Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 104842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 349(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 349(@300wpm)
Kaan did an even smarter thing then and dropped to one knee in front of Hadrian.
“The prince gave Jason Thorpe his seal,” Hadrian reminded him. “Be mindful of that fact, and that as Varic Maedoc considers anyone, so should we all consider them. Yes?” Meaning that whatever Varic called me, or anyone, that was what we were. He was the prince, after all.
“Yes, rekkr,” Kaan had conceded.
“Look here to me.”
Kaan had lifted his head to look at Hadrian.
“Should there ever come a day when you give raised words to my mate, you will meet your ancestors before the setting of the sun. Are we clear?”
“We are.”
“Then I bid you a good day, kenningar,” he’d concluded, dismissing the man from his sight.
That happened right before Varic went to hunt Alrek. I realized that as much as I missed Varic, I missed Hadrian and Tiago as well. I thought of us as a family, and I liked it when everyone was with me.
“Hello?”
Looking up, realizing I’d been caught taking a trip down memory lane, I glanced around at everyone, and they were all staring at me.
“Do you want to hear what happened to the prisoner?” Zev asked, sounding annoyed.
“I do. Sorry.”
He scowled, which was his default. He was forever looking at me like I’d messed up somehow. “Because Sorin has ancient marks from service, I explained to Kaan that torturing him, when that has clearly been done to him before, would be useless.”
“Of course it would,” I replied. “But how could you tell?”
“About the service?”
I nodded.
“When he changed from his disguise that allowed him to blend with the others in the ballroom, I saw marks from being flogged, branded, cut, burned… He’s had a hard, brutal life.”
“Okay,” I said softly. “So because you recognize torture when you see it, you ordered the prisoner be held until Varic returns.”
“I did.”
“And will Kaan honor that command?”
“I went to see the king before I visited the dungeon to make certain I could speak for him in this matter.”
This was a surprise. I didn’t think Zev and the king spoke anymore. There was so much tangled history between them, I couldn’t imagine that either could bear to be in the other’s presence. The king had ordered the death of his love, Gideon, and while logically, Zev understood, his heart, I knew, was still grieving. And for the king’s part, Zev had warned him for years that Gideon was plotting against him, and he had never once taken my champion’s words to heart. The idea of them being comfortable with each other was completely alien.
“And what did the king say?”
“He said he would, in this matter, defer to my judgment.”
I was stunned.
“Don’t look so amazed,” he scolded. “These are matters of life and death. Of course he would respect my opinion.”
I didn’t understand that either. How could the king not put any faith in Zev’s word for years, yet trust him now in a matter where his safety was again in question? Weren’t the stakes higher now?
“Come,” Zev said, gesturing to me. “The king wants an audience with you.”
“Now?” I said, hands up so he could see my casual outfit. Normally, we dressed to have an audience with His Majesty.
“It’s fine,” he assured me. “Just come now.”
“Should I put on my shoes?”
I couldn’t help smiling. Zev’s irritation with me, how completely over my crap he felt, was written all over his face. His left eye was twitching, as it had started to do lately.
“You’re aging him even as we stand here,” Dae-Jung whispered to me.
Yeah. I knew I was.
As predicted, in front of the council members and the king’s guard, I was first commended for saving His Majesty, then tasked with going to the Qinngua Valley in Greenland where Decimus lived, to question him about why his men had invaded the king’s court. Because if they weren’t here on Decimus’s orders, that was almost worse. It meant they were working against their lord and needed help.
“As we cannot inflict pain on one who has already seen much of it in his lifetime and expect him to tell us anything of truth, the prisoner will be held, as your hendr suggested, until the prince returns,” the king said, nodding at Zev, who bowed.
That was good news.
“But that does not mean we can wait to answer such a brazen attack as was perpetuated here, in the palace, where I and others reside.”
There was no getting around the logic in his words. If someone was coming after the king, next time someone else could get hurt, and after losing Nerilla, no one wanted that.
“The only course of action open to us is that you, Jason, must make the trip to speak to Decimus about what has occurred.”
To me, it made more sense to wait for Varic so the prisoner could be questioned, but I could see the king’s point because when would that be? We had no timeline for Varic’s return, and if this was a true threat from his uncle, the king needed to know and prepare. And if this was some rogue group Decimus had no control over, we needed to know that as well.