Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 137958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 690(@200wpm)___ 552(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 690(@200wpm)___ 552(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)
Though he did send us away with only meager belongings, all of those were of import. Heirlooms my mother had from her family’s side, treasures it would wound me to leave behind.
And the modest accommodation he afforded us in our exile was hardly the home of paupers.
It was not a great dwelling the likes of which we were accustomed.
But although very small, very remote and very far away from all we knew, it was safe and snug and comfortable.
I should have known he would not change his mind and summon us to punish us further.
“All right, my little sister,” he said when he’d calmed his hilarity. “Allow me to make this clear.”
Suddenly, my back straightened and my skin tightened.
Because his handsome face turned simply severe as all humor left him.
And a humorless Mars Laches was not just a sight to behold.
It was a sight to fear.
“What your father did was not what you did,” he stated, his deep voice rolling like sarsens toward our cushions. “I lost my sire, I watched my mother lose her husband, these are the only reasons I am more deeply grieved of that event than you. And it is not because you lost your sire or you,” he turned to my mother, “your husband. For we all lost not only a king we loved, a man we loved more, but also much trust and any innocence we might have had left at the machinations of G’Dor.”
I leaned forward. “King Mars—”
“I am Mars to you, Farah,” he growled. “We sat at our cushions at our tables at our studies side by side. You bested me with the paint when I was seven and you were four, something you should be more concerned about at this juncture because I never forgot the humiliation.”
I could not believe this, but I had the most bizarre feeling that I was about to smile.
Mars was not finished.
“The first boy who broke your heart, I broke his nose, and the second, and if memory serves, the third. You gave your heart too freely. It was a nuisance. And you spelled to sleep the first girl to break my loyalty in order that you could shear her hair. My father and mother lost my blood sister to forces they could not control or understand. You took her place.”
I heard my mother’s quiet sob.
I looked that way and my heart squeezed.
“Little mother,” Mars said. “What was done to you had to be done. But truly, you must know your place in my heart.”
“My son,” she whispered.
She knew.
It was just beyond beautiful Mars still knew it too.
I felt like smiling no more.
Instead, I turned my head to hide the tears gathering in my eyes.
“Little mother, dry your eyes,” Mars bid. “Farah, you as well.”
I sniffled, controlled myself and looked to my king.
“Know this,” he said when he caught my gaze. “Your father plotted to assassinate our king. This plot succeeded. He ended the life of the finest ruler this land has ever known. I can’t even begin to understand how it would feel knowing the man who sired me did that. And he, his collaborators, and his warriors walked into the tarpits, my sister. They are gone. The Firenz know peace and further prosperity. It is done.”
“So our exile is done?” I asked, my voice shocked, as it would be.
He was a ruler like his father, trained by his father to be fierce, but just.
It was still my blood and my mother’s husband who killed the king.
He held my gaze and I noted he did not look at my mama.
“Not exactly,” he answered.
Oh dear.
My mother spoke up.
“Mars, truly, with respect, my son, it’s been two weeks. We’ve been most anxious. And—”
“Farah marries,” Mars told her.
I did?
“She marries who?” Mama asked.
“The heir to the throne of Wodell. Prince True,” Mars answered.
I blinked.
I then started when my mother clapped her hands and pretended to spit on the multitude of colorful rugs overlapping the floor before her.
“Wodell!” she cried in disgust.
“Little mother,” Mars murmured, his lips twitching.
It was this I did not find funny.
I married a Wodell?
“They are weak,” Mama snapped. “A Firenz woman does not open her legs for a Wodell.”
“True is not like his father,” Mars assured.
My mother sniffed and lifted her chin. “I can believe that. I can believe he’s not even of his father. For that king has no balls and it would surprise me he even has a cock.”
Mars chuckled.
I whispered, “Mama!”
My mother’s head whipped to me. “We hear the stories, even in our banishment. Many of his men fall and fall and fall as he tries to steal our saffron, our tar, our rubies. We have been warring unnecessarily with Wodell for decades. Centuries.”
“The Firenz did steal that tract of land from the Dellish many years ago,” Mars pointed out genially.
“Yes, and we have managed to keep it,” Mama hissed at Mars. “But it was ours first.”