Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 105132 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105132 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
Adira’s thoughts were racing. Dravic didn’t know any of this. He knew Ernach wanted the crown. He knew the men inside the castle belonged to him. But he couldn’t possibly know about the mercenaries hidden in these woods or the others waiting throughout Scotara. And he didn’t know Ernach intended to attack the High Council.
Ernach stood watching the first group of mercenaries disappear into the woods.
A few warriors remained behind, and one turned to Ernach.
“You can’t trust any of them. More than one of them probably thinks to take the throne from you.” He grinned. “Or wait a year or two and let age take you.”
“He’s right,” said another. “You have years on you.”
Ernach smiled. “My queen will see me live a long life.”
“Wear you out is more likely.”
The men laughed.
Ernach didn’t.
His smile vanished and his eyes narrowed. “Not when your wife is the healer who can defy death.”
The man stared at him.
“How will you find her when no one else can?”
“She will come to me,” Ernach boasted. “She will not let the people of Scotara suffer needlessly and I will see that they do. She will show herself and I will strike a bargain with her that she cannot refuse.”
He was completely mad and he had madmen following him. She couldn’t let Ernach take her farther away. Dravic would find her eventually. She had no doubt of that, but by then it might be too late to stop what Ernach had set in motion.
She glanced at the man holding her. His attention was on the departing warriors, looking with envy on them and his hand had loosened on her arm.
Ernach was closer than she would like, but then so was the thick forest.
Adira looked for the densest part. She had one chance.
She didn’t hesitate. She tore her arm free and ran.
A shout erupted behind her.
Adira didn’t look back. She plunged between the trees, running as fast as the uneven ground allowed, branches catching at her cloak as she tried to remember the direction they’d come from.
“Get her!” Ernach’s furious command rang through the woods.
She heard men crashing after her and she ran harder.
She had to get back to the castle, back to Dravic and warn him.
The ground began to slope beneath her feet. She jumped over a fallen branch and nearly lost her footing when she landed but caught herself and kept going.
She heard the pounding of footfalls behind her. One shouted from somewhere to her left. Another answered from behind her. They were spreading out, trying to surround her.
Adira changed direction.
She spotted a narrow opening between two trees and raced toward it. A man suddenly appeared ahead. Adira swerved away from him. Her foot came down on loose earth. She twisted trying to stop herself from falling, but she went down hard.
She saw the large, jagged rock as it rose up toward her, but she wasn’t fast enough to avoid it.
Adira struck it hard. Pain exploded through her head, and everything went black.
Dravic drove his sword into the warrior coming at him and ripped it free. Another immediately took the man’s place. There seemed no end to them.
He swung again, barely aware of Tharne fighting several feet away. They had somehow been forced back-to-back as Ernach’s men closed around them.
Dravic would have laughed at the absurdity of it if he hadn’t been consumed by the need to get through that damned door. Adira was somewhere beyond it and every moment he remained trapped in the Great Hall took her farther from him.
He blocked a blow and slammed his fist into the man’s face, then he drove his shoulder into another warrior and sent him sprawling.
The doors at the far end of the Great Hall burst open and more warriors poured inside.
Dravic swore. Ernach had planned well. He and Tharne couldn’t hold off an entire army.
A familiar voice suddenly thundered across the hall.
“Protect the king!”
Dravic froze for no more than a heartbeat. Scotaran warriors surged through the doors. His warriors. And leading them—
“Tavish,” Dravic called out.
Relief hit Dravic hard, but it lasted only an instant. He had to get to Adira.
Tavish, along with several warriors, fought their way toward him, sword in hand and fury on his face. Dravic was soon surrounded by his warriors who were quickly dispatching the mercenaries.
“I assume you’re pleased to see me,” Tavish said.
“You took your damned time.”
Tavish blocked the point of a sword that slipped between the circle of warriors. “I left with an army as soon as your message reached me, and you’re welcome.”
“I should thank you for doing your job?”
“There is the king I know and respect,” Tavish said.
A small golden light shot through the doorway beside the dais, catching Dravic’s attention.
Fiora flew straight toward him. “Dravic!”
Something in her voice turned his blood cold. “What happened?”
“Ernach has men everywhere. Hundreds, maybe. They’re moving out now and then they will strike the Driochmor High Council, killing them all. He plans to take all of Scotara.”