Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 156907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 785(@200wpm)___ 628(@250wpm)___ 523(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 156907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 785(@200wpm)___ 628(@250wpm)___ 523(@300wpm)
“I would protect my queen and I would protect my people.”
“Do you know the most destructive force on earth?”
“Tell me.”
There was a pause.
And then, “Water.”
Aramus made no response.
“Fire, wind, nothing decays, nothing rots, nothing sweeps away all in its path, like water. A fire can burn the trees covering a range of mountains, but not touch the stone. However, over time, the rains will beat even stone back into the earth.”
Aramus brought matters in hand.
“I come here worried for my wife and my realm and those of all of Triton and I leave here with more reason to worry.”
And reason to be infuriated with his queen that she had kept something so vital from him for absolutely no reason.
“And is this not something crucial I give to you, Sea King?”
It was vastly irritating, but he was not wrong about that.
“The payment too dear, I will not come again,” he warned. “And you have given me nothing to earn due.”
“I have given you everything you need to know.”
Aramus did not see it that way.
Until he thought…
Water.
“She commands the seas,” he whispered.
“She could sweep Sky Bay into the ocean on a whim,” the voice replied. “You add to her the air, the fire, the earth…” the voice trailed away.
The air, Elena.
The fire, that had to be Silence.
The earth, undoubtedly Farah.
His heart grew light.
“We prevail,” he stated.
“Evil has its own brand of magic and not one of you has faced true evil.”
Aramus’s heart no longer felt light.
“In all your might, all your magic, there is only one weapon you can call on, Sea King. You think you know it. You think you have it in hand. You think you can harness it. And that, my Head, if you fall into that trap, will be your downfall.”
Aramus remembered what Frey had told him.
“Love,” he said.
The voice did not reply.
“It is not us, the men, the warriors who defeat the Beast. It is the women who have the power. Our job is to protect them,” Aramus surmised.
“Climb,” the voice ordered.
“The couples are all falling in love,” he shared, again feeling not mild relief.
“Ah, the arrogance of a monarch.”
“What does that mean?”
“You are right. Love. Now leave me and climb.”
“What does ‘the arrogance of a monarch’ mean?”
“That you think it is only you, and the others, and the alliances you make, and the emotion you feel for each other, who might defeat the Beast. There will be sacrifice, Sea King. But it will not be to me,” he declared, and Aramus felt his stomach drop. “Now leave me and climb.”
Without him moving his own body, Aramus found himself standing outside the orbs with the roar of the surf pounding in his ears.
It was only then that Aramus remembered the last of what his father told him of this place.
When he was ordered to climb…he climbed.
He turned, and eyes to feet, making certain each step was sure on the slick rock beneath him, he moved as swiftly as he could.
And as the magical light that guided his way started to dim, he did not hasten his steps. He put his left hand to the wall, trailing the stone, some of it coarse and jagged, biting his flesh, and he put one foot in front of the other.
And then again.
And again.
He did not panic as the light kept fading. Panic and haste were killers.
His father had told him, he needed his head about him when he approached the abyss, when he descended into it, when he spoke to the seer and when he left the abyss.
Like every king should be at all times in all things.
When a new light started illuminating the path, he allowed himself a moment to look up.
And saw the moon.
They had left after luncheon. His journey down the chasm was long, but it was not miles.
There should be no moon, not yet.
Time had warped while he was down there.
Even knowing this and how concerned his men surely were, he did not rush to the top.
He called out, “Ahoy!” but took his time, and when he saw his men standing at the edges, gazing down, relief swept through him like a tidal wave.
“Sirens-damn it!” Xi clipped. “You’ve been away hours!”
Oh hell.
Aramus cleared the top, thrilled to be on solid land, and Nav noted, “You’re soaked to the bloody skin. What happened down there?”
At the same time Bondi asked, “Did you get what you were looking for?”
He did not.
But he got something.
He nodded to Bond, moving to his steed, and said, “Let us be away. My wife will worry.”
He was not certain all she had to worry about, though in that moment, the thought of her worry (for she would be as she did not even know he was away from the castle) was outweighing his.
And as he rode across the black rock of his realm, he knew a part of him understood why she would hide.