“Water is fine.”
“We’ll fix that palate of yours before the year is over.” He walked across the room and pushed open a door. “That’s the washroom. Freshen up.” He studied my dress and sighed. “That dress will only make you stand out.”
“Should I go to the tower and change?”
“No. We don’t have time. I’ll get you water while I think up ways to make you invisible.” He disappeared, and I headed to the washroom.
It was similar to Storm’s down to the copper washtub and old-fashioned razor. I borrowed Ryun’s brush and ran it through my unruly hair, then studied my reflection in the full-length mirror.
The dress was cute. The dark green outer skirt and the white inner one complimented each other. The bodice with front lacing accentuated my waistline, and the off-white blouse under it wasn’t too revealing because I’d lifted the gathered elastic neckline. I had no makeup and hadn’t used a moisturizer since I arrived on the island, yet my skin glowed. Maybe it was the magic, or the sea air, or Gráinne’s nasty sauce, or Storm.
Laughing at my thoughts, I left the bathroom. Ryun wasn’t in the living room, but he’d left a pitcher of water and a tumbler. I poured some and waited. When time crawled by and he didn’t reappear, I was sure he’d already left without me. He was so unpredictable I wouldn’t put it past him. I was debating whether to continue waiting or just leave when he entered the room.
He’d changed into a fancy front-laced white shirt with ruffles up his chest to the shoulders and at his wrists. The black vest and matching coat had silver lacings and gray anchor buttons. Black pants, boots, and a sword dangling on his hip completed his attire.
“How do I look?” he asked, placing a tricorn hat on his head.
“Dashing.” From the smile on his face, he already knew it.
He removed the hat, pressed it to his chest, and bowed. “Thank you. My lady friend likes to roll play. I’ll be the gentleman while she’ll be the lowly scullery maid.”
“Fewer details, please.”
He grinned. “Now let’s fix you up a bit. With that face and those eyes, you need to look and act the part of a vixen to blend in, or the men will know right away you are new and ripe for the picking.” He tugged at my blouse. “If you lowered the neckline of your blouse to show more cleavage…”
I slapped his hand and stepped back. “Nope. I’m not going to display my assets to a roomful of pirates.”
He sighed. “You are no fun. It’s probably for the best. Everyone knows about Storm’s violet-eyed lass.” He went to the pegs by the door and came back with a scarf and a hat. He tied the scarf on my head, plopped the hat on top, and tugged the flaps down. He grinned. “By the time they realize it’s you, we’ll be long gone.”
“My clothes?” No one could fail to notice the quality of the fabric or that they were new.
Ryun removed a coat from a peg and held it up. It was the most ugly and drab-looking piece of clothing I’d ever seen. I shrugged it on. He buttoned it up and escorted me to the mirror.
He chuckled when I grimaced at my reflection. The hat swallowed my head, and the coat, which came to my ankles, looked like I’d fished it out of a dumpster. Beside him, I looked like a street urchin.
“Don’t look so dejected,” he said. “You wanted to see the port, not for the port to see you. And in this, you make a nice invisible, scullery maid.”
“You are mean.”
“No, I’m all about saving my hide. If anything happened to you, Storm would have my head for dinner.”
I adjusted the collar. “He wouldn’t.”
“Haven’t you heard of cannibalistic Kelpies?”
He led me back to the living room, and removed a belt with a sheath from a peg. He showed me how to strap it and adjust it for a better fit. He secured the dagger he’d given me earlier in the sheath.
“Try not to cut yourself, lass. If any man touches you, unstrap it and pull it out like you mean to use it.”
Chapter 9
Maybe going with him wasn’t such a good idea.
Even as the thought crossed my mind, I knew I couldn’t miss this opportunity. Seeing it with Storm would be different because his presence alone would make people act differently. This way I could play tourist unobserved.
“You want to know my secret passage? How I sneak to and from the port and thwart the Undine Court and their stupid sentencing?” Ryun pulled the chest in the middle of his living room and unrolled the carpet to reveal a trapdoor. The light from his window didn’t go far, but I could see the top of a ladder.
