Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 85794 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 429(@200wpm)___ 343(@250wpm)___ 286(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85794 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 429(@200wpm)___ 343(@250wpm)___ 286(@300wpm)
“Your Majesty?” Thruck’s sane head looked worried at first. Then the anxiety smoothed out and a broad smile took its place on the Trollox’s face. “How good to see you up and doing well again!” he exclaimed, holding out his arms, as though to embrace the young male. “We were so worried for you but look at how good you look!”
“Yes, I’m doing much better now that I no longer have a bag of aging serum dripping into my arm, draining my health and youth,” the male said sarcastically. “And now that I’m no longer tied up in my own bed!”
“What? Who did these things to you? Was it the nurse?” Thruck gestured at an older woman with gray hair and a long nose who was standing to one side. “As your Royal Advisor I shall have her put to death at once!”
“You’re no longer my Royal Advisor. You are relieved of duty.” The Emperor—for that must be who the young male was, Sirex thought—stepped forward towards the Trollox. “Just as you’re shortly to be relieved of both your heads,” he added.
“What? Your Majesty, you must have had a bad dream!” Thruck’s sane head protested. “Surely you’re mistaken! You can’t—”
“Oh, yes I can!” The Emperor pressed one of the buttons on the sword hilt he held in his hand and a pale, blue-white flame suddenly shot out of it. The flame was so tall it reached to the vaulted second story ceiling. A light so intense it was blinding, suddenly illuminated everything.
There were gasps and moans from some of the males in the room and many of them started running for the doors of the Grand Salon. Clearly they wanted to get out while they still could.
“The Shining One! It’s the Shining One!” people were murmuring.
“Yes, it is your Emperor, the Shining One—I have returned!” the Emperor shouted. He pressed another button on the flaming sword’s hilt and the flame shortened until it was only a little longer than a man’s arm, though it was still so bright it hurt to look at. Then he started walking towards Thruck.
“Your Majesty, pause…reflect!” the sane head begged. “You must understand…”
“I understand you tried to steal my throne from me!” the Emperor growled. “And I further understand that now you’re going to pay for it! Tell me, Trollox, which head to you wish to lose first?”
“Neither! Please, your Majesty! Please!” Thruck whined. He fell to his knees, his hands clasped together in a gesture of pleading. “Everything we did was for your own good!”
“Lies! I’ve had enough of your damn lies, Trollox!”
Bridging the gap between them, the Emperor drew back and swung the flaming sword in a deadly arc. It cut through both of Thruck’s thick necks like butter. First the sane head and then the mad one fell from the Trollox’s shoulders and rolled on the gleaming glass floor. The mouth of the sane head was still moving, as though trying to explain why killing him was a bad idea. On the crazy head, the third eye had popped open and was staring around the room.
Slowly the enormous body of the Trollox toppled over. The flaming sword had mostly cauterized the wounds as it made them, but there were a few trickles of black blood seeping from the two neck stumps. It pooled on the floor like a puddle of tar as the huge body twitched and jerked and then, finally, was still.
“I should have done that the first minute I saw that two headed bastard!” the Emperor remarked. Then he pointed at Phoebe, who was still manacled to the X shaped frame. “You!” he exclaimed.
Sirex immediately stepped between the Emperor and Phoebe.
“Not one step further,” he growled. “Phoebe is mine! You’ll have to go through me to get to her and I promise I won’t just kneel down and let you kill me like that fucking Trollox did!”
“Forgive me—I do not wish to hurt her but to thank her.” The Emperor pressed another button on the hilt of his sword and the pale blue flame abruptly extinguished itself. “For it was she who saved me from the Trollox’s trap!” he exclaimed. “She came to my room and untied me and stopped the flow of aging fluid that was dripping into my arm and making me older every day!”
Sirex frowned.
“You don’t appear older than twenty cycles to me.”
“That is because the drip is no longer in my arm and so my body was able to counteract the effects and return me to my normal age,” the Emperor explained. “But Thruck had been aging me for months—I was nearly at the limit of my lifespan, at which time I would have died and he would have taken my throne for himself. The bastard!”
The last word was a low growl and he kicked the limp body of the Trollox which was lying lifeless on the floor.