Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 120974 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 605(@200wpm)___ 484(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120974 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 605(@200wpm)___ 484(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
Fuck—how is she preserving their lives? Because Irena is right—none of them looks a day past thirty. Another question occurs to me—how is she controlling them?
Is it a spell? A potion? Some magical pact? Why are they so eager to share her and live eternally at her side like obedient dogs at a goddess’s heel?
“And do you like serving her?” I ask, trying to keep my tone light, though unease knots in my gut.
Horatio frowns slightly, as though I’ve asked if water is wet.
“Of a certainty I love serving her,” he says. “For she is my light and my life—I would never wish to leave her.”
There’s something in his voice that bothers me—devotion so total it has become obsession. But the black knight doesn’t give me time to question him further. He claps his hands and gives us a smile.
“And now, refresh yourselves, for if I know my Lady, she shall prepare a great feast for you in the banqueting chamber.”
“Oh dear—I don’t think I’m fit to be seen at a banquet,” Irena murmurs, looking down at her torn gown in dismay.
“Fear not, my lady, for I am certain that my Lady-wife has thought of everything,” Horatio tells her. “Simply open the wardrobe in the corner and you will find all you need.”
He gestures to the corner, where a grand wardrobe stands—its wooden doors carved in curling spirals and knotwork so intricate it looks like woven ivy.
“And now, I must go,” the black knight says, bowing deeply. “For every moment I spend away from my Lady is agony. So I bid you adieu, until we meet again.”
He backs out of the room, closing the bark-formed door behind him with a soft creak, leaving Irena and me in the golden-lit quiet of the living bower.
I turn to her slowly, watching the light catch in her long, golden-brown hair.
“You heard him,” I murmur. “Looks like we’re expected to dress for dinner.”
Though if I had my way, I’d undress her first.
44
IRENA
“I can’t get dressed until I bathe first,” I say, trying to ignore the look Valen is giving me. I think watching the three knights “pay obeisance” to the Sorceress has gotten him excited.
It excited me too, but I’m not admitting it—not even to myself. Instead, I study the tub in the corner, which is lined with large, green leaves. It’s wooden, just like the one at The Slaughtered Lamb, but that’s where the similarities end.
The tub at the Lamb was crudely carved and rough to the touch. The tub in this magical flower room where the Lady of Thornmere has placed us, is smooth and polished and the outside is carved all over with what looks like runes in the Old Tongue. I frown as I puzzle them out.
“Be ye Clean,” I mutter, under my breath.
“What?” Valen frowns, confused.
“Oh—these runes on the side of the tub. I think they’re in the Old Tongue. The first one says, Be ye Clean and the second says, Be ye Refreshed.” I frown at the third rune, which doesn’t look familiar. “Um…and I think this last one says, Be ye…Pleasured?” I shake my head. “But that doesn’t make sense.”
“Makes sense to me,” Valen rumbles, giving me a look that makes me blush. “But look…” He points at the tub and I look more closely… and gasp in surprise.
The runes are glowing—it’s as though an invisible flame is tracing them and causing them to be outlined in golden light.
“What the fuck?” Valen mutters, stalking over to examine them more closely. But when he touches the side of the tub, nothing happens. He studies them a moment later, then shrugs. “Huh—they’re not even hot.”
“Maybe the tub has some kind of extra special cleaning magic,” I suggest. “It would be nice to feel completely clean,” I add, rather wistfully. I know I had a bath in the witch’s cottage, but who knows what I actually bathed in? Also, spending the night in a cave and then tramping down a dusty path through the forest isn’t exactly conducive to good hygiene.
Valen raises his eyebrows suggestively.
“Thinking of taking a bath, are you, Princess?” he purrs. “Would you like me to help you with that? Scrub your back, maybe?”
“Certainly not,” I say primly, ignoring the way his words make my pulse quicken. We went too far last night—I know that now. I need to pull back before something bad happens.
“What am I supposed to do then?” he asks, frowning. “Just sit on the bed and watch?”
“No, I don’t want you watching me naked!” I protest. “You can go find out more about the stronghold. And if anyone catches you, say you were looking for some soap for me or something like that.”
“It looks like they have soap for you right there.” He points to a carved wooden ledge by the tub where several delicate crystal bottles hold various colorful liquids.