Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 99201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 496(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99201 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 496(@200wpm)___ 397(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
A pegásius. “Someone has cut off its wings. How awful.” I reach up to rub my fingertips over the scars. The pegásius snorts, bending its neck around to look at me. One bright blue eye meets mine, opening a bit wider, like it’s surprised, but just as quickly droops back down into laziness.
“Yeah,” Eros says absently. Then he looks at me. “Like your antlers.”
I stand still, stunned silent for a moment. I hadn’t even considered that someone had cut them off.
I want to reach up and feel them again. To assure myself that’s not what happened. But I don’t. Because I know that it is.
Someone has cut off my antlers.
And someone has cut off this noble beast’s wings.
“They took your wings,” I say.
Eros exhales. “No. They didn’t.”
“What do you mean? You don’t have any.”
“They’re there. Just not visible. I can feel them.”
“Take them out. I would like to see.”
For some reason, I get the feeling he does not want to do this. And when he speaks, it is confirmed. “No. I don’t want to see them.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t like them, OK? They’re ugly. And if this version of me has the ability to hide them, then I don’t wanna potentially fuck it up by bringing them out.” To accentuate his reluctance, he rolls his shoulders like a person with tension, letting out a long breath once he’s done.
This is new. He’s never let on that the bat wings bother him. However, there are more important things to discuss. “Your eyes are very bright. Almost glowing, Eros.”
“Well, with or without wings, I am still a god, am I not? Why shouldn’t they be bright and unnatural?”
For some reason I feel chastised. “Well, excuse me then. I won’t bring it up again.”
He shrugs. “Whatever.” Then he turns to the animal and begins scanning its tack, taking in the various things affixed to it—two large leather bags positioned behind the saddle’s cantle and draping over each side of the lower ribcage, a leather bedroll tied to the saddlebags, and two more smaller bags attached to the rump plate.
“You don’t have a bow, either. Is that hidden away as well?”
He doesn’t answer me and this is a not-so-subtle hint that it’s time to move on. So I join Eros in his curiosity about where we are. It’s a road, this is obvious. But not a well-travelled one because there is no one else on it with us. We are high up in a mountain pass. Where it leads is anyone’s guess. The other side is not visible yet. The road is long and empty, winding around peaks as it makes its way across the mountain.
“I can’t even see a descent. Can you see a descent, Eros?”
Eros shakes his head. “Not an ascent, either. This road doesn’t go up or down. It merely goes across. But you know what the most disturbing thing is?” He looks at me, waiting for me to answer his rhetorical question.
“What?” I huff, kinda tired of his attitude.
He points in the direction we came from. “There’s no door, Callistina. How do we get back?”
My eyes dart in that direction too, my mouth open in shock. Because he’s right. I look back at Eros. “Are we stuck here?” And is there a little bit of excitement in my voice at this prospect?
Eros shrugs. “Not sure. But one thing is clear—we need to follow this road. There doesn’t seem to be any point in going backwards.” He walks over to the beast and starts checking supplies, rummaging around inside the bags. When he opens the ones attached to the rump plate, he lets out a sigh of relief. “Water. Thank the gods.” He takes out a skin, opens it, sniffs the water, and takes a drink.
We both wait, like drinking bad water would make him instantly sick—which isn’t the case and we both know this, but we wait anyway.
“I think it’s fine,” he finally says. Then offers the skin to me.
I take it, drink, feel fine as well, and hand it back.
“We should stop at any sign of water to refill the skins. I’m hoping there’s another pass hidden from view that will have more signs of life, but just in case there’s not, and we have to see this long road through to the end, we don’t want to run out of water.”
I let out a breath and agree with a nod of my head. “Good thinking.”
“I’m sure I’ve been to Vinca at one time or another, but I have no memories of it, Callistina. Look for signs.”
“Oh.” I put up a hand. “This is definitely not Vinca.”
“How do you know?”
“Everything is off. The heat, for one. It’s so dry. And dusty. It feels like a desert, don’t you think? Vinca is not a desert. It’s hot, but it’s humid. There’s a lot of water. A river running right through the city. Big enough for barges. And the sea is not that far away. We are not in Vinca.”