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)
I really didn’t want to have this conversation. Let me out of this boat.
“I don’t want to tell you.”
I should’ve thought of some clever answer, but instead the truth came out.
Reynald studied my face. “You don’t trust me.”
“I do trust you. I told you about my magic. I’m alone in this boat with you.”
I’d been in his head. Reynald would kill me if I became a threat, but he would never backstab me.
“Then what is it?”
Reynald was a knight kardar, from kar, an old word for banner. In battle, he led his own detachment of knights and fighters with junior officers under him. He was used to being in command. He also had serious doubts about my ability to get things done. Oh, he believed I could see the future, but like he said, my first plan had ended with me dying. If I wasn’t careful, he would bulldoze right over me, wreck the flow of events beyond repair, and then get himself killed. He knew just enough about the future now to royally screw things up.
I had to earn his trust. I had to demonstrate that my schemes worked, and that I was capable. I had to come up with a brilliant plan . . . and I had nothing.
Making grand pronouncements about bringing Hreban to justice was good and all, but now I had to actually do it, and when I tried to come up with a plan, all I got was a dark emptiness with a faint buzzing sound. The enormity of the stakes paralyzed my poor traumatized brain. If I made a mistake, Reynald and the kids would die and Rellas would collapse. No pressure.
I had to buy some time.
“You’re half right,” I said slowly. “It is a matter of trust. You don’t know me, Reynald. If I told you to do something right now, would you do it?”
“If I understood the reasons behind it and agreed with them.”
“Exactly.” I nodded. “You wouldn’t act just because I told you to.”
His eyes narrowed. “So, you’re expecting blind obedience?”
This conversation was going off the rails in a hurry.
“Not at all. But I know you. Once you decide on a course of action, you follow through even if it is unwise, like the time you decided to climb into an underground catacomb in Gassargand alone, without telling anyone. You knew there would be a monster waiting for you there, a monster you and three other experienced soldiers had failed to kill the first time around, and you climbed in there anyway.”
“It had to be done.”
“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of. That I will tell you what I know and then you’ll decide to do something about it and get yourself killed.”
“I’m resilient.”
“I know. But in my version of the future, you still died. And unlike me, you didn’t come back from it.” I sighed.
He pondered me.
The best defense was an effective offense.
“I’m not completely dense, Reynald. I know why you didn’t tell me that Clover was standing there or that Kaiden was hiding under the bed. You realized that I cared for the kids, and having both of them there would convince me to lean on you. It’s one thing to talk about the kingdom ending and people dying, but it’s completely different when two children are standing in front of you, and you know you are their only hope to survive. You have no resources, except for the deadly blademaster in the room willing to lend a hand.”
His face shut down.
“I understand why you did it.”
He waited, his expression blank.
“You think that I’m your best chance at saving Matheo.”
If I was missing back home and not in a coma or just dreaming in my bed while the events here passed before me at a thousand minutes per second, my parents would be frantic. My dad would do anything and everything to find me and bring me home. He would sell his soul to the devil if it would help. I was Reynald’s devil, and I was sitting right here.
“I give you my word that I will do everything I can to keep your son alive. You asked to join me, not the other way around. So trust me and be patient. Let me prove to you that my way is the best way.”
I tried not to hold my breath. He’d notice.
“Fair enough,” he said. “Since we’ve decided to be straightforward with each other, you’re right. You do have a blademaster on your side. I will protect you. No more heroics. No more dramatic dying.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Good. Then we’re on the same page.” He nodded. “I like that turn of phrase. It’s clever.”
I had brought a new idiom to Kair Toren. Heh.
A breeze fanned me. I tasted salt on my lips.
Salt! That was it! That was the thread I could tug on. So many things hinged on it.