Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 162269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 541(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 162269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 541(@300wpm)
Alas, he could not do that.
“Sit here,” Faunus demanded, arising from his chair. “If you sit on that bed, you’ll fall into it and not tell us the words that need to be told.”
Teddy went to the now-vacant chair while Faunus sprawled himself on the bed, his head in his hand, elbow to the bed, close to the foot, so he could see better, Teddy in his chair.
It was altogether too pleasing of a view, but fortunately, Teddy was too exhausted to waste time appreciating it, and definitely could do nothing about it.
“Start from the beginning, il mio amore,” Faunus urged.
Teddy looked to Faunus.
He then looked to Saturn, who was pouring wine into a pewter chalice. This deed done, he slid it across the table to Teddy, who took it up, swallowed a healthy dose, and put it down.
And then he started at the beginning.
There were many times the room grew close due to the weight of their combined fury, or stagnant due to their shock at what Teddy told them.
But neither interrupted him all the while he spoke, sharing his story from the moment Fenn took him at Nyx and Lorenz’s back step, to when they met in the forest just hours before.
He ended with his eyes on Faunus.
“We need to find an aviast. We need to get birds to King Mars, King True, King Aramus, Prince Cassius, Queen Ophelia. They must know. They must prepare.”
“First, Teddy, this earth has lost Queen Ophelia. Princess Elena is now Queen of the Nadirii.”
“By the gods,” Teddy murmured.
“Second, Airen is in the throes of a civil war. It started but days ago and all the rulers of all the realms are there now, fighting it.”
Teddy just stared at him.
Bloody hell.
How long had he been captive and then on the run?
The world had turned over.
“And last, this creature you mention, you are sure it is the Beast?”
“It transformed from man to…to…” He shook his head and looked between the two men, though he settled on Faunus again. “It is impossible to describe. Hideous. Fearsome. Powerful. In the form of a man, he crushed a man’s head between his bare hands. As the Beast, his claws severed Fenn’s head and he drank from the neck. He was not a troll. He was not a gogmagogg. I do not know of anything in magic, of this earth, even in lore to describe him. Except the Beast.”
Head still in hand, Faunus tipped it back to catch Saturn’s gaze.
Teddy looked to Saturn and saw the end of his shrug, and when he noted he had Teddy’s attention, he wrapped his fingers around the wine bottle, reached across the table and poured Teddy some more.
He then poured himself more and got up to add some to Faunus’s goblet.
They were all silent and they drank.
It was Teddy who spoke.
“I understand you do not wish to appear like you’ve lost your mind by sharing this with your ruler.”
“We will share it,” Faunus decreed. “Though, Teddy, it is not that I do not believe you believe what it is you saw. But we will just describe it rather than saying the Beast has risen. It is not outside the realm of what we know of this Rising to do whatever they will to get what they want. To call forth a creature. Create one. You said yourself a Rising priest was with the thing when it emerged from the earth. Perhaps they did something with dark magic, using those women as sacrifices, that they can no longer control. Whatever it is, Mars must know. They all must know. Yes?”
Teddy nodded. Relieved.
It was the Beast, he knew it to his bones.
But even if they didn’t think that true, they were still going to send their warnings.
“Because of this, it is unnecessary to go to the Thicket as True is not there,” Faunus declared. “You must talk to your women. Get them to allow us to escort them home so that we can make our way back to ours.”
Teddy shook his head. “We still must go there.”
“Why?” Saturn asked.
Teddy looked to his friend and dipped his voice low when he told him, “Because they slaughtered all those women. We must go to Crittich Keep. We must report what was done, so if those girls’ bodies have not yet been found, they will be, and they can be given their pyres and their families can know. Knowing will bring great sorrow. And I do not know, I can only assume, but my assumption is, not knowing would be worse.”
Saturn nodded.
Teddy looked to Faunus and he nodded.
“And if the others that ran away are still out there, they must be caught. They must pay for what they did to those women.”
He did not receive nods from either man to that, but the intensity of their stares communicated they were in hearty agreement.