Total pages in book: 210
Estimated words: 200096 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1000(@200wpm)___ 800(@250wpm)___ 667(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 200096 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1000(@200wpm)___ 800(@250wpm)___ 667(@300wpm)
“And what do you hope to gain for sacrificing Kier’s army in our battle?” Zander asks.
“Is it not enough to recognize that if we do not join forces today, we have little hope for tomorrow and beyond?” King Cheral responds calmly.
“If you were not already in my lands, aiding Lord Adley in a scheme to split Islor in two, I might believe that. Why did you form an alliance with him? And before you think up a lie, I know your aim was to help claim the Plains of Aminadav for Adley’s new kingdom.”
King Cheral’s lips twist as he pauses again. “He promised us bounty from the yearly harvest.”
“Bounty for a realm with such rich lands of its own?” Zander watches him closely. He’s testing this king. We have the answer. It was all but spelled out in Neilina’s secret journal.
King Cheral sighs with reluctance and seems to age ten years, his shoulders sinking with a burden. “Once, yes. But our lands are being poisoned by the mountain streams. More of my people starve each year. When Lord Adley proposed the alliance, I saw it for what it was—my only option for my people to survive.”
“You felt you had no choice but to look to Islor to solve your problems.” Zander basically echoes what we learned from Neilina’s journals. “I am sorry to say that your realm is a casualty in Aoife’s scheming.”
“How do you know this?” Atticus’s eyes snap to me, as if I held the secret all this time.
“We found the answers in Argon,” Zander answers. “The poison in Romeria’s blood was not the first request Neilina made of the fates. She summoned them many times, inviting havoc of all sorts. One such consequence was apparently Kier’s waters. They used your realm to force you to invade Islor and weaken it, to make it easier for Neilina to cross the rift and claim victory.”
“You played right into her plot,” Atticus muses. “How much satisfaction these fates must gain, pulling our strings like puppet masters.”
“It would not have mattered. The balance between light and shadow changed on Azokur. Islor was doomed already,” Tuella says, as if consoling her Kierish king.
I can’t help myself. “What is Azokur?”
“The night of the second moon. You call it Hudem.”
She means the night that the nymphs returned to this world, and both Malachi and Aoife stepped into it. The light and shadow. I think I’m beginning to understand this other way of thinking.
“So now you know why Kier is here,” King Cheral says.
“And why are you here?” Zander asks Tuella. “That is a long way to travel.”
“I came because my king ordered it.” She smiles as if that explains everything.
“As you said yourself, Udrel and Tuella are of no consequence to our situation, and why Kier came to your lands does not change the fact that you need us now,” King Cheral says. “Even though we might not be enough.”
Zander regards him evenly. The king seems frank and honest, two things Zander respects. “No, it might not. But I will welcome all the blades you can bring to the east. If, by some miracle, we survive this and I reclaim my throne, I will not overlook your aid or your people’s plight. That is the best I can offer at this time.”
King Cheral peers at the young woman, and she shares an almost imperceptible nod. “We accept.” He steps forward and holds out a hand.
Zander falters, eyeing Tuella.
“You need not fear me. I do not channel the light in the same way your queen channels the shadow, and I have no wish to die today.”
After another long moment, Zander nods.
I drop my shield but ready my affinities and step forward with him. Relief envelops me as the kings clasp hands. One less enemy to face.
“You will need to leave immediately and move quickly,” Zander says. “We will slow their approach as best we can, but we cannot hold them off forever. They will reach Lyndel the day after tomorrow.”
“What is the plan?” Atticus sounds more like the commander of the king’s army that I met that day in Cirilea’s round war room, when I was still Princess Romeria, captive and murderess.
“Hem them in and attack from two sides.”
“Lyndel and Eldred Wood, I presume? That allows for the most protection.”
“Yes. Exactly.”
Atticus nods and turns to King Cheral. “Send word to break camp. We are moving within the hour.”
I half expect the king to remind Atticus who rules, but he snaps a finger and yells something in Kierish, and a soldier gallops up the hill on his horse.
“You will return at nightfall for updates, yes?” Atticus asks Zander.
“We have much to do, but … you will hear from us before battle.” Zander’s jaw clenches. He must have so much to say, but now is not the time. “Tell the men not to piss themselves when they see us flying in.”