Beguiled (The Fairest Maidens #2) - Jody Hedlund Page 0,23
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 desperation 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