My Royal Pain Quest (The Lakeland Knight series, #2) (11 page)

“The same can be said about humans, I’m sure,” I answered.

She nodded. “Farewell. Have a safe journey home. I hope we can meet again someday.”

They gave a quick bow, gracefully slid off the serpent’s back and disappeared in the water.

We picked up our provisions and walked ashore.

To think that I’d nearly left the dagger behind on the witches island. We’d been trying to lighten our load, getting rid of unnecessary items. I had put it into the box with the rest of the treasures, then for some reason stuck it back into my pocket.

“Now I see why you were staring at Rosmarina the way you did, back at the marshes,” Cassandra said.

“If I was staring, it’s only because I was suspicious. She looked out of place.”

“Yeah, right.”

I regarded her, frowning. “Since when do you doubt my words?”

“Are you saying Lady Marielle is not a rare beauty?”

“Indeed she is. Not many come with a tail.”

Cassandra and Reggie burst out laughing, the latter falling out of my hood and swinging on it. I had to do something about this fellow, he was getting out of hand.

We decided to spend the night on the island, with Merwyn and Orman waiting nearby in the water, and continue our journey in the morning. I went to look for the fresh water stream. Reggie insisted on going with me, and I soon understood why.

“I did ask her,” he said into my ear, sitting on my shoulder. “About her fiancé.”

“And?”

“She won’t tell. Neither who he was, nor even his name. She just said he had shown himself different from what she believed him to be.”

“Is that all?”

“Yeah. I tried to pry out more, asked what he did. She said it’s a long story, and quickly changed the subject.”

So the guy had deceived her, perhaps betrayed in some way. Well, this was something, although certainly not much.

“Should I ask her again?”

“No, Reggie, don’t push too hard. If she ever mentions it to you again, you can try, but be careful.”

I found the stream and refilled our water flasks. When we returned, we saw that Cassandra had started a fire and set the table, so to speak: she had fresh fruit and some of our dry supplies laid out on a clean cloth.

“Supper’s ready.”

We ate and went straight to sleep, grateful once again for the warm weather and soft sand.

***

On the next morning our journey continued. We took our seats on the sea serpent’s back again and headed north. It was rather uneventful from that point, which I liked. Cassandra seemed to enjoy a bit of peace and quiet as well. Reggie didn’t; the monotony of it drove him crazy. I quickly gave up trying to have him under the canopy, letting him run all over the serpent. Since we had plenty of flying berries we would no longer use, I also gave him free access to those—something I suspect he never had before. The Swirgs used their saveberries only when necessary, for protection, not entertainment. Reggie had the fun of his life, flying in circles over Merwyn’s head, jumping in and out of the water and pestering Orman in every way he could think of.

Orman became a little less formal now that his master was gone, although he still maintained a respectful distance with me. He played with the Swirg while the serpent was warming up, then told him to “get back on board” as Merwyn showed us what he was capable of, speed-wise. I doubt there was any ship, large or small, that could keep up with him.

Cassandra couldn’t resist the temptation to join Orman on the serpent’s neck. Remembering her ability to stay on a wild horse, I wasn’t worried. She didn’t fall off, but ended up soaked nevertheless—much to Orman’s delight. I heard him laugh, and from that moment it looked like they were the best of friends. They spent the rest of the day riding next to each other and talking.

“You’ll never guess what he asked me about,” she told me later on, grinning, when we stopped for the night at yet another island.

“I’m scared to try.”

“About human women.”

“Oh?” I couldn’t help chuckling. “So he got to talk to an expert without knowing it.”

“Yeah. I was dying to see what kind of a face he’d make if he found out he was speaking to one of those mysterious creatures he is so interested in.”

“And what is his interest?”

“He wants to marry one.”

I raised a brow. “That… would present a number of problems, wouldn’t it?”

“Yes, to put it mildly. But he says it’s possible.”

“I don’t quite see how.”

“There is no easy way, one of them would have to give up their world and join the other. He says the one making such sacrifice would transform into either a human or a mermaid, depending on what they choose.”

