Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 149470 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 747(@200wpm)___ 598(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149470 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 747(@200wpm)___ 598(@250wpm)___ 498(@300wpm)
“You would have had a civil war on your hands if Gra’multh’s pet had really managed to kill Sir,” I pointed out.
“I know and he will be punished for the attempt he made on your Master’s life,” she promised. “But if he dies, many, many others are going to die, too.”
I sighed and finally relaxed the burning orange rope I had around Gra’multh’s neck. The Sovereign was so young—so relatable. I just couldn’t stay mad when she was talking to me so reasonably. Especially now that I knew Sir wasn’t dead after all and would probably be all right.
I took off the dueling band and at last, the glowing orange rope melted completely away.
“That’s it—it’s off her head. Get her!” I heard the guards behind me shouting.
But the Sovereign put out a hand and glared at them.
“Stop! This female is under my royal protection!” she proclaimed. “You will not hurt or imprison her—instead, you will accompany her along with Sir Barinthian to the Royal House of Healing. And there you will stand watch by his door and make certain no other attempts are made on his life.”
There was some grumbling among the guards at this—they clearly didn’t like me or the idea that I had Mental Abilities as strong as any of them—or even stronger. But with the Sovereign glaring at them like that, they had to obey.
“Thank you,” I said to her, as a couple of Korrigons in long white coats ran over to examine Sir. “I appreciate your help.”
“And I appreciate you helping me to see things clearly,” she said to me. “After your Master is better, we will speak more. For now, go with him. May the Goddess Everlasting grant that his recovery will be swift.”
As she spoke, the two Healers were loading Sir carefully onto a floating stretcher. I followed along behind them, adjusting my gravity belt so I could hop along quickly to match their long strides.
I was afraid that we were going to have to go down all those thousands of steps, but it turned out that the Sovereign had a private elevator that was hidden behind the throne. And thank goodness, Sir’s stretcher just barely fit inside it.
It was a tight squeeze for the rest of us, between the two Healers, two guards, and me, but I wedged myself in with them—I was determined not to leave Sir’s side.
As the doors closed and we began to drop silently down, I took his limp hand in mine and squeezed it tightly.
“It’s all right,” I told him. “You’re going to be okay. You’re going to get well and then we’ll be together forever.”
I had no idea how wrong I was.
FORTY-NINE
ELLI
Not about Sir getting well—I wasn’t wrong about that at all. In fact, he was up and walking in about a week—or a wern as the Korrigons called it. Not bad for a guy who’d been stabbed in the heart. But it didn’t happen right away.
He was in the Korrigon version of surgery for a long time and pretty out of it for the first few days afterwards. Aside from the surgery—(which seemed to involve lots of Mind-controlled lasers, I know because I watched through a big glass window)—I stayed with him every waking minute.
I even slept in the healing bed with him, curled against his side, though some of the Korrigon doctors didn’t like that at all. But when the guards told them that the Sovereign herself had ordered that I should be left alone, they stopped griping and let me stay with Sir.
I was back on a diet of nutritional gel cubes, much to my dismay, until one day, about three days after the duel and the surgery, the food technician came around with the nutrition cart. Which was, as far as I could tell, just a small, portable version of the Matter Synthesizer in Sir’s spaceship.
“Well now,” she said brightly, speaking to me as though I was a young child—which was how all of them talked, since I was just a ‘pet.’ “It’s mealtime again. Can I get you some yummy gel cubes?”
She was holding the golden control circle as she spoke and was about to put it on her head.
“No,” I said bluntly.
I was getting tired of the way the staff around here treated me, although the guards the Sovereign had stationed outside Sir’s door had a healthy respect for me. They were always giving me side-eye when I went past them. But everyone else at the Healing House seemed to think I was just a cute little pet that was staying by her sick Master out of loyalty. Which I was, actually, but I was a person too and I was really over the way they all talked to me.
The food technician widened her full-black eyes at my abrupt answer.
“Excuse me?” she said, frowning down at me. Even the Korrigon women were at least eight feet tall, so she had no difficulty doing this.