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)
“I figured it had to be a tranquilizer even though I never saw anything. One second I was running after you, and the next, I could barely move.”
I nodded.
He turned to look at me. “I have to tell you something.”
I waited.
“I’m scared. This. All of this,” he said, waving his hand around, “is scaring me to death. I haven’t spoken to my family for a couple of months, and I’m terrified that whatever unloving way I was on the phone will be the last they ever hear from me.”
I shook my head. “No.”
“No? How do you know?”
“Because we’re both smart men and we’ll figure a way out. Plus, I can feel this isn’t either of our ends.”
He’d been looking at the ground, but at that, his head snapped up and his eyes met mine.
“I refuse to believe that you, who’ve traveled and met so many people, aren’t supposed to be here to help end whatever injustice is happening.”
“But weren’t you and Varic coming here anyway?”
“Yeah, but the chances of me and Varic leaving the castle, having this same walkabout that you and I are currently taking, would have been very small. This is a huge place, and this way, we’re getting a completely different angle on it all.”
“Why?”
“Well, if you never see things from another point of view, how can you ever imagine change?”
“Like what?”
“How things could be done, of course,” I explained. “Or should be for the greater good.”
“I don’t understand.”
“We need to see all these people and all these things to be able to report back to Varic when he arrives about what is wrong, as well as what needs keeping and protecting.”
“You have great faith in Varic.”
“He will come for both of us.”
He scoffed. “He cares nothing for me.”
“You’re his friend,” I said flatly. “Of course he cares.”
His gaze met mine, and he seemed to be searching for something in my eyes. After a moment, he grunted. “Fine. I’ll believe in the universe for you.”
“Excellent.”
As we began to walk, he chuckled.
“What?”
“It’s really impressive how calm you are.”
“Nice of you to say, but I’m doing everything in my power to stay calm and focused on something else, the bigger picture, and not freak out,” I confessed, stopping to lean over, put my hands on my knees, and breathe.
“Are you all right?”
“No,” I answered honestly. “I have no idea what time it is, but at some point today I was supposed to get married,” I choked out, about to check my watch and realizing it was gone. The only thing I still had was my seal that I’d checked first thing—they weren’t stupid enough to take that from me—and the clothes on my back. “I’m missing the most important day in my life because somebody thought it was a good idea to fuck with me and Varic.”
“So you’re about to have a nervous breakdown?”
“Mostly I’m really fuckin’ angry.”
He nodded.
“You don’t by any chance speak Old Norse, do you?”
The scowl wasn’t a surprise. “I could get whiplash from these subject changes.”
“I know, I know, but the men who came to kidnap the king so they could talk to Varic—well, the only one who lived, he ended up being able to speak English, but at first, it was Old Norse.”
“Fortunately for you, I do, in fact, speak the language.”
I gestured at him, smiling wide.
“Yes, yes. Clearly, the universe wanted me with you for this very reason.”
“And there could be—”
The scream was loud, heartrending, and we both turned to see a young woman dressed in the same coat Cirillo and I were, being half dragged, half carried toward what looked like a stable but couldn’t be that.
Without being asked, Cirillo ran with me. I could hear her pleading—it was clear in any language—and noted other people purposely not paying attention. When children looked, their mothers turned their faces away from the struggling girl. As the doors were opened, I saw it was a storage place for what I thought of as rickshaws.
They turned left, and when we reached the same spot, I saw her down on a cot. One of the guys went up near her head, grabbed her delicate wrists, and was about to put them in shackles when Cirillo said something to them in, if I had to guess, Old Norse, and I closed the doors behind us.
They laughed at him, made kissing noises, moved closer, and I understood the gestures and intent if not the words. Cirillo was a beautiful man, with his hair spilling down over his shoulders in gray-and-platinum waves, his dark-tanned skin with the gold undertones. Those attributes, combined with his moonstone-colored eyes, would make him stand out here in Ophir. No big surprise that they turned from the girl. But what came as a shock was that when the first man lunged at Cirillo, my companion caught him under the jaw quickly, like a striking viper, with a curved knife I had no idea he even had.