Dad blinked up at him then I turned my head to blink up at him too. His voice sounded firm, fierce and maybe a little ticked off. I didn’t get that. He didn’t seem ticked off while we rode.
Dad rallied and replied, “Of course, Drakkar. My study.”
Frey turned to my mother and ordered, “The princess does not leave the Palace unless she has my leave.”
I blinked again.
Uh… what?
Mom looked up at him and nodded.
Frey wasn’t done. “You will attend my conversation with my king.”
Mom’s eyes flashed to me then to Frey and she nodded again.
Frey turned to the four girls hovering close. “See to your princess.”
Then, without looking at me, he stalked away.
I stared at his back, stunned at his tone, behavior and more bossy than his normal bossy commands.
Dad followed Frey.
Mom came straight to me, her fingers curled around my arm tight and she leaned into my ear to hiss, “Now what have you done?”
I didn’t get to say a word before she let me go and hurried off in the direction Frey and Dad had disappeared.
What on earth?
Before I could ask, the four girls surrounded me and started herding me toward the carved stairs.
One who was close to my side and had her hand on me, peered at me and whispered, “Sjofn?”
I looked at her, shook off that strange, weirdly troubling scene and whispered back, “No. Finnie.”
She blinked then she smiled slightly and pulled me up the steps as she introduced herself, “I’m Alyssa.”
The girl walking close at my other side grabbed my hand and squeezed.
“Jocelyn,” she whispered.
“Esther,” one of the girls at our backs said and, still mounting the stairs, I turned to smile at her.
“Bess,” the last one peeped and I smiled at her too.
“Gods,” Jocelyn breathed, giving my hand another squeeze as I turned to face forward because even though they were guiding me, I was climbing stairs and I didn’t want to fall flat on my face. “We’re so glad you’re back.”
We alighted the stairs and they started leading me swiftly down the hall.
Alyssa got even closer to my other side and whispered, “We’ve been so worried.”
“Yes, we didn’t have time to tell you a thing,” Bess said quietly from behind and another glance back showed she and Esther were right on our heels.
“We’re so sorry about that,” Alyssa stated, “but the switch was supposed to happen ten minutes earlier. I don’t know what caused the delay but whatever it was, we lost our opportunity to warn you what was to come.”
Hmm. Seems it was not so good that Claudia and I prattled on when I should have been transporting. If we hadn’t, things might have gone better for me, apparently.
Crap.