“Now let me venture a guess: he wants the woman to leave everything behind and become a mermaid for him.”

Cassandra gave a sad smile. “Of course.”

“And what’s the point, dare I ask? He’ll still have a mermaid wife, only with a cartload of psychological problems.”

“Ha! I’ve got to tell him that.”

“What did you tell him so far?”

“The only thing I could come up with was that human women don’t like getting their hair wet.” She snickered. “Believe it or not, that alone was enough to make him question the whole idea.”

“I wonder what gave him this idea to begin with.”

“Don’t know, he didn’t say.”

Cassandra remained silent for a while, stirring the fire with a stick.

“Do you think you could do it?” she asked. “Leave everything behind for a mermaid, join her in the sea, become a merman yourself?”

“Nope. Fish tail is the deal breaker for me.”

“I’m being serious!”

“So am I. I’m a villain, I don’t do sacrificial stuff.”

“Tell that to someone who hasn’t seen you go through all kinds of trouble trying to help a friend.”

I frowned. “That’s the one exception that only proves the rule. When I’m done with this stupid quest, I’ll go back to the way I prefer to live. What about you, could you do it?”

“I think I could. If I truly loved someone, that is. If there was no other way, I think I could leave all I know for him.”

Whoever that former fiancé of hers was, he was a fool.

“You’re quite a woman, Cassandra.”

She smiled. “One of a kind, that’s for sure.”

On the next day our steady progress was interrupted by a ship heading our way. Merwyn noticed it from afar and gave out a short warning sound, something in between a growl and a hiss.

“Uh-oh, a human ship,” Orman said, shielding his eyes against the sun. “What do we do? Normally, we’d just go underwater.”

Fortunately, I had anticipated such possibility and had both flying and invisibility berries at hand. There was no time to explain it to Orman though. If the guys on the ship had a spyglass, they’d see us any minute.

“Give us a second to grab our stuff.”

Reggie jumped into my hood, Cassandra and I quickly picked up our sacks, thankfully less heavy now since we’d used up some of the supplies. We popped in the flying berries and pushed ourselves off of Merwyn’s back.

“All right, dive in. Keep going north, we’ll do the same. See you after we pass the ship.”

Orman looked at me, confused.

“I thought you wanted to keep this flying thing secret. Aren’t you afraid of them seeing you?”

“I suppose that would have started a whole new genre of sea legends, wouldn’t it?” I smiled. “They won’t see us, don’t worry.”

“They are heading this way. And if they’ve got this stick with a magnifying glass in it…”

“A spyglass, I know. Don’t worry, we’ll be all right.”

Orman gave us another questioning look, then shrugged and submerged, ordering Merwyn to do the same.

We ate the invisibility berries and flew north, Reggie once again in charge of watching the time. The fine three-master passed us about forty minutes later. The captain did have a spyglass, but he stood calm, unconcerned; the sailors, too, went about their tasks, showing no alarm. They obviously hadn’t noticed anything unusual.

“Shall I scream?” Reggie asked, giggling.

“Don’t you dare.”

We kept moving north until the ship disappeared from view. Merwyn and Orman were faster, we saw them surface farther ahead and look around, searching for us. Cassandra and Reggie chuckled as Orman scratched his head, obviously wondering what happened to us.

“I know it’s very tempting, Reggie, but no. No shrieking.”

We flew up close and hovered behind them, waiting for our invisibility to end.
 

“Hi there,” I said when it did. As gently as I could.

It was Merwyn’s reaction I worried about, and I was right to. The startled beast whirled around, raising huge waves, eyes flashing, fangs bare, ready to attack. Good thing Orman somehow managed to cling to his neck.

“Easy!” he shouted. “It’s them, don’t you see?”

The serpent’s eyes narrowed as he recognized us, and he let out a low, displeased rumble.

If that was a joke,
that look said,
I didn’t care for it.
His tail rose and fell, splashing water all over us.

“Where did you come from?” Orman asked, shaking his head. “I just looked that way a minute ago!”

“It’s one of the Swirg tricks,” I answered. “Sorry, we meant no harm.”