“Wow, impressive.”
Ryun scowled. “Storm already told you about the maze, didn’t he?”
I shook my head.
“Kraken’s breath. I can’t even impress a lass anymore. Wait here.” He lit a candelabrum, went down first, lit a torch somewhere down there, and waved me down.
“Be careful,” he warned as I started down the ladder. When I reached him, he gave me the torch, lifted his hands, and the door shifted into place. The stones grinding against each other should have released dirt and rocks, but they didn’t.
“Is that your ability? Moving things with your mind?”
“I wish,” he mumbled and didn’t elaborate. He lit another torch. I could see the entrance to the maze. It looked dark and foreboding.
“We’re coming back this way, right? I mean, why did you close the door?”
“Because if someone were to make it through the maze from the other side, we don’t want him or her finding one of the entrances to the island wide open.”
He took my hand and started toward the dark tunnel. Cold air brushed my skin. I’d expected the air to be murky, but instead, there was a draft. The light from the torch flickered every few steps, but it didn’t go out. It also didn’t reach far. Shadows danced ahead of us, creating weird patterns. I swallowed and tightened my grip around Ryun’s hand.
He left the main tunnel and headed left. We passed several entrances. Like the path we were on, they appeared wide enough for several people to walk side by side, and the walls seemed reinforced with concrete.
“Those are from the other trapdoors,” he explained.
“How many are there?”
“Ten. Four in the Great Hall under each tower, four from the elders’ homes, including the one at Deck’s, one in the middle of the bailey, and mine.”
“Why doesn’t Deck live in the Hall?”
“He likes his privacy. Besides, there are only five tower homes—the western one for you and Storm, and the other three presently occupied by Zale, Levi, and Kheelan. The last one was mine. Deck took over the empty castle in the southwestern part of the island instead. It used to belong to an elder. It’s where he takes reluctant Tuh’ren women scared of assimilating.”
The more I heard about this Deck guy, the more I worried for Skylar. The passage split and curved.
“What does he do? Torture them?” I asked.
“Probably talks them into submission. He has a mouth and an attitude to match it.”
“So the elders don’t live in the Great Hall?”
“The younger ones do. The cook, the gatekeeper, and the crazy Nereid in North Forest live in mini castles, where the outer towers are located.”
I grinned. He meant the elders Gráinne, Murchadh, and Moria. Storm had shown me the three towers, but not Moria’s.
The passage split again, and we appeared to be going back. I knew because the draft wasn’t as strong. We took a corner, then another one. After a while, I was sure we were moving in circles. Sometimes the pathway split, but Ryun always knew which one to take. And every path we took sloped, so I knew we were headed downhill.
“Okay, this is driving me crazy. Where’s the air coming from?”
“From the floor. There are sewer pipes from privies, washrooms, and bathhouses to one of the waterfalls. We might enjoy a simple life, but we don’t live like it’s the dark ages. Surrounding the pipe is a concrete pipe with spaces. The air
from the waterfalls keeps the maze aerated.”
“Wow. It must have taken you guys years to build this.”
“Decades. We didn’t set out to build a maze. The rock down here is so hard, when we dug a path and hit an impenetrable shaft we couldn’t break, we’d abandon the path, resulting in a dead end. Now we have a maze, and anyone foolish enough to come down here or access the entrance from Port Vaarda can get trapped and wither away.”
I shivered, imagining Tullius’s men going around in circles until they died of dehydration or starvation. It seemed like we meandered forever before we entered a rotunda with a high ceiling.
“Here we are,” Ryun said.
The walls were made of rocks of different sizes and several tunnels led from it. In the middle of the room was a pyramid of rocks that went to the ceiling. Instead of heading into one of the tunnels, Ryun went to stand by the pillar and waited, his expression expectant as though he was waiting for something to happen.
I looked around, expecting darts to fly from openings on the wall or for the ceiling to start moving down. Nothing happened.
“This is so Indiana Jones,” I mumbled.
Ryun glanced at me. “Who is that?”
He heard that? Must be Kelpie hearing.
