Total pages in book: 247
Estimated words: 235897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1179(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 786(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 235897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1179(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 786(@300wpm)
“Noted.” I aim inward and slide, landing on the wall between his first and second talon.
By the time Xaden and I reach them, all three soldiers have backed themselves into the cross-bolt turret. I open my mouth to assure them we only mean harm if they do, but a wooden door in the stone ground is pushed open on Xaden’s left, and the cavalry captain’s head pops through.
He lectures the soldiers, but the only word I pick out is audience. Then he beckons us toward the darkness with a motion of his hand. “Follow me.”
Xaden walks in first, and I follow down the stone staircase. Natural light illuminates our path through small slits in the stonework, and we pass two doorways as we wind our way to the ground floor.
“They’re inside the walls, too,” I tell Tairn. Dad either left that part out or never saw the inner workings of the defenses. My bet is on the second.
“Smart,” Tairn acknowledges.
The officer pushes open the door at the base of the steps, and Xaden and I walk into a shaded alleyway between stone buildings maybe a foot wider than Xaden’s shoulders. The pommels of his swords come within inches of scraping rock. “We could learn a few things from this construction. One soldier could hold off dozens.”
We reach the end of the alley and walk into the open cobblestone street. It looks to be thirty feet wide and, if Dad’s records are correct, is part of the residential district, but there’s nothing homey about the leather-clad soldiers lining the street, only a few of whom wear the muted green leathers. Soldiers in pale blue wear metal greaves along their legs. But the ones in silver stand in front of the next gate, swords drawn, the metal of their armored chest plates catching the morning light.
At least the portcullis hasn’t been lowered.
“Wait here.” The captain walks us into the middle, then leaves when one of the soldiers in blue shouts something from the left.
Xaden and I move to stand back to back.
“There’re two dozen of them and only the both of us,” I whisper, my gaze jumping from soldier to soldier, noting they have two stationed in front of every door.
Sgaeyl growls from above.
“Four,” Xaden reminds me quietly, brushing his pinkie against mine. “And I’m really missing that bond right now.”
“Me too.” I keep my hands close to my blades without giving the guards reason to strike, fighting the fear that threatens to slow my judgment as the sky darkens with heavy clouds.
The guards at my right split, and the captain walks through, followed by Aaric, Dain, and Cat.
“Welcoming bunch,” Cat notes when they reach us.
“This way,” the captain orders, then strides toward the silver-wearing soldiers blocking the next gate.
“Stay close and don’t get yourself killed,” Xaden says to Aaric as we follow the cavalry officer. The soldiers walking on both sides of us alternate between watching us and glancing upward, as though Tairn and Sgaeyl might decide they’ve had enough of the wall.
The soldiers begin to argue as we approach the gate, but I only pick out danger and holy.
“They want the challenge held in this…station,” Dain interprets from behind me as Sgaeyl and Tairn walk the wall above us, keeping pace. “They don’t want us any closer to their primary temple.”
“It’s not their temple we’re interested in,” Cat mutters beside him.
The captain must win the argument because the guards part to allow us through. I glance at their chest plates and find the etched symbol of two crossed swords gripped in the center by a claw—the emblem of Dunne.
“It’s similar to ours,” I tell Tairn as we cross under the thick gate. “They have a claw in her symbol, suggesting a common origin.”
“Focus now, analyze later,” he demands as we enter the next section.
There are no residences here, only two sectors of terraced seating built into the walls on both sides, leaving an open plaza in front of the largest temple I’ve ever seen. It’s easily the height of Tairn. The long, gabled roof is tiled in the same pale blue as the rest of the city, and the six wide pillars holding the front are all gray granite. The polished stones shimmer in the light, making them appear almost silver, and each has been carved with a different symbol. Sword. Shield. Fire. Water. Claw. My eyebrows rise when my gaze reaches the final pillar on the right. Book.
All tools of warfare.
Beside that pillar is a sculpted tribute to the goddess, a sparkling gray effigy of her likeness that reaches the lowest line of the roof. She holds a sword pointed in our direction in her left hand and a shield protecting the right edge of her temple in the other. Her long hair is braided down one side of her torso, and she’s dressed in long, belted robes with an armored chest plate.