Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 104842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 349(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 349(@300wpm)
“Regardless, Alruna deserved to die,” Zev stated flatly.
“Without question.” Sabira huffed out a breath. “But after that, Decimus closed Ophir’s doors, and now no one is allowed inside without an invitation.”
“So Ophir used to be like the palace? People could come inside and visit those who live there or walk the halls on the main floor?”
“Yes. Ophir was open to all before Alruna died.”
I glanced at Zev. “Did Leda ever…”
“Did she ever what? Tell me she loved me? Is that what you were going to ask? Did she have some epiphany about her son before she killed herself?”
“Yes.”
He scoffed. “She hated me from the second I was born to the day she died. That never changed. Isabella kept us separated because the moment she turned her back, Leda would come at me like a wild animal.”
“It wasn’t you, Zev,” Sabira chided. “She didn’t hate you. She hated what you represented, nothing more.”
“Pardon me if I only remember her wild eyes and snarling mouth. She had a knife once and would have gutted me but for Isabella’s interference.”
“But that wasn’t her,” Sabira insisted. “She wasn’t herself anymore.”
His chuckle was mean. “Make no mistake, she hated me. Isabella had to keep me with her, in her chambers, with Varic and Cassius. She never let them or me out of her sight.”
“You all grew up together?” I asked, trying to change the subject from maternal filicide.
He nodded. “And when we were older and the king went to war, we all followed. He made me kenningar and named Hadrian rekkr.”
“Did you want to be rekkr?”
He shook his head. “No. Being rekkr makes you champion of the house of Maedoc. I had far more freedom as head of the king’s guard. One can’t leave in the middle of the night to visit the queen if one is rekkr.”
I smiled at him. “You left the king to visit Isabella?”
He nodded. “So many times. She’s the only mother I’ve ever known.”
“Well, she’s a good one.”
Quick eyebrow waggle for me.
“You love her.”
“Everyone loves her,” he said, then looked at Sabira. “Except Decimus.”
Sabira nodded. “Yes. She removed Leda from his house, and he has never forgiven her.”
“That sounds ominous.”
She waved her hand dismissively. “Please. Decimus would never lay a hand on her outside of Ophir, and more importantly, Varic’s dreki would never allow anyone to hurt his mother. That’s impossible.”
I certainly couldn’t imagine such a thing.
“And on her island, she is completely safe.”
I knew she had her own champion, Emil. He and I had gotten off to a bad start on our first meeting, but lately he’d warmed up a bit. “Emil is that formidable?”
“Yes,” Sabira told me. “He’s a druid as well, and the wards on that island are terrifying.”
“I want to see it someday.”
“You will,” Sabira assured me with a smile. “But along with Emil, there are also the skjaldmærs, her shield-maidens, and like Varic’s dreki, they will allow no harm to come to Isabella.”
“What if they were overwhelmed?”
She squinted at me. “Jason, no one in the Noreia would plot against the queen, save Decimus, and even he is not so insane to think he could hurt her if she didn’t allow it.”
“Allow it?”
“If she were ever to find herself in breach of the law of Ascalon, she would submit to the king’s justice. She’s as loyal to the rules that bind the Noreia as any other citizen.”
That made sense.
I was quiet, thinking about Zev and Leda.
“Is there a picture of Leda anywhere?”
Zev smiled at me. “When you enter the palace, on the left, there is the floor-to-ceiling painting of a woman holding a lyre and sitting on the edge of a fountain.”
“I’ve seen that.”
One of his eyebrows arched.
“That’s Leda?”
He nodded.
“She was luminous, with all her golden curls.”
“I don’t remember her like that,” Zev told me. “But others do.”
“It’s very close to her true visage,” Sabira said. “Very few liberties were taken.”
“I wonder why Decimus kidnapped her.”
“Because he wanted her,” Sabira said, squinting at me. “It’s an old story. Messina did the same with Isabella.”
This was news. “Messina seized her against her will?”
“Oh no. She felt sorry for him, saw his weakness, and so went with him so he wouldn’t be alone.”
“Then why do you say he kidnapped her? It was nothing like what Decimus did to Leda.”
“True. I misspoke. Forgive me.”
She looked stricken and I felt like crap. “No, it’s fine, I was just scared for a second.”
“I understand,” she said, and then added, “Messina did limit what Isabella could do though.”
“In what way?”
“Later, she wanted to visit her sisters, have communion with us, speak to the earth and the trees and the water.”
“And he wouldn’t let her.”
She shook her head. “It was years before he sent for us, for her sisters, the Dísir.”
“When did she retire to her island?”
“He returned from war with captives, slaves, that he made into concubines. There were already courtesans she’d had to stomach, and then he added a harem.”