Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 145341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 727(@200wpm)___ 581(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 727(@200wpm)___ 581(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
“What is this?” Stepan demanded from his place in the first row.
Andros slowly turned to face him. “What is this? This is an inquiry, Stepan. A real one. One concerning high treason. Before I ask my questions of those in this room, I want to know where Lada’s daughter is. Remember before you answer, I hear lies. My sister and brothers hear lies. If you lie to me even once, I will know you are part of the conspiracy against the royals and all Lycans. You will be put to death immediately. So think very carefully before you make a mistake. It has been a long few days, and I am not in a mood to be trifled with.”
He waited. The clock ticked. Outside the wind howled. Someone shifted restlessly in their chair until it creaked in protest.
“Stepan, I asked you a direct question. Where is Lada’s daughter?”
Stepan shook his head, glanced at the men facing him in the judges’ seats and looked down at his hands. “I don’t know, Andros. She was taken from us.”
Polina sobbed and hastily covered her mouth with her hands, her eyes downcast.
Vasilisa exchanged a long look with Afanasiv. Someone on that panel of judges took that child, she told him. Maybe more than one of them has knowledge of where she is.
Easy enough to get the information. Afanasiv didn’t really understand why Vasilisa was waiting for her brother to question the group of Lycans. As far as he was concerned, every judge sitting in those five chairs was complicit. He didn’t like that an innocent child was involved or that she had been taken from her mother to force her mother to betray Andros.
He scanned the first suspect’s mind. He was the one wearing a robe over his clothes. His name was Ira Semenov, and he had lost his wife recently. They had belonged to the Sacred Circle their entire lives. He had recently been asked by Artyom, his close friend, to sit on the council. Ira was certain Artyom had asked him because he’d fallen into such a depression after losing his wife.
Ira had a lot of questions about the new ideas being brought to the Sacred Circle. The ones considered the “old ways” weren’t the ways he’d been brought up with, and he considered himself older and very well versed in all things Sacred Circle until recently. He found himself saying and doing things that didn’t make sense when he looked back on it later.
The man known as Nikita was inherently cruel. Ira didn’t understand why the others didn’t seem to see that in him. He acted kind, but he wasn’t. Everyone was afraid of him, Ira included. It was just best not to go against him. Every time Ira thought to tell Artyom he wanted to leave the council, Nikita would turn his blazing eyes on him, and Ira would cower like the others and stay silent.
Afanasiv slid out of Ira’s mind and into Artyom’s. Artyom Morozov was four years older than Ira and somewhat stern. He believed in rules and needed them to navigate through the world. Rules mattered to him. They had made it much easier to understand what he was supposed to do growing up. He didn’t have to worry about making mistakes as long as he followed rules. The Sacred Circle made sense to him. Everything he needed to know was laid out in detail for him, from the rules of his marriage to raising his children.
He wasn’t a brilliant man by any means. He didn’t think for himself. He simply followed the instructions laid out for him. There was no way he could have come up with any kind of conspiracy against the royals, although if the council set new rules for the Sacred Circle, he would follow them blindly.
It wasn’t that he was a bad man; he was a weak man. A lazy one, Afanasiv decided. He might be uncomfortable with the way Lada was being questioned, but he went along with it because Nikita and the others decreed she was immoral, although the child was the daughter of her deceased husband. If the others believed she should do as they wished in order to be cleansed, then he believed it, too. The task they asked, to ensnare Andros in marriage, was such a small thing. He was a royal and, as such, should belong to the Sacred Circle. Lada should be punished for not fulfilling that task. If the others thought so, he did as well.
Afanasiv was rather sickened by Artyom’s way of thinking. He refused to be responsible for even one small decision. He didn’t know where Lada’s child was, but he had voted to take the child from her. Disgusted, Afanasiv left his mind.
What happened to the Lycan belief that they are responsible for one another? That they hold women and children close?