Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 132138 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 661(@200wpm)___ 529(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132138 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 661(@200wpm)___ 529(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
“If Gillian didn’t send you, who did?” I can feel the sweat on my brow, the ache in my gut. But it isn’t my gut. Not really. It’s lower, deeper—an ache with only one cure.
Niall stops on the second stair. We’re still so close to the bodies, but it doesn’t seem to bother Niall. He simply stares at me for a moment as though trying to decide how much I can handle. “You don’t remember me. Niall Younger. My father was the stableman. He took care of the horses for the White Palace. I worked with him. I took care of your pony.”
I search my memory and see a young man, only three or four years older than me. Brown hair and bark-colored eyes, and a soft hand with the horses. His father taught me to ride.
“I remember you. You had a brother named Walter.”
His face turns down. “Walter and me dad died long ago. I was left alone in the palace, but I found a friend. A shade. A sluagh. He taught me how to live, gave me information on where to find food and who would protect me. He sent me to the cook, who helped me. I was only fifteen. The cook gave me a place to stay, and the sluagh gave me a purpose. He taught me how to fight, how to be a guard. He whispered to me who to get in good with so I would have my choice of assignments. And he gave me my reason to live. To find Bronwyn Finn. To locate his daughter.”
I feel locked in place, the whole world spinning. My father? “My father can’t be a sluagh. He would never.”
It’s beyond comprehension.
“He had no other choice. When the light came, he didn’t walk into it. He couldn’t because he had work to do. His children still needed him. He stayed for you. He molded me into his emissary. As far as I know, only Torin and myself have ever seen him. He’s not haunting anyone but his brother. He had a different use for me.”
“My father turned sluagh, and he knows I’m alive?” It doesn’t add up.
“He saw the Unseelie princess make her way out of the palace with you. He would have followed, but he was weak at the time. He was tied to the place of his death. He still is for some reason. When the other sluagh left the plane, he wasn’t able to move past the caves. He’s bound to Torin now. He can only go where Torin goes. So he trained me to find you. I’ve been moving up in the guard, and I’ve served ten different noblemen, all the while looking for you. I knew I had finally found you a couple of days back, but I wasn’t sure how to get you out of here. Now I don’t have a choice. Gillian is talking to the villagers. She’s trying to find a way to get you off the plane.” He stares at me for a moment. “That is not what your father wants.”
“What does my father want?” My father ignored me with the exception of pats on the head and telling me I was pretty and a wee bit insane. What can my father want for me to do?
Niall takes me by the arm. “Lead them. Take your crown back. Your brothers are gone, and it seems they will not be coming back. You’re his blood. That crown is yours. I am going to take you north to Sir Giles’s province and then on to Aoibhneas.”
The mountain province. I’ve never been to Aoibhneas. It’s difficult to get to and rumored to be an odd place. The Fae who live there have always been outspoken and considered a bit difficult. They’re strong fighters and use the land to their advantage. Aoibhneas. I can make my stand there. The rebellion can start there.
I’ll gather Fae along the way. Yes, it can work, or even if it doesn’t, at least I tried. At least I can say I finally stood up. If I can only get my legs to work.
“We must tell Gillian. And I have to take the brownies with me.”
Niall’s voice lowers to a deep growl. “Not possible, Your Highness. I am taking you to Sir Giles where he will make arrangements to see us safely to Aoibhneas. This must be done with the greatest of secrecy. Time is of the essence. And under no circumstances are we to tell Princess Gillian of our plans.”
Not tell Gilly? I try to pull away. “I can’t leave without my sister.”
“She is not your sister, and as far as your father and I can tell, she has a completely different agenda than our own.”
“She’s saved me time and time again. She raised me. She trained me.”