“My, your serpent is jumpy,” Reggie put in.

Orman regarded him. “Just so you know, he could have swallowed you whole. All three of you.”

The rest of the way to our destination went without incident. Merwyn took no further retaliation and even gave us another “smile” when we parted.

“Thank you, Orman,” I said as we stood on the shore. “Please relay our most sincere gratitude to Lord Leomaris and Lady Marielle.”

He nodded, bobbing in the waves. “I certainly will. It has been my pleasure to be of service.”

The merman lifted his hand in a separate farewell to Cassandra, clapped Merwyn on the side, and they both disappeared.

“Well, that was a fun ride,” Cassandra commented, looking around the island, the last one in the course of our journey. “How long do you think it will take us to fly to mainland?”

“Probably a couple of hours. And then, if everything goes well, we should make our way back to Triar within a week’s time.”

***

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Triar couldn’t believe we returned so fast.

“What!” he exclaimed, nearly dropping the bucket of water he was carrying from the well. “You’re back already? I wasn’t expecting you for a couple more weeks at least! Did you get picked up by a ship?”

“Better.” Cassandra grinned. “A sea serpent.”

“A
sea serpent?
” He gave her a hard look. “Now, young lady, I like a good story once in a while, but in this case I would prefer to hear the truth.”

I noticed Jarvi’s sword on his belt. So he’d been carrying it with him at all times. Good.

Cassandra turned to me, her grin growing wider. “He calls me a liar. Wait until he hears the rest.”

“Before he hears
anything
, I want the sword back.”

Triar nodded.

“Understandably.” He unfastened the sword and handed it to me. “I can’t fathom how you ever thought of leaving it behind.”

“Well, I wasn’t exactly planning on a long trip.”

I took the blade and paused before pulling it out of the scabbard. Deep inside, I still had a tiny hope to see more of the orange glow. I knew it was unlikely that I had accomplished the Second Deed; I didn’t even have the sword with me, and one of the requirements, as far as I remembered, was to use it in the process. Besides, exactly what part of this silly predicament would be the “heroic deed”? Chasing the witches? Fighting with them on the island? Making our way back? Give me a break. Killing three old hags who couldn’t even hold a weapon hardly qualified as an act of heroism. The serpent was scary enough, I supposed, but I didn’t have to fight him or anything like that. I doubted any of it would count.

Triar watched me, probably guessing pretty accurately what I was thinking.

I drew the sword. The blade was flickering with orange sparks the same way as before. No improvement.

“I knew it,” I muttered under my breath. What a waste of time.

I didn’t say it aloud though, for Reggie’s sake. He was standing in my hood, peeking over my shoulder.

“Disappointed?” Triar asked.

“Nah, why would I be? I love magical passages, tropical islands, mermen, sea serpents, and such.”

The hermit’s eyes widened. “Did you just say
mermen
?”

“I did.”

“Then how is it that you’re still alive?”

I looked at him, the encounter with Lord Leomaris replaying in my mind, particularly his parting words. So he wasn’t kidding, huh.

“They weren’t that bad,” I replied, shrugging. “I would even say they were very civil. Gave us a ride on the serpent, entertained with a pleasant conversation. And then gave me this.”

I showed him the bracelet.

Triar stared at it as if it was a coiled snake ready to strike.

“If that’s not a sea lord’s
tartina
…” When he finally tore his eyes off of the golden fish, he regarded me with nothing short of awe.

“What’s a sardina?” Reggie asked.

Triar barely glanced at him. “Let’s—let’s go inside. This is a tale I must hear in every detail.”

We went to the house, where we were greeted by
Frederick
. It turned out that he and two other Swirgs had been staying with Triar, helping to watch out for possible threats.

“Reggie!!” he shouted, running to us with outstretched arms.

The little Swirg slid off my shoulder, and
Frederick
grabbed him into a fierce hug.

“Mr. Arkus, what you did for us—”

I held up a hand. “Not now,
Frederick
.”

Not ever.

