Chapter Twelve #3
“Let us get you into bed first,” he replied, his voice soft, as he took me to my suite and dismissed the guards following us. First, the royal guard was on my heels due to distrust, and now they dogged me over the coral crown atop my matted hair. “Would you like a hot bath?”
“Aye,” I said, toeing off my soggy boots as I placed the sea crown onto a side table. My wet clothes fell to the floor in a heap as Le’ral rang for servants. “Let me just stretch out here on the bed until they come.”
He walked over to me as I spread myself over the soft mattress, sighing when he pulled a thick duvet over me. A moment passed in sweet quietude before he ran the backs of his fingers along my cheek.
His touch eased me into a sleep so deep that only the ringing of a small bell by a nervous young elven maid woke me several hours later.
The fire leapt in the hearth. A tea service was laid out on the table, the tub sat filled with hot water, and a suit of satiny sea green lay out on the chair by the table.
I sat up, blurry-eyed, and felt a pillow next to mine. Cold. Flat. He’d snuck off then, the wily elf of shadow.
“The king wishes to send a valet in to assist you, Your Highness,” the petite elf informed me as she lingered by the doorway.
“That’s fine. What time is it?”
I scrubbed at my cheeks, fresh whiskers rough on my palm.
“Seven bells just passed, Your Highness. Dinner will be served at eight bells.”
“Thank you. You may go.”
She skittered off, easing out of the door on silent bare feet, leaving me to sip tea as I soaked in the tub.
Nerves began to pluck at me as the valet arrived to dry me off.
He brushed my hair after shaving my face.
His soft conversation was pleasant, as was he.
Quite pleasant indeed, and fair of face, but my thoughts were on the grand advisor, wherever he may be.
Shame he wasn’t here with me, for I would have liked his company right now.
He’d become important to me since my arrival here.
A tenderness warmed me when I thought of him, an odd occurrence as I have never let any lover wiggle into my heart.
Perhaps he had done so with such ease, as he was a man of secrets and shadows.
Yes, that was surely it. For I had stout walls about my heart, yet he had gotten through the cracks, like water seeping into an undercroft, filling the cellar up drip by drip, smile by smile, touch by touch.
“I think I have caught a case of emotions,” I whispered to the valet. He peered up at me as he buffed my white boots with a soft brush.
“Better than a case of crabs, Your Highness.”
“I’m not so sure.”
“A small fete he said,” I muttered as I stole yet another peek into the Seafarer’s Hall.
Hundreds of nobles were packed inside the garish ballroom.
I glanced over at my crew stuffed into a tiny antechamber with me.
Pith met my look and tittered, yet again, as her eyes roamed over me.
“I’d not laugh too loudly, you old coot.
Your garb is—” The cutting remark stalled on my tongue.
My entire crew was dressed to the nines.
Perhaps even the tens. Some to the twelves.
Unsure of where they had come upon such garish clothes—probably gifts from my brother—they all looked like the unhappy little puffy dogs the noblewomen carried about.
Dogs likely did not wish to be dressed in gowns or ruffled surcoats.
Neither did my crew, aside from Pith, who was thrilled over her pink kirtle with elaborate yellow sleeves. “Your garb is lovely.”
“Good thing ye changed your tune, or I’d be wearing that longish canine tooth of yours about my neck,” the cook warned with a shake of a finger at me. That was her standard warning to me, so I wasn’t overly worried about my teeth. “Why the shits is your skin all glowy and white?”
“My valet insisted everyone of import was going to be wearing swan dander, so I allowed the simpleton to powder me from arse to armpits,” I growled as the musicians struck up another tune on their lutes, harps, and viols.
“The bastardly shit itches. I plan to feed him to the sharks if I ever see him again.”
“Speaking of sharks,” Hyla interjected as I dug at my balls.
Who dusts their stones with swan dander?
The bored and rich, obviously. “The Cloud’s Shame has been taken to shore for her repairs.
We’ll be landbound for at least a full phase of the moons if not longer, according to the shipwright’s apprentice. ”
“Understood. We’ll all be sailing with the queen as soon as our business in Renedith is seen to,” I told them and got firm nods.
They’d all agreed to sail with Raewyn and me on a royal sloop to help those in Light’s Keep as seamen first class in the king’s navy.
It had taken some talking and some vows made, but they’d all seen the writing on the wall.
If the queen met me halfway at the negotiating table, then the need for piracy would wane.
There would be some haggling to be sure, as some of my fellow privateers were bloodthirsty cockers who would sooner toss their balls overboard than sail under a royal flag.
