“And we have a fire.” She reached up and whispered in his ear. “Besides, if I get really cold, you can warm me up.”
He let out a soft chuckle. “If only.”
Arianna had already made herself a nice nest in the straw. “Just don’t make too much noise, you two,” she yawned.
Kat curled up close to her sister with Ulrik snuggled next to her. If she wasn’t lost in the middle of nowhere with some nutty sorcerer and power-crazed Viking after them, she’d feel quite chilled. She felt Ulrik’s arm slip protectively around her and draw her to his chest. Utter bliss.
Sigfried stormed back into the Great Hall. Not only had both Lokranor princesses gone missing, now it seemed his son had disappeared without a trace.
“I want two thirds of the army ready to leave at first light,” he thundered. “We will not leave a stone unturned in our search for my son and our guests from Lokranor.” He felt sick at the thought of announcing to Wilhelm and Erin that their two daughters had vanished. He called for Drago. “There was no trouble in Vallengaard when you left?”
“No. That is why Ulrik ordered me back to the Castle to get reinforcements. He said he would continue searching.”
“Even though both of you had turned up nothing already?”
“Yes. He believed he had to find trace of them somewhere.”
He was a little suspicious of Oskar. His nephew had been far too eager to ride off to Vallengaard when Drago had announced the girls were missing and was quite put out when he said he would lead the army himself.
Damon was feeling in a vile mood as he rode back to Vasmaar. He had been genuinely interested in hearing about Mallenvaar from Wilhelm and Erin but the minute Erin had started to hint at a fledgling romance between Arianna and Drago, he had been overrun by jealousy. No jumped up warrior from a backward realm was going to get his hands on the crown of Lokranor. That was his.
He had argued with Wilhelm that Arianna’s place should be in Lokranor, with the army, but he had countered that an heir needed to experience other cultures. It was the experiencing that was getting under Damon’s skin. He wanted to be her first.
Get your temper under control, Damon. Magnus’s voice echoed around in his head. You’re starting to give me a headache.
Then stay clear of my head.
Can’t do, I’m afraid. I have to check regularly that you’re not turning to the dark side.
If I was, Magnus, you’d be the first person I fried.
What it is to be loved. Erin always threatened to vaporise me too. I must just have that face.
Or the ability to get under people’s skin
You would save yourself a whole lot of anguish if you just admitted to Arianna how you feel.
I don’t feel anything for her other than lust.
Really? That’s not what I’m seeing in your mind.
Get lost. Damon raised his shield to keep Magnus out. He was obviously confusing lust with some other emotion. Despite being a Viking, Magnus was always soft when it came to emotions.
He needed to work harder on finding the missing moon stone. Once he had that, he might have something to entice Arianna back to Vasmaar, even more so if it connected with Bassengaard. His waring mind was diverted by a rider up ahead. He would know that wild black mane anywhere; it was his half-sister Morganna.
“Hey Morgie,” he called. “What brings you to this frozen wasteland?”
“Mum asked me to check up on you.”
“Why?”
“Something about making sure you weren’t frying anyone in a fit of rage,” Morganna laughed. “And judging from that scowl on your face, she might be right.”
“I am not scowling,” he grunted.
“In that case, my dear brother, you’re doing a very good impression of a pug.”
Damon chuckled despite himself. “What did I do to deserve a sister like you?”
“As I’ve told you on numerous occasions, numbskull, your father tortured mine, ergo I torture you.”
There was no animosity in her words, she was just restating a brief moment of history. His father, Heinrekh, had held his stepfather, Lars, prisoner for a while and it was during his incarceration that Lars had met his mother, Sasha, and ultimately fallen in love with her. “Are you stopping at the Castle?”
“Might as well as I’ve frozen my butt off riding over here.”
“How’s Mum?”
“Fine. She and Dad are hoping to go to Venice next week for another romantic weekend away,” Morganna rolled her eyes. “Perhaps you should suggest something like that to Arianna? She might find that more appealing than the Vasmaarian stud image you’re trying to portray.”
“Vasmaarian stud?” Daman glared at her.
“All the talk of being a sex God really doesn’t hold water,” she flapped her hand dismissively. “I know it’s hot air and so does Arianna.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Oh, it’s obvious. Men who boast about their sexual prowess are either hung like a hamster or suffer from premature ejaculation.”
Damon let out a loud snort. “I suffer from neither.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really.”
“If you say so, brother,” Morganna responded in a patronising tone.
“I do. And I am really not comfortable talking about my sex life with my sister.”
“I’ve got through my first year at University, Damon. I’m not quite as pure as I used to be,” Morganna huffed.
