Page 40 of Nyall

“You like ordering me around, too,” she said, and sighed as she cuddled closer to him. “I’m a live-for-today girl. Tomorrow isn’t here, and yesterday can’t be changed. Let’s just see what happens.”

Jamaran accompanied Merrick back to the bay, and thought only of the duties he needed to attend after escorting the king to his palace. Everything else from the night before, he kept locked away, a treasure of memories he knew he would take out and relish again and again for the remainder of his days. He grew startled when the other man swam around the settlement for the dock where their fishers kept their ghost boats, and there climbed out of the water.

“Come, lad,” Merrick said as he stepped into one of the boats, sending ripples across the calm water. “We need time away so we may talk.”

Once they set off Jamaran steered the vessel around the islets and past the cove, taking advantage of the southern winds to fill the sails. After spending half the night with Nyall and Caroline, and then coming to the king’s side at the labyrinth, he’d already grown weary, but later he would rest. Soon the ghost boat rounded the southern tip of Caladh, where Merrick gestured for him to slow as he watched the sun rise over the horizon.

He didn’t have to read the other man’s mind to know he was trying to avoid being overheard by any of the Selseus. “’Tis something you wish me do, my king?”

“You’ve done well thus far. I much like Caroline and Nyall.” Merrick’s expression grew serene. “I wish you ken I’m happy for you and them.”

During the night he’d neglected to school his thoughts and emotions, which of course the king could read. He’d just never imagined he’d do so after they parted, or from such a distance.

“’Tisnae a custom among our kind, sharing a female with a brother,” he finally said. “Still, I shallnae ask your approval.”

“Why should you?” Now Merrick frowned at him. “I didnae bring you here so I may browbeat you, lad. Indeed, after the stream of pleasures that came through those hours, I envy you as no other man. You showed no hesitation, either, so I reckon ’twasnae forbidden among your mortal people.”

They had never had to confide in each other, thanks to their connection. Yet Jamaran wondered if the king’s approval of his unconventional affair would now create new problems for them both.

“In my homeland, ’twas called l’amour courtois,” he said. “The courtly love of a lady for her husband and her knight, who shared her affections. The lord I served shared his wife with his younger brother, who sired some of her bairns. ’Tisnae the same with Nyall and Caroline, as they’ve no’ wed. Yet I’m happy serving as the lady’s chevalier.”

“As I guessed, you’ve yet tell her of your past, aye?” Merrick sighed. “You should, you ken, for such secrets may cause a rift between you and the lady. I saw Margret last night, and she yet pines for me, near as much as I do her. I’d step down from rule this moment and leave with her, only she refuses me still. ’Tis the sea that stands between us now.”

He’d tried to stay out of the king’s obsession with the chambermaid, but now it seemed he wanted him involved. “You desire my advice now?”

“’Tis no easy solution, but one.” Merrick’s golden hair veiled his face. “When I leave, desire you both Caroline and Nyall as your consorts?”

“The people, they’d never...” Jamaran realized what he was saying, and rested his brow against his fist. “Fack me.”

“For that, you must seek your woman and your brother.” He grinned at his own jest. “Your longing and your pleasure, ’twas clear as good water last night. Indeed, ’twas a call to my own conscience. I’ve kept you at my side too long. For all you left behind in Francia, a part of you loves them both.”

Love, that he’d successfully avoided for centuries. Yet Nyall he did love, more so than as a brother or a friend. Since discovering their connection the captain had become part of his thoughts and his life, seamlessly and effortlessly. As for Caroline, he’d fallen for her the moment he’d pulled her from the sea. She would never take the first place in his heart, but he sensed the same was true of her. Perhaps he should have suffered some dread over sharing his heart with them, but nothing plagued him. For the first time since his transformation he had grown complete.

“In my fashion, aye, I do. I never imagined such a thing possible, but as three together we’re happy,” he admitted. “I dinnae ken what shall become of us if you name me your heir. Surely you cannae, my king. I wasnae born Selseus. My blood, ’tis common. My people, ever they served their lords. I’ve naught to offer the people.”

“’Tis no one I trust more than you, lad,” Merrick said. “That you once lived as a mortal makes little difference. You’re Selseus now, and you’d serve as a wise and strong king. Every man in the settlement respects you. Yet ruling means choosing a queen to bear your son and begin your bloodline. Caroline may bear you a son. Nyall could then serve as her knight.”

Bearing children preoccupied the Selseus like no other matter, primarily because most would only sire a single son during their long lifetimes. That singular birth also made the issue of changing mortal females into suitable mates one that remained ever present in the minds of the aquatics. If he did become king, he would face daily pressure, not only to mate but to produce a blood-born heir.

“The Norse butchered everyone I loved in Francia,” Jamaran said slowly. “You’ve seen my memories, so you ken all those bastarts took from me. As sport, they wouldnae permit me end myself, but beat me and chained me helpless. When they brought you to the slave pens, they’d rendered me near an animal. You remember.”

“Aye. Never had I seen a mortal so filthy, nor one with so many wounds. Yet you fathomed quickly that I wasnae mortal, and covered my gills when the overseers came. At night you put me in the water trough so I might breathe, and kept me alive.” The king put a hand on his shoulder. “When you helped me escape, ’twas the same as ending yourself, and still you set me free.”

“I couldnae bear watching you become the thing I was.” The old shame filled him, for the Norse had truly brutalized the very heart from him. “When they drowned me, you brought me back, and gave me a new life of worth and purpose. You’ve honored me time and again by training me, and then naming me your commander. ’Tis enough for settling any debt between us. You owe me naught, my king.”

“’Tis your life I wish better, lad.” Merrick glanced back at the bay. “In the pens I saw how much you wished die. How you wept for your lady and the bairn never born. Even before your change, I saw into your heart. I stole that death from you, the death you longed for, the quiet dark where you would never again suffer. In truth, I feared if I let you go, my heart should make me follow.”

The king had always been so alive and forceful that it stunned Jamaran to hear him admit such a thing. “You love Meg.”

“Only she came for me much later.” Merrick’s grave expression shifted to mirth, and he laughed. “Och, if you could see your face now, lad. ’Twasnae romantic love I had for you. ’Twas that of a father, for your courage made me wish I’d sired you. When I had the chance to give you life again, I couldnae resist.”

“You honor me.” He tried to think of how he could explain his own tangled emotions. “I dinnae share your aim, for such nearly ended me. The price of such endless love, ’twas too high for me ever pay again.”

“And if you sire a son on Caroline Parish during your courtly love affair, then?” the king asked gently. “Shall you turn your back on her and Nyall?”

Jamaran had already considered those consequences. “Nyall cannae give her bairns. I shall never risk such when I’m with her.”

“Then for now, think on what I’ve said.” Merrick looked out over the bay. “As I must with my future.”