Perhaps the temptation of not having to hide from the law would bring them around.
Perhaps not. “Once the Cloud’s Shame is repaired, we have some sailing to do to appease the sea witches.
I’ve always wished to see the lands of the singing fish. ”
“I’d like to visit the uncharted lands,” Hyla said, easing aside to allow Le’ral to enter the already cramped space. He was dressed in grays and blacks. A delicious sight to be sure.
“Pardon the interruption, but it is time to be introduced to the nobles,” he said and then gave my crew—sans Prescott, who was in the nursery listening to stories with the twins—a kind smile.
“If you would wish it, Your Highness, the king has arranged for you to enter with me as your escort for the evening. After which, Matron Everwind would be announced as well, as she has served as your maternal caregiver for many seasons.”
Hyla gasped, eyes flared, hand on her throat.
“No, no, I can’t be coming out there in front of all those nobs in this fine dress.
I even got silver slippers with butterflies!
But they’ll still see me as the common trash that I am.
” She hoisted up her skirt to show off her flashy shoes.
“Them people won’t give two turds about me. ”
I turned to her to take her rough hands in mine. “I care about you. You’ve been the only mam I’ve ever known. I’d be proud for those cockers to know you as the mother of my heart.”
Her eyes grew dewy. She nodded, hugged me, and then sneezed when some stray dander got up her nose.
“On with it then,” Hyla said, taking my arm on her left and Le’ral’s on her right.
The others cheered after the formal introduction was called out.
Every painted set of eyes in the Seafarer’s Hall locked on us as we entered.
Hyla’s grip on my forearm was so tight my fingers were growing numb.
This woman had leapt into the sea to fight a shark without a second thought, but this room of land-hogs had her terrified.
Truth be told, they had me nerved as well.
“Chin up, nose high, uncaring smiles,” Le’ral whispered as we sailed through elves clad in rich brocades, bright satins, and pale skin made even more pale with feather dust. The rich were idiots.
We took perhaps four steps toward the table set at the front where Aelir and his spouses stood clapping politely when Le’ral paused.
“Ah, good evening, Lord Treasurer Newdawn and Lady Newdawn. May I introduce to you Prince Coelum Cadere Stillcloud and his maternal warden, Matron Everwind. Your Highness, Matron Everwind, this is the lord treasurer and his lady wife.”
The two portly elves in matching pale yellow bowed and curtsied deeply, their skin glittering with swan dander, both wearing elaborate hairstyles with dead butterflies sitting on cut flowers. Two honeybees buzzed lazily around their heads. I had to bite back a snort of amusement over the bees.
“The pleasure is mine,” I said exactly as Le’ral and Mahouk Nouradi had taught me.
Polite but distant as befitting a member of the royal family.
Pfft. It was all blather. Just bring on the food and the wine, then let me return to my chambers so I can wash the dander off my bunghole.
“Your expertise in counting money has been recounted to me with glowing praise.”
He beamed. Le’ral gave me a slight nod.
It was all a lie. I’d never heard of this fat man in my life. There were too many damn bureaucrats in this kingdom. If Aelir wished to save coin, he could cut out half of the titled fobs stuffing themselves on rich food while tossing back casks of wine on the taxpayer’s gold.
“If you’ll excuse me, the king seems to need my ear,” Le’ral said, sailing off through the mob of stuffy elves, leaving me and Hyla to flounder.
“I must say,” Treasurer Newdawn wheezed out as he grabbed several small raspberry tarts from the platter of a server moving through the crowd. “It is quite cheeky of the king to expect us to quietly accept a vills owner who used to be a pirate and the crippled whore who suckled him—”
Whatever other shite he was about to spew never left his painted mouth, for my fist had found its way to his nose. Shaking my hand after the treasurer hit the marble floor with a thud, his tarts scattering as his wife shrieked then fainted, I saw Le’ral and V’alor rolling their eyes in tandem.
“Nice haymaker,” Hyla whispered as dead quiet engulfed the ballroom aside from some muted cheers from my crew. Even the musicians had stopped playing to gawk in astonishment. I patted her hand still resting on my arm as Le’ral appeared at my side. Unflustered but displeased, I could tell.
“I leave you for a mere moment,” he whispered as footmen raced over to drag the taxman and his lady wife from the ballroom.
“Only a fool disrespects the mam of a pirate,” I answered, taking Hyla to the king’s table where Aelir bid her to sit beside him.
No other cockers spoke ill of her that night.