Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 99529 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 498(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99529 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 498(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
I didn’t see him any more while we all prepared to leave.
Hours later, I stood on a dirt road that led into Blue Spirit Park.
The sun showered golden rays onto my skin.
Tons and tons of copper wagons remained within a long line. Before dawn arrived, Ian had purchased them with vials of my blood.
The wagons were small, round and had no windows. Sunlight sparkled along their shiny sides. They would help us make the long journey to mage territory.
It was around thirty of them.
An ex-royal guard sat in most along with dominas who’d volunteered to come with us.
The women knew they would be traded for soldiers in mage territory. None cared. All were happy to be rid of the Quiet King’s dungeons and help with destroying him. They were ready to give up their bodies for the revolution, the oldest of them had said. The others cheered in agreement.
Let’s hope we don’t have to trade too many dominas. I don’t like putting them into more slavery.
Then there was Ian’s newly healed men from the sewers. There were excited to fight with us.
I checked in front of me.
Several dominas brought over stripped horses and slowly put on the reins to attach them to the wagons.
Will this all work?
I moved my view from the wagons and looked down the winding dirt path. Tons of trees lined the road.
Far off a mountain loomed over the path.
What will the mage territories look like? And will they let us enter or will that be another battle?
A lot would happen once we arrived there.
I had a dream in the sewers before coming out. The gods—Ressi and Ambi—had come to me with specific instructions. It was crazy to think that was possible, but I knew deep within me that it was true. Those gods were real, and I truly had a way to communicate with them.
I wish I could talk to Xander or even Ian about the dream, but. . .
I glanced back to the wagons.
Octavia, Xander’s sister, arrived with more food, blankets, and trunk loads of money. It didn’t seem like she cared about her brother killing her mother. I wondered about the cruel childhood she must have had.
Presently, more dominas packed the copper vehicles with those supplies and trunks of gold, diamonds, and other valuable items that we hoped would peak the interests of mage chiefs.
Leeta had showed us where Queen Regina’s stash was, and that was what we planned to use to convince the mages to work with us.
It was time to end the Quiet King, not just to save my daughters, but to conclude his horrid dictatorship. Then, hopefully, we could build something new, something better. Something that didn’t involve the slavery of human woman and the slaying of vampire princes.
Please Ressi and Ambi. Protect us.
I headed to some of the other copper wagons and assessed that everyone would be safe during the ride. The walls were tough layers. No weapons would pierce them. Each had water, food, blankets, and medical supplies for the journey.
Currently, all the vampires remained inside the wagons.
I’d been the person designated to manage the journey to Tribe Flame, being that none of the others could come out in the daylight.
Leeta and Octavia slept in a wagon together with some of the younger dominas. I’d already checked on them to make sure they were safe.
Ian had his own wagon. Unfortunately, he brought Phinova’s corpse in there.
He’d refused to answer any questions about why he was walking around with a dead blood mage.
I sighed.
I’ll need to talk with him again and push the matter.
Meanwhile, Xander was in my wagon. While we may have had an uncomfortable tension bridging between us. . .I couldn’t be without him.
I let out a long breath. “This is really going to work.”
A wind blew through, carrying the perfume of daisies.
When Xander had first escorted me to the sewer opening weeks before and late at night, darkness blanketed the space. I’d thought the opening existed on the outskirts of Capitol City.
However, the park encircled the opening. Daises from blue to violet cast shadows over the area. Birds chirped a song in the trees.
The horses attached to our wagons snorted, neighed, and a few even blew long breaths into the morning air.
Vampires considered the park ripe with magic. Many spotted the ghosts of dead relatives, according to hustlers that stood in the main square and provided tours of the park to newcomers.
I’d been one of the hustled when I was a domina. I’d paid three pocks to be taken to the park in the hopes of seeing my dead mother and asking her if my service to the Quiet King was the right thing to do.
I never saw her.
Once we got deep enough into the park, my tour guide escaped with my pocks and I’d been lost for hours, trying to get back to the castle.