Total pages in book: 208
Estimated words: 209645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1048(@200wpm)___ 839(@250wpm)___ 699(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 209645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1048(@200wpm)___ 839(@250wpm)___ 699(@300wpm)
Baldrick moved to his tree and into it, ready to put up his feet and drink more ale.
And later, when he lay down in his bed, he slept easy for the first time since he felt a quake.
57
The Finnie
Queen Ha-Lah
Beach Beside the Triton Sea
OFF THE WEST COAST OF FIRENZE
Pecking at them with my fingers, I pulled at my curls, giving them more volume around my face as I stared into the looking glass that hung from a post in Aramus and my tent.
After nightly swims and daily showers in fresh water, I was going through my supply of oils and essences to keep them healthy, bouncy, separated and tamed, as I liked them.
This meant we’d have to find an apothecary along our journey to Wodell so I could blend some more.
Although Aramus had received a bird saying that we had much longer to make our way to Notting Thicket than we’d previously thought, we still had to leave. And soon. We’d dallied more than a few days and we’d been told the journey would take at least three weeks at a quick pace. From the beginning, we had little time to linger.
Therefore, we were leaving in the morning.
I would need far less oil and essence for my hair once we were inland.
I still needed to blend.
I sighed, turned away, and my skirts that had a number of loose, filmy panels that drifted like kelp around my thighs twirled about my legs as I did so.
I grabbed a short piece of toweling that was resting on our pallet as I made my way to the flaps of the tent that were tied back, giving me a wide view of the magnificent sea. I walked through the opening and stepped out onto the sand.
And felt my foot hit home.
I could not stop my smile.
Xi was wandering in front of our tent. He looked to me and I turned my smile to him.
“Good day, Xi,” I called.
“My queen,” he replied on a return smile and stopped.
“Where is he?” I asked.
“Attempting to murder a squad of soldiers he’s drilling in sand maneuvers,” he answered, jerking his head back down the beach.
I turned that way to see perhaps twenty men doing things with Aramus standing before them, shouting.
“Mind,” Xi went on, and I looked back at him. “They’ve already drilled in these maneuvers about five hundred times. But I suppose you can never be too ready.”
I really should not laugh but I was having difficulty not doing just that.
“Has that rider I asked you to send returned?” I inquired.
He shook his head, but his brown eyes were dancing. “Though I expect him this afternoon. I’ll find you the minute he arrives.”
“I’d appreciate that, Xi.”
“I’d appreciate if my rider finds there’s some remote inn or luxury Firenz tent, I don’t give a damn what it is, except that whatever it is, is within but a few miles of this beach. Just as long as Cap can take you there and take care of business before there’s a mutiny. Who would have thought we’d be less happy when you two started to get happy? Though, the point is, you need to really get happy so the rest of us don’t consider regicide.”
“I’ll do my best to see if I can make things …” I searched for words. “Calm down sooner than that.”
He dipped his chin. “I would be forever grateful, my queen. As would Nis. Tint. Bond. Ore. Nav. And about five hundred other men.”
I started quietly laughing.
He gave me a wink and began to continue in the direction he’d been heading (which, I would note, was away from his king) when I stopped him.
Xi again looked to me.
“I hate for you to have to go back, so perhaps you can send a sailor in your stead. But could you get word to my husband I’d like to speak to him when he has a moment?” I requested.
“I’ll send the one I least like,” Xi offered.
I started laughing again and nodded. “It would be appreciated.”
He gave a slight bow and murmured, “Anything for my queen.”
He then resumed on his path away from my husband and I watched him eventually call out to a man who rushed to him. Xi spoke some words, the man did not look happy, but he nodded to his superior officer and started to trudge toward his king.
I avoided his eyes as he got near me, pressed my lips together in order not to smile, and made my way over the sand to the lapping sea.
In the ensuing days since I showed my husband my magic, I had made many overtures to his men, most especially his closest lieutenants, and had been rewarded beyond my wildest dreams.
They were good men and their fun-loving, close nature that I’d been witness to these last many weeks being something I, myself, finally could enjoy was like being awarded a precious gift.