Beguiled (The Fairest Maidens Book 2)

by Jody Hedlund

  “I should have guessed as much.” She rose and reached for the empty food basket.

  “Vow you will keep my secret the same as I vowed to keep yours.”

  She took a step backward toward the ladder. “Which is more important—your life or your Testing?”

  “My Testing.” I would rather lose my life than fail at my Testing. At least then I would die with honor.

  Once again she examined me, her keen eyes seeming to see deep inside to my soul. Finally, she shook her head and reached for the ladder. “I am sorry, Mikkel. But I cannot stand by and watch you die when it is within my power to save you.”

  “I didn’t ask for you to save me.”

  “You will thank me later.”

  I sat forward, needing to go to her and somehow talk reason into her. “I can fend for myself.”

  “And that is what you have done this past week?”

  “Yes, I have been biding my time.”

  “And now you have run out.”

  I glanced toward the opening above and then lowered my voice. “Help me escape.”

  Her eyes narrowed.

  “Next time you come down, bring a pin or knife or something sharp we can use to pick our locks. Then you can distract the guard above while we sneak away.”

  “You wish for me to betray my friends?”

  “Are we not friends now too?”

  She hesitated, her eyes turning a murky green. “This past week you befriended me so you could use me to aid in your escape?”

  Perhaps I’d started with ulterior motives, but I’d genuinely grown to like her. “I hoped you might be willing to aid me, but our interactions became more than that.”

  “More?” Her voice rose a notch. “How grand of you.”

  The conversation was rapidly deteriorating. I needed to redeem myself. But how? “You cannot deny you befriended me this week so you could discover the reason for my presence on the island.” As soon as the words were out, I saw them as the excuse they were. But it was too late to retract them.

  “Yes, you are correct. I came down here tonight intending to find a way to get information from you.”

  “Then you told me who you were with the hope I would do the same?”

  She lifted her shoulders and tilted up her chin.

  A knot tightened in my gut. She didn’t have to say anything more for me to know the truth. She’d been using me all week. And though I had no reason to be upset at her, since I was likewise guilty, the revelation stung nevertheless.

  “Now I suppose you will run to Irontooth with everything you’ve learned about me.” I couldn’t keep the bitterness from my tone.

  She grasped a rung on the ladder. “At least in doing so, I shall save your life.”

  “And ingratiate yourself to your leader.”

  Without another glance my way, she began climbing up.

  With each step she took, I saw my chances of succeeding at the Testing slipping away. I needed to call after her, beg her to come back, apologize profusely, and attempt to speak with her more calmly.

  Vilmar would have known just what to say to talk his way out of the predicament. And charming Kresten wouldn’t have gotten himself cornered to begin with. But I could only watch Pearl ascend, frustration swirling inside and making me mute.

  She was as much to blame for what had happened as I was, wasn’t she? She’d curled up next to me like a kitten and coaxed me until I’d said everything she wanted to hear.

  I wouldn’t apologize. Not when she’d so blatantly beguiled me into revealing more than I should have.

  As she disappeared and the hatch slammed shut, Gregor released another sigh. “That went well, Your Highness.”

  “Yes, very.”

  With Pearl’s torch remaining in the wall holder and illuminating the cave, I could see Gregor retrieving the journal and charcoal writing stub he kept hidden within an inner pocket of his tunic.

  Of course he would take advantage of the light to add to his records, as he tried to do most days. At the end of the six months, he would hand the journal to the Lagting and my father so they could read an account of everything that happened during the Testing.

  I didn’t begrudge him the light and the need to write about what had just transpired between Pearl and me. He was doing his job as he should. The question was, could I still find a way to continue with my Testing even after everyone on the island learned I was a prince?

  I shook my head, frustration burning in my gut. Was there anything—anything at all—I could do to salvage the situation?

  Chapter

  8

  Pearl

  “Say it again.” Irontooth’s silver brows arched high, showing his surprise.

