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)
“Are you looking for sympathy from me? You, sitting here in your pristine palace, drinking your tea? Because you will not see it, not even at the end of a sword’s blade. I could have told you never to forge an alliance with the likes of Lord Adley.”
“And yet you yourself did, when you proposed marriage to his daughter.”
“A terrible attempt to keep my enemies close, which is why I made a terrible leader.” I hoist my mug up to toast the air before letting the warmth slide down my throat. Fates, this is bitter.
“Politically, yes. But your achievements leading an army on the battlefield have been touted far and wide.”
“And it is where I should have stayed.”
He cocks his head. “Why didn’t you? Why did you betray your own brother? Was it the glory of a kingdom?”
“I had more than enough glory to satiate my ego. No … I thought I was saving him from himself while also protecting my realm. But it is clear now that I may have caused more harm than good.” It may have been Romeria who cursed Islor with her tainted blood, but it also seems to be Romeria who works to save it now. Which version of her, though, remains a mystery to me. “What do you know of the fates?”
“Your gods with their horns? Have you seen any grand statues around my palace?”
“During one of my many tours?” My voice drips with sarcasm.
He takes a sip. “If you were to ask a Kier or a Skatranan about Islor, I imagine they would at first claim they have never been. But then they would fill your ear with information about the people, the land, the curse.”
“Your point?”
“Islor has only ever been interested in Islor, and you believe your way is the only way.” He smirks. “I know what I need to of your fates, but I do not concern myself with them. Kier follows the way of Udrel.”
“And which way is that?”
Tuella emerges from her corner. “The way of shadow and light. Our beliefs are rooted in that of balance, both that which we can see and that which we cannot.”
A vague explanation, but my curiosity is piqued. “If I recall my childhood teachings about Kier—which you assume I have had none—that was not always the case.”
“That is true,” King Cheral admits. “Once, long ago, we were influenced by our neighbors to believe differently. Mordain’s wielders used to arrive at our shores to educate us on the way of their creators. And most in Kier welcomed such notions. But these fates of theirs who grant children connected to the land’s power have never bestowed Kier such consideration, have never given us an opportunity to converse with them, to ask them for gifts. So what reason would we have to honor them with sanctums and statues made of precious metals and stone?”
“Islor has not seen a caster born within its borders in two millennia either.”
“And yet you still bow at their feet,” Tuella asks. “Why?”
Her question gives me pause. “I suppose because they are all that we have ever known.”
“And now that you know me?”
“Honestly, I do not know what or who you are.”
“That is understandable. Not everyone in Kier has embraced the way of shadow and light yet.”
“And if Udrel’s conjurers aren’t born by the grace of these fates’ power, how do you exist?”
Her small smile borders on smug. “We are chosen.”
“Chosen. By whom?”
“By the light.”
I shake my head. “Listening to you speak, it is as if I am looking outside at that sky that is clearly blue, and you are insisting it is green.”
“And yet both our convictions would be equally strong.”
Something tells me I could talk in circles around this one and never get to the center unless she wishes me there. But I need answers. “What do you know of our fates and what is happening in my realm?”
She glances at King Cheral, who nods once, as if granting permission.
“The balance has shifted. I felt it even before your blood moon, but since that night, light and shadow both radiate, almost as if in competition with each other.”
“What does that even mean?”
Worry pinches her features. “I do not yet know, except to say there is much shadow and also much light. Too much of either does not allow balance.”
King Cheral sets his mug down. “I received word from my general. The day after your Hudem, as you call it, his scout spotted one of those scaly winged beasts landing in the plains, at the site of the battle.”
A change in subject. Fine. I can’t understand what this bloody conjurer is talking about, anyway. “What did it do here?”
“Besides swallow a horse nearly whole? Nothing. But a male and a female flew within its clutches. They searched the bodies thoroughly and then left with a soldier.”