Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 130991 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 655(@200wpm)___ 524(@250wpm)___ 437(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130991 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 655(@200wpm)___ 524(@250wpm)___ 437(@300wpm)
“What happens to him now?” the First Scholar asked.
“That depends on his motives. If he carries a personal grudge against the Sovereign, there will be a punishment. If he was simply a hired killer, perhaps Kosandion will find some use for him.”
The First Scholar’s feathers stood erect. “I shall beg the Sovereign for leniency! Prysen Ol is an unrivaled talent. He cannot be thrown away.”
Right. Funny how he ignored the whole “hired killer” part.
The First Scholar marched off, spun in a circle, looking around, and finally remembered I was still there. “Where is the exit?”
“Perhaps it might help to freshen up before you go to see the Sovereign?” I suggested gently.
The First Scholar slapped his head with his pseudohand, checking for his hat, realized it wasn’t there, and nodded. “A most wise advice.”
“I will return you to your quarters. Please let Tony know when you are ready to request an audience.”
I gave the inn a push, and it carried the First Scholar back onto the slide and to his quarters. I sealed the ceiling behind him.
The two prisoners slept in their cells. When they woke up, there would be hell to pay.
But neither of them would die. The Assembly wouldn’t be happy. I could just imagine the look on their faces. Still, up to now, we’d managed to keep all of our guests breathing. That had to count for something, right?
I reached through the inn, looking for Sean. He was still with Kosandion.
“Hey,” I whispered.
“Hey.”
“How is it going?”
“Busy. Behoun is trying to secede from the Dominion.”
Just what Kosandion needed.
“I’m going to get some answers,” I told him.
“Let me know how it goes.”
I paused before the doorway to Lady Wexyn’s quarters and tossed my voice inside.
“A word, Lady Wexyn?”
The doors swung open in front of me, pulled back by two veiled attendants. I strode in, with Beast trotting by my feet. Nothing had changed since my last visit. A clear stream still curved around a courtyard of brown stones, gently flowing into a wide pond. The yellow-leafed Fortune trees washed their long branches in the water. Even Lady Wexyn was in the exact same place, reclining on a chaise inside a wooden pavilion at the pond’s edge.
I approached her.
“Please, sit,” she invited.
I sat down in a cushioned chair. Beast jumped onto my lap and flopped.
Lady Wexyn gazed over the water, her expression serene.
“You have questions,” she said.
“So many.”
She nodded. “I’ll do my best to answer as a thank you for your hospitality.”
“Let’s start with the simplest one. The flying?”
“Tuhl Gravity Disruptor. A tiny single-use gadget with an inaccurate name, since it doesn’t really disrupt gravity, it simply creates a powerful lift for about 7 seconds. I had it attached to my right shoe.”
“It doesn’t sound safe.” Using anything with “Tuhl” in its name meant taking your life in your hands. Tuhls made genius tech that killed them with depressing regularity.
“It isn’t. It requires a lot of training and explodes about 25% of the time. Really, strapping anything that causes a subatomic reaction to your body is a terrible idea. I do not recommend it.”
“It was very impressive,” I told her.
“Thank you.”
“Did Kosandion hire you?”
She nodded. “In a manner of speaking. He spoke to Clan Nuan, and Clan Nuan suggested I would be an excellent solution to his problems.”
“So you’re a bodyguard?”
“Not exactly.” She looked over the water again. “When people think of desires, they usually think of love or lust, depending on how cynical they are. But there are many other desires. Wealth. Power. Freedom… Revenge.”
She gave me a sweet smile. Suddenly she seemed wrapped in power. It suffused her, an unyielding merciless energy, contained yet ready to be weaponized at any moment.
Cold dashed down my spine.
“Some say that the need for revenge is the second strongest desire. Some say it’s the most powerful one. I, like my mother before me, am a Priestess of Revenge. When the supplicants pray before my altar, they lay their grudges bare, and if their cause is worthy, I do what they cannot. Sometimes I am justice, but mostly I’m vengeance.”
She had walked toward Prysen Ol like an unstoppable elemental force. She hadn’t said a single word during that fight. She showed no emotion. It wasn’t personal for her. Looking at her must’ve been like staring Death in the face.
The half-forgotten teachings of the Temple floated up from my memory. The priests and priestesses of the Temple taught that unfulfilled desires created an imbalance in the universe. The deeper the desire, the greater the imbalance. Correcting that imbalance was their sacred mission.
“Harmony,” I said.
She smiled. “Yes.”
Amphie and Prysen Ol had conspired to assassinate Kosandion. His death would have thrown the Dominion into chaos. “Was today vengeance?”
“Today was one of the rare times when I stopped a future tragedy from happening. My contract with Kosandion put no limits on me. He didn’t ask me to guard him. He simply asked me to enter the selection and to act if I judged my intervention was needed. If Amphie hadn’t pulled the trigger, I would’ve continued to play my chosen role to the very end, taken my minor ask, and departed with no one the wiser.”