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)
He wished to escort them all safely home.
But with the Beast unleashed, Tedrey not only had no coin, they had no horses. He further had no weapon in case they ran into trouble (and with the way things were in all realms these days, Zees or highwaymen could be the least of their worries).
And last, he just simply did not have the luxury of taking the time such an endeavor would require.
He had to get to Notting Thicket. He had to get to Birchlire Castle. He had to find some way to gain an audience with King True and share the dire news.
He worried naught could be done.
This was, of course, the Beast.
But they must try, and he did not have the power to do it himself.
First, however, he had to find someone who would see to the women. Their families had to be worried to distraction. If he could find one soul he sensed he could trust who would take charge of them, he had no doubt they would be safe at their own hearths in little time.
With the Beast risen, he just had even less than “little” time to give.
In that moment, in a stable that Tedrey had noted on the way to the Ritual Ground (so he’d led the women there in the rain after they’d fled, and at least it had provided shelter, if not warmth, and they’d spent the night there), Moira had hold of a long stick.
She was using it to draw a rough map of eastern Wodell in the dirt.
“We are here,” she pointed with her stick. She then moved it what Tedrey considered a disheartening distance away and dug a little hole in the dirt, finishing, “Notting Thicket is there.”
“Yes, Moira, but as I shared with you, I need you to guide me to someone you can trust who will take in these women and see to it they are safely home. I have to do that first, before I head to the Thicket. But it must be done quickly. So please, tell me if you know of someone who is close that you would trust with this task. Or, perchance, there is a temple nearby where there is a priest or priestess who would take on this duty?”
“I live in the Lesser Thicket, Tedrey,” she replied. “Northeast of here. It’s at least fifteen, perhaps twenty miles beyond where we started. I do not know this place at all.”
That was not stellar news.
Further, her home was at least two days’ walk, if they could manage a good pace and do so for hours and hours without even a morsel of food amongst them.
Which would take him four days’ out of his way.
He glanced at the other women.
Moira knew what he was thinking, all of it, for she said, “We will go with you.”
He looked back to Moira and replied quietly, “You know we must get them home.”
“I know those men had you for whatever purpose they had you, though as they seemed to be saving you for last, I can only imagine it was worse than what they did to those girls, which is impossible to fathom,” she retorted.
He did not know if she was right. The Beast seemed to dispense with the men without delay.
Whereas what Thom and Fenn had done to those women…
“You got yourself loose,” she continued, “and you did not run. You helped us. And after you’d freed us, you made sure we’d escaped, positioning yourself to block the path between them and us. But when you returned to us, you looked like the Beast had been awakened and you shared with me you had to make haste to Notting Thicket.”
He blinked at her, for her words took him aback as he had not shared the Beast had, indeed, awakened.
It came to him slowly that this was what many people said. It was akin to, “you looked like you’d seen a ghost,” but worse.
And as sayings go, that one was true. He’d cope with a thousand ghosts before he again had to witness the Beast risen.
“Tedrey?”
He came back into their conversation when Moira called his name.
“Did you hear me?” she asked.
“I’m sorry?” he queried in return.
“I was saying, as those villains were there for nefarious purposes, it obviously must be reported immediately as they are Go’Doan and they must be of this Rising.”
“They were that,” he affirmed.
She regarded him closely. “If this is so, I do not know why we need to go all the way to the Thicket when we can find a local constabulary and report to them. That is what King True wishes us to do.”
“They were, er…higher ups in The Rising.” He was pleased with the words he shared that he did not have to lie.
“And who were those who came up from the ground?”