“Not yet,” Summer replied in perfectly accented Sea Tongue. Calivan looked startled, but Dilys only gave her an amused glance. He’d clearly suspected she was as fluent in his native tongue as Spring.
Gabriella didn’t like the way Calivan was speaking to Dilys—a seasoned warrior who had, quite literally, saved the world. Although Dilys was more than capable of fighting his own battles, she nonetheless found herself springing to his defense. “Your nephew believes in the power of affirmation,” she continued in articulate Sea Tongue. With a smile much fonder and more intimate than she had ever given Dilys before, she laid a hand on his arm, gazed adoringly up into his eyes, and said, “He is convinced that if he says a thing often enough, it will become true. I confess, the tactic is an effective one. He has been wearing down my resistance.”
Dilys’s amused smile turned into a quickly smothered grin. He caught her hand in his and lifted it to his mouth to press a kiss against the back of her fingers. “Mylianahas the right of it. She hasn’t made her claim final yet, but her growing affection towards me gives me confidence that she soon will.”
“I see.” Calivan switched back to Eru, the common tongue. “Well, this is good news. I look forward to the day when I may offer you both my congratulations. And, of course, theMyerialawaits the arrival of her new daughter with great anticipation and much joy.”
The mention of Dilys’s mother made Summer suddenly regret her impulsive pretense—what if Calivan Merimydion raised his sister’s hopes for a forthcoming engagement?—but when she tugged on her hand to free it, Dilys did not let go. Unwilling to engage in an embarrassing struggle to get her hand back, Summer let him keep it and pasted a pleasant expression on her face.
“Thank you, Your Excellency,” she said.
She stood quietly as Dilys and his uncle quickly caught each other up with the happenings in Calberna and Konumarr. As they spoke, she could see some small resemblance between Dilys and his uncle in the shape and color of their eyes and the thick slash of their eyebrows, but that was it. Had she met the two side by side, she would never have suspected they were related. Though both men were clearly fit, Calivan was leaner. Dilys had more muscle mass. All those years of swinging heavy swords and fighting other people’s wars, she supposed. Calivan also seemed a little cagier. Less open. She’d spent a lifetime living amongst palace intrigues. She recognized the signs of a man accustomed to the ever-changing political winds of court. He didn’t strike her as one of those obsequious, oily politicians who curried favors, though. There was too much steel in his spine, too much an aura of command about him. He wasn’t the gadfly. He was the spider, spinning his webs.
They both were lethal men, each in his own way. The difference, she suspected, was that Calivan’s was the knife you wouldn’t see coming.
Summer shivered a little, then smiled as Dilys glanced down at her, his eyes filled with laughter over some story he’d been relating about his cousins Ryll and Ari.
“Oh, they are terrible flirts,” she agreed. “Half the women in Konumarr are madly in love with them. I think that’s the problem. They’re enjoying all the attention too much to make up their minds.”
“Their mothers will not be pleased,” Calivan said. “Houses Ocea and Calmyria both need daughters. Arilon and Ryllian should settle down and tend their duty to mother and House.”
Was it her imagination, or was there another jab at Dilys in that remark?
“I’m sure they will,” Dilys said easily. “We’ve a few weeks yet before our time here is done.”
“Only if the King and Queen of Wintercraig agree to postpone the rest of your visit.”
For the first time since coming aboard, Dilys tensed. “What do you mean?”
Calivan hesitated, frowning at Summer.
Dilys shifted a little closer to her. “I told you, I have no secrets from Gabriella. Whatever you have to say, you can say in her presence.”
After another long pause, the Lord Chancellor of Calberna sighed. “I suppose she will learn soon enough anyways. I merely thought the news should go to the king first. A matter of diplomacy, you understand.” The last remark, he directed towards Summer.
“Of course,” she murmured.
“Does this have something to do with the reason you and your crew are sailing armed and armored?” Dilys asked.
“It does,” Calivan affirmed. “Our friends in the Olemas Ocean have set their sights on the Denbe now. A Cantese convoy was attacked just east of the Milinas Strait.”
The Milinas Strait was the western gateway to the Denbe Ocean from the Sterling Sea. Summer knew from her recent study of Calbernan commerce that the Milinas Strait was one of the main shipping channels used by Calberna and their network of trade partners. If the pirates successfully gained control of both the Olemas and Denbe Oceans, they would control two thirds of Mystral’s northern hemisphere.
“There’s more,” Calivan continued. “The Cantese were sailing under the flag of House Merimydion. As were three other convoys attacked within the last month. Three of our trade vessels are missing, presumed sunk or commandeered. It’s our belief that House Mermydion’s ships and trading partners are being targeted specifically.”
At Summer’s side, Dilys had gone utterly still. The muscles beneath her hand were taut, and he was all but vibrating with contained emotion. Anger, she realized, when she cast a searching glance up at the handsome face that now looked carved from stone and the eyes that blazed with golden fire. She shivered a little. She wouldn’t want to see that face coming at her in battle. There was no mercy in it at all.
“Which of our ships were taken?”
Calivan rattled off a short list of names.
“And the rest of our merchant ships?”
“TheMyerialhas recalled them all to Calberna. The captains were not happy about it.”
“Better angry than dead. They should be integrated with the other fleets. If this is a direct attack on House Merimydion, we won’t make our ships an easy target for these miserablekrillos.”
“Tey,well, as to that... we have a plan.”
