Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91891 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91891 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
She gave a violent shake of her head.
I gripped the table edge. “I trust him. So does Emma. She helped raise him. You trust her, right?”
“But he’ll kill us all if he’s freed,” Mom whispered, terror coating her words. “And I’m not staying here while you fight Ian. The kingdom needs me.”
I heard the firm, stubborn note in her tone again.
Rather than naysay her, I steered us to the problem at hand. “Jasher won’t harm anyone. He’s a good man. The best. The only reason I’m still alive. He knows Ian’s greatest weaknesses, and he’ll help me defeat the big, bad and—if we travel further back in time, as I suspect we will—we can save Ahav.”
Her shoulders popped into a square, her spine suddenly ramrod straight. “Very well.” She nodded. “For Ahav.”
4
PUZZLE ME THIS
Istood beside my mother, who stood beside my father, all of us peering at Jasher. My father had removed the tarp and returned the half-monstra to an upright position. Warming light poured from overhead bulbs, creating a spotlight on my Tinman.
I scratched my head when I heard growls again.
“What’s that sound?” my dad asked when even the animals outside the barn got spooked.
So he heard it, too. The moisture in my mouth dried up. Must be Jasher, fighting for freedom.
I tightened my grip on King Ahav’s journal—and the elixir. A small glass bottle with an hourglass shape, filled with a sparkling red liquid. If this didn’t work…
It would work. Because it must.
“Forgive me, but this was once an actual human?” My dad grimaced as he scanned the “statue.”
“He is an actual human,” I said, a little snippy. “He’s the man I love.” A confession I hadn’t made to Jasher yet. Here, now, I didn’t know why I’d hesitated.
“Well? What are you waiting for?” Mom prompted. “Do you intend to revive him or not?”
“First you didn’t want me to help him, now I’m not freeing him fast enough.” Had she given me poison rather than an antidote? Her hatred for Ian burned fiercely, and it absolutely extended to Jasher.
She notched her chin. “I want Ahav saved.”
True, but she also wanted Jasher dead. And I understood, I did. “Having personally witnessed Ian’s extreme bloodlust, I comprehend the need to remove him from power. Harming Jasher isn’t the way. Jasher isn’t Ian.” He might have Ian’s face when in human form, but he most definitely did not have Ian’s withered heart. “Promise me this will help and not hurt him.”
“As if I would hurt another living being. I am not Ian,” she snapped. “I followed your instructions exactly, using only the ingredients you requested. Despite the ridiculousness of them.”
Another event I hadn’t yet lived. “And he’s to drink it? All of it?” I glanced between Mom and Dad, who had lapsed into silence, still studying Jasher. But what did she mean, ridiculousness of the ingredients? “I’m not supposed to, like, drip it in his joints?”
Her nose wrinkled. “Why would you ever—” She waved her hand. “Doesn’t matter. You are correct. Drink, not drip.”
Okay. All right. But… “Maybe we should ask Emma for her feedback first. She might know more about the elixir.” I admit, I wished to speak with the water maiden again, anyway.
“You won’t be able to find her,” Dad said, pulling his gaze from Jasher at last. “When she doesn’t want to be found, nothing and no one can find her.”
Sigh. I’d experienced the same disappearing act with Iris, the water maiden who’d nearly gotten me killed. “Remind me what’s in the elixir.”
Mom set one hand on her hip and stroked the compass with the other. “I swear you opted for the most complicated instructions possible. You even made me memorize it, just in case.” She cleared her throat. “Heartfire coal taken from the royal hearth three days after an eclipse. Mercurial vein extracted from the roots of a moon-kissed willow. Eldermarrow essence distilled from the ashes of a king’s scroll declaring abundant prosperity for all. Breath of the north wind captured at the moment of a newborn’s first cry. Tears of morning dew collected at the first dawning of a new spring. Pulsegold nectar harvested from a beehive hidden within the core of an ancient oak planted by the seventh son of a seventh daughter. Finally, a rare sanguine root overflowing with living crimson sap never before tapped.”
Wow. Okay. Not a single item I recognized. And where had I even gotten the recipe? Jasher himself?
“Jasher wasn’t metal when you met him?” I asked, seeking just one more confirmation I was doing the right thing.
“Oh, I never met him. By order of the king, we weren’t allowed to be in the same room. I know of him through conversations with you and palace gossip. There was no mention of metal.”
Confirmation that he did, in fact, revive. That wasn’t nothing.