“They need a boat, General Kral. Nani shouldn’t swim with that head wound.”
“They?”
“You’re letting all the prisoners go, aren’t you? There’s no reason to keep them, and much goodwill to be gained by letting them go. You won’t ever get their treasure by being an ass to them.”
Kral narrowed his eyes. “Your mouth is far too big, Ambassador.”
I shrugged, pretending he didn’t intimidate me a bit. My mother had once said my mouth would be my undoing someday. Looked like that day was bearing down on me like . . . well, like a crazed and starving brown bear.
“Fine. Arrange for them to go,” Kral ordered one of his lieutenants, then took my arm. “You and I will discuss more in private.”
I slipped his grip, diplomatically not pulling a dagger on him. “I’ll just see Nani safely off, as I promised her. Shall I meet you in a bit?”
He growled an inarticulate threat and stalked off. Nani watched him go with wide eyes that went thoughtful as she turned them on me. “You’re either very brave or incredibly foolish, to taunt a man like that.”
“Definitely the second,” I informed her cheerfully. “However, if you do get the opportunity to deliver a message to either a woman named Dafne or Her Majesty High Queen Ursula, would you please tell them that you met Ambassador Jepp and relate what I told you today and all that occurred. Maybe, ah, leave out the bit about me arguing with General Kral. In fact, if you wanted to dress that up a bit and make me sound wise and diplomatic, that would be ideal.”
Nani snorted out an actual laugh. “I’ve only just met you and I suspect that anyone who knows you well would know that story for a lie.”
Probably true. It was worth a try, at least. “Any way you can make me sound good at my job, then?”
She put a palm over her heart, as the Nahanauns in Nakoa’s household had done. “I owe you a debt today, Ambassador Jepp. I promise to deliver your message and to tell of your bravery and fairness to my people.”
Ha! I’d go down in history as a totally different person after all.
After seeing Nani and the other erstwhile prisoners away in one of the Hákyrling’s rowboats, along with the bodies of their dead brethren, I went to find Kral. He and Shipmaster Jens had their heads together over a series of charts in the room that served as both a sort of officers’ dining hall and study.
Kral barely glanced up at my entry. “Done losing me a boat along with my prisoners?”
“I’m sure you can acquire another boat with the vast wealth of the Dasnarian Empire, and the prisoners would simply have been more mouths to feed.”
“I should make your High Queen reimburse the empire for the gyll those prisoners would have fetched on sale. The woman alone would be worth a fortune.”
“She’s a free human being, Kral. She wasn’t yours to sell.”
“She gave up that right when she attacked my ship and my men—and you, I might point out,” Kral snapped. Jens, apparently oblivious, made a note on the chart.
“So if I defeated you in battle, you would lose your freedom and be mine to keep or sell?” I flung at him.
“Of course.” Kral held up his hands as if that were obvious. “If you could defeat me. That is the way of things.”
“Not everywhere. Nor is it remotely honorable.”
“Honor has nothing to do with it. Being the strongest, having the most power, does. Either you win or you lose. You rule or you serve. There’s no in-between.” That bitter sound in his voice again. “Perhaps you of the Thirteen Kingdoms don’t understand that, but you are in the Dasnarian Empire now, Ambassador. I suggest you keep that in mind.”
I shut my mouth. Heroism comes in all forms.
“Change of course?” I asked, all cheery politeness.
Jens glanced up with a nod—and a sparkle of something in his eyes. “Yes. The general has deemed it wisest to stay away from the islands. It means a longer journey to Jofarrstyr but will prevent further difficulties.”
“Excellent strategy, General.” I spoke with sincerity, but Kral took it for sarcasm.
“So kind of you to say so, Ambassador. Jens, proceed with the course we outlined.”
Taking the dismissal for what it was, Jens hastened out. Kral leaned against the table, legs crossed at the ankle and arms folded. The silence thickened, making me itch to draw my daggers. Not that kind of battle. More diplomacy. I only wished my wits could be sharpened as easily as my blades could. Holding on to stubborn resistance, I refused to break the détente. He had things to say; he could say them.
