AllFreeNovel
Share Us
EIGHT
PIRATE’S SWOOP
They climbed a tall mound to enter the castle. Daine was impressed by the thickness of the walls around the outer court and by the alert and well-armed guardsmen. The baron of Pirate’s Swoop kept his home in fighting order.
A man in gold-trimmed brown ran up to Thayet, bowing repeatedly as he talked to her. The queen signaled Buri, and the second-in-command turned in her saddle. “Riders, this way!” She and Sarge led the trainees to long, low buildings along the wall: stables, by the look of one, and the guard barracks.
Onua came up beside Daine. “Wait here. I want them to stable their mounts so they can unload the cart.” She grinned. “A bit of advice, for what it’s worth. Never do anything you can order a recruit to do for you.”
Daine grinned. “I’ll remember that.” Movement caught her eye: a flag was being run up on one of the three towers. When the breeze caught it, she grinned: it was a gold lioness rampant on a red field, the same as Alanna’s shield. On the tower next to it was a brown flag decorated with a gold key.
“The baron’s flag,” Onua said, noticing the direction of her gaze. “Those flags mean the baron and the lady knight are both in residence.”
“No flag for the queen?” she asked.
Onua shuddered. “Gods, no! It’s bad enough the whole palace knows where the summer training camp is, without crying it from the towers. George has made this place strong, but why ask for trouble if you don’t need it?”
Grooms took Thayet’s and Alanna’s mounts as the women stretched. Suddenly shrieks filled the air. It took Daine a moment to realize the sound was not birds but children screaming, “Mama, Mama!” A pack of them dashed through the inner court’s gate and separated: three to Alanna, two to the queen. Thayet’s pair—both dark haired, a boy and a girl—bowed when they were a foot away from their mother, then threw themselves at her.
“The prince is nine, the princess eight,” Onua explained. “They asked to watch the training this year instead of staying with the younger children in the summer palace.”
Alanna’s three—the tallest a true redhead, the younger two blondes with a touch of red in their locks—didn’t even stop to bow. She laughed and knelt to return their hugs, disappearing for a moment under their bodies.
“You’d think they’d been brought up in a barn, wouldn’t you?” a lilting voice asked nearby. “Climbin’ on their ma like she was a hobbyhorse.” Daine looked down from her seat on the wagon. The speaker was a tall, broad-shouldered man with brown hair lightened by the sun. His nose was too big for good looks, but there was a wicked twinkle in his large, green hazel eyes, and his grin was catching. He wore a shirt and breeches, and had come from watching the sea, to judge from his tousled hair and the spyglass in his hand.
She had to return his smile. “They must love her very much.”
“She’s easy to love,” he replied.
“For you, maybe,” Onua said, dismounting. “I know threescore offenders against the king’s law who don’t find her at all lovable. Hello, Baron.”
“Onua, every time I see you, gods be my witness, you make me wish I wasn’t married.” They hugged vigorously, slapping each other on the back.
“You’d never pull in my harness, George. Daine, this gentleman—”
“Don’t call me ‘gentleman.’ I work for a livin’,” he interrupted. Daine grinned. Sarge often said the same thing.
“This nobleman is Baron George of Pirate’s Swoop. George, this is Daine, my assistant.”
A large hand was offered. Daine shook it. Like all the nobles she’d met in this strange country, his palm was callused. “Welcome to Pirate’s Swoop, Mistress Daine. How did you fall into such bad company?”
She blushed, not knowing how to take this charming man.
“Stop flirting with her, George—you’ll only break her heart.” Onua winked at Daine, who winked back, thankful for the rescue. “How long have the prince and the princess been here?”
“A week only,” the baron replied, taking his sharp eyes off Daine.
In a quieter tone, Onua asked, “Any trouble?” George’s eyes flicked to Daine. “You can trust her,” the K’mir assured him. “We all do.”
Daine blushed again when George raised his eyebrows. “That’s quite a recommendation, young lady. I didn’t think Onua even liked two-leggers.” Looking around, he said, “Bless me—so you did take on Evin Larse.”
