Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 109099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
“This is the Throne Room,” Seldarin said shortly, gesturing around the vast, mirrored room with his uninjured arm. “We need to get through it quickly before Mordren and his people get back. They’ll be moving the Silver Throne back in, now that the Investment Ceremony has been postponed.”
“Meaning…the crowning of your new ruler?” I asked.
He nodded.
“Mordren has been angling for the throne of the Midnight Court for years now—centuries. You came back just in time, Princess.”
I thought about telling him not to call me that again…but it didn’t seem to matter what I said, the big Fae warrior was going to call me what he wanted.
“My Lady, we are about to enter a small, tight corridor,” Krynn said to me. “Would you feel more comfortable walking? I don’t want to bump your head,” he added.
“Oh, of course!” I exclaimed, feeling abruptly foolish. Here I was, a grown woman, being carried like a baby. “Yes, please—put me down.”
“As you wish,” Krynn murmured and set me carefully on my feet.
I immediately felt like a little kid standing between two adults—both their heads were far above my own due to their immense height. I wished I was taller, though at five-foot-six, I had always felt myself to be a normal height for a woman.
But I didn’t have much time to worry about my short stature because Krynn was leading us forward to the corner intersection of two of the vast, mirrored walls. He tapped the corner seam three times and murmured a word in a language I didn’t know…yet somehow it sounded familiar.
“Hurry!” Seldarin muttered. “I can hear someone coming!”
I couldn’t hear anything myself, but just at that moment, a tall, narrow door which had been completely invisible before popped open in the mirrored wall. It seemed to lead into a long, dark corridor with no end in sight.
“You go first,” Seldarin told Krynn. “Then the Princess. I’ll bring up the rear in case of trouble.”
Krynn nodded and turned to me.
“Follow me, my Lady,” he murmured and ducked into the narrow doorway.
I did as he said, following right behind him and I could feel Seldarin’s muscular frame at my back. Then the big Fae shut the door behind him and the three of us were alone in the darkness.
6
Lily
Krynn walked forward swiftly—he seemed to know where he was going. He also seemed to be able to see in the dark because he didn’t stumble or hesitate even a little. I wondered if that was the reason for the glowing eyes all the Fae seemed to have—did it allow them to see, even in the pitch blackness?
I wished I had that ability myself. It was scary walking in the darkness without being able to see anything at all. It also occurred to me that I was now all alone with two huge, strong males—a situation I would never have allowed myself to get into back in the human world—or the “Mortal Realm” as they called it.
Yet I didn’t feel like either Seldarin or Krynn posed a threat to me…though I did wonder why they were so eager to proclaim me the “Lost Princess.” It seemed like I had stumbled into an otherworldly plot filled with political intrigue.
I didn’t really want to be caught in the middle of the conflict between the two of them and the Regent, Mordren, who had apparently been about to be crowned ruler before I had been caught watching the Fae ceremony. But events were moving so fast—I felt like I was being swept along on an invisible current I couldn’t fight.
At long last, I began to see a pale blue glow at the end of the tunnel. It grew brighter and brighter until we stepped out into a kind of cave.
I had been to Lurray Caverns in Virginia on a family vacation once, and marveled at the underwater structures that time and water had carved into the solid rock, but this space was nothing like that. I mean, yes—there were the stalactites and stalagmites growing from the floor and hanging from the ceiling, but they weren’t muddy and brown. Instead, they seemed to be made of some pure white stone which had a sparkly, rainbow sheen. It made even the most common rock formations look like priceless jewels.
“Come, through here is the living area where it is said that Lolth herself dwelled in the early days, before the Palace was built,” Krynn said to me.
He led us through the maze of long, slender rock spires and out into a kind of room where the walls and floors were smooth and pale blue, swirled with white. In fact, they looked a little like ice, I thought. But when I touched a wall, it wasn’t cold—or at least, not icy cold—and my fingers didn’t come away wet.
There was some furniture set up that looked like it belonged in a Queen’s bedroom. I saw a table with several chairs made of some kind of white wood and decorated in filigreed silver. Further on, there was an immense four-poster bed made of the same white wood. It was hung with gauzy silver curtains and covered in a thick white fur spread that looked as soft as silk. There was even a vast bookshelf filled with leather bound volumes and a deep, comfy leather chair that had a fur throw draped across it so you could sit and read.