Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Eighteen

Never had the differences between them been quite so stark.

There was Jazdon, standing in front of Finn pounding on his chest with his fist. It should have looked ridiculous, but on Jaz, it looked unbearably hot and made Finn want to take the man to bed immediately. Instead, he allowed a smile to play around his lips.

“Tell you what I want? That implies I might actually get it.” He shook his head. “Which would be a nice change.”

Jazdon frowned, looking offended. “What are you talking about? I always listen to you. Are you saying you’re unhappy?”

“Not at all,” he said, stepping closer and kissing Jazdon’s neck, the man’s hands gripped at his waist. “You do listen to me. And then you go ahead and do whatever you think is best.”

“That’s part of being a royal, Finn. Doing what’s best for our people.”

“Right. According to you. But this is about you and me and not all of our people. I’ve known I was a dragon for about a minute and a half, and a royal for even less time. I’m still coming to terms with all of that. I was raised as a human, remember? You have to give me time to adjust. I need to find out what actually happened with my mother and if she really is royalty. I need to know if she ran away—or if she was forced to leave. And who it was who may have forced her. Why didn’t my dad ever mention any of this? There’s a huge mystery here, and I wonder just exactly what King Daltor knows about it. If I find he had a hand in abusing my mother, then …” Finn shook his head, his hands forming fists he clenched at his sides. “First I need to know, Jazdon.”

“That’s why I brought you the book.”

“Book? What are you talking about?”

“When I came to your room, I brought a book of songs. Old ones, and mostly women’s songs. Like the ones you said your mother used to sing to you.”

“Okay—Why? Did you think that would help?”

“Maybe. When you were talking about the song she sang to you, it reminded me of some old songs I used to hear as a kid, but I couldn’t remember all the words. Many of our songs are ancient and passed down over our history. Some people think those may be real histories—sung around the fires by the skaults during the long winters’ nights.”

“Skaults?”

He smiled. “Yes, the poets of this country who sang the old sagas. Going back to ancient times, but some more recent. Many songs are just legends or myths or simply make the workday go by faster, but some people think they might be based on real history. Worth a look. Anyway, it got me thinking, and I asked Anola if she remembered, because she used to be a nursemaid—she might have sung it herself. She gave me a book to look through, though I haven’t had time to research it yet.”

“I want to see it.”

“I left it in your room. But come with me now and let’s go find something to eat. My father was right—we’re late for dinner. We can talk later.”

Smiling, Finn followed his lover from the room and down to the huge communal dining room. His father’s table sat on a dais at the end of the room, and that was where the prince headed, pulling Finn along with him. There was no sign of the Greengile king or any of his entourage. Everyone was Isatolia, as far as he could tell. Feeling a little uncomfortable, Finn allowed Jazdon to pull him to a seat beside the king.

A few people turned to look at them, but no one seemed outraged to see Finn on the dais. Jazdon began talking to his father in loud, boisterous tones, but they were speaking in their own language that Finn had yet to learn. He sat patiently until the serving staff brought him his food, a huge feast of some kind of mystery meat stew that he thought might be rabbit, mixed with delicious vegetables and a big chunk of dark bread. Jazdon poured him a drink from a flagon near his father. It was mead, a sweet, fermented drink. It was boozy and made from honey, water and spices. The clan brewed it themselves, and Jazdon had told Finn not long ago that it wasn’t still drunk by the local population of Iceland, even though they were descended from Vikings. A lighter version was making a slow comeback. He took a few sips, but the mead in his cup was strong for so early in the day.

Merlon and Vargla were sitting not far away, and Merlon raised his cup in a toast when he saw Finn watching him. He and Vargla got up soon afterward and came strolling over. Vargla quickly joined in the conversation with Jaz and his father, but Merlon smiled shyly at him.

“I haven’t seen you in a few days. Vargla told me you went on a raid with him and Prince Jazdon.”

Finn gave him a rueful grin. “It didn’t start as a raid, but that’s what it turned into. We were attacked by the Parsmitt and the arctic foxes while we were on the ground. Luckily the rest of our party was close by, just off the Reserve, doing training maneuvers.”

“And they just attacked without provocation?”

