“Never. I merely opened their paddock, untied a few knots, and when the thunder and lightning spooked them, I allowedtwo of the smaller mares to follow me and a handful of green apples a few miles down the coast, to an abandoned shed.”
“Nice work, Lex.” I blew him a kiss.
For some reason, his nostrils flared, though I was certain the rain had taken care of my annoying scent. “My pleasure, mistress.”
We reached the shed a half hour later, and after a short break where I pondered if it was wise to sit on a horse with nether regions as sensitive as mine were, we set off on the road in the dark. According to Alexios, the villagers had experienced a bountiful harvest that summer, and some of the males who had been fishermen had decided to try their hand at grain and sell their boat.
The thought of getting into a boat, though… I hated the fear that came with remembering the darker moments I’d lived through. But I had to go, unless I wanted to cough more than a few specks of blood into my handkerchief for the next few days.
“Alexios, have you ever heard of the kind of creature I described?”
“You mean a dragon?”
“No. It was dragon-shaped, more or less… the parts of it I could see. Have you ever seen a kraken?”
“I’ve seen sketches of all seven of the Emperors, except the Emperor of Emperors, of course.”
“Lusca,” I murmured.
“Who?”
How bizarre. How could I have forgotten Lusca? “The Emperor of Emperors. I met him. Goran met him, too. Or saw him, at least.” He’d been blue. His eyes had…
Something raced out of the brush, crossing in front of my horse. It shied, stepping into the brush, and by the time I had it under control, I’d forgotten what we were speaking about.
“Mistress, you say you met him?” He waited a moment, then went on. “The Emperor. The kraken.”
I rubbed my head, for some reason feeling a headache coming on. “Yeah, Leviathan. Wren’s tentacled mate. Nice guy, a little stingy with his things. Not as bad as dragons, though. I was just thinking of how big he was.”
“No, you were speaking of another kraken, mistress. You called him Lusca.”
“Ow, fuck!” I rubbed my head. “That hurt. Hand me… the indicha essence, please.” Each word was like a spike in my head.
Alexios slowed, pulling his saddlebag up and rummaging around. Still riding, he leaned over and handed me a tincture I hadn’t used in a long time, along with his water flask. I took a few drops, the water mixed with the slightly salty mixture helping after only a few minutes. After we’d ridden another hour, the headache was gone like it had never happened.
“Mistress. We were speaking about the creature you met out at sea. The not-dragon?” Alexios’s tone was weird, but I ignored it.
“Right. Dragons are big, but krakens are real monsters. Easily ten times the size of a dragon.” I tried to remember all I’d glimpsed through the icy fog while I was being frozen. “But the creature that had Lachlan was much bigger. Like a dragon and a glacier had a baby. He almost appeared to be made of ice. His snout had spikes, like a dragon, but I could see through them a bit. His eyes were as huge as the rest of him.” I sighed. “I wish I’d had my weapons on me. I’m going to miss that jeweled hairpin.”
“Did it harm the creature? Was it large enough to really hurt it?”
I thought for a moment. “Not really. It probably felt like when you get a speck of sawdust in your eyes. It stings, right? I think the poke shocked it into letting us go.”
I rubbed absently at my abdomen. The pain had been less severe since we started moving east, but for a moment it moved, like lava encasing my innards, burning everything inside. “I’m coming, you fuck,” I whispered.
“Mistress?”
“Nothing,” I said, my hand moving to my pendant. I rubbed the flattened shell as we rode on, my headache gone now, but the hooks that had sunk into me back in Mirren more insistent than ever.
ALEXIOS
For someone who prided herself on her skills of deception, I found my mistress to be exceedingly easy to read. Sometimes I thought I knew more about her than she did herself.
I knew that she’d been as close to tears now as she had been almost a week ago, when she’d realized Lachlan had invaded her thoughts.
Of all the males she’d drawn to her side, I disliked him most. It was a good thing he’d swum off before I could give him the heavy dose of sedative I’d prepared. I wasn’t sure my vow of peace would survive seeing the panic and fear on Rada’s face for one more second. She was so strong, and I trusted her to be able to lie, cheat, sneak, or fight her way out of almost any situation, but she couldn’t run away from her own soul, and that’s what he’d stolen a piece of. That and her privacy.
I wanted to punch the selfish, entitled prince in the face more than I wanted my next meal.