“Dark and disturbing is more how I would describe you,” he laughed.
“You know all about being dark,” she threw him a look. “And you do need to work on your image. As an experienced woman, you really should take my advice.”
“Having one sexual partner does not make you an experienced woman,” Damon looked up to the heavens for help.
“How do you know I’ve only had the one?” she scowled at him.
“I can trawl through that cesspit of a mind of yours,” he grinned. “And yes, I know all your secrets.”
“Says the man who’ll jump anything remotely female.”
“Not anything,” Damon grunted. “I do have standards.”
“Ah yes, female and under the age of forty.”
“Brat.”
“Worm.” Morganna glanced off into the distance. “And Dracula’s Castle comes into sight.”
“If you call it that one more time, I will vaporise you,” Damon hissed. Morganna had been teasing him with that since the moment she first saw Vasmaar Castle. It was anything but dark and gloomy, however she did like to goad him.
“Mum distinctly gave the order of no frying anyone today.”
“I just might make an exception.”
Morganna handed her horse to the stable boy who was waiting in the Castle courtyard. “Isn’t it time you hired some cute looking staff?”
“I’m not sure I know what constitutes as cute in your books,” Damon sighed.
“Something between the ages of sixteen and twenty that is fit and good-looking.”
“If I did that, you’d come around more often. So no is the answer.”
“You can be such a killjoy at times, brother.”
“Good,” he grinned heading up the castle steps and into the main entrance hall. A servant came running to take his cloak and Morganna’s.
He was unduly fond of her and wasn’t sure how he would handle the thought of her getting seriously involved with someone in his realm.
“When do you start back at university?” he asked once they were seated in his living room.
“Mid-September.”
“How’s Anders doing?”
Morganna shrugged. “Who knows. He spends most his time hooked up to his X-box.”
The typical adolescent teen, Damon thought.
“Have you spoken to your father recently?” Morganna asked.
“My father is dead,” Damon responded bluntly.
“Via Baldoren crystal, nitwit,” Morganna shook her head
despairingly.
“You know about that?”
“I’m a university student not an idiot. Of course I know about Baldoren crystals.”
“If they’re teaching you about Baldoren crystals at Edinburgh University, then I’ll hand over control of this realm to you today.”
Morganna giggled. “I meant that I’m a highly intelligent being. Now once again, have you called up your father recently?”
“Not for a few days,” Damon sighed. He would hand over his entire inheritance to spend some quality time with his deceased father. Sadly, he only got to spend just minutes with him.
Once Morganna was happy she’d conducted a thorough interrogation of her brother, she prepared to leave. “Mum will want to know when you’re due to visit next?”
“Tell her I’ll drop by in a couple of days.” It would give him an excuse to stop via the McLomard house and see if Birdie had an idea of when Arianna and Kat would be returning from the Fourth Realm.
Damon glanced up at the sky. “I think you might want to delay your departure, it looks like a snow storm is on the way.”
“Oh great.” Morganna threw her cloak off. “I really do hate this frozen Realm.”
“I do have to remind you that the Scottish Highlands aren’t exactly famous for their warm weather. Nor is your father’s homeland warm and sunny.”
“True. What I would give to live in the Mediterranean. Warm weather, cool night life, hot men.”
Damon shivered. “I find it most disturbing when you talk about men. You’re too young.”
“Now you really do sound like an older brother. I’m nineteen in a few weeks’ time,” Morganna chuckled. “Well, I guess if I’m here for the night you will at least have to try and behave.”
“I always behave,” he grunted.
“That’s not what I hear in the local taverns.”
Damon’s head snapped up. “What have you been doing in the local taverns? They are not suitable places for someone of your age.”
“You are so easy to wind up,” Morganna giggled. “It’s really not sporting.”
“Watch it, else I might toss you in the dungeon for the night.”
“You really do know how to show a girl a good time. Now, as it’s just us, you can entertain me some of your magic tricks.”
Kat was decidedly comfortable, wrapped up in her warm blanket. As she stirred that warm blanket did not move. Opening an eye, she came face to face with a bale of straw. A few seconds later she remembered where she was; in an old shack somewhere north of Mallenvaar with Arianna and Ulrik. And that warm blanket was Ulrik. She tried to slip out of his grasp.
“If you continue to wriggle provocatively against me like that, I might just have to do something about it,” he murmured in her ear.
“We should get moving, I think dawn in starting to break.”
“Such a shame, I like being this close to you.”
He released her so she could sit up. Sure enough, light was starting to trickle through a crack in the boards lining the walls. Kat gave Arianna a prod. “Wake up, Cinderella.”