“Seemed that way, yes. Jazdon and Vargla were livid about it.” He lowered his voice a little. “Now there’s more talk of war.”

“Against the Parsmitt. Yes, Vargla told me. Does that bother you?”

“I’m a little worried about it. I’d like to know why they keep attacking me, for instance. I was the real target the other day, and not the rest of the group. They called me out by name.”

“Why would you be the target?”

“Who the hell knows?” Finn said, “But that’s what they said. I seem to have been one since I arrived. They wanted me to come with them and told Jaz and Vargla their quarrel wasn’t with them and to stay out of it.”

Merlon tilted his head and stared. “I can imagine how that went over. Now that you mention it, you have been a target since you arrived, haven’t you? This must be more than we thought at first—not just that the Parsmitt hate outsiders and want to make sure you don’t give the Dragon Clans away. Maybe it’s about something else altogether.”

“It sure seems personal.”

“But why you?”

“No idea. I can’t help but wonder if it has anything to do with what I found out about my heritage not long ago.”

“It could be,” Merlon smiled at him. “Royalty, huh? I have to say, I’m impressed.”

Finn snorted, “Still just me. But I don’t know, Merlon. The whole thing seems surreal. I need more information, and King Daltor doesn’t seem inclined to give me much.”

“I have lineage charts of the Greengile royalty in the library. You think they might help?”

“I’d love to see them and find out.”

“I’ll come by this evening then after supper. If I won’t be interrupting?”

“Jazdon usually doesn’t show up till later. Yeah, please come over with the charts. I’ll be looking for some old song lyrics myself tonight. Jazdon’s idea—he said a lot of the old songs are based on legend but also real history.”

“True enough. Maybe I can help.”

****

It was well after eight o’clock by Finn’s watch when Merlon came over, lugging a huge book that delineated the royal line of the Greengiles all the way down to the present king. Together they quickly scanned the more modern names until they came to the ones just before Daltor.

“Looks like Daltor inherited the throne from his uncle, King Balthus, twenty some years ago, when he was fifteen,” Merlon said. “He’s in his early forties now, though he doesn’t look it. King Balthus of the Greengiles, who was Princess Freya’s father, died of what’s listed as a massive heart attack. Daltor, his cousin, succeeded him instead of the daughter because she went missing.”

“And Daltor was only fifteen? So, if he engineered something, then he almost certainly had help, don’t you think?”

“Maybe. But as a member of the royal family, he would have had courtiers and guards—some of them can be ambitious and eager to gain power too. They could have helped. And he wasn’t too young not to be aware of what was happening. Your mother should have inherited the throne. She was supposed to, but Daltor did instead. The Greengile’s follow the rules of matrilineal primogeniture, which is the inheritance by the firstborn, regardless of gender. So it’s odd, to say the least, to skip over her. They wouldn’t have. If she left, then why? Daltor wouldn’t have inherited unless they proved she was dead or they had officially given up on finding her. He would definitely have been aware of all of that controversy.”

“Is the name of the daughter actually listed as Freya for sure?”

Merlon shifted through his papers until he found the one he wanted. He ran his finger down the paper until he found the name. “Yes. Princess Freya.”

Finn’s heart stuttered in his chest at the name. “Freya…was my mother’s name.”

Merlon stared at him. “It says here that she was the rightful heir. Which means, if you are proven to be her only son, you should by rights be the king. If it’s the same Freya, of course. It’s a fairly common name.”

“Why did Princess Freya run away? And why didn’t she come back when she heard her father died?”

“No idea. These are simply lists of names. Maybe it’s time to look for that song you mentioned, because nobody is talking. If there was any kind of history about it, it’s gone now.”

Finn shrugged. “It’s a long shot at best. But yeah, why not? I’d like to see if I can find a song. It wouldn’t be any real `proof, but still…”

Finn picked up the book he had found on a table soon after returning to his room earlier. It wasn’t in the best condition. The cover was made of worn and faded leather. Most of the songs were on handwritten pages, and they had all been tied together and stuffed into the leather binder. Some of the writing on the pages was so old, it had almost completely faded out.

Merlon took it reverently in his hands and carefully divided the pages between them to make the search go faster. “Tell me what we might be looking for. Everything you remember,” Merlon said.

