The Princess Knight Page 48
“Unless, of course, you mean a puppy with eyes of flame.”
Ainsley froze, and slowly the truce vicar walked around her until he could gaze down into her face.
“If that’s the puppy you mean, then I have seen such a thing this morning.”
Ainsley took in a breath, let it out. “Now is not the time to toy with me, Vicar. Did you take it?”
“I would never touch such a beast, dear child. To do so would taint my soul. But the one who did was probably not concerned with such a thing.”
“Who?”
“The witch. Adela. She had the puppy. I was able to follow her for a bit, but then I lost sight of it and her. I must admit, I did not feel good about her having it.”
Ainsley gritted her teeth together to control her anger. Not at the vicar. She was glad they’d met. And she knew now that he’d purposely found her.
“Have you seen my sister? Gemma, I mean.”
“Not since last night. She went off with that four-legged fellow. Quinn.”
Ainsley instantly guessed where they were. “I’m going to get my sister. Could you keep looking for the witch?”
“Absolutely, my lady.”
He gave another bow, but Ainsley didn’t think she’d be rolling her eyes at him anymore.
“Thank you, Vicar.”
* * *
“Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!”
Gemma had never thought about actually killing one of her siblings before except, of course, Beatrix, but to her Beatrix didn’t count. But today . . . today she was considering killing one of her actual siblings.
“Stop yelling!”
“I’m not yelling. But you two need to wake up now!”
Gemma did her best to open her eyes and look at . . . gods, which one was it? It wasn’t the baby. Too big. It wasn’t one of the boys. Isad . . . no. No. Not her. Tits too big. Ainsley? It must be Ainsley yelling at her. Why was Ainsley yelling at her?
“What’s happening?” Quinn demanded into his pillow. “Why is everyone yelling? Why won’t you just kill me instead? Please, someone kill me,” he begged, now putting the pillow over his head.
“See what you’ve done?” Gemma asked her sister. “You’re making Quinn want to die. All because you won’t stop screaming.”
“I am not screaming and you need to get up. Both of you.”
“Why? What’s wrong?”
“One of the wolf puppies is missing.”
Finally, Gemma lifted her head off the pillow to glare at her sister. She was so exhausted, all she could do was open one eye but she felt her glare was strong enough to get her point across even with just one eye.
“That’s why you’re being hysterical?” she demanded. “Because of one of those fucking dogs?”
“I’m not being hysterical and I think—”
“I don’t care what you think. Get out! Now!”
“No, no,” Quinn said, hauling himself up to a sitting position. He pulled the blanket over his groin to hide his massive cock from her sister’s view, and Gemma appreciated that. Her sister was too young to see such a thing. It might overwhelm her. Gemma didn’t want to scare her at such a tender age. “We should get up anyway. Keeley wanted to meet this morning to discuss next steps. We should be there to make sure Ragna doesn’t attempt to shove one of her ideas down Keeley’s throat.” He thought a moment. “We should also make sure Keeley doesn’t shove her fist down Ragna’s throat. Speaking of which . . . did anyone ever manage to get that axe out of the floor?”
Gemma forced herself to sit up too as the centaur exited the house. She made her way over to a corner where he’d placed a chamber pot behind a lovely screen.
“How nice,” she said. “So discreet.”
She sat to relieve herself, giggling when Quinn leaned in through the window, his arms resting on the windowsill. The window was rather high, so it must be his horse body on the other side, which for some reason tickled Gemma to no end.
“I had a nice time last night,” Quinn told her.
“I did too.”
“Are you two flirting?” Ainsley demanded, moving aside the screen and glaring at them.
“Can we have some privacy?” Gemma barked. “We are peeing!”
“No! You do not seem to realize the urgency of the situation!”
“What urgency? That terrifying mother dog is probably starting to take her pups back to whichever hell she lives in.”
“Except I met the truce vicar on my way over here and he told me he saw Adela with the pup.”
Slowly, Gemma looked up at Quinn. They gazed at each other for a few seconds before jumping into action, ignoring the pain she knew they were both feeling in their heads.
“I’ll get our weapons,” he said, disappearing from the window.
They were both dressed and armed in less than five minutes. Before they ran out the door, though, Ainsley held up the wine bottles. “Is this what you were drinking last night?”
