[Phantom Islanders 02.0] Storm Revealed Read online

  “He’s been away dealing with mean Tullius, and it’s put him in a weird mood. Can you give him a kiss and a hug and make him feel better? When I come back with the meat, we’ll go to your table.”

  Meda nodded and lifted her arms. I wasn’t sure how Deck would react, but he surprised me by lifting up the little girl. A weird expression crossed his face when Meda planted a kiss on his scarred cheek and hugged him. I couldn’t help grinning as I continued serving the rest of the table. When I left the hall, Meda was on Deck’s lap.

  Gráinne and Delia were waiting for me with weird expressions when I went to the kitchen for meat.

  “What did I do this time?” I asked.

  “You took your time,” Gráinne said in a gruff, censuring voice.

  Great! Now I’ve pissed her off. “It’s not my fault. Captain Deck decided to make a spectacle of himself and me. I’m sure you saw that.”

  “Yes, I did.” Gráinne did something strange. She reached for my hand and squeezed it, then moved away. I stared at her retreating back, not understanding her unpredictable mood swings.

  “Don’t mind her,” Delia said, appearing beside me. She pushed the tray with chunks of meat into my hands. “She is very impressed by you. Because of his scar, Decabel is not used to the little ones talking to him or even hugging him, yet he has one on his lap. Thanks to you.”

  Oh. That was a good thing then. I took a tray of meat and went back to the hall. This time I started with Storm to stop the confusion. He, Deck, and Meda were having a serious conversation when I reached them.

  “You promise?” Meda asked.

  “Yes, little one,” Deck said.

  “We promise,” Storm added.

  What had they promised her? Storm wanted extra meat, which he offered the little girl. Deck also insisted on getting the best piece of meat for her. They were like two grown-ups with a toy, which was funny because when I finished serving them, Meda wiggled from Deck’s lap and crawled under the table to follow me into the kitchen.

  “Next time, don’t linger serving your mate,” Gráinne said. “The other captains and quartermasters need to be served, too.”

  “That’s because they were choosing the best parts of meats—”

  Meda tugged at my skirt and shook her head.

  “Agree with everything she says,” she whispered, but everyone in the kitchen heard her. Laughs followed.

  “Thank you,” I mouthed, then added louder, “Yes, Elder Gráinne.”

  “Good. Finish up. Meda, stay here, lass.”

  It took me two more trips before I was done with the captains’ table.

  “The others will take it from here. You two go and sit. Meda, take fresh bread to your table. Make sure all your friends get a piece.” She handed the little girl a little basket.

  The surprise, then the broad grin on Meda’s face, were priceless. I planned to involve her on our rounds from now on. She just needed to feel she was still important.

  Gráinne reached for a covered plate. “This is for you, Lexi. You did well, lass. You should consider working with me in the kitchen.”

  Ha, like I was that crazy. I’d rather work in Gemma’s tavern. “Thank you, Elder Gráinne. I’ll think about it.” I paused, scrunched up my face, then shook my head. “It’s an honor, but I’ll pass.” Laughter followed Meda and me out of the kitchen.

  Back in the main hall, Meda’s father gave up his seat for me. I protested, but it made no difference. He joined a bunch of other guys at a different table. Storm’s eyes didn’t waver from our table. When he caught my eye, he patted the chair beside him.

  I shook my head and pointed at my new table. I was not sitting up there with him as long as Deck was there. I didn’t trust the man not to do and say something to embarrass me again. I waved to him and lifted the cloth covering my food. The heavy sauce was missing.

  Thank you, Gráinne. I ate a piece and moaned. It was barbecued to perfection. The children around the table laughed.

  “You should see her face when she eats the sauce.” Meda made faces.

  “That looks good,” the woman to my right said. I recognized her from the river. She’d come from New Orleans a century or so ago.

  “Do you want some?”

  “No, I’m good. The sauce is good for you. The salt and spices prepare your body for the change.”

  I stared at her blankly. “Excuse me?”

  “When your body undergoes the change to a Kelpie or a Selkie, you should be able to stay in the salt water for a long period of time. The salt you’re taking right now and the herbs are preparing your body for that.”