“That’s just it, I don’t remember that much. The song was about the murder of a king, who feared the ambitions of his cousin. There was a sad refrain about Magnus—a warrior who died trying to defend the king. The warrior could have been Isatolia, I guess. Anyway, the king was right to be suspicious, because he did wind up dead, but that’s about all I remember. There was a prophecy too, but I can’t remember any more of it.”

“Not much to go on, so it might take us a while. I’m willing, if you are. I love research.”

Finn laughed. “I don’t love it by a long shot, but I’d like to know more about my mother and if she could possibly be this same Freya.”

“It’s a common name, like I said. Don’t get your hopes up. I mean, we know you’re royal, but not necessarily an heir to the throne. Many of the cousins and second sons and so forth have the Greengile royal blood. Sometimes the same names run in families too.”

Finn shrugged again and nodded, getting down to work. Two hours later, they still hadn’t come across anything about someone named Magnus or Freya. Or even a murdered king. Finally, Merlon stretched and stood up, taking his part of the book with him. “I’m worn out, but I’ll have some time to look again tomorrow. This will no doubt take a while, and we may never find it in this book. But there could be other references to it. I’ll look tomorrow, but for now I’ll say goodnight.”

“Thanks for your help, Merlon, and you’re right. This has been a long day for me too.”

Merlon turned toward the door and stopped. “Tell me again what brought you to Iceland, Finn. It seems like quite the coincidence, considering you definitely have the Greengile royal blood.”

“A friend of mine—an on-again, off-again boyfriend from college actually—got back in touch with me and wondered if I’d go on vacation with him. Iceland was a place we used to talk about, so he brought that up and made it sound like so much fun. I’d always wanted to go, so I threw caution to the wind, and put the trip on a charge card. Then Jeremy backed out like two days before the flight.”

“Nice guy.”

“Jeremy was a flake. I always knew that, but it did surprise me, yeah.”

“Did he have a good reason at least?”

“He actually never said. Just a quick text to tell me and then he wouldn’t answer his phone.”

“Anything about that strike you as odd?”

Finn gave him a surprised look, but Merlon only smiled. “Never mind me. I’m suspicious by nature. But something to think about, huh?” He clapped Finn on the shoulder and with another wave, made his way to the door.

So much had happened since Finn arrived in Iceland, he hadn’t had a chance to even wonder what fallout he’d left at home. He’d never shown up for his new job. Never called anyone to say he wasn’t returning—just abandoned all his things, and he had been gone a while now. He couldn’t believe he’d just left everything behind and the chips to fall where they might. He needed to talk to Jazdon about it. Funny how that had become his first thought when he was upset or worried now—to take it to Jazdon. Just the thought of that made him feel calmer.

He glanced at his watch and saw the time.

Jaz would be coming soon—he’d gotten in the habit of spending almost every night with Finn, who wouldn’t have it any other way. Slowly, he got ready for bed, trying to put thoughts of his dead kings, his mother, and most of all Jeremy from his mind. He was pretty sure Jazdon wouldn’t like to be reminded Finn ever even had a life before now that hadn’t included him. Especially a sex life. Actually, it was a little hard to believe it himself.

Chapter Nineteen

Bone tired, he eased the door open to Finn’s room.

Freshly showered, he hadn’t for one second thought about sleeping in his own bed. Finn was awake, sitting up in bed with the covers tucked around his waist. As if waiting for him with his blond hair askew, his bright blue eyes glanced up from the book of songs that was resting in his lap.

And Finn smiled.

Fuck, he loved that smile.

He was a man of simple needs and heavy responsibilities and having Finn waiting for him at the end of the day made life worth living. He pulled his t-shirt over his head and worked out of his socks before speaking.

“Find anything?”

“Not yet, but Merlon and I were talking,” Finn placed a finger in the book and half-closed it. “I don’t think the attacks on me have anything to do with breeding. I think they’re related to who I am. Who my mother was.”

“What about this Magnus? He was Isatolia, according to Daltor.”

“Yeah, and according to the song too.”

“But that was not all that long ago—remember how long we live. And I never heard of any Isatolia warrior named Magnus. And I would have if he was messing around with the Greengile princess. That seems strange.”