“An explorer,” I said, moving closer to him. “Whenever he entered an ancient tomb, things always went wrong. You know, arrows from holes in the wall, the ceiling lowering, and just when you think things couldn’t get worse, blades would sprout from the ceiling or a trap door opened.”
Ryun chuckled. “I’d love to see that. The old man is probably asleep on the job. Come on, Elder Murch,” he called out, shortening Murchadh. “I know you can feel us. I have Storm’s lass with me. She’s allowed to use the entrance.”
The entire wall started to move. It was obvious it wasn’t made of real rock. It covered the tunnels, including the one we’d used, then stopped, revealing a few more doorways. A sigh of relief escaped me.
“Were you worried, lass?” Ryun asked, chuckling. “Shame on you. I’d never bring you on an adventure without a plan. Wait for it. Wait. For. It.”
The wall moved two more times before it stopped to reveal only one passage. It led to a wooden door.
“All the others were dead ends. Want to check them out? We might find bones.” He laughed when I made a face.
He was still chuckling when we entered a bedroom with a large bed covered with a lacy blanket and canopy. Sounds of the ocean and voices filtered into the room. I started forward, but Ryun grabbed my hand and shook his head.
“Everything in here is booby-trapped. The bed. Floorboards around it and near the windows and the desk.”
Ryun liked to mess with me, so I wasn’t sure whether he was serious or not. I gripped the back of his coat and shuffled after him. We walked straight to the door, which led to a living room with various doors. The sounds from outside were louder now.
When we exited the house, I grinned. We were three stories high on a mansion, and I could see several ships anchored off the port. A balcony wrapped around the house and ended at the stairs to our left. On either side of the mansion were other two-story buildings without balconies. Like the mansion, they were built into the wall of the island. A wide street separated us from the buildings lining the port and stretching to our left and right. People were everywhere.
This was my idea of a pirate port. Women in sexy clothes. Drunken sailors. Merchants, and businessmen and women everywhere.
“Where’s Gemma’s place? Storm says she runs the largest tavern.”
“You’ll meet her shortly,” Ryun said and took my arm. “The mansion is hers, too. She’s in charge of the trade, the largest tavern, and quite a few boarding houses in town for the women and men working here, including the ones who are paid for their services.” He glanced at me and grinned. “No comment?”
He meant to shock me. “A woman has a right to do whatever she likes with her body.”
He chuckled. “The buildings left and right of the mansion are for storing goods she buys or sells. The serving wenches sleep downstairs in the mansion. The ones charging men stay in the boarding house. Needless to say, they are not from our island. We take care of our women.”
“And the ships?”
“The ships are from the other islands. They stop here to trade, eat, spend time with the wenches, and move on. Some head home to the other islands or to the Veil. You weren’t thinking of stowing away, lass, were you?”
“I’m past stowing away. It’s demeaning. I’m likely to hold a captain captive with my dagger and force him to cross the Veil.”
He chuckled. “Just because you’ve watched Kai doesn’t mean you can actually wield that dagger, lass. And no captain on these seas would live down being held captive by a Tuh’ren lass.”
Man, we had a bad rep.
“What if we seduce them? From what I’ve heard, your kind can’t resist us.”
“True, but whoever is foolish enough to fall for those violet eyes would have Storm to deal with. I told you before. He makes the worst enemy.”
Ryun held on to my arm as we crossed the street. He stopped at a door in the back of a building and banged on it. A burly man opened it and grinned when he saw Ryun.
“Captain Blackwell,” he said.
Ryun slapped him on the arm. “Nice to see you, lad. Is Captain Mira here?”
“Not yet, but she’s on her way.”
“Good. Tell Gemma I want the best room.”
I swear I was completely invisible. The man didn’t even glance at me. We entered the tavern. It was exactly as I had imagined. Unruly men drinking and eating while talking at the top of their voices. Serving wenches with boobs spilling over the top of their blouses. Some sailors got too familiar with the servers. A few even grabbed and pulled them onto their laps. The women laughed, not in the least offended. All in a day’s work, I guessed.