Arianna sat up looking a little disorientated, her hair was completely wild and filled with straw. “Actually I think it’s more cave troll than Cinderella,” Kat snickered.
“Ha bloody ha,” Arianna grunted. “I didn’t have the benefit of the muscle-bound Viking keeping me warm.”
“If you two are quite finished, we need to get moving,” Ulrik opened the door to the shack and cast his eyes around outside. “At least it’s stopped snowing.”
The cold morning air made Kat cough. “Do you have any idea where we’re headed?”
“I’m not completely useless,” Ulrik rolled his eyes. “If we head eastwards we should come to the village of Arranfest.”
“I thought you said we weren’t far from Ardenborg?” Kat’s scowled.
“Yes. And that is exactly where Oskar would expect us to go. Arranfest is a safer option.”
“How far is that from Mallenvaar?” Arianna yawned.
“It’s on the very edge of our Realm.”
“So we’re headed in the opposite direction to where we want to go?”
“Yes.”
“And your plan when we reach there?”
“Stop for a good lunch and a few tankards of wine,” Ulrik teased. “I hope we’ll pick up some horses, warmer clothes and a few soldiers to escort us back to Mallenvaar.”
“How long will it take us to walk there?” Kat asked. Her feet were already cold.
“If we keep going at this pace and don’t run into any trouble in the woods, we should be there by nightfall.”
“Nightfall?” both girls squealed in unison.
“What would you prefer? A shorter walk and meeting Oskar?”
Kat slipped her hand into Ulrik’s. “We trust your judgement.” What was concerning her more than her cold feet and a long walk was the lack of food. The last thing they’d eaten was the spiced bun yesterday afternoon. She just hoped neither her nor Arianna faded along the way.
The snow was deep and hampered their progress dramatically. Perhaps nightfall might have been optimistic.
“Your father must have sent out troops by now,” Arianna complained. She would have been quite happy staying put in the shack and waiting to be rescued.
“To Vallengaard most likely. When they cannot find us, they will extend their search but it would be a day or so before they reach us out here. It is safer to make our own plans than try and second-guess what my father might do.”
“At least we’re seeing plenty of this Realm,” Kat said brightly. “In fact, walking through these woods is very similar to those surrounding Vasmaar.”
“That would probably be because we were Vasmaar’s neighbour a couple of millennia ago.”
“And perhaps one day again. At least via a gateway.”
“I just have to find a certain moon stone for that to happen,” Arianna grunted.
“One day soon,” Kat smiled. At least she hoped so.
Kat wasn’t sure how long they had walked for. She was dripping in sweat from exertion, tired and thirsty, a thick layer of cloud hung over the sky so there was no way in telling whether it was before or after midday. “Can we stop for a few minutes,” she squeezed Ulrik’s hand. “I need something to drink.”
“Sadly there is no Starbuck’s nearby,” Arianna grunted. “So what would you suggest we drink?”
“Water,” Kat retorted. She knelt down and hit the snow with a small ball of fire. It instantly melted. Cupping her hands together, she scooped up some of the ice cold liquid. It eased her super-dry throat.
Arianna nudged her out the way. “Leave some for me.”
“There’s enough for all of us,” Kat grunted and melted more snow for Ulrik as well.
“Such a useful person to have out in the wilderness,” Ulrik winked at her.
“That’s the thirst sorted,” Arianna sighed. “I don’t suppose we have a small tavern around here to get something to eat?”
“Sadly not. We might be lucky and come across a small wild animal or bird we can cook.”
“You really know how to show a girl a good time, Ulrik,” Arianna groaned getting to her feet.
“I aim to please,” he smiled.
“I guess we should get moving again,” Kat got to her feet. Her limbs were already starting to stiffen. For Ulrik’s sake, she needed to keep a smile on her face. It wasn’t his fault they were in this mess, it was largely down to Arianna being Lokranor’s heir.
She noticed from Ulrik’s expression a while later that all was not right. “What aren’t you telling me?” she asked quietly.
“I don’t think we’re going to make it to Arranfest before night descends.”
“Can we not continue to walk in the dark?”
“It won’t be safe.”
“Is there anywhere we can stop on the way?”
“Not that I am aware of. I’m hoping we can reach Arranfest Falls which will be frozen at this tim
e of year. The rocks around it should provide us with some shelter.”
Kat tightened her hold on Ulrik’s hand. “We’ll be fine so stop worrying.”
“I will worry until I have you both safely back home. Your father entrusted me with your care and so far I’ve done a piss poor job in looking after you.”
The Fourth Realm (Realms Gate) Page 21