Total pages in book: 210
Estimated words: 200096 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1000(@200wpm)___ 800(@250wpm)___ 667(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 200096 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1000(@200wpm)___ 800(@250wpm)___ 667(@300wpm)
A mystery that may be answered within that vast library the nymphs have been protecting all these years. Gesine was adamant it held vital information for me, for our future. “How fast can we get those scribes to Ulysede?”
“We sent letters yesterday as soon as we parted ways and received a response from the Prime at sunrise.” Agatha and Solange share another look, and this time the elderly caster dips her head, deferring to her superior.
“The Prime has declared that she will not comply with the request for scribes.”
“What does that mean? Romeria is the queen of Ybaris. Did you make it clear that this is a command, not a request?” Jarek stares down the Shadow.
Solange takes a step forward, challenging him. “Her Highness’s needs could not have been clearer had I inked it in her own blood.”
“And yet she ignores us.”
“Lorel is certainly not ignoring Queen Romeria.” By Agatha’s tone, more bad news is to come. “The Prime has obviously learned of the lengths the scribes have undertaken to aid prophecy and had announced that all scribes must face judgment for treason against their guild. She has also learned that I am here and has demanded that the Shadows escort me back to Mordain so I may be suitably punished for my crimes.”
“And yet she was willing to turn a blind eye to Neilina forcing Ianca to summon a fate in the first place,” Solange mutters. “She even had the audacity to suggest that was an impossibility in front of the council.”
“The queen who ensured Lorel’s role as Prime?” Agatha snorts. “What else would you expect of someone who puts politics before integrity? But that queen is dead and, I assure you, Lorel will still not admit culpability.”
“And a new Ybarisan queen changes everything.”
“Which is why Lorel has chosen this path.”
The two casters lob words back and forth as if we’re not standing here.
“Why would the Prime want to make me an enemy?” I interrupt.
“Because she assumes you already are one. She has professed you a false queen and Mordain free of Ybaris’s rule.” Agatha’s face turns grim. “After she interrogates the scribes in hopes of uncovering every last shred of knowledge about what has taken place in Ybaris and Islor, she will execute them.”
My stomach drops. “How many?”
“I fear all of them.” Pain fills the old caster’s wrinkled face.
“But she can’t!” We need the scribes.
“Without Neilina, Lorel knows her position as Prime is threatened and she will do whatever she feels necessary to maintain it,” Solange says with more than a hint of bitterness. “Using the opportunity of a new ruler to assert full independence from Ybaris is her best move.”
“And how do you feel about that?” Kienen cuts in, quiet up until now, his steady gaze on Solange.
She glares at him. “What point are you trying to make with an audience here, Ybarisan soldier? You know exactly how I feel,” she snaps back, and I can’t help but sense they know each other beyond their current roles. “It is no secret I have long since wished for my realm to be out from beneath Ybaris. We are discarded as children and then expected to return as servants once our affinities are of use. Now here we are, summoned to the rift to fight in a war between two royal families over land and power, expected to do their bidding. We have played puppets to Queen Neilina’s whims for far too long.”
“Queen Neilina is dead,” I remind her.
“Yes, by your hand. Whether Lorel knows of your path here by Malachi’s will is yet to be determined, but once she does, she will use that to turn the entire guild against you. She can be very persuasive in her methods.”
“Do you support your Prime?” Jarek’s voice is filled with challenge, the unspoken question hanging in the air. Will Solange betray us?
Solange meets it with squared shoulders. “I do not support Lorel,” she says slowly, clearly, daring anyone to oppose her words. “She must be stopped before she causes irreparable damage to my people and to all our realms. I am no fool, and I am here, witnessing the dangers to all firsthand, not hiding in Nyos’s protected towers. Whether I wish to be here or not, here is where Mordain must be.” She casts a hand. “But how long before Lorel recalls us all to Mordain?”
Panic strikes me. “She wouldn’t do that, would she?” We can’t afford to lose any elementals to this Prime’s schemes.
“She will if she thinks it will give her an advantage,” Solange says without missing a beat.
I shake my head, my fury building. “If she is not going to send the scribes here, then we have to go get them. Now, before she has a noose around all their necks.” Or whatever method of murder Mordain relishes in.