Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 153795 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 769(@200wpm)___ 615(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 153795 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 769(@200wpm)___ 615(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
I could get used to this.
“Have you ever been to a fete like this?” I slow my pace so Algar can catch up again.
“The closest thing to this that I’ve been to is the Crystal Festival in Meriva.” He scans the crowd as he bites off a chunk of meat.
“Oh, I love that one. They always have so much honey loaf and wine.”
“I do love wine.” Algar raises his mug to his lips.
“Where’s Zephra?” I ask.
“I left her in my chamber,” he says. “She’s got a load of food and a comfy bed. She’s in the Crystal Realm right now.”
I laugh.
From a short distance away, I spot Thane walking into the courtyard. He scans the whole area, assessing, before pressing on.
“Wonderful. The sorcerer has arrived,” I announce sarcastically.
He spots us rather easily. I mean, it’s not hard to find a mortal and a charmer in a scattered crowd of beastials. The woman who offered us a skewer also gives him one. He accepts it and bites right into it.
“What’s the story between you and Thane, anyway?” I ask as we approach one of the fires. I sit on a smooth slab of stone, and Algar joins me, taking another hefty sip from his mug.
“The story?” he repeats. “We’re friends—well, we were. That’s all there is to it, really.”
“Close friends, right?” My eyes dart to Thane, who now has his back to us while he requests an ale from one of the stands.
“We used to be. Before I stumbled across you two in that leaky building, I hadn’t seen Thane in almost three years.” The flickering flames make Algar’s face seem fiercer, as if it has hardened all the features that make him appear kind and approachable. “When we bumped into each other the time prior to this one, he’d changed. I could see it in his eyes. He wasn’t the same person from all those years ago.”
“What do you think changed him?”
“I don’t know.” He takes another gulp before consuming more meat. After chewing and swallowing it down, he goes on. “Truth is, Thane didn’t have a great life when he was younger. We were neighbors living in the Scraps. Neither of us went to school, so we spent most of our days teaching each other stupid things, like how to strike with cheap wooden swords, or throw rocks at wealthy people in the Commons so one of us could keep them distracted long enough to steal their food.”
I chew slower, too busy digesting his words.
“My mum, Orvena rest her soul, was a good person.” Algar’s smile is soft, eyes lost in the fire, as if he’s remembering her. “She knew Thane was troubled and that his father wasn’t a good man, so she’d tell me to sneak food through his window. If you’d seen him then, Zaira, you would’ve wondered how he was even breathing. He was skin and bones, that one. Being so naive back then, I used to wonder why I could see the imprint of his ribs on his body. In fact, at one point, I thought it was interesting that they were so visible, so I poked them, and it made him incredibly angry. As I got older, I realized it was no interesting feat at all. He couldn’t help it. I mean, we were both poor, but my mother never allowed a night where we didn’t eat something. Even if it was half a loaf of bread.” Algar presses his lips together as he darts his eyes toward Thane, who is swapping coins for the ale.
“His father was a shit person who was even shittier with his coins. His mother wasn’t around at all. During his ninth year, I stopped seeing him altogether. Weeks went by, and it got to a point where I had to knock on his front door and ask for him. I received a rather ignorant greeting from his drunk father, who shouted in my face for me to fuck off.”
I lower the skewer as my stomach churns. “Did you find out where he went?”
“Didn’t find out for a few years,” he says, along with a humorless laugh. “Not until I spotted him one day. This was back when I was trying to live a decent life by making my coin the ethical way, yeah? I was hired as a tour guide for the Crystal Palace grounds. Showing people the gardens, courtyards, and what have you. But on my first day of work, I saw Thane marching with The Divine.”
I blink at Algar, stunned. “Wait…are you serious?”
“I wouldn’t lie about this. I saw him but couldn’t bring myself to go over and speak to him. I walked away instead. No one approached The Divine without consequences anyway. Five years later, I stumbled into him again, only this time he wasn’t wearing the same white uniform The Divine wear. He was in all black. He didn’t have those scars on his face that he has now, but his eyes were lost. There was still some innocence left in them, like what I saw when we were children, right? But he tried really hard to hide that softer side of him. He hardly spoke to me that day. He kept looking over his shoulder every few seconds like someone was coming after him. Then he disappeared when I offered to buy him a pint, and I never saw him again. At least not until yesterday. And, oddly enough, he was with you.”