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)
“Yeah. From where we were up high, it looked like there was an atrium on that other side.”
“Great. Let’s catch a ferry,” he said, his voice shaky.
We kept our heads down and our hoods pulled low, and since everyone else taking the plain wooden ferry was dressed the same, no one questioned us. The only things that got weird looks were our shoes. Everyone else was in shearling-lined boots. I could have really used a pair.
Once we got off on the dock on the other side, we walked into a crowd of people, all in a hurry to get somewhere. There were steps carved out of the rock that looked like the kinds in front of courthouses or national monuments. Like hundreds of people could be taking the same stairs at the same time. It hit me then that I’d been correct. The apartment complexes were where the iceni lived, and up the stairs, we were going to where the iceni worked, in the homes of the nobles.
It was so different from how Zev remembered it. And yes, there was a five-hundred-year or longer time span from when he’d been here last. But I also knew, when you were little, you remembered things differently than you did when you were older. Things that had looked massive came into scale with your adult eyes. And something like all the people living in raised homes on the water could only have taken up a small piece of real estate. Perhaps the people he’d seen on the water had fisheries? Once we explored more, I would have my answers.
At the top of the stairs, we turned back to look at the homes of the iceni, and they reminded me of all the places I’d been in the world as a marine where people were forced to live in cramped quarters. Yet another thing to speak to Varic about.
We walked from the wide openness of what felt like a hole in the roof of the world to underneath a cavernous ceiling, at least three hundred feet high. There were beautiful rock formations above us, and I could get lost looking up all day. From there, we emerged into a giant amphitheater. Taking the same kind of long, wide stairs straight down would take us to a large plaza, and if we climbed the steps on the other side, there were manor houses, huge estates, nothing butting up together or into the rock, all freestanding, on a man-made street.
“This is nuts,” I told Cirillo.
“It’s like an underground city except it’s all built into the side of a mountain,” he said, turning to his left where, as far as we could see, there were people walking under the three-hundred-foot ceilings.
“It’s beautiful,” I commented.
“It would be if there were kids running around and dogs and birds and…something natural. Everything here is decidedly unnatural.”
We were both quiet, thinking about that.
“All right,” he said under his breath, “which way to the castle?”
“It has to be that way,” I said, gesturing ahead of us. “Zev did say it was built into the rock, so I bet this thoroughfare passes along the outer wall. Before Decimus closed Ophir to the outside world, there had to be a way to cross into the holding without entering the castle.”
“That makes sense,” he agreed. “Let’s go see.”
We had no other option. The only way out of Ophir was to speak to Ødger. I was guessing he’d placed us in a home as far away from him as possible to allow us to make our way to him and basically have us take our own tour of his home. It was smart because he didn’t have to wait on us or threaten us, simply receive us when we eventually arrived.
Along the thoroughfare, we passed by beautiful homes behind high gates. Oddly, there were no trees, no animals of any kind that I could see, and the carriages that passed us by were all drawn by men, like the rickshaws I’d seen tourists ride in Kyoto when I was there years ago. I didn’t see any of the bicycle-style ones driven all over the French Quarter.
“I bet you these people, even the nobles, have never seen a motorcycle or a car,” Cirillo mused.
“Could be. But maybe they saw the helicopter when Varic’s guards came to announce our wedding.”
“How do you know that’s what they used?”
He was nitpicking and it was stupid. “I don’t. I’m just assuming that there’s no landing strip out on the ice, yeah?”
“Probably not. No. The point is, we’re going to be walking all night at this rate.”
“Do you think Ødger will wait that long?”
He shrugged. “What’s interesting is that even if we had a phone, it wouldn’t work here. Look at all this rock.”
Something occurred to me. “I’m feeling better, more clearheaded, less sluggish, so I think whatever was in the darts we were hit with is wearing off fast now.”