Chapter Twenty-Seven
Conjecture
Two weeks later...
Frey Drakkar stood between to Max and Thad and watched Gunner putting Finnie and Sky through their paces, Finnie atop her new mount Caspia.
Drakkar had presented his wife with her horse two days after they arrived in Snowdon. It was a dapple gray; its dapples an extraordinary shade that bordered on lilac and when he saw her, Drakkar knew she was Finnie’s. He was correct. Finnie had been entranced the moment she met her, named her within a second and fell in love with her the second after. As for Drakkar, he’d become entranced the moment his wife did and he made note to bestow gifts upon her far more often.
Now, every day, as with her archery and knife work, she and Sky spent an hour or more with Gunner learning what Finnie termed, “Raider Horse Maneuvers”. And at that very moment she was bent over Caspia’s neck, snaking her gray at a gallop closely around obstacles Gun had set out after which she (and Sky) encountered a fence that they had to jump. Once they achieved that, they were to rein their mounts around sharply, re-jump the fence and snake again through the obstacles, this time snatching pennants from the top (Finnie’s, blue; Sky’s, black) only to end having to jump another fence.
His bride, Drakkar noted, was taking to her Raider Horse Maneuvers far quicker than she had archery or daggers and he knew why. Firstly, she had experience on a mount. Secondly, she was fearless. The speed, the maneuvering, her position in the saddle nor the jumps fazed her. She faced it all unblinking and drove herself to excel. Horsemanship was part skill, part finesse and part daring and she had the latter of those in abundance.
That said, she was beginning to excel at archery, having achieved three more direct bulls-eyes. Therefore, Annar had advanced her to stalking young, male servants who volunteered to wear padded cloaks and tripled wool caps and were set to skulking through a local forest where Finnie would, if she found them, shoot at them with arrows that had no points but instead pads wadded with cotton. Her volunteers, Annar reported, enjoyed this tremendously, looking on it as a game even when Finnie’s arrow found its unharmed target. This was because, Annar told him, Finnie made it a game.
She was, also according to Annar, excelling at that too.
Although proud of his wife, Drakkar couldn’t contain a sense of amused disquiet that she seemed so determined to gather all the skills required of a Raider.
It would be good when she fell pregnant with his child. This, he hoped, would turn her mind from adventuring with him and his men, something he was getting the not so vague sense she was intent on doing, to caring for herself and their child.
Drakkar watched as Finnie re-jumped the fence and wound through the seven obstacles, missing only two pennants as Sky followed her much slower while missing five of his and one of the ones he’d gained, he dropped.
“Finnie takes to this Frey,” Max muttered, his eyes on Finnie who had jumped the last fence and reined Caspia in to trot over to where Sky was atop his mount, shoulders slumped having given up in his dejection therefore he pulled back on his horse and did not make the final jump. “Gun will have to increase her challenge soon,” Max finished.
“He will,” Thad concurred. “But Sky is nowhere near equaling her and she’ll not advance until Sky can advance with her.”
Drakkar watched as Gun cantered to his wife and the boy and both started speaking with Sky who was obviously dissatisfied with his performance.
Thad was right, there was no hope of Finnie leaving Sky behind which Drakkar thought was good. She needed to slow. They were leaving for Kellshorn on the morrow but would likely stay there no longer than they had Snowdon. The summer thaw had already begun and the resulting waters favored by the well-to-do throughout the Northlands would be bottled. And every year at the thaw, all of Drakkar’s ships were loaded to capacity with Lunwyn water and then set sail to Middleland, Bellebryn, Hawkvale and Fleuridia where they sold for ridiculous prices and were, by far, his most lucrative payload regardless of the fact they were simply water.
Therefore, he would need to be in Sudvic to assist Kell managing this as well as discuss with his captains what their cargo holds would be filled with on their return. He and Finnie would then board The Finnie for Fleuridia and he didn’t want Finnie’s head filled with new adventures and training for them when their course was set simply to unload water on Fleuridia.
He wanted Finnie’s head filled with what she’d name their child and how they would be raising him.
And as his bride trained to become the Raider Drakkar was never going to permit her to be, Drakkar was putting a fair amount of effort into siring the child which would slow her down.
He heard hoof beats in the snow behind him, turned to see Oleg heading their way and tensed.
Outside the execution, their time in Snowdon had been good. Finnie enjoyed the city even more than Bellebryn or Hawkvale and when she wasn’t with him, training or tutoring Sky, she was holed up with her girls giggling or she was in the city with her mother shopping, eating in restaurants and partaking in copious pastry sampling at cafés. He had, unfortunately, been called to duty to see two plays with her, one which he fell asleep during only to have Finnie prod him very hard in the ribs waking him in time to hear her burst out laughing which caused the patrons close to the royal box to glare at them which made Drakkar laugh and Finnie laugh more.
His talk with Hernod Grieg had garnered no more than what Quincy and Balthazar had learned and he’d unfortunately had no time to get creative. Grieg was adamant he was the man behind the plot and his desire, he said, was to unite Lunwyn and Middleland as they should never have been separated by Atticus and Baldur’s father, King Halldor.
Drakkar could not argue with this though, obviously, he would never consider assassination which was a coward’s play not to mention, in the present circumstances, that target was his wife. And he knew there was a not small faction of Lunwynians and Middlelandians who agreed that Lunwyn should never have been split. Those in Middleland were not fond of Baldur as their king and those in Lunwyn were displeased with losing the land granted to Baldur. Not to mention citizens of both countries had been parted from family members who were forced to live in different borders by Halldor’s decision which was arguably fair to his sons but not-so-arguably unfair to his people. And even though Atticus and Baldur had assumed their thrones at very young ages, the decades passing had not changed these sentiments.
Atticus had made two attempts through his reign to affect some kind of compromise with Baldur in an effort to settle this ongoing dissatisfaction. Both attempts were offers to build an alliance between nations including providing all in both countries with dual citizenship and uniting their taxes, treasuries and currency, but Baldur would not hear of it. This was likely because his taxes were high, they were expected in gold, silver or copper but his treasury printed currency he expected his citizens to use on anything not tax-related. He printed this at vast amounts beyond what was held in his country’s coffers making the printed tender mostly useless but Baldur extortionately wealthy.
His people were, with reason, restless and if Atticus, or King Ludlum of Hawkvale and his son Prince Noctorno who ruled Bellebryn were different kinds of rulers, this would make Middleland ripe for invasion.
Unfortunately, they were not.
With this, Drakkar knew there was unrest but Finnie being a target of that made little sense and in fact seemed counterproductive unless Baldur or the leader of a House wishing to take the throne as his own was really behind the plot. Further Grieg was ruled by coin, not patriotism, and would not be moved to act in a manner that courted, and indeed had ended in his execution unless there was something exceptional in it for him.
However, whatever that was he’d gone to his noose without sharing it.
Therefore, Drakkar did not feel Finnie was safe yet.
Quincy and Balthazar agreed with Drakkar and Quincy remained behind to continue to dig locally because both were suspicious of Grieg’s quick trial and his being scheduled to hang with Viola and Enger. Enger and Viola were both only pawns whereas Grieg was clearly a player and more time should have been allowed to glean information from the man.