Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 162269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 541(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 162269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 541(@300wpm)
“By the gods, True,” Farah whispered.
By the gods, indeed.
“I did not even know—” she began but stopped when the unicorn before them dipped her proud head, and when she lifted it, she did this away from True, as if indicating she wished them to follow her.
“Go to the back of the line,” True told his wife.
“Sorry?” she asked.
He tore his eyes from the magnificent creature and looked to his queen.
“Darling, go to the back of the line.”
She only studied his face a moment before she nodded, wheeled her mount and started to the back.
True looked the other way, to Wallace, who also nodded, turned his steed, and followed Farah.
True then returned his attention to the unicorn.
He dipped his chin to her.
She lifted her head and shook it as her way of saying his message was received.
She then turned and started galloping away.
“Ride!” True bellowed.
He felt Majesty’s haunches bunch before his horse burst forward after the unicorn and then True heard the thunder of hooves behind him as his men followed.
They went perhaps a quarter of a mile when, for some reason, the unicorn’s body adjusted as if she was intent to clear a gate in her path when there was nothing to clear as before them lay nothing but road.
She rose into the air.
Without guiding Majesty to do so, True and his mount rose into the air after her.
He heard cries and shouts and knew the line at his back rose as well.
There were more cries and shouts when all about them faded to purple and it felt like they were soaring through the air.
But within mere instants, the purple was gone.
And their horses landed with a thud someplace else altogether.
King Mars
On the Journey to Airen
WODELL
Mars was forced to admit, he was rather unnerved at the knowledge that his queen was a better horseman than he.
She rode at his side, in full charge, her body bent over her steed, her head tipped back, face determined, and she did not fear the breakneck speed they were using.
Indeed, it seemed she did not even feel it.
These were his thoughts, for he refused to acknowledge the dread settling like a weight in his gut at what they might be riding to.
He’d assessed their distance from Cassius and Elena, and even if they rode their mounts to a lather each day—something he refused to do, he was a Firenz after all, and horses (and animals as a whole) were not treated thus, no matter the reason—it would take them at best, ten days to reach the Night Heights.
It was likely more akin to fourteen.
And the closest being on this earth he had to a blood brother was Cassius. They’d known each other since youth. Cass had saved him during an attack and prevented him being violated. He was the only person outside his father and mother, and Silence, who had given Mars loyalty and love that was not attached in some way to duty.
Like his father, who had died nearly six years previous, and Mars still could not reconcile it, he could not imagine this earth without Cassius on it.
But there was no way, save a miracle, he was going to get to his friend in time.
He was praying in vain, he knew, but he was still doing it to all his gods, The Muse, The Grace and The Spirit, in hopes they would come to him and bestow a miracle.
He was doing this when he pulled so sharply on Hephaestus’s reins, his steed did a full circle beneath him.
“Arresto!” he shouted.
He heard his men come to a halt behind him.
“Faith,” Silence breathed from beside him.
Mars sat astride his mount and stared at the unicorn stallion in front of them.
The stallion had his head slightly turned in order to stare Mars directly in the eye.
“Bellezza, go to the back of the line,” Mars said.
“All right, my love,” she acquiesced immediately, and he felt her leave his side, but did not look away from the unicorn.
“Kyril,” he called.
“He’s already following her,” Basil said behind him.
Mars gave his queen time to make her way to where she needed to be.
Then he jerked up his chin.
The stallion turned and galloped away.
Mars bent over Hephaestus’s neck and dug his heels in his mount’s sides.
They burst forward and followed the unicorn, and he heard the thunder of horses’ hooves behind him as they did the same.
They could not have gone half a mile before the stallion curled his front legs and pushed off his back ones, leaping in the air in order to clear nothing.
Hephaestus followed suit.
There were noises of alarm behind him that Mars ignored, for all about them turned purple.
And then the purple was gone as they landed in wet turf in the middle of a blinding rain.
121
The Battle of the Heights
Prince Cassius
Valley at the Base of the Night Heights Mountain Range