“Do you remember Princess Freya?”

“Vaguely, but just that a princess went missing. It was assumed she had run away.”

“But why?”

“No one knew. They searched and found no trace of her.”

“Well, maybe it’s a different person altogether. I don’t know.”

“Exactly. You don’t know, so don’t jump to conclusions.” Jazdon shoved off his jeans and briefs and climbed into the vacant side of the bed. “Freya is a common name. Perhaps Merlon can find a picture of Freya of the Greengile.”

“What? Wait? You have pictures?” Finn looked shocked.

Laughter bubbled up and out, the deep sound rebounded around the room and Finn punched him lightly in the arm.

“This is the twenty-first century,” he teased.

“But at dinner…” Finn’s voice trailed off as if he were at a loss.

“Dinner?” It took him a moment because they’d always feasted that way. “Oh, you mean the feast and mead.”

“Um yeah?” Finn rolled his eyes.

“We keep some of the old traditions. Some of us like it that way.”

"I mean, of course I’ve seen your technology. I guess I thought it was just restricted to security stuff. I’ve never noticed it around the common areas.”

He grinned and slipped his arm around Finn’s shoulder to kiss the side of his head. “Don’t let Merlon fool you, he has that whole library on the internet.”

“Seriously?”

“Yep. I’m sure he didn’t even think of telling you that.”

Finn rolled his eyes. “For god’s sakes, you know how much time that would have saved us?”

Jazdon eased back and held Finn’s eyes. “Why are you worried about time?”

“I’m not…I guess…” Finn sighed and then muttered. “I’m used to the world moving at warp speed, you know?” Finn’s voice became earnest, and he turned to face him. “I grew up in an era of everyone having cell phones and laptops with the cloud.”

Jazdon tried not to smile.

“What?” Finn pouted with a frown.

“Tomorrow, I’ll take you to the main electronics room.”

“You have a main electronics room? As in more than what I already saw?”

Jazdon reached out and placed a finger beneath Finn’s chin to gently close the man’s mouth. “Yes, and they come equipped with the internet.”

“Well, shit. Call me stupid. Then again, you did lie to me about having no way to contact the outside world when I first came. I thought with the castle and the décor and the food you all were a throwback to a different era.” The man’s hands waved about as cute as all hell.

“Like seventeenth century?”

“I was thinking more like fourteenth,” Finn muttered but the side of his mouth curled and Jazdon laughed.

“You’ve seen the war room.” Jazdon snorted. “Remember?”

“Well…yeah. I thought that was it.” Finn gave a sheepish smile.

“Come give me a kiss, I’m getting withdrawals,” Jazdon coaxed. “And you smell like mint.”

“I do?” Finn teased and flashed a small piece of mint candy between even white teeth. Jazdon swooped and tried to steal the treat, but Finn laughed and angled his mouth away.

“Are you staying all night?” Finn asked, laughter danced in his eyes.

“When haven’t I stayed all night?” his own eyebrows lifted.

“Just checking.”  Finn smiled up into his face and waggled the candy between his teeth.

Jazdon swooped his head to take his kiss and Finn slipped the mint into his mouth. The sweet coated his tongue. He groaned into Finn’s mouth, stroking his tongue. When he came up for air, he pulled Finn farther up and into his arms. Finn chuckled softly when he rubbed his beard into his neck. Finn’s fingers fisted in his hair.

“Perhaps we’ll stay in bed the whole day tomorrow,” Finn said wiggling against him. With a tip of his head, Finn dropped his head back, allowing Jazdon more room to roam.

Warm hard hands brushed away Finn’s briefs leaving them both naked. Stretching his hard, muscled body over Finn, the man arched when Jazdon trailed kisses down the sleek skin of Finn’s chest and stomach. “You’re the most beautiful thing in the world to me,” he murmured and only lifted his mouth when Finn’s fingers yanked at him.

The man’s eyes held all the love he could ever imagine, even if Finn hadn’t exactly said the words, Jazdon knew the feeling was mutual.

At least he thought he did. Words weren’t needed between them anyway.

And as the moon crept across the star-filled sky, he showed the man in his arms just how much he was loved.