  Why hadn’t I figured that out? I hadn’t even thought about the shift.

  “The captain is coming for you,” she whispered, and sure enough, Storm was standing up. Knowing him, he was going to be unceremonious about it. He’d probably carry me on his shoulder like a sack and head for the tower. I started to get up when he looked my way.

  A pit opened in my stomach. He was smiling, yet I knew something was wrong. I couldn’t explain it. I just knew it. All the occupants of the captains’ table stood as a group, and left their table.

  “No, he’s not,” I whispered.

  The words had barely left my lips when they pulled out their swords.

  “Fire!” a woman screamed.

  Chapter 11

  “The ships are on fire!”

  “The stores!”

  “Our homes.”

  Everyone surged to their feet, screams in the air.

  “Stop,” Storm snapped, and silence swept the hall. “We are under attack. You know what to do.” His eyes locked with mine. “Stay with Delia and the children. Do not leave the hall.”

  I started to nod, but he was already gone. There was a wave of movement toward the entrance as the men and the guards pulled out their swords. I was surprised when the women lifted their skirts and reached for daggers strapped to their thighs or hidden inside their boots. Only pregnant mothers and those with newborns were left.

  Meda gripped my hand and whimpered. Her father was already gone. I lifted her. Her arms wound around my neck, her puny body shaking.

  “Shhh. It’s okay,” I whispered and rubbed her back, but it wasn’t.

  The shock I felt was mirrored on the faces of everyone left in the front hall, including Glyn and Max and a group of older boys and girls around their age. A guard warned them not to follow their fathers and mothers outside. Someone had closed the door, but the clang of weapons and shouting reached us.

  Kai and some of the guards, men and women, ran back inside, and for a brief moment, I saw what was happening outside.

  The islanders were fighting men in familiar black clothes. Tullius’s men. I’d recognize the uniform anywhere. I caught a brief sight of Storm locked in a battle with a man, his blade moving so fast it was a blur. I winced with each thrust. Then he disappeared out of sight.

  How had they gotten on the island? The sense of security I’d taken for granted since I learned the island was impenetrable was gone. I saw the same vulnerability and confusion on the faces of the children and the mothers left inside the castle.

  “Don’t just stand there,” Kai yelled at us as she and her guards raced toward the east stairs. “Find Delia and head to the maze.”

  We started as a group towards the western side of the hall, the children pressing against the few adults, some gripping our skirts. Most of them were crying. Delia, Gráinne, and the servers entered the hall at a run. The women headed outside, weapons in their hands. Gráinne went to Max and Glyn’s group and escorted them toward the east tower.

  “This way,” Delia called, waving the pregnant and nursing mothers toward the west tower. “You too, Lexi.”

  Sounds of clashing swords followed us as we escorted the children, some looking behind us as though not wanting to leave without their parents.

  “How is this possible?” one of the mothers finally asked as the shock wore off. “No one is supposed to make it up here.”<
br />
  “Let’s not worry about that now.” Delia grabbed a torch from the wall. She led the way to the tapestry of a winged Kelpie by the stairs leading to our tower and pushed it. I’d passed that tapestry so many times on my way to the tower and never realized it hid a trapdoor. She raised her hand and the door opened to reveal steps. This door was bigger and the steps wider.

  “You know what to do,” Delia said, her voice calm. She handed a pregnant woman a torch. “We’ve practiced this. Careful.” The pregnant mothers went down first, then the ones with babies, who stood along the step and guided the children. The steps appeared endless, and I couldn’t see the bottom from where I stood.

  “Your turn, lass,” Delia said.

  “You’re not going?” I asked.

  “I’ll be right behind you after I make sure the Tuh’rens and the older children made it.”

  “They’re down here,” one of the mothers called from below. “The Tuh’rens, too.”

  Delia looked toward the hall. It was deserted. Even the dogs had fled. For one brief moment, her calm mask slipped, and I saw her anguish. She took care of everyone on the island and was probably imagining the worst.