“I realize I do not make your list of people you respect,” he finally said, in a forbidding tone. “And it amuses you to call me by my titles. The fact remains, however, that I am general of the Dasnarian military, Imperial Prince of the Royal House of Konyngrr, and captain of the Hákyrling. You may have a certain amount of diplomatic immunity and you may be my rekjabrel, but you will not undermine my authority. I will consider that an act of war on behalf of the queen you claim to represent.”
“Claim?” I fastened on that, to help dispense the chill of failure. Kral had a point. Me, my mouth, and my difficulty with authority. “I am the ambassador.”
“I know as well as you do that no one intended you to be the ambassador to the court of the Dasnarian Empire. The scribe, Lady Mailloux, made for a logical choice. I even understand your High Queen’s rationale in sending you to be her bodyguard. However, you stepping into her place was an accident—and we both know it.”
“Well, gee, Kral, if only we’d known you planned to surrender Dafne to Nakoa, then Her Majesty the High Queen would have sent a better backup. I might not be the top choice and, okay, you’re right. You and I both know it. But I’m the High Queen’s avatar in this venture, like it or not, as well as Danu’s, the goddess we both serve. I’m going to do my best to be wise, clear-eyed, and just. I may be a green recruit as ambassador, but that doesn’t mean I’ll retire from the fight.”
He assessed me. Was that a glimmer of respect behind his anger? “We need to establish some rules, you and I.”
“As well as the terms of the bet.”
“That, too, since you had the balls to make that challenge. First rule: You will show me respect and obey my orders.”
“Agreed, as long as those orders are the same as you’d give any of your men. No sending me out of a fight.”
“It’s my responsibility to see you safely to Dasnaria.”
“Yes—as it was to see Lady Mailloux there, and look what happened.”
He set his teeth. I was beginning to suspect he did that instead of ripping my throat out with them. “Fine. But if you get your fool self killed, it’s not on me.”
“Fair enough. If I disagree with you, I’ll do so in private and you will promise to hear me out.”
“I need agree to no such foolishness.”
“You do if you don’t want me mouthing off in public.”
“I could kill you now. Cut your throat, heave you overboard, and tell your people that you died in the Nahanaun attack. No man on this boat would say otherwise.”
Nani would say otherwise, but I wasn’t going to direct his attention there. Instead, I let myself coil into battle readiness. “I’d like to see you try.” I laid out the challenge in my softest, deadliest tone.
“Tempting.” He said it reflectively, as if weighing the possible outcome. “And yet, I enjoy stopping that mouth of yours in other ways.”
Funny how I’d thought the very same thing. “Perhaps we should agree not to try to kill each other,” I suggested, half in jest, but he frowned seriously.
“A large concession, but perhaps necessary.” He spit in his palm and held it out. “Let us make a pact of it, then.”
“Seriously? You want me to touch your spit?”
He grinned, abruptly and with wicked mischief. “Seeing as how you’ve had my mouth, tongue, and spit lavishly applied to every part of you, it seems late to be claiming missishness over that.”
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Did other ambassadors have to deal with this? Surely not. I spit in my palm and clasped his. “A pact, then. I promise not to kill you if you promise not to try to kill me.”
“So promised.” He held on to my hand, tugging me closer. Ah, romance. “How can I want you so much when you drive me out of my mind?”
“Because I’m a fantastic lover?” I suggested, going for flip because his words and expression sent me straight to full-on arousal. He posed a fine question. Why Kral did it for me so thoroughly when I disliked so much about him had become one of the great mysteries of my life.
“We’re well matched that way, it’s true,” he murmured, spreading his legs and pulling me between them. Still holding my hand, he bent his head to kiss me, thoroughly, deeply, and filled with passionate anger and desire. I returned in kind. Maybe this was how we had to play it; having agreed not to kill each other, all that remained was to devour the other sexually.
A challenge that bothered me not in the least.
