It also explained why Frey had not said a word against me wearing breeches.

And lastly, it made me warm in a variety of places.

“This is true,” I muttered and Frey threw back his head and laughed.

When he tipped it back down, he lifted his hand, wrapped it around my head and pulled me in and up for another touch of his lips on my forehead.

When he let me go, he caught my eyes and said softly, “Until later, my love.”

“Later, baby,” I said softly back.

He smiled at me and I watched him walk out of the cabin.

Then I went to my trunks, got down on my knees in front of one, opened it and started sorting through in order to decide what I was going to wear that day.

While I was at the trunks, my mind went over the last week and a half and the things I had learned.

One of them was the story of Kell, who was the salty sea dog I’d seen my first night on the ship. Back in the day, Kell had been first mate on the first ship Frey worked on. Frey had followed Kell when he’d briefly captained a vessel for a merchant and then Kell had followed Frey when he’d used the inheritance his Grandmother Eugenie left him to order his first galleon to be built and it was put to sea.

And Kell had been with Frey ever since.

Kell and Frey were tight, I could tell (though Frey also told me). It wasn’t like they did man hugs or bumped fists all the time but there was no doubt about it; that closeness was there. It ran deep and Frey had explained Kell taught him everything he knew and then when Frey struck out on his own, Frey had earned Kell’s respect because Frey lived his life in a way that he kept learning.

Luckily, Frey told me Kell hadn’t been looking at me like he wanted to throw me overboard that first night because he was mentally plotting my murder. Unluckily, Frey told me Kell was looking at me like he wanted to throw me overboard because he did not (at all) like women on board ships and further thought they served one purpose and one purpose only and therefore, although he’d known his fair share of them, all of them practiced the same profession.

By the way, even though most people liked me right off the bat because I was open, warm and friendly, or I could get through to them being open, warm and friendly, Kell had not thawed even a little bit.

The other thing I had learned was that the purpose of this mission was to recover an elfin relic of great importance. Many Lunwynians had been searching for it literally for centuries. There had been many rumors of it surfacing which meant equally numerous operations were launched but in the end these were fruitless. Frey himself had planned and executed three such maneuvers since he started raiding, all ending in disappointment.

He told me he did not hold high hopes for this one either. That said, he also told me that his informant this time was far more reliable than the last three.

Regardless the relic, a petrified branch of an adela tree, or the adela tree, the first one the goddess Adele created, was important enough to make an attempt so that was what he was doing.

We were now out of Lunwynian waters and in those of Middleland. The relic, Frey’s informant told him, was in the possession of Phobin who happened to be the lover of Princess Sjofn’s cousin, Broderick who was King Baldur’s son.

Frey didn’t have a lot to say about Broderick but, reading between the lines, I got the sense he didn’t like him much. He had less to say about Phobin but what he did say you didn’t have to read between the lines. He disliked Phobin flat out. And I got the feeling he would have probably liked Broderick more if he hadn’t chosen Phobin as partner.

Frey had also cautiously informed me that this mission was complicated. And it was complicated because Frey had been to Middleland recently and his last mission there had been dangerous. It had also been secret. Further, it had been politically sensitive. And lastly, my father didn’t know about it nor, incidentally, the one Frey was currently planning.

This was because Frey tended to tell Atticus about these missions after they were successful for if things went awry (eek!), Atticus could honestly claim no knowledge of them. Unless, of course, it was my father who asked Frey to accomplish them.

Though, that said, the last one was so sensitive, Father still didn’t know about it.

King Baldur also hadn’t known about Frey’s previous mission, Frey wasn’t fired up for either brother to know and he was intent upon entering Middleland, hopefully retrieving the relic and exiting without anyone being the wiser about this mission and, with any luck, they were still no one wiser about the last.

As the story goes, Thad had a communication from a woman he had once had a somewhat long affair with and still held in high regard. This communication was an urgent request to aid in the escape of another woman as she was desperate to flee her captor.

Thad, still carrying feelings for his ex-lover and therefore trusting her, agreed to assist without actually getting all the information. Frey had not meant to go, seeing as he was getting married, though he did offer Thad one of his vessels. But, once married and deciding he’d rather be at sea doing dangerous deeds with his men than hanging with a lesbian (in all fairness, I could see this) at his wedding celebration to her and after, he’d changed his mind, deposited me at his hunting cabin and gone.

Once they arrived, they found that Thad’s friend was actually the maid to King Baldur’s personal sorceress, a woman with great power but even so, she was controlled by Baldur.

It was a sad story, actually, because Frey and Thad had learned from the maid that this sorceress, named Circe (totally kickass name, by the by) had displayed she held magic from practically birth. In order to control her power, Baldur had kidnapped her when she was very young. And to make certain to keep her with no attempts made to gain her return; he’d executed both of her parents.

Yes, executed two people in order to steal their daughter.

It seemed my uncle was a true peach.

Unfortunately for her, not only did she hold a great deal of magic, she also grew into great beauty. So my lovely uncle (not), had started forcing himself on her when she was fourteen and she was still known to be his mistress even though she was more than double that age now.

That was to say, Circe was his unwilling mistress.

Nevertheless, she was a prized possession of King Baldur’s for more reasons than one and assisting her to escape was, as Frey phrased it, “politically sensitive” (but what he meant was politically explosive thus Father still being none the wiser).

However, two things happened. One, Frey was Frey and Thad told me that, upon learning her story, he didn’t hesitate to agree to help her escape. Two, the sorceress’s maid had relayed that Circe had information about the elfin relic everyone was seeking and she would pay for their efforts by providing this information to Frey.