  “They’ll be fine. Storm won’t let anything happen to them,” I reassured her.

  “But at what cost,” I heard her mumble. Then the pleasant mask returned, and she smiled. “Of course, he won’t. Go. I’ll follow.”

  She adjusted the tapestry to block the entrance and followed me down the steps. I sniffed. There was a terrible stench coming from below. The trap door closed above us. Three shieldmaidens were there with lit torches.

  The room was wide with stone pillars and stone floor. There were doorways to our right and left, probably leading to other rooms. I shivered. Like the maze, it was freezing. Unlike the maze, it reeked.

  Rolled up blankets and barrels of what I assumed was water and food were piled on one side. The light from the torches threw shadows around the room but didn’t reach the corners. A shudder shook me again. I wished I knew how to connect with Storm and confirm he was okay. He’d better be alive. I couldn’t lose him when I’d just found him. A cold knot tightened in my gut, and I shivered.

  “Are you going to the maze, muh’Delia?” one of the boys asked.

  “Not yet,” Delia said. “We’ll stay here for now. I want you to find a place to sit. I know it’s cold down here and it smells funny, but we are safe now. No one knows about these rooms.” She nodded at the shieldmaidens. “Distribute blankets.”

  “What’s that smell?” one of the Tuh’ren women asked.

  “I think there’s a leak in the sewer pipes,” Delia said. “I was here a few days ago and it didn’t smell like this. We’ll figure out the leak later. Right now, distribute the blankets.”

  I had been in the maze a little over an hour ago, and the smell hadn’t been there then, I wanted to tell Delia. The knot tightened, until I was ready to snap.

  The shieldmaidens moved away from the group to put the torches in the sconces mounted on the pillars around the room. They didn’t get a chance to move toward the blankets when the men appeared from behind the pillars with swords. The shieldmaidens went on the defensive. Outnumbered three to one, they fought back. Some I heard, but one was in my line of vision.

  She parried to the right, ducked, and grappled the attacking hand, then came low with her dagger, cutting the man across the stomach. He dropped his sword. She pushed him out of the way just as his friend came from behind with his sword raised. Her left foot whipped out and caught him in the shoulder of the arm holding the sword, dislocating it.

  The man cried out. He tried to grab the sword to his left, but she rushed him, pushing his arm up and exposing his ribs. She drove her dagger into his chest. Armed with his sword, she turned to face the third guy.

  With each clang of metal against metal, the children whimpered and pressed closer to us. Covering the eyes of close to thirty little children was impossible, yet we did it with our skirts and kirtles. Delia and the other mothers were the first to sit and draw the children to them. Some pressed on their backs, others on their laps, necks, and even arms. Meda clung to my neck as I sat down, and other children gathered around me.

  The Tuh’rens joined us on the floor, hugging as many children as they could. Even the older ones, including Max and Glyn, crouched closer to us and watched the shieldmaidens fight back.

  One man near us made raspy sounds as he struggled to breathe, his lungs punctured. I realized something else. He reeked. The stench in the room came from them. They must have used the sewer to access the maze. Still, that didn’t explain how they’d made it to the Great Hall.

  The shieldmaidens were still fighting. They didn’t just use their swords. They used their feet, knees, elbows, and weapons from the people they killed. They took down the men, ten or more.

  “Let’s move the child—”

  The shieldmaiden didn’t finish speaking because a dagger sailed through the air and caught her in her back. Her body jerked and dropped. The second had a dagger lodged in her neck. The third crumpled, her hand pressed against her bleeding gut. Watching them, I felt helpless.

  “Disarm them,” a man said, moving from a doorway under the stairs we’d used to get to the dungeons.

  My eyes widened when I recognized him. It was the same tall man I’d seen scouting Gemma’s office. The daggers had come from him. Several were strapped across his chest. Like his men, his hair and clothes were wet, and he stank. Two men were with him, one of them the short man who’d smirked at me at the port.

  The third man went to where the shieldmaidens and their people were sprawled and took their swords and the daggers. While the other two shieldmaidens barely moved, the one with a gut wound surprised the man who reached for her sword by plunging a dagger into his chest. A gurgling sound escaped him as he toppled and fell on top of her. She shot a look of pure hatred at their leader.

