My parents have been and gone, and i have a couple of quiet days to get caught up with my wordcount. I am plunging towards the end of this book, i think. There is a light at the end of the tunnel!
Wordcount: 1158
Accomplished: More explanations. Someone we thought was dead returns in very unexpected company. A relationship is (possibly) ended with a simply, quiet word.
Excerpt:
There were footsteps in the hall outside the throne room, and Ceris unfolded herself and stood. Nonhle did the same, setting the circlet on her short, spring-curled hair. Ceris cocked her head, trying to decipher the footsteps. Two people, she thought, moving slowly.
Then the pair of people stepped into the throne room, and Ceris sucked in a surprised breath.
It was Greith, and Ulla Gret leaned heavily on her shoulder. Ulla’s richly embroidered shirt was torn and bloody, one eye was swollen shut, and her lower leg was heavily bandaged. But her good eye was still bright, and there was something like a smile lingering on her lips. Greith, for her part, looked very slightly amused—but she always looked amused, except when she was complaining.
“I thought Ceris killed you, Hawk,” Nonhle said.
“It takes more than a warmaga and a bunch of corpses to kill me,” Ulla said. “I trained with Idris Royenne.” Her eye flicked to Ceris, and she inclined her head. “Allow me to be the first to congratulate you on your victory. May you have much joy of the throne. Your predecessor did not.”
She looked down then, at the body of Marathey laid out on a blanket on the patterned tiles. “I thought Lynnis would be the death of him eventually,” she said. “I am grieved that I was right.”
