Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 111252 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 556(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111252 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 556(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
“Lower your voice,” Xiang hissed. He pressed the point of a blade into the creature’s throat, stopping the bob of his Adam’s apple as he attempted to swallow.
He lifted his trembling hands in surrender and lowered himself to the floor, shrinking away from the knife. “There’s nobody around to hear me, even if I shouted for help,” he cried.
“What are you talking about?” Kai demanded.
“Most of the servants and even the nobles have run off. The queen’s gone mad. Completely insane. Obsessed with controlling that dragon of hers. She’s given up on all her plans to destroy the humans and take over their realm. All she thinks about night and day is how to break the dragon, but everybody knows no one can control a dragon that doesn’t wanna be controlled.”
Kai might have needed to bite his cheek to hold in his smile about that. At least this creature understood dragons. Far better than his queen. No one could control him.
Well, maybe he’d happily hand the reins over to his sexy mate, but that was a different, sexier kind of control and not what the creature here was talking about.
“That would explain why we’ve seen so few people since we entered the castle,” Xiang mumbled, pulling Kai’s wandering thoughts to their current problem.
“Between the death of the king and exiling her favorite son, nobody is happy right now. Throw in the mess with the dragon and most of the Silver Court has run off to either hide in the human realm or gone to our own home realm.” The man’s face crumbled up even more, so that it was hard to even pick out his coal-black eyes among the wrinkles and folds of skin. “Knew I should have gone. Nothing worthwhile in the human realm except a good block of cheese and those flaky little pastries with the fruit inside. You ever had one of those?” He perked up briefly as his mind turned to food to the point of even waving an excited hand at Kai.
“We’re not interested in food,” Xiang growled, and the man cringed away to lie like a lump on the floor.
“Where’s the sword?” Kai inquired.
“Sword?” their new friend repeated.
“The blue crystal sword the queen uses to control the dragon. The sword that never leaves her fucking side,” Kai snarled. What calm amusement he felt toward their temporary captive evaporated. They were so fucking close, and he knew this whiny weird creature could point them in the correct direction.
“It’s with her. Like you said, it’s always with her. Half of us have been wishing she’d sleep with the damn thing and cut her own head off when she rolls over.” The informant scrubbed a hand over his face and released a sound that was half moan and half sob. “Shoulda left. Just shoulda left.”
Xiang pressed the tip of the knife to the underside of the man’s chin, lifting his face so that he was forced to look at them. “Where’s the queen? Her chambers?”
He started to shake his head, but he stopped when he nicked himself on the edge of the blade. “No. She-she’s in the throne room. She almost never leaves the throne room now.”
“How do we—”
The figure’s right hand shot out, pointing to the doorway they’d just come through. “The fastest route is to travel down this corridor, make a left and then a right into the main hall. Follow that up the central staircase and it’s through the double doors facing the stairs,” he directed before Kai could even finish his questions.
“Now, let’s try that without leading us past every remaining guard in the palace,” Xiang snarled.
Kai smiled as well. “You know your way to the kitchens. You must know the servants’ corridors to the throne room.”
Their new companion audibly gulped, his black eyes widening so that they caught glints of the dying embers. “Um…um…right out of the kitchen. Just keep following it around until you hit a set of narrow stairs. Up one floor. There will be a set of black doors. They’ll open on either side of the dais to the throne.”
“How many guards are in the throne room?”
“I-I-I don’t know.”
“Lies!” Kai pressed the tip of his own knife into the creature’s gut, poking through his shirt.
“No! No! Seriously! I’ve never counted. It’s been weeks since I last dared to stick my head in that room. I’m just a paper-pusher, as the humans would say. My job is to keep an eye on the gnomes, dwarves, hobgoblins, and the like. The diggers who can find the queen shiny gems and such. If you’re not an elf, you don’t get much of an audience with the queen. Not that anyone wants that now.”
“Then take a guess,” Xiang sneered. “How many guards are going to be with her?”
“A dozen. No! Fewer than a dozen now. She has more when she’s holding court.”