“Lock the door and let me have you,” he growled against my mouth, his free hand snagging my ass and pulling me hard against him.
“Don’t we have more rules to establish?” I managed to get out between drugging kisses. That’s me—a thinking woman.
“I’ll negotiate more rationally with this edge off.”
So would I, in truth. No better way to work off the aftereffects of a battle than a good round of healthy sex. “Okay. Stay right like that.” I untangled myself from him, locked the door, and shimmied out of my boots and pants. Kral watched with glittering interest, letting me apply myself to freeing his erect cock. Glad he wasn’t wearing his armor, I pulled the cloth aside and—for my own pleasure—opened his shirt as well. “Hold this for me.”
With some bemusement, Kral took himself in hand, holding his cock at the angle I requested. “What are you—”
He broke off when I put a foot on the table beside him, then, using that leverage along with my hands on his shoulders, climbed up and lowered myself onto him. We both let out long, gratified breaths at the connection, which pulled us together into a tangling kiss. That position is a miracle worker, and I took full advantage, going for the depth I loved, flexing my thighs to pump up and down on him.
“Wait.” He broke the kiss, but not the rhythm or our embrace. “No lind.”
“Feels good,” I agreed, nibbling on his neck.
“I don’t—augh!” His hands vised on me when I turned the nips into a bite.
I lifted my head and looked him in his hot blue eyes. “Trust me or don’t, Kral. You can’t have it both ways.”
He wavered, deep suspicion in his face with something raw beneath. How long had it taken to make him into this hard man, this scarred and wary warrior? Probably all his life, and a difficult one at that. I’m not a woman much given to sensitivity, but my heart wrung with compassion. That or the depth of his penetration. “Just fuck me, honey. You know you like it.” Using my internal muscles, I squeezed.
Which put him over the edge.
Holding me by the hips, he pumped in earnest, eyes searing me hotter than the noonday sun on the Onyx Ocean. The deep pleasure bordering on delicious pain, I let him control it, clinging to him until we both dissolved in mutually devastated bliss.
I finally gathered enough wherewithal to climb off him again, grateful he’d had the presence of mind to keep me from falling to the floor. Figuring I’d have to bathe soon regardless, to get the blood off, I pulled on my already soiled trousers without bothering to clean up. Kral did likewise, watching me with an odd look on his face.
“What?” I finally put my fists on my hips. “Don’t yell at me for distracting you from our argument—that one was your idea. A fine idea, but still yours.”
He huffed out a dry laugh, shaking his head, then standing to pace the small room. “What is it about you that turns everything upside down?”
“My natural charisma?”
“You are unlike any woman I’ve ever met.”
“We’ve pretty much established that.”
“Jepp.” He stopped in front of me, then cupped my cheek with surprising gentleness, his face grave, eyes dark. Not in anger, but . . . worry? Surely the great and terrible Kral didn’t fret things. “I don’t know how I’m going to keep you alive in the Dasnarian court. Lady Mailloux would have listened to my advice. You . . .” He shook his head again. “You’re going to say the wrong thing to the wrong man and he won’t hesitate to strike you down for it.”
“I’m not so easy to strike down.”
“Which would result in you being given to the Emperor for judgment, which would mean execution for the crime. Even as an ambassador from a foreign realm, a woman simply does not have the right to strike a man, even in self-defense. The law is very clear. I wouldn’t be able to stop it and I don’t know how to get that through your thick head.”
“Would you care?” I had started the question as sarcastic, partly to break the tension. Tender, concerned Kral gave me the nerves. Instead, though, my voice came out throaty, and my heart perched like a bird on an unsteady limb, ready to flap away at the least jolt.
“It defies rational explanation,” he said slowly, “but yes. I can’t bear the thought of it. Don’t make me watch you die.” His mouth brushed mine, lips soft, searching.
My jittering heart folded its wings, happy to be held, warm and secure, if only for the breath of a kiss. Kral pulled back and searched my face, awaiting an answer.