  At a movement outside, I glanced to the cave opening and gauged who might be listening to our conversation. The darkness of the coming night had settled, and most of the outcasts had gathered around the central fire pit for dinner and conversation.

  Though part of me was angry enough at Mikkel that I didn’t care who heard the revelation, my guilt warred fiercely enough inside that I’d requested a private meeting with Irontooth.

  Felicity ducked through the entrance. “Just me.” Her pale face reflected the same gravity she’d shown the day I revealed my identity, telling me she’d just been listening. She closed the door behind her and then crossed to stand beside Irontooth.

  “Go on.” Irontooth nudged a loose log in the hearth that gave low light to the cave, which consisted of naught more than sleeping pallets and weapons.

  “Mikkel is Prince Mikkel Holberg,” I said again, my voice still low, “son of King Christian of the great kingdom of Scania.”

  Irontooth whistled between his iron-tipped teeth. “A prince.”

  “He’s here for a Testing his country demands of him, a Testing that determines which son is worthy of becoming the next king.”

  “How long does he need to stay?”

  “I do not know. He did not say.” I’d been lucky to get what I had from him. And now he hated me because of the deception . . . if he’d ever liked me to begin with. Perhaps all along he’d been repelled by my veil and the blemish he believed I had.

  “This means I cannot kill him,” Irontooth said.

  “Not unless you want to make an enemy of Scania.”

  Irontooth stared into the flames, no doubt weighing his options of what to do with this unwanted prince.

  “Send him back to Scania.” Although Mikkel had revealed how much he wanted to remain and finish his Testing, I was too hurt by his betrayal to care. He’d made clear enough that his Testing was more important than anything else, including friendship.

  My stomach pinched at the thought that he’d been pretending to be my friend. He’d used me all week. The fascinating conversations, the deep discussions, the hours of debating—it had all been for one purpose: to win my trust so in the end, I’d be willing to do his bidding and set him free.

  “Sending him home prematurely will result in his disgrace,” I explained. “He’ll have to forfeit the kingship.”

  “And if he stays?”

  “Everyone already despises him. If word gets out that he is a prince, they will kill him.”

  “True.”

  “At the very least they will cast him off the island and ban him from coming back.”

  “So.” Felicity sidled closer to Irontooth and slid her arm through his. “We now have both a princess and a prince on our island. I cannot help but think Providence has a hand in this.”

  “Mikkel cannot stay.” I didn’t want to see him again. In fact, the sooner he was sent away, the better.

  “You seemed to like him.” Felicity raised a pale eyebrow.

  “I loathe him.”

  “That is not what I observed. In fact, you seemed quite suited for each other.” From the gleam in Felicity’s eyes, I guessed she’d listened at the dungeon door to my conversations with Mikkel, perhaps spied on us for Irontooth.

  “He was using me to help him
escape.”

  “And you were using him to gain information.”

  I couldn’t deny it, but somehow his betrayal seemed worse. After all, he’d chosen me, thinking I was a vulnerable and damaged young woman he could make feel special. As handsome as he was, he’d likely felt sorry for me and believed he’d have no trouble winning my favor.

  “So what should I do with our prisoner?” Irontooth asked.

  “You should keep him on the island,” Felicity said.

  “Send him back to Scania,” I said at the same moment.

  Irontooth glanced between us and crossed his arms, his eyes narrowing.

  “We have been wondering how to keep Pearl safe from the queen long term,” Felicity murmured to him. “We’ve wanted to find a good home for her. Now one has been dropped into our lap.”

  “I have been safe enough here.”

  Irontooth shot me a glare that warned me he was losing his patience. I bit back another remark and deferred to Felicity.

  She bowed her head at me. “We’ll allow him to stay and will assure him we’ll guard his privacy . . . so long as he agrees to take Pearl home with him to Scania when he is done with his Testing.”