“They are tired after their journey,” Triar told him, “and hungry, I bet. Why don’t you guys help set the table?”

“Sure! I am sending Benedict to the queen, but Augustine and I will be happy to do that.”

They got to work, and soon we sat down to feast on Triar’s delicious soup and blueberry pie. The hermit hung to every word as we shared our adventures. I managed to convince Reggie to wait with his performance of the battle until all the Swirgs could see it, so he settled for making comments and corrections. Triar asked a question or two to clarify something, but mostly he just sat there, listening, alternatively nodding and shaking his head. He continued the latter for quite a while after we finished the story.

“You spoke to a sea lord,” he said at last. “Rode with him on his serpent. And not only you survived, he gave you his tartina—the extremely valuable emergency messenger that only the most influential of the seafolk possess. Normally, such a treasure is given to closest kin—a son, a brother, a wife. My dear Lord Arkus, you are a living legend.”

Well. Not the worst thing to be called, I supposed.

“As long as you keep this legend to yourself, I don’t mind,” I told him. “All right, enough of that. Let’s get back to business. Now that we can’t reach Kellemar on time, have you come up with anything else for me to do?”

Triar regarded me, a hint of a sly smile showing on his lips.

“Actually, you can still make it to the
Tenebrous
Valley
. Isn’t that right, Frederick?”

“Oh, yeah!” The Swirg hurried to process a large bite of pie he’d just taken. “You can use our underground tunnels. It will save you days! Triar and I talked about it, and the queen has approved. We usually try to keep humans out, but, well, you’re one big exception.”

I looked at
Frederick
, not sure whether I wanted to thank or slap him.

“Really? You have a tunnel that leads all the way to the
Tenebrous
Valley
?”

“Yep. It won’t take you there as fast as the witches’ passage did, but it’s a huge shortcut since it goes nearly in a straight line. No mountains or rivers to cross. You’ll be there in a day.”

“Wow. That’s indeed a huge shortcut…”

I didn’t like Triar’s amused expression at all. Yes, he knew I didn’t want to do this; but he also knew I would, for Jarvi’s sake. Nothing funny.

“Well, Archie, I hope you’ve rested because we pack and leave tonight.”

***

And so we left, wasting no more time. Cassandra renewed her disguise as Archie, reapplying the “scar.” I made sure we had enough torches. I took the second blade with me as well—no more playing in the dark, wondering whether it was all right to draw my weapon.

Triar caught me alone in the barn, right before our departure. I was loading supplies while Cassandra went to fetch water for the horses. The hermit approached and stood next to me for several moments, watching in silence.

“I hope you don’t consider your latest adventure totally useless.”

“The sword says it was.”

He shook his head. “The sword only indicates that the Deed of Cool Mind is not yet accomplished. Things you have experienced and learned are invaluable. Not to mention that you saved Reggie.”

“The witches weren’t going to harm him, they only wanted to blackmail the others.”

“Oh, really? So what would the Swirgs have to do? Give up their secrets? If they refused, or even delayed, the witches would have
very likely
harmed Reggie.
 
I thought you knew enough about kidnapping and blackmailing to be aware of that.”

“Well, still. You know what I’m in it for. And right now, it’s not happening.”

Triar gave an enigmatic smile. “This sword is unlike anything you or I have ever dealt with. We know nothing for sure, we only speculate and guess. It might yet surprise you.”

“What on earth do you mean?”

Another exasperating smile. “I hardly know myself. Intuition is difficult to put into words.”

Leaving him to his intuition, I proceeded to load the rest of supplies and led the horses out of the barn.

When we entered the caves, we saw crowds of Swirgs gathered to greet us and see us go. I had to endure their cheering and politely listen to Queen Wilhelmina’s short speech about how she wished to see us back soon so that Reggie’s rescue could be properly celebrated and rewarded. They all followed us to the right tunnel and stood waving as we rode in and began our underground journey. Reggie and Frederick were the only ones who went with us. The little Swirg didn’t want to part, he begged to let him ride with us for a while.
Frederick
didn’t want him to go back alone, so he joined us as well.

