My heart skipped.
He didn’t look happy, as in, way more than his usual unhappy when he was looking at me so I was thinking this problem was a problem.
“Out, boy,” Kell barked at Skylar, Skylar jumped up and took off.
He closed the door behind him and Kell’s gaze came to me.
My eyes had not left him and my fingertips were on the desk, pressing in, seeking support hopefully without looking like I was.
“Frey?” I asked quietly and Kell’s bushy white brows shot together.
“What?” he barked.
“Frey,” I repeated, turning more fully to him and stiffening my spine. “Have you heard some word? Are Frey and the men all right?”
“Gods, woman, a’ course they are. Stealin’ a branch from a poof? Bloody hell,” he replied and I decided that I would not share my thoughts on him calling homosexuals “poofs” but I even if I wished to do so, I didn’t get the chance because Kell kept speaking. “We got riders at the shore. They hold Baldur banners.”
Oh shit.
Kell went on. “They’re flashin’ a sun message. Bloody Baldur knows you’re here, he’s camped close and he wants you and Frey to attend him.”
Oh shit!
“A sun message?” I asked.
“Sun,” he grunted. “Mirror. Message.”
That was all he said but I put two and two together and figured that the riders were flashing a mirror at the sun in some way that the men on the ship could read.
And that message was, my uncle… who was not my uncle… wanted me and my husband… who was not here but instead on a clandestine mission to steal property from Middleland soil some weeks after, of course, he and his men had helped the king’s captive sorceress (and forced mistress) to escape… to come and see him.
This was not good.
“I’m guessin’ from that look on yer face you’re readin’ this situation as not good,” Kell accurately deduced then without a breath continued. “We’re exposed. Until nightfall, without them seein’, we can’t get a man to shore to get a message to Frey. And, we got a command from a king on our hands, one we cannot defy without good reason and we got ourselves a couple a’ those, but none of ‘em are ones we can share. And Baldur is not the kind ‘a king who’s big on bein’ defied. Not to mention, we send you in, you got no idea who this blighter is.”
By the way, Kell, like all of Frey’s closest men, knew who I was and where I’d come from.
“Thanks for summing that up, Kell,” I said softly and his eyes narrowed.
Then he stated, “I ain’t here to sum it up, princess, I’m here ‘cause I’m plum outta ideas and wondered if you got some. The king’s men cannot board this ship.”
“Why?” I asked and he gave me a look I couldn’t quite decipher because I didn’t know Kell all that well but I had a feeling there was something on the ship the king’s men couldn’t see.
Shit!
Thinking fast, I suggested, “Can you send a message that I’m indisposed, um… not well and ask the king to wait until tomorrow when I’ll hopefully feel better? That way we’ll have time to make up a story and form a plan.”
He crossed his arms on his chest and his irritated impatient look got more irritated and impatient.
“Tried that. They told us to send a boat ashore anyway as the king’s concerned about his niece and wants to send his men across to board in order to ascertain she’s all right.”
I blinked then asked, “How long have they been out there?”
“Over an hour.”
I blinked again and asked, “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
He uncrossed his arms and planted his fists on his hips and asked back, “And why would I do that?”
I put my hands to my hips too and shot back, “Oh, I don’t know, Kell. Probably so I’d have more time to consider this dilemma and maybe come up with an answer rather than receiving the news there was a dilemma at the last possible moment so my only choice is to freak out and make a rushed decision about what the heck we’re going to do. Jeez, two heads are better than one,” I ended on an annoyed snap.
“Not when one ‘a those heads belongs to a woman,” Kell fired back.
Oh no he did not.
I glared at him.
Then I ordered, “Prepare a boat and pick men you trust to accompany me but the party must include Gunner and Stephan.”
It was his turn to blink. Then he breathed out a, “What?” that clearly stated he thought I was insane.
“Prepare a boat and pick men you trust to accompany me,” I repeated.
“Woman –” Kell started but I interrupted him.
“Kell, we have a demand from a king. We’re in his waters and my husband is in his country doing something he will probably not like. Frey is not set to return for days.” I leaned forward and reminded him, “We need to buy time and the only one who can do that is me.”
“Princess, that man has known the other you since she was a baby and you have never seen him in your life,” he reminded me back.
I threw out a hand and declared, “I’ll wing it.”
His brows shot together again and he grunted, “Wing it?”
“Make it up as I go along, wing it. Now send a message that I’m rousing myself for the journey, prepare a boat and select men you trust to accompany me.”
He didn’t move. He scowled.
Then he announced, “Drakkar is not gonna like this, woman.”
I didn’t figure he would. Then again, I figured he’d come to understand I had no choice.
With any luck.
“I’ll deal with that later.”
“Hopefully it won’t be much later, say, he already knows what’s happenin’, he’s makin’ his play and that play is abducting you, incarceratin’ your rounded arse in one ‘a his castles and sendin’ word to your father that he ain’t real happy his niece and nephew-in-law are runnin’ amok in his kingdom. Somethin’, by the by, your papa don’t know balls about.”
Hmm.
“We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it,” I decided.
Kell scowled at me some more but still didn’t move.
“Kell, time is wasting,” I reminded him.
He ignored me and continued to scowl at me. Then something shifted on his face, the scowl was still there, just not as severe and something had lit in his eyes.
I didn’t have time to decipher it. I had no time at all and I needed to get changed before all this went down. I wasn’t wearing breeches to this meeting. I was meeting my uncle, king to princess, and I needed an outfit that would remind him of that.
So I prompted, somewhat loudly, “Kell!”
That was when he muttered, “He said you had the spirit.”
“What?” I asked impatiently and Kell’s unfocused eyes focused on me.
“Nothin’,” he grunted. “I’ll send the message, prepare the boat and gather the men.” He lifted a finger and jabbed it at me. “But, woman, I’m gonna be one ‘a those men. You stay close to me, you pay attention to me and you learn real quick to read me. We got no choice, you and me, but to get through this bloody mess together. Don’t go goin’ princess on me and don’t go goin’ cockamamie on me. Yeah?”
My shoulders straightened in umbrage and I declared, “I’m never cockamamie.”
“Woman, you transported yourself to a whole ‘nother world not knowin’ where your arse would land or what it would land in. Most women got at least some cockamamie in ‘em but you are head-to-toe cockamamie,” he returned.
That was arguable but I didn’t have time to argue it now.