***

“Do you guys have Amazon delivered?” Finn looked so cute with a curious light in his eyes.

“No, we have runners who go into town and retrieve what we need.”

“Oh, that makes sense.”

With a hand at Finn’s lower back, Jazdon paused in front of the electronics room and placed his free hand on the palm reader. They were thinking of upgrading to infrared with an eye scan but hadn’t gotten around to it. The door pinged when the large metal rollers clicked and unlocked. When the door popped open, Jazdon pushed it lightly open and urged Finn inside with his hand.

“My liege!” Both castle guards jumped to their feet and bowed low when he stepped into the room.

“At ease, take a break. I’ll be awhile,” he said with a smile, and they eagerly left the room and closed the door.

Jazdon turned into the room. The smell always got to him first, and he knew it was his dragon who hated the metallic, electrical scent in the room. Computers and laptops sat on a long table that lined the far wall. The hum in the room came from the large servers situated beneath a cooling system. Screens that displayed the corners of the world flickered constantly.

“Is that Greenland?” Finn gaped, striding over to stand in front of one large monitors studying the area and names on the map displayed.

“Yeah, that’s as close to Parsmitt territory as we can get.”

Finn turned to him with a squint. “I knew about all the computers, but I guess I didn’t realize you had this kind of coverage. You have satellites?”

"Let’s just say we have access to them.”

“Legally?”

Jaz smirked. “I didn’t say all that.”

You think the Parsmitt have access to them too?”

“Probably.”

“Do the Greengile have entry to this room?”

“Yes.”

“It seems more plausible that they used the internet to get word to the Parsmit now that I’m here instead of the telepathy thing.”

Jazdon shook his head and pointed to the table with the smart phones. Finn stalked over and lifted one in his hand. “This is the latest model. Fuck, they could have called.”

“No, the internet is only accessible inside this room and the war room.”

Finn’s head tipped a bit as he studied the cell phone. “What about the guards?”

“What about them?” He frowned.

“Could they have relaxed the rules for a friend or loved one?”

“They’re royal guards, put in place by my father.”

“So? People are people.”

“They aren’t people. We aren’t people. We are shifters.”

“You know what I mean. Shifters, people, we all do shit for love that we wouldn’t necessarily do.”

“You’re way off base.” He shook his head and drew Finn over to a computer by the server. With a few keystrokes, he signed onto the password protected internet. From there, he pulled up a program running in the background and a list popped up.

“Every login is recorded.”

Finn stepped closer and then suddenly pointed. “Why did the Greengile King make a call the day before I met him?”

“What?” Sure enough, King Daltor had used the internet to make an outgoing call. “That son of a bitch.”

“How did he already know about me?”

“Which phone did he use? We can see what number he called and do a reverse.”

“He doesn’t use our phones; he has his own.”

“Well shit. That’s not going to help, but it looks like we might have found the culprit.”

Jazdon held up his hand. “As much as I dislike him, we can’t prove that he called anyone to attack you,” he finished with a sigh.

“Why don’t we set up an audio recorder in here and I’ll give him a reason to make another call.”

“No.” He pressed his lips flat. He didn’t want Finn anywhere near Daltor.

“I thought this was what you wanted?” Finn insisted, thrusting impatient fingers through his hair, sending the ends skewed.

“Is it what you want though?” he murmured and drew Finn toward the door.

Finn stopped in the middle of the room, pulling him around. “I want to do the right thing for the Greengile people, and if Princess Freya was my mother, and if that bastard had a hand in what happened to her and my father, then I want to catch him in the act.”

He waivered and Finn continued stepping closer into his space and sending his pulse thrumming. “This way we can expose him as a traitor, and I won’t have to kick his ass.”

Jazdon huffed and wrapped his arms around Finn’s waist to ease him closer. “I’d pay to see that.” He leaned down and nuzzled his face into Finn’s neck.

“I bet you would.” Finn’s laugh was husky.

“Okay,” he said and lifted his head. “I’ll have Merlon set up an audio in here.”

“Why not one of the royal guards?”

“Well, for one, they don’t know crap about electronics and for another…I don’t want them involved. The fewer involved the better.”