At the threat, a noise rumbled from Aonghus’s chest pressing her shoulders when he began to move her toward the side.He is advancing to kill the Northern tormentor!She clasped her fingers over his circling her waist in silent plea:No, lad, don’t. He paused when the cabin’s door burst back open, with King Håkonsson and his guards re-entering.
“Lord Kollungr,” Haco of Stein, the king’s guard, advised impatiently. “Remove them to your ship.”
Aonghus spun her about so he stood like a shield between Lord Kollungr and her. “Nae! You willnottake her again.” His voice held a deadly promise.
Think, dammit!There must be a way to air the falcon’s deceit.Kollungr was cunning, but his evil always reflected an ulterior motive in all he did. She kicked the panic waves washing over her to the shore. King Håkonsson had spoken on the dowry’s return. Had…had he mentioned the amount? Pouches, shite, how many full leather pouches had been in the dowry? The conversation she had overheard the night they thought her asleep right after retrieval.Think dammit, the pouches!
Her stare locked on King Håkonsson stepping back toward his throne, she questioned boldly, “How many leather pouches did Lord Kollungr set at your feet upon return?”
The king halted, gazing up at her halfway on his advance to his throne. “Lady Keirah,” the king replied, “three brimming with gold coin.”
DONE FOR ALL TIME, KOLLUNGR!!
She wiped a sweat bead off her brow while quietly stepping from behind Aonghus, giving him an assuring look.“Lord King,” she spoke, then locked her eyes on Lord Kollungr – she would see his reaction. “Nae, there werefive.”
The falcon’s eyes flashed fear a mere second.Wings clipped for all eternity!No other will ever be hurt nor deceived nor threatened again!
“King Håkonsson” – she turned back toward the king’s roughened features turning the same color as the red wine in the goblet upon the table – “there was a conversation I beheld the eve of the treasure’s seizure.” She nodded toward Torsten, who appeared flushed. He was the weakest of Lord Kollungr’s warriors, forever worrying for his hide. Svørn wasn’t present to prop him up like always.Stay on Torsten. “Lord Kollungr advised Torsten to take the gold into safe keeping till the time shown true. My belief is that the ‘true’ is a higher ambition upon Lord Kollungr’s aspirations to follow in Duke Skule Bårdsson’s footfalls, who challenged your authority for the crown.”
“Torsten.” The king’s tone was low, with his fingers gripping the back of the chair before him, the knuckles white as Torsten’s face had turned. “I will ask this question only once, and if you speak true, I will let you live. Is there merit to what Lady Keirah has of spoken in my presence?”
Torsten looked twice at Lord Kollungr, who now had his own sweat bead gracing his brow.
Shuffling his feet twice, Torsten mewled, “’Tis true.”
“You are a dead man!” Lord Kollungr lunged at his warrior, enraged.
Keirah heard the king order, “Seize him!” She turned her attention to whom he gave the order to. What the hell? Did King Håkonsson just give the command toward Sir James?!
Sir James charged forward, being the closest to Kollungr, and grabbed him by the scruff of his fur-covered neck, withdrawing a hidden dagger from his waistband.
Sir Brayden gasped at the shocking events, yelling over the chaos belonging to the squealing by Lord Kollungr when two more of the king’s royal guardsmen stepped into the room, seizing Torsten. “Sir James,” Sir Brayden accused, “you are the infernal traitor while you have been laying the treachery at Lady Keirah’s feet every step!”
“You,” Aonghus accused, hate weighing his voice, “are the one who told King Håkonsson of the knights gathering.”
Sir James shoved Lord Kollungr toward King Håkonsson’s royal guardsmen before he turned to face her and took a step closer.
“Aye to both accusations,” he said only at her.
“How could you, Sir James? Our lord king held you in highest honor,” she asked softly, fury-driven tears blurring her gaze.
“I wished you had chosen me.” He skipped her question a moment while glaring at Aonghus. “You took a bastard to your bed in my stead. We could have been the Duke and Duchess of the Isles, as King Håkonsson has promised me once the battle is done. A promise made when I set foot with the delegation in Bjørgvin.”Never-ever.
“It will never be a promised fulfilled,” she vowed.
Sir James replied arrogantly. “It will be done. ’Twas the main purpose I refused any more efforts upon King Alexander’s life after the taster failed in his poisoning duties I considered needed in that moment. You stayed the attempt, only to have lost your talent as a fate-seer in his arms” – he curled his lip atAonghus – “giving yourself to a lowborn, and now, my lady, you are worthless.” He re-focused his attention on her. “I decided that King Alexanderwilllive andwillsee his lands taken. Just as his late sire failed, so shall he.” His face turned dark. “Twenty thousand Northmen against a handful of Scots – it will not be a battle but a slaughter. To the promise never being fulfilled? Ha! I will not be on the losing side; you are staring at the one who will ascend as the next Duke of the Isles.”Absolutely not.
“See them to Lord Kollungr’s ship. Make certain Kollungr is walked before all his crew showing his deceit. Find Svørn – he is to be sequestered alongside Torsten and Kollungr,” King Håkonsson’s guard ordered. “Then return. Our lord king’s summons which took him a moment ago from this cabin was for the purpose appearing upon the horizon. A storm is approaching with an oddly fierce pace. We are to see our lord king safely to the closest isle – Cumbrae.”
Keirah met her knight’s eyes.Aonghus! The storm!!
***
As she reached the decks belonging to Lord Kollungr’s ship, her hair blew over her lashes after her wimple had become loose then sailed away into the night air turned violent. She darted her eyes again, then again, then again, toward the horizon. Was her mind playing tricks? How could such a massive storm appear as if simply conjured on a whim? Astonishing.There it was.The lightning danced across the heavens in Mother Nature’s deadly show.
The ship smelled the same: stale odors from those working the lines in a tizzy while seeing to the sails with haste. All the crewmen – she blinked, yep, their jaws were still on their toes at the sight of Kollungr, their lord, bound and being led byKing Håkonsson’s royal guard before they were stuffed under the doorway leading below deck.
They had to be taking them to the cell. Only one ship in the fleet had such a feature. Ack, how it showed Kollungr’s true devious nature. The nasty place was specifically set below deck for anyone risking insubordination, thus the need for a cog and not a longship. Sir James saw them onto the passageway after passing Kollungr, who was being led to his quarters in the opposite direction but still in their sights. The falcon stared at her.
