Total pages in book: 222
Estimated words: 210715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1054(@200wpm)___ 843(@250wpm)___ 702(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 210715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1054(@200wpm)___ 843(@250wpm)___ 702(@300wpm)
According to Solentine and my brother, if they were Cai, they would dress up as one of the royal guards, stab Jenicor, and use a morr bead to bug out. Logic said the assassination would happen closer to the top. The whole point of a public killing was to let everyone on the platforms see it in gory detail.
The procession crawled up the slope. The crowds cheered.
Of course, Cai could also hit the Sun Margrave now and use the resulting chaos to teleport away.
“Maggie,” Lute said behind me.
I almost jumped. The Magnar brothers insisted on sticking to me like glue until the ceremony was over, but somehow, I had forgotten they were there. Tzeri on Lute’s shoulder gave me the evil eye.
“If you don’t relax, you’ll fall off the tower,” Lute said.
“It will be fine,” Will told me.
We were about to watch an assassination unfold, and if it succeeded, the entire kingdom would collapse. I had given everything I could to prevent this moment. Nothing about this was fine.
A third of the way up.
A half.
Two-thirds of the way up. This was going to take all fucking day. If I got any tenser, I would explode.
The Sun Margrave’s face was serene. Here I was, safe and stressing the hell out, while he was down there, walking toward his possible death, cool as a cucumber. Not a hint of worry showing.
They reached the gates. The two guards blocked their way. The herald spun his spear in an expertly executed flourish and bellowed, “The Sun Margrave seeks entry.”
By the keep, Sauven nodded. The war horn roared again, and the guards stepped aside.
This would be the perfect moment to kill him. I held my breath.
The herald, the Sun Margrave, and the three squires passed through the gates and started across the courtyard, walking between two rows of sparsely placed royal guards.
The first pair of sentries. The second. The third . . .
The tension was killing me.
The fourth pair. The fifth . . .
I rocked back and forth.
Will took me by my shoulders and very deliberately pulled me back from the rail.
The sixth. The seventh. The eighth . . .
The guard on the right dropped his spear and lunged forward, blindingly quick. Before his discarded spear had a chance to fall, he darted past the Defender squire, a slender black blade in his hand. The poor kid had no chance to react. He just gaped as Cai flew past, arm raised for the kill.
The herald moved. I didn’t see him do it, but he must have, because his spear slid into Cai’s chest.
The assassin froze, arrested in mid-step. The herald had skewered him right through his armor.
Blood drenched Cai’s armor, leaking from under his breastplate.
The Sun Margrave stopped, looking straight ahead, as if the whole thing weren’t worthy of his attention.
The herald took a step forward and thrust, putting all of his strength into it. The spear emerged from Cai’s back. The assassin dropped his blade and fell to his knees.
The herald freed the spear with a sharp tug. Blood dripped from the black standard.
Cai fell forward, face down.
The herald raised his spear, bloody standard dripping in the wind, and started forward as if nothing had happened.
I exhaled.
Rumian was truly the fastest swordsman in Rellas. If there was any doubt, this cinched it.
The platforms were deadly silent. Rellas held its collective breath, unsure what it had just witnessed.
Slowly it sank in.
Cai was dead. The Sun Margrave was alive. Matheo was alive. My brother hadn’t died.
It was over. Finally, it was all over.
An eerie roar rolled through the sky, a bloodcurdling sound of something huge and enraged.
Tzeri screamed. It was a screech of sheer panic. The small beast shoved herself at Lute, trying to crawl into his jacket.
A shadow blotted out the sun, a dark shape, growing larger, its roar getting louder until it was deafening. It plummeted down and landed in front of the Sun Margrave, between him and the perron.
A dursan.
It was huge, larger than any elephant, larger than the statue, so big my brain refused to deal with it. Nothing that big should have been able to fly. Nothing that big should have had those enormous wings studded with spikes.
The dursan roared.
I had heard a version of this roar before. That sounded like the baby beast in the Harzi kennels, the one who was crying for its mother.
The hair on the back of my neck rose. The fractured facts snapped together into a crystal-clear picture.
The boy in the cellar who fell and broke both legs.
Silveren broke his legs somehow during his service and they bother him when it rains.
The crying baby dursan in the Harzi stables.
They have something that doesn’t belong to them. I came to retrieve it.
The magic voice, the one that wrapped around you like a caress.
Ralinbor of the Wilds inherited the power of Exultant Call from his father and the affinity for the dursans from his mother.