Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 141492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 472(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 472(@300wpm)
Safia and Izem exchanged a long look before she confronted her grandfather. She believed in evil. She even could stretch things and believe in vampires. But a two-thousand-year-old man coming back for a bride? “They withheld his woman and made him wait two thousand years? He’s two thousand years old? I don’t understand what you’re saying. How can I be promised to him, Jeddi?”
“This race is nearly immortal. They can be killed, but it is extremely difficult, and they live for centuries. Their lives are not pleasant, especially when they do not have their partners. I don’t know much more than that they are experienced warriors, and they hunt these demons and other evil all over the world.”
“If the woman two thousand years ago was the one promised to him, why is he coming for Safia?” Badis asked. “How does he even know of her? Or that evil has risen here?”
“I don’t have the answer to that. I know he is on the way because I feel him getting closer.” Once again, his gaze met Gwafa’s. “I will go tonight to consult with the ancestors. I wish Safia to consult with the cards. We must honor the word of our ancestors and give him the price of a bride should he defend our people against our enemy. Our people, our family, have always kept our word. At the same time, we must determine if this man is worthy of Safia.”
“If we don’t give him Safia,” Layla qualified, “he might not fight with us, and the war will be lost. That’s what you are saying?”
Amastan nodded. “I am only going by what little I have determined from the stories and bits and pieces given to me by the ancestors. I could have parts or all of it wrong. Unfortunately, I know evil is rising. It is close and it is attacking our family. In particular, evil is striking at Safia. I don’t know if it is striking at her because she will lead us in battle or because she is important to this warrior. It is possible evil strikes at him through her.”
“He doesn’t know me,” Safia pointed out. “I wasn’t born two thousand years ago. He might have been, but I wasn’t. This still doesn’t make sense.” It didn’t, but she was very uneasy. She had been having horrific nightmares of a terrible battle—one she had feared was her future. Now she was afraid she might be looking at the past. More and more, the dreams keeping her awake were beginning to invade her mind at odd hours, seeming all too real to her, as if they were memories and not delusions created by her mind.
Amastan clearly agreed with her. “I go tonight to consult with the ancestors. It must be tonight, Safia. You know there isn’t much time. I feel evil closing in on us. Also, I know this man is very close, coming toward us fast.”
She had known her grandfather would deem it necessary to consult with their ancestors, but she’d hoped he would give her a reprieve. She had a bad feeling things wouldn’t go well in the caves where he would spend the night. It would be her job to protect him from all harm. Now she was more worried than ever. She would call on her childhood friend, Aura, a young girl who had grown up with her, her closest friend and companion, more a sibling than a companion. Aura was as steady and loyal as Amastan himself, yet as elusive as the water in the sea. No one knew where she lived unless Safia’s mother or grandmother had known, and they had never said. She had come to their home for as long as Safia could remember, raised nearly as a sibling, a constant companion, but she came only at night.
As they grew, Aura would help with her studies. She was particularly knowledgeable in languages, especially in the ancient one Safia’s brothers and sisters were not required to learn. It was a fun, secret language Aura and Safia shared from childhood. Now it felt as if something comforting and fun had taken on a sinister connotation, as if everything familiar was somehow just shifting slightly, like sand, and slipping out from under her.
Aura had superior fighting skills and was faster than even Safia’s mother and grandmother, although both had amazing reflexes, even better than her father and grandfather. As a child growing up, practicing those skills seemed fun, an art form, like dance, and then getting faster and stronger became a matter of pride.
The four women would often train through most of the night. In the morning, Aura would be gone, and Safia’s family would allow them a couple hours of extra sleep time before they woke them to help on the farm. That was a period in her life Safia had loved. She’d bonded with the women in her family and loved Aura, counted on her. Now she didn’t know what to think.