  “No! I shall have nothing more to do with him—”

  “Aye, you will,” Irontooth snarled. “Now hold your tongue, or I’ll hold it for you.”

  I lifted my chin defiantly. “You know I am leaving the island by summer’s end and traveling to Warwick to rescue Ruby.”

  Felicity rubbed Irontooth’s shoulder, her long fingers soothing him. “Now, Pearl, keep in mind, if you go to Scania with a prince, he’ll have a much greater chance at bargaining with the queen for Ruby than you will in sneaking in and attempting to kidnap her.”

  Was that true? If he became king, would he be able to sway the queen to release Ruby into my care? And would she be safest in Scania? Mikkel may have been deceptive this past week, but I couldn’t discount his many fine qualities that would serve him well as a king. And living in Scania with Ruby would be better than subjecting her to the perils on the Isle of Outcasts or even running away to the Continent.

  “Do you see the wisdom in such a plan, Pearl?” Felicity turned gentle eyes upon me.

  “I do not wish to coerce him into taking me to Scania.”

  “I don’t think he’ll need coercing by the time his Testing is done.” Felicity bestowed upon me a knowing smile. “I’ll wager he’ll loathe leaving you behind.”

  “You’ll wager in vain.”

  Felicity bent and whispered in Irontooth’s ear. At his grunts, I guessed he was agreeing to her plan. When she pulled back and looked at me again, her smile was pleased, as if she’d just solved a problem that had been worrying her for a long time.

  I hadn’t realized she and Irontooth had been perplexed about my future or that they’d wanted to find a different place for me to live. Was I putting them and the other outcasts in more peril than I’d realized?

  Irontooth crossed the cave floor and opened the door. “Bring me the prisoners from the dungeon!”

  I made a move to leave, but he turned and blocked the way, his scowl stopping me more than his big body. “We’re not finished here, and you need to stay until we are.”

  “This is for the best,” Felicity added. “You’ll see.”

  I didn’t want to encounter Mikkel again, but I guessed I would have to endure one more meeting with him. After that, I would do my best to stay as far away from him as possible.

  Mikkel

  I didn’t resist as the man with the webbed hands, the one called Toad, pushed me to my knees in front of Irontooth. When he’d shoved me through the door a moment ago, I noticed Pearl standing in the shadows and was grateful to be on my knees so I didn’t have to see her expression.

  No doubt she was gloating that she’d extracted information from me. And no doubt she’d gone straight to Irontooth with it.

  The question was, what would he do to me now that he knew I was a prince?

  Gregor tumbled to his knees next to me, his head bent in subservience.

  Somewhere in the climb up and walk to the cave, I’d lost the borrowed cloak so that once again, I found myself bare chested in a state of undress. Though I’d been freed from my dungeon manacles, my hands were now chained together behind my back.

  As the guards left and closed the door behind them, I waited. If Irontooth forced me to leave the island, perhaps I’d pretend to go willingly but then eventually make my way back to Blade’s camp and complete my Testing there.

  At once, I cast the idea aside as foolish. Even though Irontooth and Blade were warring against one another, the island was small enough that word of my royalty would spread.

  “Prince Mikkel.” Scorn dripped from Irontooth’s voice. “You came to our island so you could feel better about yourself compared to all of us, is that it?”

  I lifted my head and met his gaze across the fire pit. “I came so I could learn to see beyond mere appearances and gain compassion.”

  “We don’t need your compassion.”

  “Perhaps you don’t, but someday the people of Scania will benefit from having a king who understands their weaknesses and can empathize with them rather than look down upon them.”

  Irontooth’s jaw flexed. “Are you saying we’re weak?”

  “We are all weak in one way or another. It’s what we do with our weaknesses that counts.”

  “And how are you weak?”

  I’d always believed I was strong. But the deprivation, uncertainty, threat of danger, and even lack of being accepted had chipped away at my self-confidence, so now I was no longer certain how strong I was.

