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)
“We drink with royalty tonight, brothers and sisters!” he decreed loudly.
A higher pitched trill rent the air and I wondered, even at our distance, if the others would hear it and come to investigate.
“We’ve buffered the sound, Your Grace,” Silvanus said to me, reading my thoughts as another woman approached him carrying three silver chalices (all mismatched, all lovely and all likely stolen). “We thought we could handle one Airenzian and one Nadirii. Three of the former, four of the latter would be foolhardy.”
So they knew of the others.
In fact, they might have even followed me.
This was not advantageous for I’d not sensed a thing.
Zees were known to be stealthy, but I’d never been caught out.
Not once.
He shot me a wide, white smile, taking me out of my thoughts as it occurred to me I would consider lying with him, for he was shockingly good-looking.
That was, if I did not have Cassius.
Which I did not (of a sort).
Nevertheless, his smile was infectious, therefore I returned it.
Silvanus poured wine sloppily and handed me the first chalice, Cassius the next and then tossed the final chalice to a man hanging close before he raised the bottle.
“Na zdrowie!” he called.
To which was shouted, “Salud!” “Proost!” “Santé” “Cin cin!” “Sláinte!” “Yamas!” “Skål!” and “Saúde!”
“We travel widely,” Silvanus said on a mischievous, and mysterious, wink at me, explaining without explaining some of these odd salutes, then he put the bottle to his lips and tossed his head back to take a glug.
I began to lift my glass to my lips, lips that were curving in another smile aimed toward Silvanus, when I was stopped by Cassius commanding, “Elena, do not drink from that chalice.”
I looked up at him. “It’s rude not to drink with a Zee.”
“I do not care.”
“And I do not care that you do not care,” I retorted.
He turned fully to me as I continued to raise my goblet and said warningly, “Elena.”
I held the vessel to the side and mimicked his tone. “Cassius.”
“Do not drink.”
“I’ll drink if I want to drink.”
“If you raise that chalice an inch higher, I’ll strike it out of your hand before I turn you over my knee.”
He did not just say that.
I felt my eyes narrow and replied, “If you try anything that ridiculous, I’ll magic you straight to Sky Bay.”
He bent into me. “And if you do that, I’ll ride right back to you and do it again and again and again until I achieve my goal of tanning your arse so red, you won’t be able to sit Diana for weeks.”
I opened my mouth to retort but did not as Silvanus was right beside us, chuckling cheerfully and pounding us both on our backs.
“This is beauty!” he cried. “Magnificent!” he yelled.
He stopped pounding and looked at Cassius.
“Does she climax as magnificently as she quarrels?” he asked.
I felt my cheeks flame.
Silvanus raised both hands high and wide, bowing his back as he did so.
“Why has no one thought of this before?” he asked the heavens. “An Airenzian and Nadirii! Explosive!” He dropped his arms and smiled hugely between Cassius and me. “The Sky Citadel will crumble around you the first time you make love under its roof.”
I took a small step away from Cassius and Silvanus and both men looked to me.
But only Silvanus spoke.
“What’s this? What’s this?” he asked, studying me closely. “Untried?”
Bloody, bloody hell.
He slapped Cassius on the back and shouted, “A boon! You get to train her…in everything.” He leaned toward Cassius with a wicked grin on his face. “And the Nadirii are very good learners.”
“You speak of my bride,” Cassius said low.
Silvanus took his point, but did it still grinning unrepentantly, murmuring, “Of course. Of course. My apologies.” He then tipped his head to the goblet Cassius held. “Drink, my friend. We would not poison the saviors.”
“The what?” Cassius asked.
“The saviors,” Silvanus repeated, bending to pick up the bottle he’d set on the ground. “You will end the quakes.” He nodded between Cassius and me. “Am I correct?”
“You know of this?” I asked.
“Elena,” Cassius murmured warningly.
“We are all friends here, my man,” Silvanus declared, apparently forgetting not ten minutes before, he had us imprisoned under a cage of magic. His attention came to me. “And yes. We are older than the Dellish. We remember when Airen and Firenze was one vast kingdom. We remember the days when the mermaids swam the seas freely. We remember the Beast. And we have heard of the prophecy.”
“What do you know of it?” Cassis demanded.
“Come!” he cried, whirling with his arm out, and more women came rushing forward, these carrying large, plush cushions they threw to the ground.
Men also moved into the glade, some with rocks, some with twigs, some with branches. They made short work of clearing away leaves and forming a large stone circle in order to build a fire.