The Siren and the Deep Blue Sea - Kerrelyn Sparks Page 0,55
her floppy hat. “Ye’re staring at me.”
“Yes,” he croaked.
Her mouth twitched. “Ye look quite stunned.”
“I am.” Dammit. She was the most amazing woman he’d ever met. He cleared his throat. “Your Highness?”
“Aye?”
“You . . . If you don’t mind, you could call me Nevis.”
She blinked. “Then ye would need to call me Elinor.”
He gulped. “I can?”
She nodded. “It’s better than ‘hey, you,’ don’t ye think?”
“Ah . . . yes.”
She leaned close to him. “Ye’re blushing again.”
“Am not.”
“Holy goddesses,” Lobby muttered as he made the sign of the moons. “Why are they flirting when we’re all going to die?”
“We are not,” Elinor insisted.
“We’re not flirting?” Nevis asked.
She gave him a wry look. “We’re not going to die.”
Then they were flirting. Nevis smiled to himself. “Don’t worry, Elinor.” He gripped the handle of his sword. “I won’t let any harm come to you.”
“Thank you, Nevis.”
His heart stilled at the sound of her saying his name. The Light help him, he was completely, irreversibly smitten. Brody was going to kill him.
Chapter 11
Maeve sat up in bed when a knock sounded on her door. “Yes?”
Ruth slipped inside. “Oh, I’m sorry to wake you.”
“It’s all right.” Maeve climbed out of bed. “I was awake.” After eating and taking a bath, she’d slipped on a nightgown so she could rest. But she’d been too anxious about having another dream to let herself actually sleep.
“Her Majesty wishes you to attend her in the throne room,” Ruth said. “She said to wear the golden gown.”
Maeve swallowed hard. Her dream was coming true. She followed Ruth into the dressing room. “Do you know why Her Majesty wants to see me?”
“She didn’t say, but I’ve heard someone important is coming to the island.”
Who could it be? Maeve wondered while Ruth helped her into the gold satin gown and matching slippers. Once her hair was brushed and pulled back from her face with a pair of golden combs, Maeve was pronounced ready.
“The guard will show you the way.” Ruth busied herself with some metal knobs close to the tub. “This is how you make the water drain from the tub to a gutter outside.”
Maeve stepped closer to study the ingenious plumbing. “That’s very clever.”
Ruth nodded. “It dates back hundreds of years. But you should be on your way. You don’t want to keep the queen waiting.”
“All right.” Maeve hurried out the door.
As the guard led her down a passageway, she attempted to befriend him, but he ignored her. Finally, they reached the corridor she had seen in her dreams.
“The Great Hall is down there.” He gestured to the end of the passageway.
She already knew that but kept her mouth shut. As she walked along the corridor, a chill skittered down her spine. The hall was exactly the way it had appeared in her dream: long and at least two stories high.
To her right, glass-paned doors opened onto the balcony that overlooked a garden of wave-like clipped hedges and bushes in the shapes of seals and dolphins. Just beyond the garden lay a small harbor and the ocean.
Long purple curtains rippled in the breeze that fluttered through the open doors. Her slippers were silent on the green marble floor, but the guard’s boots clunked heavily as he trailed behind her at a distance.
To her left, the wall was covered with portraits. Were these her ancestors? Had they all been sorcerers? Had some of them been able to foresee the future?
Finally, she reached the open golden doors, and her heart stilled for a moment as the grandeur of the throne room swept over her. It was just as she had dreamed, with the mosaic floor designed to look like the sea. Green marble pillars supported a ceiling that had to be three stories high. The glass dome in the center allowed rays of sunlight to dance and shimmer along the mosaic floor, making it appear like a sun-dappled ocean. At the end of the room, the dais was covered with purple and green glass ornaments in the shapes of giant clams. More glass spiraled up from the pretend seabed as if it was coral or underwater plants. In the center of the dais sat the golden octopus-shaped throne.
Hanging over the throne was an enormous flag, suspended from the high ceiling. A purple octopus on a sea-green background. Purple and green, the colors of the Telling Stones that she’d accidentally picked.
Her steps came to a stop as she reached the octopus pictured in the mosaic floor, its giant tentacles stretched out to capture fish.