Page 19

Chapter

Fifteen

I stand in the center of a room and struggle to pick my jaw up off the floor.

The knights’ chambers in the Hallowed Palace are rich, but these are lavish.

They are in their own mini castle attached to the rear of the main castle.

A baby castle for the baby knights. The main castle is full of statues of their father and paintings of his great deeds, which I suspect are a lie.

Arthur appears to rotate between his throne and his bed.

He doesn’t have the time to save damsels and whatever else he’s lied about.

I dive into the four bedchambers, easily picking out their individual rooms according to their decoration and items. Nash’s with his neat stacks of books, Hart’s with his military precision, Theo’s with scorch marks on the walls, and Malachi’s, whose room is as chaotic as the knight who owns it.

They say nothing as I complete my perusal of their living quarters and make my way out to an enormous glass-domed indoor garden.

The sweet smell of honeysuckle hangs heavy in the air.

In the very center of the oasis is a large bathing pool filled to the brim with crystal-clear water and floating lily pads.

I unclip my cloak, dump it on the floor, and tug off my boots before dropping to my butt at the edge of the water.

The second my feet sink into the cool water, I sigh.

Being carted around on horseback takes its toll on one’s feet.

So long as there are no frogspawn, this is basically Idylican.

Plus, I feel a new affinity for water. Being the queen of the ocean will do that.

The knights join me by tugging off their boots and dipping their toes in.

“We need a strategy tonight,” Hart says, breaking the silence surrounding us.

I close my eyes and lean back on my elbows. I am not good at strategy—I live by the seat of my pants.

“We survive both the feast and the night. Come morning, we demand answers,” Malachi says like it’s that easy. If it was, surely we would have been successful ten tempos ago, and we’d now be on our way back to the Hallowed Palace with the answers tucked securely in our brains.

“It won’t be that easy,” Nash says, agreeing with my silent musings. “If we are correct about him not being the chosen one, he will see our presence and questioning of his credibility as a threat to his throne. He will try to remove the key to any of our ascension.”

“Which is?” Malachi asks.

“Daphne,” Hart grumbles. “Always Daphne.”

“I refuse to accept that your troubles are always my fault. You didn’t know I existed until this annus, so any mishaps, misdeeds, and miscommunications prior to our meeting could not have been my fault.”

They are quiet for a tempo as they absorb my words, and I keep my eyes closed and smile. I rendered them speechless. I enjoy that immensely.

“We should watch Arthur in shifts,” Theo decides. “If he is hiding anything, and we’ve threatened his position, he will be stupid enough to check on it.”

“I’ll move the horses to our private stables,” Hart decides. “I don’t trust him not to do something.”

“He can’t have my horses,” I say, flicking my eyes open.

Nash chuckles. “Your horses? The ones you are terrified of and believe are going to eat your face?”

“That was before I realized they worship females and are the smartest creatures in the realm.”

Hart pulls his feet free of the water, and I watch him stalk back into their private quarters.

“I will make arrangements for a gown for Daphne,” Malachi decides as he too leaves.

I screw my face up at the thought of being stuffed inside a tight gown where breathing is optional.

But I don’t want to stand out this evening, so I resolve to attend for the shortest possible time.

The rest I’ll spend inside this bathing pool.

“If it turns out he is not your father, nor the worthy knight, what will you do?” I ask. “Because if you kill him, that leaves a throne free, and you said that was bad news.”

Nash’s shoulder grazes mine as he too leans back. “I’m not sure yet.”

“I could eat him,” Theo suggests as he runs his tongue over his teeth like he’s already picking out his father’s bones. I suspect Arthur tastes like shit. Better to swallow him down whole.

“Eating will result in death,” I point out. “We need a way to contain him while we figure out a workaround, so Theo and I don’t end up dying.”

Nash shakes his head. “We are missing something.”

“Like?” Theo asks.

“We’re coming at this from the knights and King Arthur legends.”

“Because that is the link between all the elements,” I remind him. Maybe he swapped his big brain for his small one to lighten the load on his horse. That’s okay; I will brain for him.

“Wrong. You are the link.”

I groan and sit up to rub my hands down my face. “How in the Blazes do you reason I am the link? Apart from being kidnapped from my chambers and posed as a damsel, that storyline has nothing to do with me.”

“Wrong again,” Nash says. “You are the only damsel to be taken by the dragon and returned. You are the only damsel to have tamed his beast. You might look at him and see Theo, but make no mistake, Theo may house the dragon within, but he does not control it.”

Theo nods. “That’s true. I normally have to make a deal with him about how many bunkums we can eat after we drop the damsel at the village. With you, there was no deal. He wouldn’t listen. You were his. Simple in his thick skull.”

“I’m a dragon tamer?” I whisper. They should fashion me the best crown in the realm. Is there a creature I can’t conquer? A flash of memory from the first time I met Nash in the library hits me. “Like the girl in the book we saw?”

“Of a fashion,” Theo agrees. “And I have plenty of worthy crowns back at my cave. Take your pick.”

