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)
“I’m certain that went over well,” Silence noted, her eyes twinkling, her wee monkey hiding in the fall of her hair at her shoulder.
“He not only damned Cassius and Elena’s line for eternity, but mine too,” Ian replied to Silence.
“Oh no, does he have magic in his blood?” Silence asked worriedly.
“There has not been any real magic in the royal lines of landed Triton since the Sky King clashed against the Fire King,” Jorie declared.
Everyone looked to him.
“They were both stout. Both mighty. Both had magic. And both fell in love with the same woman,” Jorie intoned. “She was an extraordinary beauty. Born,” he turned his eyes to True, “to the green.”
He looked about the room, saw he had everyone’s attention, and carried on.
“The firstborn, the Fire King, who had dominion over their realm, felt, as the firstborn, and as the true king, he should be able to lay claim to her. The second born, the Sky King, who ruled at his brother’s behest the northern regions of their realm, felt they should play out a challenge, the victor winning her. The Fire King refused the challenge and spoke loud and much, which reached far, about how he would not do so as he did not wish to humiliate his younger kin. This infuriated the Sky King, and he demanded satisfaction. The Fire King responded by abducting the fair maiden from her green land, imprisoning her in his castle of sand and showering her with jewels and love and affection until she was utterly besotted with him.”
“That sounds like one of your forebears,” Silence murmured, and Mars grinned down at her unrepentantly.
“Stealing through the dunes,” Jorie went on, “the Sky King infiltrated the castle of sand, and in his turn, seized her and took her to his keep on the black cliffs by the sea. There, he taught her the names of the stars and manipulated the clouds to form visions of her beauty in the sky. And he promised her their love would be written, her name on the sun, and his name on the moon, forevermore. Which, of course meant she became utterly besotted with him.”
True noted Cassius staring at Jorie with an inscrutable expression on his face.
While Elena gazed at Cassius with easily read devotion.
And concern.
“The Fire King was beside himself with fury at her loss,” Jorie continued. “He vowed he would lay waste to everything in a blaze of fire until she was returned. This meant the Green King felt he had to intervene. She was his subject. He claimed dominion over her and demanded her return to the green land so he could speak with her and know her desires.”
“I’ve never heard this story,” Ha-Lah whispered to Aramus.
“I haven’t either,” Farah whispered to True.
“Do you know this story, Frey?” Finnie asked.
“Not at all,” Frey answered, his gaze on Jorie.
Circe was regarding Jorie with avid attention.
Lahn was looking into his glass like he wished there was more liquor in it.
Or the liquor that was in it was stronger.
“The kings agreed to meet in the place where all their realms touched, what is now,” Jorie nodded to Elena, “known as The Enchantments.”
“Did you know that?” Ha-Lah asked Elena.
“It was why that location was chosen to be the home of the Nadirii,” Elena told Ha-Lah. “It was already steeped in magic.”
“Yes,” Jorie said. “Fools for love.”
“What happened then, Jorie?” Silence asked.
“Have you not heard this story, piccolina?” Mars queried, and when he did, their monkey scurried out from under hair, over to Mars, where she tucked herself inside his shirt as if she was pulling the covers of a bed up to her neck.
And as the tiny creature did this, Mars did not twitch, as if the thing slept just like that, next to his heart, every night.
“I knew they fought. I knew it was over a woman. But this was not the story I read,” Silence answered. “She was…well, not very romantically described.”
“That’s because you read the Airenzian version,” Cassius told her. “If you find it in Firenze, it will be far closer to the truth.”
“It does not have a happy ending,” Jorie warned.
“Oh no,” Silence whispered.
“They tore her apart,” Cassius announced tersely.
The room went silent and everyone regarded Cass.
“Sweetheart,” Elena murmured, curling her hand around his forearm.
“It is what you know, Silence,” Cassius said gently. “All you know of how it is comes from Airen. What you do not know is why women are treated as such in this land. The second born son of the Fire King was always the Sky King. Brothers, for centuries, millennia, who ruled their dominions side by side, in accord, even bloody harmony. Upon coronation, they’d assume the magicks of their realms. Fire and Sky. Until her. Until neither man could get beyond their own passions and desires and pride.”
He drained his glass, set it on a table by his side, and resumed speaking.