Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 111252 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 556(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111252 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 556(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
“Familiar…but not…”
“Like your sword?”
Kai shook his head. “Familiar, like you and your clan. But it’s so faint, I can’t get a lock on the direction or even how it’s familiar.”
“That can’t be,” Xiang muttered, and Kai had to agree. The four teams who entered the castle all came in from different points and different levels, so they wouldn’t have crossed each other’s paths, not yet at least. By splitting up, they had a chance of covering far more ground in less time.
However, Xiang didn’t show a moment of doubt. “Do you want to keep trying to follow it?”
He hesitated for only a second before turning toward the stairs. “No. Maybe it was an old scent, carried over from when Yichen was still captive. I don’t think it will lead us to the sword or the queen. Let’s continue in the direction we were heading.”
Kai didn’t believe the excuse he gave Xiang. The scent was too new for it to be some months-old lingering odor. And it didn’t smell exclusively like Yichen. At the very least, he would have expected there to be some hint of Rei mixed in as well, considering how close they were. No, this was something different.
Xiang said nothing as he led the way back down the stairs that ended in a very plain hallway. It was the first one they’d encountered that didn’t have the ostentatious decorations. The floors had changed from marble to plain dark wood. The candelabras on the walls were even more sparsely placed and only a couple of the candles flickered, casting the corridor in sickly thin light. A hall for servants and even they weren’t much cared for by the royals.
“Servants’ quarters and kitchen,” Xiang muttered low under his breath. The sword wouldn’t be here.
“I think Rei and Yichen are likely to have better luck than us,” Kai whispered. That pair had been sent to the opposite end of the castle to inspect the royal apartments. At this hour, the queen was likely sleeping, and Kai wouldn’t put it past her to be sleeping with his sword.
They had been selected to check the area where Rei thought they might find a depository for collected treasures. Unfortunately, the elf’s guess was wrong. As far as he could tell, they’d located only bedchambers and a few empty parlors. Nothing to show they’d ever held a sword.
Despite the chill that filled the castle, a trickle of sweat slipped along the nape of Kai’s neck. Dawn was still several hours away, but they needed to get moving. While the sun’s rays had no effect on Xiang, the same couldn’t be said for the rest of his clan. They needed to be away from the fae’s domain and back at their own clan home before the sun crept above the horizon.
But it wasn’t just the threat of the sun that was weighing on Kai’s mind. The longer they remained within the castle, the higher their chances were of being discovered. They needed to escape soon to have any hope of surviving.
He opened his mouth to tell Xiang they needed to head to another part of the castle when the warm glow of candlelight bobbed and danced on the walls, growing brighter as it approached. Someone was coming toward their corridor. Kai’s heart leaped into his throat and they both darted away to hide within a shadowy niche.
“Lousy servants,” a gravelly voice grumbled. “Can’t find a one to fetch a bite for a midnight snack.” A creature waddled across the hall, holding aloft a single candlestick. Kai squinted. He was not an elf.
Standing less than a meter tall, the man had extraordinarily long feet and long spindly arms that would have allowed his fingers to drag along the ground if he’d not held his arms up. His face resembled melted wax with its thick skin, heavy lines, and sharp, pointy nose. A couple of teeth poked out from the bottom jaw, sneaking past a thin upper lip.
The creature was familiar with the layout of the castle…and he was alone.
“Grab him,” Kai whispered.
Xiang was off like a black shadow before Kai finished speaking. The candle the man was carrying went out, and there was a brief squawk of surprise that was cut off. Kai hurried after him as Xiang hefted him into the nearby empty kitchen and threw him down in front of the dwindling embers of the cooking fire.
The poor figure bared his teeth at Xiang for a heartbeat, but even that fierce expression melted away when he saw Kai join Xiang. Yes, two against one were not good odds.
“Awww,” the little man moaned as he seized two handfuls of his short straw-colored hair and pulled on it. “I knew I should have joined the others and made a run for it while I could. There was nothing good coming from staying. Nothing good at all.”