Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 137958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 690(@200wpm)___ 552(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 690(@200wpm)___ 552(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)
“Why don’t I have a good feeling about this?” Macrinus asked.
“Because I just declared my father make me regent.”
“Gods-damn fuck,” Macrinus hissed.
“Indeed,” Cassius muttered. Though he did not mutter when he ordered, “Mac, get men to Aelia. Leave the city, send a bird, make certain she has guards we trust with her at all times. When my men make it to her, have them bring her to me wherever we are on our journey. But I don’t want her traveling without members of my personal guard.” He paused and finished, “Make one of those men Nero. When needed, he acts as her guard anyway. He won’t balk at this mission.”
“Aelia? Do you think he would—?” Macrinus started.
Cassius interrupted him. “I’m not taking that chance.”
Macrinus nodded and said, “We need to—”
“Talk later,” Cassius said low.
Macrinus nodded again before he moved out of the room.
Cassius walked back to his seat and took it.
When he did, True declared, “You’ll have our swords.”
Slowly, Cassius turned his head to True. “I’m sorry?”
“You’ll have the swords of Wodell,” True stated.
Cassius looked to the chair True’s father vacated and back to True.
“You can make this assertion?” he asked.
“I think my men will be relieved if they march to a fight that is right and not a fight all know is folly,” True returned.
Cassius considered this a moment before he asked quietly, “Are they your men, True?”
“They are the only thing I have in that realm, Cassius. My father, but mostly his advisor, might argue they aren’t. But if he did, he would not like how that went,” True answered. “My father assumed the throne at a young age. He never rode a horse to battle. But he does not mind sending them, and the men on them, to do just that. My sword has been bloodied. Repeatedly. I think you know what that means to a soldier.”
By the look on Cassius’s face, he knew.
“This will get ugly,” Cassius warned.
“It already is,” True returned. “Shall we rectify that?”
Slowly, Cassius smiled.
“You’ll have my armada.”
Both men turned to Aramus when he made this surprising announcement.
The Mar-el never engaged in the politics of the mainland.
But Aramus was looking at True. “And you’ll have your five years, Prince of the Forest.”
By the gods.
True stared at him.
Aramus murmured, “It is time.” And as an afterthought, he went on, “And I suspect it will please my wife.”
For the first time at that table that morning, True smiled.
“You’ll have my horses, Cass,” Mars added.
But at that, Cassius shook his head.
“You’ll need them and the men on them. Your reign is not secure, my brother,” Cassius noted. “You’re enamored of her and it may be she’s charmed your capital city, but you marry a Dellish. None of our peoples know the Beast rises. The panic which might ensue would not help matters. But as news reaches the ends of your realm, not understanding why you’re the first Firenz king to marry a woman outside Firenze and do it with a female from a nation with whom you clash, this might not be popular. And you above all know the Firenz do not mind taking action when something is not popular.”
“Nothing allies the people of a nation more than war, Cass,” Mars replied.
Sadly, True thought, this was true.
“It goes without saying, you’ll have the staffs, bows and blades of the Nadirii,” True noted.
“I’m not certain anything goes without saying with the Nadirii,” Cassius returned. “Especially when it comes to Airen. However, if Ophelia does not offer her warriors, there’s no question she won’t stand in my way.”
True nodded.
“Talk with your men, meet with the Nadirii queen, plan your strategy, send your birds,” Aramus said to Cassius. “And as you do, let it be known all the nations of Triton back the new Airenzian Regent.”
The men sat silently at the table as Cassius looked at them, one by one.
Finally, he said, “It is done.”
It was, indeed.
History was most assuredly in the making.
In a number of ways.
And True was honored he sat at a table during the dethroning of an unjust king.
Turning his head as the men exchanged glances, he knew he was in good company.
24
The Piercing Ceremony
Lady Silence Mattson
Royal Palace Gardens, Catrame Palace, Fire City
FIRENZE
It didn’t seem a’tall bad, having a lovely, fragrant bath, my hair cleaned and brushed until it was shining, and donning the drape of orange silk edged in crimson that was tied at one shoulder (and thank goodness, pinned down the side for I wore nothing underneath!).
I thought this as I moved through the palace gardens on my bare feet to an intimate corner well to the back that was lush with foliage and pots brimming with greenery and flowers.
In that corner there was a rectangular pedestal that rose perhaps two feet from the ground.
It was draped in crimson silk with an edge of orange. It also had a small pillow at the top dressed in emerald green. And covering the entire pedestal as well as floating down to the silk that also swathed the mosaic tile on the ground, were crimson and orange and apricot flower petals.