Edric noticed her appraisal. “A beauty, isn’t she? We took her from some Valdari who didn’t need her anymore, if you know what I mean. One of the finest ships I’ve ever seen.” He looked to the manservants. “That way. The boys will show you where to put them.”
The king’s porters carried the chests onto the ship, moving carefully along the narrow plank.
Edric gestured for her to follow him. “Right this way, lady. I’ll show you where you can get settled.”
Brynn and Esa stepped onto the boat after Edric, and he showed her to where the packs and bundles of goods had been arranged into a makeshift shelter from the sun and wind. Thespace was large enough for several people at once with packs of the men’s belongings arranged on the decks.
Edric told her to make herself comfortable then left to oversee the loading of more barrels onto the ship. It seemed Aelgar was making good on his promises of provisions for her dowry.
“I’ve never been on a ship, lady.” Esa’s already pale face had gone yet paler as she stared at the sea apprehensively. “The water makes me nervous.”
“It’s fine, Esa,” Brynn reassured her.
Esa’s hands fiddled in her lap.
Movement near the prow of the ship caught Brynn’s attention. She looked up and there was Cenric, boarding the vessel.
Regardless of how he had spent last night, he appeared well rested. He had a young boy at his back who carried a bundle of books and parchments. Odd. Brynn wouldn’t have thought Cenric was the type to bring books and texts, but he was literate, she realized. He’d read through Aelgar’s list of gifts himself.
Snapper trotted happily at Cenric’s side, leaping ahead of him to bound onto the ship. The dog ran straight for Brynn and Esa, tail wagging.
Brynn lowered her hand, and Snapper licked her fingers. He must be able to still taste the meat juices from her earlier meal.
“Edric, how goes it?” Cenric went straight for the redhaired man. It seemed Edric was his second in command as she had suspected.
“Almost done. We’re just waiting on a few casks of wine we were promised.”
Wine would be harder to get in the north. Grapes didn’t grow as well in the mountains.
“Good. After that, we’ll go as soon as Lady Brynn arrives.” Cenric took a scroll from Edric and began reviewing it, probably the list of goods that had been loaded onto the ship so far.
“Lady Brynn is already here.” Edric sounded oddly smug.
Cenric glanced up and followed Edric’s line of sight. Cenric looked to her, then Snapper and briefly to Esa, but quickly back to her. His expression was hard to read, but he seemed surprised.
Brynn wasn’t sure how to greet him. Was she supposed to smile?
Clearing her throat, Brynn crossed the deck. She averted her eyes. “You left this in our room, lord.” She held out his coat, neatly folded. It felt strange to say “our,” like she was forcing something that wasn’t there yet.
Cenric took it, watching her closely. He’d gone back to eyeing her the way a predator stared down a new animal, not sure if the creature in front of him was prey or another predator.
If Edric was a fox, Cenric was a wolf. It made sense that he was half Valdari. His dark eyes took her in from head to foot, devouring every inch of her without ever touching. “Welcome, Lady Brynn,” he said at length. He fixed her with that same intensity for another space of heartbeats before turning to Edric. “We’re just waiting on the casks, then?”
“Yes, lord.” Edric bobbed his head. “And not even midday!”
Brynn and Esa settled in the small shelter Edric had indicated, waiting for the ship to finish loading. Snapper invited himself to join them, tail thumping on the deck.
In mere hours, Brynn would be out of sight of the capital and beyond the reach of her mother. Even when Selene returned, there was nothing she would be able to do. Brynn was divorced from Paega with hundreds of aldermen, thanes, and their wives to witness it. Now she was already remarried with the blessing of the king himself.
She had escaped Paega, escaped her mother, and escaped the machinations of the Istovari Mothers.
Brynn had done it.
Cenric
They left Ungamot before the sun reached its zenith. It was better than Cenric had hoped, certainly.
They sailed out into the open waters, then steered toward the north, keeping two or so bowshots off the coast.