“Yes,” Gemma answered, adjusting her sword belt. “Why?”
“You know this isn’t the expensive stuff, right? Archie threw that out.”
Gemma’s head snapped up. “What?”
“This is the dwarf wine King Mundric gave to Keeley. Archie didn’t want anyone stealing it. So he tossed out the expensive stuff some duke or whatever had sent over and replaced it with the dwarf wine.” Ainsley looked at the number of bottles lying around, then at Gemma and Quinn. “You’re both lucky you’re still standing.”
“We’re both lucky we have all our bones!” Gemma snapped back. “Drink enough of that stuff, I heard it melts them.”
“That’s an old wives’ tale,” Quinn said, moving toward the front door, holding it open for the two women. “It just crumbles the bones. Like salt.”
“How is that better?” Gemma asked.
“I didn’t know we were going for better. I thought we were going for accuracy.”
* * *
Quinn followed Gemma into the main hall, where their travel team was huddled in a group, whispering amongst themselves. Never a good sign. Even worse. No witches.
“Where is Adela?” she barked.
When all she got back were blank stares, “And the other witches?”
“We didn’t know it was our responsibility to keep an eye on the witches.”
Gemma stepped toward Father Aubin, one finger pointed, ready to start a good reaming, when Keeley came down the stairs.
“Morning, everyone,” she called. When the others began to bow, she quickly waved all that off and instead asked, “Any of you see a missing puppy? Flamey eyes?” she added.
They all shook their heads and Keeley sighed.
“Well, let’s meet later then. I have to find her. All of you eat and relax. Okay?” She patted Gemma’s shoulder before disappearing deep into the castle.
Once she was gone, Gemma let out a long breath and dropped dramatically against the dining table.
“You didn’t tell me she was hysterical,” she accused Ainsley.
“Hysterical?” Quinn repeated. “Keeley?”
“You didn’t see it?” she asked, shocked.
“That was hysterical to you?”
“You really didn’t see it?”
“Uh . . .” He glanced at the others and merely got shrugs and expressions of confusion, which he had to admit did make him feel better. He was afraid he might be losing his mind.
Ainsley shook her head at Quinn. “It’s like you’re blind.”
“Just forget it!” Gemma motioned to the others. “You lot come with me. I’ll need your skills to help me track that puppy and the witches.”
“You’re serious?” Balla asked.
“I have never been more serious in my life. Now let’s move!”
They went out the main hall front doors but Quinn immediately stopped and turned.
“Gemma?”
“What?”
He motioned to a spot against the castle wall where one of the other witches, Ima, stood wide-eyed, biting the fingernails of her left hand down to the quick.
Gemma swung around and moved quickly to stand in front of the witch.
“Where is she?”
“We didn’t want this,” Ima said. She’d never really spoken before. It was always Adela who’d spoken for them. Ima’s voice was much lower than Quinn had expected. “She’d heard about the wolves long before we got here. But they didn’t want anything to do with her. Nothing. I thought it was over. Until she saw the puppies and sensed the power contained in their bodies . . .”
Gemma stepped closer. “Where is she, Ima?”
Quinn understood the witch’s struggle. Adela was her high priestess. She ruled their coven. By giving information to outsiders, she was not simply betraying Adela, she was betraying her entire coven. But this wasn’t about the life of some hell beast. Gemma could not care less about the hell beast puppy or whether it lived or died. Her fear was how her sister would react to what she would definitely see as a betrayal. Of her and her queendom.
“If we’re going to do something,” Balla hissed, going up on her toes, “let’s make it soon. Ragna’s coming.”
Ima lowered her hand and chewed on her lip. But after another moment’s hesitation, she turned.
“This way,” she said before quickly walking away, heading through the town.
They all followed her. But Ragna must have caught sight of them because she began to follow. Thankfully, it wasn’t the first time most of these people had needed to lose Ragna in a crowd. Balla flicked her hand, sending Ragna tripping and sliding into a group of stonemason dwarves.
By the time they were all done yelling at her and accusing her of doing it to benefit the centaurs—an accusation they hurled at anyone who caused them the slightest problem—their group had disappeared into the nearby forest outside of town.