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)
“Those males are my friends,” she clipped dangerously. “And when I could not trust you to call upon to be at my side, at my back, involved in my life, for you would not comprehend my mission and my purpose, they were. It was dangerous, Heloise. I could have been discovered by The Rising, and in their machinations, they shared clearly they did not mind dealing hostilely with those they thought were enemies. And a royal title made those dealings all the sweeter to them.”
She drew in a deep breath, and with it a slender thread of patience, before she leaned toward her friend and finished.
“And if you…ever…refer to my friends, or any fucking gnome any-fucking-where, Heloise, as a gnat again, I will challenge you, and I will unhorse you and then I will draw my sword and I will humiliate you in a way that you will never forget it.”
Heloise knew Serena could do just that, and this was why her face paled before she started, “Rena—”
Serena leaned back with a snap of her spine and interrupted her.
“I serve the Nadirii Sisterhood. I serve Queen Elena. I serve my blooded sister as she takes her crown as the Princess Regent of Airen. And if you, Genia and Darma do not share these philosophies, I am honor bound to report that to my queen. I will advise her that she then relieve you of your duties in the Nadirii army. However, rest assured. Elena is fair. She will find you something else you are adept at doing.”
It was Heloise whose spine snapped straight at that.
“I will remind you, I’ve been at your side since training,” she declared.
“And I did not invite you to leave it,” Serena retorted. “I simply told you the terms you must accept to remain at it.”
Heloise glared at her.
Chu was watching, Serena was keenly aware of that, so she did not have time to allow Heloise the fullness of her glare.
She also did not have the patience for it.
She thus walked around her and resumed her path to her tent.
A tent Gal and Brix were now standing outside, also watching her.
Goddess, she hoped they were too far away to hear that gnat comment.
But seeing them, knowing why they stood where they stood, their gazes upon her, she thought it was funny that she knew them such a short time, but she felt their strength at her back far more thoroughly than she’d ever felt Heloise’s or Genia’s.
Or Darma’s.
And she’d been to battle with them so many times, she’d lost count.
By the goddess, she’d been a fool.
It was with blatant design that Chu had positioned himself as such that he was not only close enough to watch her work at the pyre, but she’d have to walk by him on her way to the tent.
This she did not looking at him.
Even so, this did not deter Chu speaking.
“That was well said.”
She ignored that and continued walking.
She also shot a look to Gal and Brix that shared without words she was in no mood for the mood she saw on both of their faces before she slapped the flaps back on her tent and entered it.
Gal and Brix, as they were wont to do, ignored her mood and charged in behind her.
“We must speak,” Gal stated.
“We must not,” she replied, throwing herself down on her pallet and casting her mind about for something to do, anything that would make her appear busy enough they’d leave her be.
She should be meditating before the ceremony.
One look at her friends and she knew there was fat chance of that happening.
“He’s pining for you,” Brix began, darting his arm out behind him to the tent flaps, finger pointed, indicating Chu, “in direct vicinity to you.”
“And?” she asked.
Brix’s brows shot up before they darted together.
“We must hear this story of what happened between you and him,” Gal declared.
“We need hear no story,” Brix put in. “He’s a Trusted. Trusted are trusted. He wears the green and red against the black on his mantle. He has Mars’s ear.” He tossed his hand to indicate Serena. “And he fights gallantly at her side not only for this righteous mission, but in protection of her person, and she walks by him without looking at him?”
“Maybe he hurt her,” Gal returned to Brix.
Brix made a chuffing noise, but then his eyes shot to Serena.
“You are strong,” he said.
“Even a strong woman can be hurt by a man,” Gal declared. “For the Green Man’s sake, Brix. Hurt comes in a variety of forms. And the worst of it is the kind that does not leave a bruise that can be seen.”
Brix’s eyes, still on her, went squinty as he demanded, “Did he hurt you?”
“Brix—”
She got no more out.
He made his own (correct) assumptions, thus turned on his boot as if to march out, she knew, to confront Chu.