Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 162269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 541(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 162269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 541(@300wpm)
In short order, he jerked upright in a manner that had both my husband and I tensing.
Or it could have been the expression on his face.
Either way, it caused Aramus to rap out, “What is happening?”
Jorie’s gaze came our way, and when he spoke, his tone had softened.
“I am sorry to say, the war in Airen to free their females has begun in earnest this day.”
“Oh, my gods,” I breathed.
“The rebels cornered your friends on a mountainside. The Regent’s troops were outnumbered at least ten to one,” Jorie went on.
My heart lurched.
Aramus immediately grasped my hand and started dragging me to the door, which would take us to the island in the middle of the grotto, which was, as far as I could tell, a part of Jorie’s palace.
“We must get to land. Then to my ship, for we must make haste to Cass,” Aramus declared.
“They won,” Jorie called.
Aramus stopped dead.
I ran into him.
And we both woodenly turned back to Jorie.
“Who won?” Aramus asked, his voice dead.
“Your friends.”
His fingers tightened so deeply around mine, the bones in my hand might have broken, if my fingers weren’t tightening so deeply around his.
“They’re alive?” I asked, my voice husky.
“There were losses, but the Prince of Airen and the new Queen of the Nadirii were not amongst them,” Jorie reported.
“Do you know aught else?” Aramus asked.
Jorie shook his head.
I tipped mine back to catch my husband’s gaze.
“We must send ravens. Cass may need you to engage. He may just need you. Thus, we need to get home,” I told him.
He nodded and began to drag me again.
“We will all go to them, together,” Jorie decreed, and again, Aramus and I stopped and gave him our attention. He continued, “There are rumors the King of Firenze is at the battlefield, with his wife, even though this couldn’t be so, as yesterday, they were in Wodell and Cassius and Elena are at the base of the Night Heights. But regardless, I won’t meet my sister here, in Amphite, not anytime soon. So I go with you.”
“Then come along and don’t dally,” Aramus bid.
However, I was stuck on what Jorie said.
“How do you know so much?” I asked.
“Mer have powers,” he answered.
“I know, I am Mer,” I reminded him. “But that doesn’t answer my question.”
“Some have some powers, others have other powers,” Jorie shared, which also didn’t answer my question.
“And what powers allow you to know so much that is happening on land?” I demanded to know and felt Aramus, who I could sense was keen to be away, settle in at my side, for the now, keener to know this.
“There are many of us who have exceptional hearing,” Jorie explained.
“Ah,” I murmured.
“And there are others of us, a smaller number, and all of them of noble blood, who can cloak ourselves,” he went on.
Aramus grew very still.
I stared at my brethren, saying through stiff lips, “Cloak yourselves?”
“Disappear. Become shadows. With only those who have let us into their hearts, those who we are connected to as mates, this coupling smiled upon by the gods, able to see us.”
“In other words eavesdrop,” I snapped.
“Spy,” he returned.
“You’ve been spying on my queen and I?” Aramus clipped.
“We spy everywhere,” Jorie stated unconcernedly.
“You say this as if this is not a detrimental matter in diplomatic relations,” Aramus returned.
“And how is this?” Jorie replied confusingly, taking up his trident and walking our way. He passed us, murmuring, “If you would, follow me.”
We followed him out of the consular chamber to the open area of the island in the grotto.
There were Mer floating in the water. Some lazing with fins flapping in the water on smaller islands set around.
All attention came to us when we emerged.
“Stand back, please,” Jorie instructed.
Aramus stood back.
As for me, I stood behind Aramus who stepped in front of me.
Jorie watched him do this, and he did not attempt to hide his approval of this maneuver.
Then he turned, lifting his trident at the side over his head, and he ran across the sand.
But as he would throw it, he executed a graceful leap into the air and twisted his body around…
I gasped as he disappeared in a swirl of shimmer that eddied around the trident staff as it soared through the air.
The three points imbedded in an unoccupied, small island some thirty feet away, the shimmer burst the moment it struck land, and Jorie reformed.
“Well, I’ll be sirens-damned,” Aramus muttered.
I fought applauding, but I could not stop clenching my hands to my chest in delight, at the same time wondering, if I had a trident, if I could learn to do that.
“In this cavern,” Jorie called from across the water, “I cannot show you the full power of the trident. However, rest assured, not only if you’re touching the holder of a trident will you travel with him, it can traverse far. Not from Mar-el to Airen. But, say, for instance, over a mountain range.” He was silent a beat before he asked, “Now, how is that for diplomatic relations?”