Chapter Twenty-Three
The journey back to the palace was interrupted twice when Ruth began to glow. The magic of the mushrooms was lasting a shorter time than Madura had predicted. Koorgan felt Ruth sag back against him in exhaustion.
“How are you doing?” he asked.
She leaned her head back against his shoulder. “I feel like a convoy of semis – think a hundred Genisuses – have run over me, backed up, and did it again about a hundred times,” she admitted.
Koorgan regretted that LaBuff wasn’t still alive so he could kill him. Ruth should have been safe in his own bedroom, not lost and fighting for survival somewhere in the countryside. He didn’t truly know what had happened to the pirate or what kind of magic the Pirate King had, but after seeing what he’d witnessed, he would never again l