  Was pride my weakness? Was that what my father and the Lagting had hoped my Testing would expose and then strip away?

  “I am still learning my weaknesses, and I see more of them with each day I live on the island.”

  Irontooth was silent for a moment as the albino woman next to him whispered in his ear. I glanced in Pearl’s direction. She was staring into the fire, her beautiful eyes flaming with anger.

  Was she angry with me? She had no right to be. Perhaps I’d had hidden motives for friendship early on, but that had changed as the week went on and I’d gotten to know her, or at least thought I had, until she’d tricked me into sharing who I was.

  “We have decided what to do with you,” Irontooth said.

  My back stiffened in preparation for the news. Would he kill me or send me away? And which would be better?

  “I understand you want to keep your royalty hidden the same way Pearl is hiding hers. Otherwise you will jeopardize your Testing.”

  Apparently Pearl hadn’t withheld anything I’d told her. “Yes, that is true.”

  Irontooth stared at Pearl, who kept her attention riveted to the fire, before he shifted his brooding gaze back to me. “I won’t say anything about who you are, to anyone. And you don’t have to leave.”

  “What?” Pearl’s question was loaded with frustration.

  Hope sparked inside me, and I shared a look with Gregor. His eyes mirrored my surprise.

  “Thank you—”

  Irontooth waved his hand impatiently. “There is one condition.”

  “Very well.”

  “You must marry Princess Pearl and take her back to Scania as your wife when you are finished here.”

  “Marry?” Pearl spoke at the same time I did. Except her tone held anger. “That is a ridiculous proposition.”

  “I concur.”

  “You said nothing of marrying.” She continued to ignore me and directed her glare to Irontooth. “Only of returning with him to Scania.”

  “How else did you suppose you could travel with him?” the albino woman said kindly. “Surely you know there’s no other way it can be done. And surely you know that’s the best way of securing Ruby.”

  Pearl pursed her lips. I guessed Ruby was her younger sister, the one she’d spoken of so fondly from time to time during the last week. Even so, no matter her d
esperation to escape from the clutches of her mother and find a new home, I couldn’t marry her.

  “But the law”—Pearl’s tone rose—“prevents marriage until the age of twenty, and I am only nineteen. Any marriage made before that is illegal, punishable by death.”

  “That is the law in Warwick, not here in Norland.” Irontooth crossed his arms, the clear sign that he refused to accept any excuse Pearl might offer.

  Pearl’s forehead creased with panic.

  “Law or no,” I cut in, “I am not at liberty to get married.”

  Irontooth glared at me. “Then I’ll tell everyone who you really are, and your Testing—possibly your life—will be over.”

  My mind scrambled to find a way out of this dilemma. “As a prince and the future king, my father and his advisors must determine my bride. They are, in fact, already making arrangements. That is the way of things, and I cannot change it.”

  “Think nothing of Irontooth’s offer,” Pearl stated. “I would not marry you even if your father and his advisors asked for my hand.”

  “You needn’t worry.” My ire rose much too swiftly. “I don’t want to marry you either.”

  “Good.”

  “Yes, good.” Even if I wanted to marry her, I couldn’t make so binding a commitment to a woman who must wear a veil to hide her deformities. My people would never accept her. In fact, many would accuse her of being a witch.

  As though seeing the direction of my thoughts, hurt flared within Pearl’s eyes. “I would never bind myself to a man who places so much value on outward worth.”

  “I cannot disregard it—”

  “Enough!” Irontooth thundered. “You will wed Pearl, or the deal is off.” The look in his eyes told me he was serious.

  “Please try to understand . . .”

  The silver-haired leader moved away from the fire and stalked to the door.

  “This isn’t a decision I can make so quickly or lightly.” My tone was now laced with desperation.

  He reached the door and began to swing it open.

  My pulse sped, and I struggled to my feet. “Wait!”

  He didn’t stop, merely pushed the door wider and shouted outside, “I have an announcement—”