Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 121924 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121924 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
How we were expected to memorize anything when our brains were so sluggish, I had no clue.
The tests were tedious but also important. It was vital that we knew which beasts were venomous, what kind of effects said venom would cause, where these creatures could be found, and how best to handle coming face to face with them.
In terms of the latter, when dealing with some, it was better to make noise and try to scare them off. They didn’t like prey who’d put up a fight. They liked dinners that were easy to catch and kill. This particularly applied to the winged horses and the tusked jackals.
When it came to other creatures, like the scaled grizzly bears and the silver bulls who had metal plates on their head and body, your best bet was to freeze.
Some should be looked right in the eye. Some, on the other hand, would be aggravated by eye-contact.
One thing always applied to each and every creature: You should never, under any circumstances, run.
We were now just over halfway through Xalbia. The number of candidates were down by four, since Klemens was dead and three had dropped out the morning after his demise, leaving us with fifty-one. The Laelaps had in fact dragged Klemens deeper into the moorlands, where he’d been left to rot. Some had heard his screams through the night, even with the raging wind.
I was kind of sorry that I’d missed it, but I’d been … otherwise occupied that night.
Just thinking about Talon made my stomach tumble. Which was super irritating, but I was working on changing that.
Just as I’d expected, he didn’t act any differently toward me than he had before we’d slept together. Nor did he ever look at me as a man would look at a woman whose body he knew intimately. Nah, he stared at me the same way he did everyone and everything else—like I was a hindrance.
Sometimes, I could almost think that night in the tent never actually happened.
I hadn’t told anyone about it, not even Khalida. I really didn’t need to deal with people accusing me of having slept with the Cardinal of the Black Tapestry in the hope of securing a place in it. Not that I thought she would believe that. But others might, and the best way to keep something quiet was to not speak of it at all.
Closing a mental drawer on the subject, I refocused on the text in front of me. I came to the library some evenings—usually to read up on whatever information we’d been told to seek out for ourselves, but sometimes just for the pleasure of it. Though I enjoyed chilling in the tavern, reading was another thing that helped me destress.
Also, I found the library relaxing. Found the combined smells of musty paper, wood, leather, and candle wax comforting. And I liked the quiet, too.
Generally, you didn’t get a lot of “quiet” at the garrison. It was a lively place always bustling with activity. But here, there were only muted whispers, the flip of pages, soft footfalls, the scratch of writing quills, and the occasional creak of the wooden chairs.
It wasn’t small by any means. The bookshelves were large and sturdy—there were rows upon and rows of them. Cozy reading corners could also be found, along with desks for people to sit while they studied or read or even just napped.
It was dark outside, so no sunlight filtered through the windows. But the many lanterns and chandeliers provided plenty of light and caused faint little shadows to dance over the page I was reading.
Khalida sat beside me at the table, engrossed in a romance book. She had insisted on accompanying me to the library and keeping me company. She didn’t like me being alone due to what happened with Klemens, fearing another candidate would repeat his mistake.
The attempt on my life had shocked her, which I hadn’t expected—she’d warned me that it could happen. But I supposed that suspecting it might occur was a whole lot different from hearing it had happened, especially if the target was a friend.
Personally, I doubted any of the other candidates would come at me, given what the consequences had been for Klemens. My newfound friends, however, didn’t want to take any chances. They believed it was possible that someone might do it even if only to avenge Klemens. After all, people didn’t always think straight when their thoughts were all jumbled and dark, courtesy of Xalbia. So if Khalida wasn’t at my side when I had free time, it was one of the others in our group. I found it all quite sweet.
Though plenty of people suspected that Atticus was the mastermind behind Klemens’ attack, there was no way to prove it. When Jelani had confronted him the morning after the incident, the Phoenixian had point blank denied having any involvement. And since Klemens hadn’t claimed otherwise before being tossed to the beasts of Deimos, there was nothing to be done about my suspicions, even if others shared them.