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)
Kaja shifts again. I nod down at her and run for the village, my heart in my throat.
Chaos reigns. I turn down the street that leads to the square. The eddy cloud hangs over the square making it a damn fine bet that the worst of the fighting will happen there.
I stop as the door to one of the shops flies open and screams ring through the empty street. I watch as two guards start hauling a young woman out of her home. The woman isn’t going quietly. She screams her husband’s name and tries to fight, but the guards have her firmly in hand.
I went to her wedding. It was over a year ago, held right in the square. Gillian and I walked with the bride through the very street where she is now being dragged. Litha is a sweet woman who recently gave birth to a daughter. She and her husband make candles and sell them at market. She’s being hauled down the street, her face streaked with tears and her legs dragging. Her blonde hair hangs in her face.
Kaja’s tail thumps and her graceful face is turned up as though waiting for the command. Kaja is acknowledging that I have more at stake. I’m so grateful to her. “Go.”
Kaja jumps the first guard from behind, her predatory grace and speed on full display. The guard doesn’t stand a chance. He lets loose a strangled scream before Kaja bites into his neck. There’s a loud cracking sound.
The second guard turns and hoists his sword to bring it down on the wolf. I rear back and visualize my target. My peripheral vision flees, so the whole world narrows to one point on the guard’s vulnerable neck. The rest of him is covered with thick armor, but he still has to move, and there’s a nice white patch of skin, the right size for a blade to bury itself in.
I let the knife fly, sending the power of my throw through my whole body as the man in the wine-making district taught me.
My aim proves true. Before the guard can start his sword’s descent toward Kaja, the knife finds purchase. The sword falls from his hands, and the guard’s body hits the ground.
Litha looks up, her eyes wide with fear. “Isolde?”
It’s time to begin to reclaim my true identity. Niall is right about one thing. I can be a figurehead, but that isn’t all I intend to be. “That’s the name I gave you, Litha, but it is not my own. I have kept a secret from you.”
Litha stares for a moment and then gets to one knee. “Princess Bronwyn. You’re the one they’re looking for. The guards came into my home and beat my husband. They mentioned the Princess Bronwyn and that they’re rounding up anyone who could possibly be you. I fear they intend to slaughter us all in the hopes that one of us will be you. Just last night as you were in your cell, Gillian told us the secret. We were ready to attack the guard to free you when the dark man came. The necromancer killed them all. Will he save us now? Where is he?”
I take a long breath. At least I won’t have to prove who I am to the villagers. It seems Gillian convinced them.
“She’s right. Those guards intend to kill everyone who could possibly be you.” Kaja stands over her victim, heedless to her nude state. “They won’t settle for the ones who look like you as you could easily change your appearance.”
Litha screams and runs, hiding behind me, though she has four inches and twenty pounds on me. Litha is a muscular woman, but the scream that comes from her throat is pure girl. “It was a wolf! Kill it, Your Highness. It must be the hag the guards spoke of.”
A hag is here? How many? The rumor is Torin has three in his employ, but one is off plane seeking my brothers. If the hags are here, then they will be the ones in charge. “She isn’t a hag. She’s my cousin. She’s an ally.”
Kaja grins as though the very act of being called family brings her enormous pleasure. “I am Kaja. I am a wolf sometimes and always a woman.”
Then Litha’s husband staggers out, a frying pan in his hand. The candlemaker was badly beaten, but it’s obvious he isn’t going to stop. He would fight until the guards kill him. Litha cries and runs to him. He falls into her arms.
“Get your husband inside, Litha. Tell everyone you see to hide. We will take care of this.” I will. One way or another. I won’t allow the women of our village to be rounded up and slaughtered.
Litha nods, tears in her eyes as she helps her husband up. “Thank you, Your Highness, but we will fight. You are our hope. Now that we have hope again, we will not give up.”