,” he began.
Her mouth got tight.
“To yesterday afternoon, our chat after the Go’Doan spoke to you,” he continued.
Her entire frame got tight.
“And last night, in my chamber,” he finished quietly.
All of these occasions had been promising.
With last night, prior to the attack, the most promising of all.
They had spent some time together in his chamber after dinner the night before.
Most of it, they had talked, Cassius sharing the many issues that had been discussed and decided around the diplomatic table, a great number of them affecting her as Princess of the Nadirii, but mostly as his betrothed, the soon-to-be Princess to the Regent of Airen—and eventually Airen’s queen.
He had been surprised her mother had not apprised her of these decisions.
However, in the end, he’d been gladdened, for he was able to share the fullness of them, further strengthening their burgeoning communication, establishing trust, and using both to draw her closer to him.
They had ended this interlude embracing for some time on a divan in his chambers.
Although she had heated for him quickly, like their few times before, unlike those times, the longer they shared intimacy, the more nervous she became.
Cassius understood this had to do with his declaration that he had given her a climax in the garden that morning, but that had not been reciprocated, and he wished for it to be so.