Even he was impressed with the sight.
“It’s beautiful,” Emma breathed, scanning the gleaming castle from end to end. “That must be bioluminescence. It wouldn’t be … anything electrical, not this far down, would it?” She hadn’t seen any sign of a power plant or cables and couldn’t see any now.
“I think it must be … something growing on the stone. It’s amazing.”
“It’s actually weird that it reminds me so much of castles I’ve seen on Earth … and yet so different, so exotic.”
“Same here. There are ancient structures on my home world, Nardyl, that bear some resemblance. They are crumbling, however. This is either amazing preserved or repaired or not all that old. It’s hard to say in the glow of light.”
“Yes. I guess that’s what makes the magic—the colors, and the way it glows. It does look magical, though, like a fairy castle under the sea.”
Hearing Nye stir, she moved from the window to check on him and when she saw he seemed to be awake, she brought the sleepy eyed baby to the window to look out. As she’d expected, he was delighted with the lights. She chuckled. “Did I look like that when I was looking at it?”
Hauk grinned. Lifting his hand, he brushed her cheek with his knuckles and then ruffled the short hair on top of the baby’s head. “Yes.”
They moved back to the lounge when the pod began a steeper descent. A few moments later they felt the pod settle. Minutes passed. Hauk got up to look out to see what was happening and came back to report that they were in some sort of locker and the water was being pumped out. Shortly after that, the door was opened.
Emma saw a group standing outside the pod and glanced at Hauk a little uneasily. “It is fine. They are here to greet the young king.”
Relieved, Emma nodded and moved to the opening, stepping out carefully. The group outside, mostly male although there were also female warriors, came to attention and saluted.
Thankfully, there was no more fanfare than that. They crossed the small area and entered a wide hallway that was like stepping back in time. A servant waited for them and bowed in greeting. The walls were paneled and lined with sconces that held glowing globes. The floor was covered in a running carpet with an exotic design.
They followed it for what seemed miles and finally reached a wide set of stairs that looked like Niagara Falls and went up and up and up. Thankfully, they weren’t expected to climb a zillion stairs because Emma was winded before they got halfway to the first landing.
Mostly because Nye was really heavy.
Hauk took him from her when he saw she was struggling.
She smiled up at him thankfully and when she returned her attention to the stairs, discovered Valee was waiting at the first landing, her eyes narrowed as she divided a look between the two of them.
Uh oh.
Emma was almost surprised the woman didn’t try to trip her when she passed.
“I will take Nye,” she announced.
Hauk ignored her. “He is comfortable where he is.”
Fuming, she followed them up the next rise and then stomped off down the hallway.
Thankfully, Emma didn’t have to rely upon her to find her way. The servant led them down the hallway and showed her the nursery and then the small bedroom to one side that she would use.
Emma was delighted.
She had her own room!
And it had a door to one side that opened into Nye’s room.
She wondered if it meant Valee hadn’t managed to accuse her of some crime but decided it probably hadn’t been long enough to consider herself in the clear.
It seemed completely unreasonable to think she might be accused of influencing Nye in a bad way, but she also knew that parents were generally considered responsible for the actions of their children on Earth and she had no clue about this society. Valee was a royal princess. She could be accused of trying to murder a royal.
It was a terrifying possibility, but she just couldn’t bring herself to believe there was even a remote possibility of anything that dire.
Kadin had defended her. Surely that counted at least as much as the accusation?
Doing her best not to think about it, she took Nye from Hauk after she’d followed the servant around the suite as he pointed out the features and amenities, then she thanked the servant, bid Hauk a good night and sat down in the rocker provided to soothe Nye until he could settle down and sleep.
It had been dark when they’d reached the beach. She had no idea how long the trip had taken but thought it must be really late or maybe even the wee hours of the morning.
She was tired but wired when she’d finally gotten Nye to settle down and discovered she was having trouble sleeping herself.
When she did finally manage to dose off she began to dream bizarre, scary things and kept waking up. The end result was that she felt worse the following morning than she had when she went to bed.
So she felt particularly joyful when Valee showed up to take over Nye’s care and feeding.
Nye didn’t seem especially thrilled either, but aside from whining and squirming while she bathed him and changed him, he put up with her.
Emma’s mood improved when she’d made use of the facilities she’d been shown the night before. It wasn’t a fresh water shower, but there was hot water and soap and those were luxuries she’d almost despaired of ever seeing again.
And a working toilet!
And huge towels to dry with—not the terry she was used to, but they worked.
Her cup runneth over when she left the bathroom and discovered Gaelen had arrived to walk her to breakfast.
She didn’t realize that right away, but she perked up anyway just