Reggie sat on my shoulder, unusually quiet. When
Frederick
told him it was time to return, he didn’t protest, against all expectations.

“Thank you, Mr. Arkus,” he said, his large yellow eyes moist. “And you, Cassandra. I will miss you both so much. Farewell.”

“Cheer up, think of all the stories you’ve got to tell,” I answered, bringing a small smile to his face.

He slid off my shoulder and started climbing down the horse’s leg onto the ground. Frederick, who rode with Cassandra, rose to do the same but paused and turned to me, suddenly very serious.

“I want to warn you about something, Mr. Arkus. You really need to stop impersonating
Lord
Arkus, the villain. Reggie told me you’d introduced yourself as him to the merman, and I’ve heard Triar address you ‘Lord Arkus’ as well. I don’t know why you are doing it, but you are playing with fire. He is very dangerous. If he finds out, you will be in big trouble.”

“Thank you, Frederick,” I said in a most heartfelt way. And I meant it. It was the best thing I heard since this stupid quest had begun.

He bowed. “Farewell. Oh, and one more thing: there will be a big snake about halfway through the tunnel. Just ignore her, she won’t be a problem. She knows you’re coming and she’ll let you pass.”

The two Swirgs jumped off onto the ground, waved to us and headed back.

Cassandra and I continued on our way. The tunnel was wide enough for us to ride easily side by side. Our horses, uneasy at first, were now more or less used to the darkness, no longer getting spooked by rare sounds like dripping water or rustling of a rat. Except for being on horseback, everything was just like when we had entered the Sarwean caves for the first time.

“Why do I keep getting the feeling that I’m going in circles?” I muttered.

Cassandra turned to me, her face reddish-yellow in the torch light. “Hey. You’ve determined that this whole thing works, and you’ve got one deed accomplished. That’s something.”

“Yes, I suppose so,” I said, suppressing a sigh.

We decided to ride through without camping for the night. Sleeping in this place just didn’t seem like a good idea, despite the Swirgs’ assurance of complete safety. It would be a stretch, but we figured we’d rather rest when we were back above ground. Making only brief stops to feed and water the horses, we kept moving along, mostly in silence.

The “big snake” was coiled in a niche, we nearly passed it without noticing when all of a sudden two eyes lit up, reflecting our torch light. Once again, the Swirg sizing scale was off, only this time in the other direction. It wasn’t just “big.” It could easily bring down a horse. A twisted skeleton on the ground testified what it could do to a human.

“Yeah, it’s a little on the big side,” Cassandra whispered.

“No kidding.”

I placed my hand on the sword hilt, just in case, but the reptile didn’t strike. The gleaming eyes just watched us, the head turning as we moved by. The horses snorted and hurried to leave the spot without being prodded. I didn’t blame them.

“Our friends Swirgs are full of surprises,” I said when we were a safe distance away. “I wonder what other guards they have scattered in their tunnels and caves.”

“I’d think nothing as impressive as Merwyn,” Cassandra replied.

I had to agree. “No, probably not.”

The lack of rest and sleep began taking its toll on us. We talked, trying to stay awake.

“Have you thought of how we will approach Prince Kellemar?” Cassandra asked. “He must have bodyguards.”

I nodded. “Of course, he rarely ventures out without them. If they are new and don’t know me, we might be able to get past them without a fight. And I think there’s a good chance of that since he is in the habit of often changing his personal guards.”

“Why?”

“I am to blame for that, actually. I kept proving them useless.”

Cassandra turned to me, eyes alight with curiosity. “How? Do tell, I’ve got to hear that!”

“Well, first I had captured him and got a nice sum of ransom money from his father, King Ramian. Kellemar was with his guards, but they weren’t much help. Naturally, he’d fired them. He’d gotten new ones, big but dumb. You cry ‘Fire!’ and they believe it without checking, even if it rains. They were a worthless pair, and I couldn’t resist showing it to him.”

“What did you do? Captured him again?”

“No. I could have, but that wouldn’t be any fun. I caught them instead, had my guys dip them in blueberry juice and let them go.”