“Wipe that grin off your face, lass, and lower the brim of your hat,” Ryun warned.
“Don’t spoil this for me, please,” I said, still grinning. “I’m cataloguing everything.” Instead of responding, he pulled down the tip of my hat to cover my face more. I had to walk with my chin slightly tilted to see where I was going.
We barely passed a table when a hand landed on my ass. I jumped and turned to glare at the man, but Ryun had already drawn his sword. He pressed the edge against the man’s throat.
“You lay a hand on the lass and you lose it, lad,” he said, speaking calmly. “Do you understand?”
“Aye, Cap’n.”
“And that goes for all of you, worthless scum. You touch her, you lose a hand.”
“Well, well, if it isn’t, Farmer Blackwell. How is farm life treating you?” a gravelly voice called from a secluded table at the corner of the room. His table was under the stairs, so it was impossible to see his face.
“Better than how your women treat you, Scar Face,” Ryun called back, and the tavern guffawed.
“I have one woman, Blackwell, and she is the sea. She treats me mighty fine while you chase scullery maids in your orchard. Is this one so ugly you have to cover her face?” Scar Face mocked, and the room erupted again.
“Show us your face, lass,” came from around the room.
“She must be as ugly as a pig’s backside,” one person said.
“Or maybe it’s a boy dressed as a girl,” Scar Face taunted.
The insults continued, as did the laughter. My face burned, and I tried to move closer to Ryun, but a serving wench slowed me down when she cut me off. She peered under the brim of my hat, and chuckled when our eyes met. The way she winked told me she knew who I was.
By the time she walked away, Ryun was at Scar Face’s table. He pushed his coat aside and reached for his sword. I started to panic.
The man stood, and at first, all I saw was his hulking shoulders and thick hair. Then he turned and light fell on the side of his face. He had a long scar from his temple to his chin as though someone had taken
a hot rod and melted his cheek. He didn’t reach for his weapon, but his men stood and faced Ryun.
My stomach dropped. Hell and damnation! Ryun was about to pick a fight in this den of drunken swordsmen, and I was all he had. I reached for my dagger.
I didn’t get a chance to pull it out because some shithead grabbed me from behind and yanked me backward into his chest, his arm crushing my breasts. Panic sent my heart hurtling to my throat, but anger followed.
“I got the wench,” the man yelled, bathing my face with stale rum breath. He pulled the hat and scarf from my head and threw them aside.
Hair spilled over my face, blinding me, but self-preservation had already kicked in. I raised my elbow and rammed it hard against his ribs. A soft oomph came from him, his arm loosening. I followed through with a hard kick on his shin. He cursed and let me go.
Ha! Kai’s moves worked.
“Don’t you ever touch me, or you’ll face my silver dagger,” I yelled, my hand closing on the handle of my blade, confidence surging back.
The man who’d been hopping on one foot while rubbing his shin stopped. He dropped his foot and turned to scurry away.
“Not so fast,” I snapped. “My hat.”
He picked up the hat from the floor, where he’d dropped it, dusted it off, and handed it to me. I snatched it from his hand, still gripping the handle of my blade. He scuttled away. I expected laughter, but the room had grown quiet. I plopped the hat back on my head, lowered the brim, and turned to find Ryun watching me slack-jawed. He wasn’t the only one.
“You want to fight Captain Blackwell, sir?” I called out to Scar Face, but kept my distance. “Do it fairly. One-on-one. If your men interfere, I will join forces with Ryun. I’m fast and mean, and a cut from my dagger is a death sentence.” I glared at Scar Face. “And I’m not afraid to use it.”
Any second, I expected someone to call my bluff and ask for proof that I had a silver dagger. Instead, the tables nearest me emptied.
“Well, well, not only does she speak, she carries silver,” Scar Face said. “Who is she, Blackwell?”
“I’d rather remain nameless,” I said before Ryun could speak. “Are you going to fight fairly, sir, or would you like me and my silver to join in on the fun?”
[Phantom Islanders 02.0] Storm Revealed Page 15