“I wonder if Daphne is the key,” Nash says.

“We are busy pulling apart our narrative and looking for the weakest link, but we have in our hands a chaotic maiden who has stumbled into several sacred storylines and become the main character. Perhaps instead of thinking of it as the Arthurian legend, we should try to understand it from the Lady of the Lake and damsel in distress perspectives, since they’ve converged.

We would be stupid to ignore the opportunity to approach this differently. ”

“Why are they sacred?” I ask.

“Because they are written as such,” Theo answers with a frown.

“Who says?” I challenge.

“The Idols.”

I hum in the back of my throat.

“What are you thinking, Daphne?” Nash asks.

“We have been blindly following the rules of a bunch of fussy old men because it’s just the way it is. We are creating villages full of victims because of something written in some stuffy dusty books that nobody has even thought to read in too many annuses to count.”

“Everyone knows the Idols will anger if the storylines aren’t fulfilled,” Theo says, although he doesn’t sound as sure as he did a tempo ago.

“Not everyone has met an Idol, but I have, and I can tell you with all honesty, I was not impressed.”

“It’s definitely something to consider,” Nash agrees.

Why can’t we live our lives the way we want to? Why are we slaves to the storylines set down in an annus no one can remember? “I wish?—”

The air before us swirls with purple smoke, and my genie appears. He glances around the glass dome with confusion before settling his gaze on me and raising a brow. “I am listening, mistress.”

“Cancel the wish,” I snap. His shoulders slump as he sighs in defeat. “Where have you been?”

He floats back and forth over the water as he recounts his last diurnal.

“For the record, the mirror man, no matter if he is an original relic, is cracked. He has caused untold chaos in the ocean, telling Poseidon that the fairest maiden in the realm holds his Idol weapon, and he should be thankful it has fallen into such fair and caring hands. The Idol did not enjoy that his failure as the king of the ocean was being broadcast by a cracked mirror man. Then, he tried to banish him.”

My hands rise to my mouth, and I gasp. “My mirror man was banished?” I will kill Poseidon.

Genie rolls his eyes. “No, the mirror man tried to banish Poseidon from the ocean.”

“Did it work?” Nash says with a smirk.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Of course it didn’t work. But Poseidon ordered all mirrors in the sea smashed. There was an incident with some baby seahorses who got hurt.”

“Oh, no. Steve and Linda?”

“That’s right. But our good friend, the mirror man, kept stalking Poseidon through the shattered shards sweeping through the current.”

“Because I told him to spy for me.” My head falls into my hands. I’m not even in the sea, and I’m still causing chaos.

“Anyway, we returned in the last turn to update Gwyneth on our progress. She said we should wait for you to return this sundown so we can strategize.”

“But I said the magic words,” I deduce. “And now you are here.”

He puffs up his chest. “I can go, if you like? If you are about to strip naked and get freaky with these two knights, I would prefer to leave.”

“We did that last night,” I respond absently.

Genie glares at Theo and Nash. “How rude. My mistress is not a harlot. Take your turn like gentlemen.”

“Wasn’t me,” Theo says, holding his hands up. “It was him.”

The genie blinks. “Good.Two is a lot for anyone to handle.”

“She handled two just fine,” Nash declares.

“You were with two of them at once?” the genie says, holding his hand to his chest.

“How is taking turns any better?” I question.

“Well, it must be exhausting satisfying two men at the same time. I would imagine you would need rest and snacks between such encounters.”

“I was not the one satisfying.”

Theo throws his head back and laughs as the genie’s cheeks tint pink.

The door behind us opens, and Malachi strides in, holding a stunning glittering red gown. “Was he the other? He seems to be the most likely to share.”

Malachi frowns. “Was I the other what?”

“One giving me orgasms,” I supply.

Hart strolls in behind Malachi and throws a grape in his mouth from a bunch clutched in his hands. “That would be me,” he drawls.

The genie’s eyes widen comically. I worry for a tempo that they will roll out of their sockets and hit the bathing pool. “Hence why he needs the snacks,” I add.

“So you’re saying that in order to earn snacks, we have to give you orgasms?” Malachi says with a wicked smirk.

“Correct.”

“Sexual gratification in exchange for goods is surely harlot behavior,” the genie says, snapping out of his shock.

“Only if I am the one supplying the snacks,” I decide.

Theo nods like this is totally reasonable. It is. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of this until now. I’ve been distracted. It’s not unreasonable.

“And you believe in equality and for men and women to be treated the same?” Theo drawls.

“Is that even a question?” I give him my best are you stupid? look, the one that people have thrown in my direction many, many times.

“Then it’s only fair that you give out orgasms to receive snacks, too,” Malachi says.

My mouth drops open. Stupid equality. Stupid anti-sexism. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. “I cannot be held responsible if you withhold sausage from my mouth.”

Hart grins as he tosses another juicy grape into his mouth. “On the contrary, Calamity, that’s exactly where it should go.”

That’s how I made Hart smile and my genie blush. Damn knights. They want to manipulate me with seduction? Game on, boys.