Page 11 of I Summon the Sea

“Shut your mouth,” Tru snaps, turning to the newcomer.

“You don’t get to tell me what the fuck to say,” the unfamiliar guard grumbles. “Everyone knows he’s crazy.”

“You don’t get to talk about him like that,” Tru snarls, hands curling into fists.

“Oh, come on.” The man is weaselly, I decide. All fae are beautiful in a near-painful way, their features perfectly symmetrical, their skin flawless, their bodies tall and strong, but this one manages to look unpleasing and sniveling, narrow-faced and cold-eyed. “Can’t deny what’s clear as day.”

“He’s not crazy!” Tru grabs the front of the man’s tunic and shoves him backward, snarling with sharp teeth. “Shut your fucking mouth, Fenki, and keep your opinions to yourself.”

“Fine, keep licking his boots or other parts of him, for all I care,” the fae man mutters, lifting his hands and walking away. “Besotted with him, you are.”

Tru shakes his head and returns to my side. “What an idiot.”

Arkin is still grinning.

I swallow the last of my bread. This Tru fellow seems to actuallylikethe Ice Prince. The guards earlier cheered Athdara, but didn’t interact with him, keeping their distance. Now these two, Arkin and Fenki, talk as if they pity him, and Tru seems ready to enter a fistfight to defend his honor.

Not that I like Tru. He is a fae, and that’s reason enough to loathe him. But I do want to know more about the shadow warrior, not least because he’s the King’s Sword, and I need to know more about the king and his court.

“Fenki isn’t wrong, you know,” Arkin remarks, his grin turning into a smirk. “That power?—”

“Enough,” Tru snarls.

“You know Athdara is only doing the king’s bidding because he craves?—”

“Shut it.” With a huff, Tru walks away. Arkin twists from the waist to cast him a look, then shrugs at me as if to say,What can you do?

Impossibly, I feel a grin tugging at my lips.

I point at Athdara who is still standing with his back to us. Then, at Arkin. Rub two fingers together.

“No, we don’t sleep together.” Arkin sighs. “Tru neither, in case you were wondering, although he tends to act like an old wife.”

I stare at him, my eyes surely big like dishes. I shake my head. That was certainly not what I meant.No.

He snickers, the sound strangely endearing. “If we’re friends? Is that what you’re asking? Athdara has no friends, little human.”

I bristle at the repeated nickname. I tap my chest and shape my name with my mouth, willing him to read it.

He frowns. “What was that? Is that your name? Ri? Ray?”

Clenching my jaw, I try again, tapping my chest and shaping my name with my lips.

“Oh,Rae. Okay. Pleased to meet you, Rae.”

Gods above.“Lady,” I form the word. “Lady Aeth?—”

“Lady? Lady Rae?”

Oh, for all the Gods’ sakes, can’t he see the shape of my lips? Sure, the light in the sky has mostly faded, and the fires are behind us, but I can still see. He’s fae. What about the legendary fae senses I’ve heard so much about?

“You’re a lady?” he asks quietly after a few beats. “A human noble?”

I nod. I mean, I used to be.

Skies, I miss being able to speak. Lifting the skirts of my still-sodden dress, I wonder what I look like. Certainly not like a noble.

“A lady, huh? And why were you in a sinking boat? What were you doing there? Where are your traveling trunks and your servants?”

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