“I’ll listen to your advice,” I said. “I’ll learn to wear the girl clothes and speak softly. I can swallow insult and stay my blade, but I have to do my job, too. Even if it means getting myself killed. If that’s what it takes to do what Her Majesty requires of me, that’s what I’ll do.”
“Your recklessness terrifies me.”
“Says the man who marched a hundred men across the breadth of a foreign kingdom he knew nothing about to confront the fortress at its heart.”
He laughed softly and combed fingers through my hair, cupping my skull. “It’s easier to do it than watch someone you care about face that kind of danger. The Emperor’s court is fraught with peril, and not the kind you understand. It . . . worries me, to think of you there.” He took a long breath, as if suddenly aware of the strange intimacy of our exchange, and stepped back, releasing me. “What are the terms of the bet, hystrix?”
I’d forgotten about Karyn, all while I was cozied up here with her husband, even if in name only, exchanging sweet nothings and discussing executions. I put more distance between us with the excuse of putting on my boots again. Not that it changed anything, but I felt less hypocritical. “You ask Karyn if she would give up marriage to you in exchange for her freedom.”
“You have no idea the enormity of what you’re proposing.”
“It’s a question. How hard can it be?”
“What if she says yes?”
“Then let her go.”
“It’s not that easy to dissolve a marriage. Certainly never at a woman’s behest. Usually it’s only in cases of adultery, and then usually she’s executed.”
“Let me guess, having witnessed where you’ve been dipping your wick lately—no such penalty for men.”
“That’s the way of things. A man cannot carry a babe, so there’s no need for fidelity from him.”
“And yet you and I are fucking with no intention of making babies.”
His brow lowered as he frowned at me. I let it go. “So, if she says yes, you divorce her.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because you don’t want her.”
“Whether I want her or not is immaterial; the Emperor’s decree says I cannot have her except in name.”
“What is the point of being married to her, then?”
“It was His Imperial Majesty’s desire, and I had no choice but to do what I was told.” There ran some of his bitterness.
“Why her?”
“Her family, the Hardies, hold an important region
with fertile orchards in one of the rare parts of Dasnaria proper that does not suffer harsh winters. Our marriage cements the family alliance to the Konyngrr regime.”
“How does her family feel about the alliance?” A stretch for me to contemplate the politics, but I could think this way. Just a different kind of strategizing between foes and allies. Kind of an interesting give-and-take, another good sparring match. “I’d think being aligned with the semi-divine Emperor would be useful.”
“Yes, it’s good for them, too.”
“Then if Karyn says she wants out, have her sign something that keeps the alliance in place.”
He frowned. “Sign what?”
I threw up my hands, having reached the end of my cleverness on this topic. “I don’t know! You’re the prince—you figure it out. That’s the bet I propose, that if you offer her freedom, she’ll take it.”
“Where would she go?”
“That’s the beauty of freedom, Kral—only she will get to decide that.”
“If she’s not married to me, I won’t be able to protect her. She won’t be an Imperial Princess anymore.”
“That’s her call, then. The price she’ll pay. I’m betting she’ll be willing to pay it.”
“I’d have to send for her,” he said thoughtfully, clearly turning over the logistics in his mind. “Have her brought to the Imperial Palace to have this conversation.”
I shrugged. “This is a problem for an Imperial Prince of the Royal House of Konyngrr?”
“No, she would have to obey, whether she wanted to make the journey or not. It would require a considerable entourage with chaperones, but I can afford it.”
Hopefully this Karyn wouldn’t hate me for putting her through that. “It would probably be worth it to her. She’s a young woman, right? Visiting the palace would be exciting for someone like that, in my realm. Has she ever gotten to enjoy the shiny part of being an Imperial Princess of the Royal House of Konyngrr?”
He laughed, blue eyes sparkling like the calm seas. “The shiny part?”
“You know.” I waved my hands, picturing Queen Amelia when she’d been a young princess still, with her ladies, decked out like flowers whirling through the halls of Ordnung. “The gowns, jewels, and fancy hair. Girl things.”
The Edge of the Blade Page 14
