Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 162269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 541(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 162269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 541(@300wpm)
“Indeed, I am all ears,” Cassius replied.
Excellent.
“It has been some days since I’ve eaten, thus, before I begin, could I trouble you to order up some food?” he requested.
“I thought you needed to make haste in reporting?” Cassius asked.
“Well, I…yes, of course, however…” He gestured to the sofa beside him. “My journey was arduous. May I sit?”
“No.”
Jellan’s spine straightened, and of a sudden, he paid much closer attention to Cassius, and the people who sat amongst him.
They were not friends of Jellan’s, but they were allies, and he had thought he had their regard.
He was a priest of the Go’Doan.
He was called upon to…
Ah.
“I am not of The Rising,” he assured them.
“This is a lie,” Cassius replied.
Jellan blinked.
“Are we to wait long for the story of your adventure?” Cassius prompted when Jellan lost his voice. “For the lot of us have things to do, and if you wish to draw this out, I’m in the position to tell you that you will fail. We’ll just deal with you and carry on.”
“Deal with me?” he asked softly.
Cassius’s head tipped to the side. “Did you or did you not kill Sofia Magos of the Firenz with the intent to kill Farah Magos of the Firenz, now Farah, Queen of Wodell?” Cassius queried, and Jellan’s heart started to beat a quick tattoo as his attention cut to Farah.
She was regarding him with hatred in her eyes.
But worse, when his gaze shifted to King True…
By the gods…
He had never…
Not ever…
Seen the like.
True’s eyes on Jellan were green.
Not the green they normally were.
Overtaken with the color, no white to be seen.
Jellan took a step back, ran into something, and jerked his head about to look over his shoulder.
A wall of men stood behind him consisting, he noted with a sinking stomach, of lieutenants from three separate realms.
That sinking stomach clutched, and his throat closed.
He turned back to Cassius.
“I-I’m sorry,” he forced out. “I do not know what you mean.”
“All right. I’ll ask another question,” Cassius said. “Did you, or did you not, infiltrate a group known as the Society of the Beast, participate in the seizure, rape and murder of countless women over several decades, doing this conspiring to surface the Beast in order to control it for the purposes of The Rising?”
Oh gods.
Jellan leaned toward the Regent, his mind racing.
“This is…this is what you must know. It was not me. It was a woman named Marian. But the Beast is risen. He is amongst us.”
Jellan would have said more but Cassius’s gaze shifted to the side, and he said, “I know.”
Jellan looked in that direction and stood solid when he saw five men had moved to the front of the crowd at that side.
The highwaymen.
He pointed at them.
“Those men set upon me to steal my purse!” he cried. “They are highwaymen!”
“I must admit, I had my suspicions, but as I have no evidence…” Cassius muttered, sounding amused.
Jellan’s attention whipped back to him.
“You must listen to me,” he begged.
“Do you deny any of this?” he asked.
“Yes!” Jellan shouted. “All of it! I must tell you of Marian.”
“Marian? G’Ry’s acolyte who’s gone missing?”
This question came from Farah.
“Yes, my queen.” He nodded repeatedly, not knowing if this was true, but willing to say anything to sound important to them. “It is vital you listen to what I have to say. The Beast—”
“Has great claws that can sever a man’s head and great strength that he can crush one. He can also transform from looking like simply a man, a fair-haired, blue-eyed one, to his real incarnation.”
It was Mars that spoke this.
How did they know so very much?
The priests and those girls who had gotten away.
They must have discovered them.
“Yes.” Jellan nodded fervently. “He is fearsome and conniving. He can act guileless, but he is not. It is falsity. He…he…also bleeds,” he shared, turning to the highwaymen. “When they set upon us, they used their whips.” He looked back to the podium. “They made him bleed.”
“And now he wanders about the countryside of Airen with a woman,” Aramus remarked.
“Yes.” Jellan continued nodding. “She is…not to be trusted. And he is, I do not know. I think he searches for something.”
“But you know not what?” Aramus asked.
Jellan did not wish to, but he shook his head.
And then his mind tripped upon an idea.
“But I think he is…he has some affection for her. As well as…as well as…” He swallowed. “Me. They think I am lost. A fright my horse took when we were set upon by the highwaymen. This I maneuvered in order to escape. I took a grave risk in order to come to you and warn you that the quakes were as we suspected. That it is good the prophesied are at full strength. And…p-perhaps, I-I could be used to…to lure him, to…to…bring him to you so that maybe you can use these dragons of which you speak—”