Seeing them, Evin waved and loped over, his long legs taking him across the outer ward court in seconds. “George, I made it,” he said, panting as he offered his hand. “I told you I would. Wait till you hear about the trip we’ve had! Did you know you have griffins nesting up the coast?”
“I’ve got the whole village quartered here,” George said, making a face. “Eatin’-our food and beggin’ me to send soldiers after them. Tell me true—is it really griffins, or just a pair of mean albatrosses?”
“It’s griffins, and you don’t have to send a company,” Evin assured him. “Daine here got them to make peace.”
“I didn’t ‘get’ them to do anything,” Daine retorted. With the charming baron she might be tongue-tied, but never with Evin. “They don’t do anything they don’t want to. But they promised the queen not to attack people or livestock,” she told George. “And they can’t lie, so I believe them.”
“Wait,” he ordered. “You’ve had speech with them, and made a treaty—”
“This is a fine welcome you’ve given me, laddy-buck,” Alanna said, trying to imitate her husband’s speech as she approached. She bore a gold-haired child on each hip. “Here I am, home from the wars, and you let me be swarmed over by barbarians whilst you flirt with my friends.”
“Excuse me,” George said gravely to the adults, and to the children he plucked from his wife’s hold. Gripping the Lioness firmly, he bent her back in a prolonged kiss that looked like a romantic scene in a play. Everyone, even the men-at-arms posted along the walls, clapped, whistled, and cheered.
“Does anyone in this land act like they’re supposed to?” muttered Daine.
Onua heard her question. “They do in lots of places,” she said, eyes twinkling. “But this isn’t ‘lots of places,’ it’s Pirate’s Swoop. And if you think this is strange, just wait till you’ve been here a couple of days.”
Exploring after the evening meal in the castle’s great hall, Daine got directions to the observation deck on top of the third, largest tower. Here the wall rose out of stone cliffs. Looking down, she saw rocks, a thread of beach, and heavy waves. Relaxed, she watched the sun dip itself into the ocean as a cool breeze blew across her face. She liked the Swoop, she decided. If she had to live within stone walls all her days, this would be the kind of place she’d want.
“Beautiful, isn?
?t it?” The Lioness relaxed against the stone wall at Daine’s side. “I’m so glad to be home.”
You have a home to go to, the girl thought, and was immediately ashamed of herself. How could she begrudge the knight a place of her own? “I don’t see how you could ever leave this,” she admitted.
“I don’t, either, except I took an oath as a knight, then as champion, long before I came here. And I keep my oaths.”
They fell silent again. It’s odd to see her in a dress, Daine thought. Wearing perfume—it’s pretty, whatever it is—and pearl earbobs and silk. And yet she fits here. She sighed. I wish this were my place, she thought wistfully. I bet I could fit here too.
A distant cry fell upon her ears. She and Alanna looked north and saw a bird shape wheeling over the ocean. “Griffins,” the Lioness remarked. “It’s like a story, or a bard’s tale.”
So are lady knights, thought Dame, but she kept that to herself. “If only the griffins were all of it.”
They looked up. Only a handful of clouds were in the sky, but they knew there was a Stormwing behind one, and that more waited up and down the coast.
“My father is a scholar.” The woman’s voice was soft. “The king asked him to report on what he could learn about Stormwings. He says they live for destruction and the fear that destruction provides. They eat only the products of war, famine, and disease—the bodies of the dead. They drink only the energy of human suffering and fury. They’ve had a long fast—four hundred years’ worth, in the Divine Realms. I have the feeling they won’t be as easy to send back as they were to set free.”
“Send back?” Daine had a thought, and she didn’t like it. “If they had to be locked in the Divine Realms, maybe they were never supposed to be there. Maybe they’re our predators.”
“Our predators?”
“Surely.” She tugged one of her curls. “You speak of locking them up again as if it can be done. What if the gods don’t allow it, because the Stormwings are supposed to be here, not there?”
Alanna winced. “That’s a very cheerful thought. I wish you hadn’t come up with it. If you’re right, we have a lot of battles ahead.”