  “You will pay…” She didn’t finish the sentence as her body slumped sideways, one of the tall man’s daggers imbedded in her chest, too.

  The children sobbed and burrowed into us.

  “Find her,” the tall guy barked.

  The short man searched the faces of the Tuh’rens. Jen, the girl with hair like mine, spit in his face when he gripped her hair. He backhanded her, and the children screamed.

  “That’s not necessary,” their leader barked at him. “Those are Tuh’rens. Treat them with care.”

  The man moved from one brunette to another while the tall man squatted and peered at Delia. “We are here for the violet-eyed Tuh’ren. We know she’s on the island because we saw her earlier at Port Vaarda with one of the captains. Tell us where she is and the rest of you will not be harmed.”

  My stomach dropped. I expected the children to react, but they clung tighter. So they’d been looking at me, not scouting Gemma’s office. If I hadn’t gone with Ryun…

  The man focused on the children. “Come on, children. You tell us where she is and you can go back to your mas and das,” the man said.

  “She is fighting your men,” a boy yelled to my right. I recognized Glyn’s voice. “She is a shieldmaiden just like the islanders.”

  “And she made Prince Tullius run like a coward after she broke his nose,” Max added. For once I didn’t care that they were sharing my story.

  Delia and the other women were between Tullius’s men and me, but I knew it wasn’t going to be long before they discovered me.

  The tall man growled. “Round up the Tuh’rens and bring them to me.”

  “No, leave the lasses alone,” Delia snapped. “They don’t deserve the things you make them go through.”

  Their leader studied Delia. “I know you. Your daughter sails under Storm.”

  “And I know you, Ren. Don’t take the lasses. Tell Tullius you didn’t find the one you’re looking for.”

  The women clung to the kids, but Tullius’s man pressed the dagger to the throat of one of them and forced the rest to get u
p and leave the children behind. The children shuffled to where the islander mothers, Delia, and I were and squeezed between their friends.

  “We’ll also take some of your strapping lads. Starting with you.” He pointed at Glyn then Max. “You seem to know a lot about Tullius’s woman. You too.” He pointed at two more boys. “You’ll join the king’s guards when you grow up.”

  “Leave our children alone,” Delia yelled.

  “Take us instead,” the mothers said.

  I couldn’t hide anymore. I removed Meda’s skinny arms from around my neck, nudged the children away, and got to my feet.

  “No, leave the children alone,” I said. “I’m the one you want.”

  “No,” Delia wailed.

  “I cannot allow them to take the children, Delia, or the women when I’m the one they want.” The leader of Tullius’s men watched me with a smirk as though he’d known I was there all along and had merely baited me. “I’ll go with you as long as you leave them alone.”

  “No,” Delia moaned, the sound telling me what she was thinking. Storm was going to go mad when he realized I was gone. Tears rushed to my eyes, and my throat closed.

  Find me, Storm. If you can hear or feel me, find me.

  I reached down and touched Delia’s head. I leaned down to whisper, “Tell him to find me. Please. I’ll be waiting for the Mac Lir.” The shorter man grabbed my arm and yanked me away from her.

  “Lexi,” Meda cried out and reached for me.

  “I’ll be fine, Meda.” The man who’d grabbed me pushed me toward their leader, and I tripped. Their leader broke my fall, but I was pissed.

  I balled my hand, turned, and slugged the man who’d pushed me hard on the throat. He wasn’t expecting it, and he lost his footing. He landed on the floor, his hand reaching for his neck.

  “Don’t ever touch me again,” I snarled.

  Their leader chuckled, fueling the man’s humiliation. He let out a roar and scrambled to his feet. Fist raised, he came after me, but his leader stopped him.

  “Touch her and I’ll leave you behind with the others,” their leader growled, and the man stopped. “I ask for fighters, and I get amateurs. Treat her with respect. We got her. Let’s go. If they can’t walk, they’ll only slow us down.” He gripped my arm and pulled me closer to his body.