Read Online Kissed by Ice by Shéa MacLeod - Free Book Online

striding down the hall after Eddie.
    I locked up behind me and headed in the opposite direction. Once in Eddie's room, I pulled the heavy drapes over the window, kicked off my boots, and threw myself on the bed. The bed was large and plush, and smelled of salt and sea. I was out within seconds.
    # # #
    Lush green grass as tall as my waist brushed me as I passed, tickling where it touched bare skin. The snug leather leggings I wore felt strange and a little too warm for the fine weather of this land, but they were practical. The short matching leather bodice bound my breasts tightly in place while allowing freedom of movement. I had been wearing a woolen tunic over the top, but it was far too hot, so I'd stuffed it in my pack and went about with stomach and arms bared. No one minded. In fact, most of the other women were dressed the same.
    I started. Other women?
    A quick glance around the wide grassy plain revealed a dozen other women in clothing much like mine, hair either shaved close to the skull or bound in braids. There were no men. Instead, the women were clearly warriors. Weapons bristled from their belts and packs: swords, daggers, bows. It was as though they expected to be attacked at any moment. We moved at a fast pace, wading through the endless sea of grass, headed toward… what? I had no idea.
    We crested a rise, and the woman who was clearly our leader raised her hand. The entire company came to a halt. Below us spread a vast water. It had waves, like an ocean, but the air lacked the briny tang of salt. A lake then, and freshwater, too. Large enough I couldn't see the end of it. One could easily lose a ship out there.
    The leader turned to face me, her dark eyes circled with fatigue. "Princess," she said, "we are here."
    But where was "here?"
    # # #
    I woke to Kabita pounding on my door. I stumbled out of bed and staggered across the floor to let her in. I nearly broke my ankle tripping on my boots.
    "Come on. Time to go."
    "Give me a sec," I said, limping to the bathroom to use the facilities. As I splashed my face with cold water, the dream played over in my mind. This wasn't the first time I'd dreamed of being the Princess. The first time, she'd been a small child escaping from the dying city of Atlantis. The second time, she'd been a teenager running from the Temple of the Moon and invaders who were slaughtering the priestesses. She had been with the High Priestess called Amaza, and they'd been running for a distant colony. In this dream the Princess had been older. Closer to twenty, maybe. But where was she? And why was the dream so damned important?
    # # #
    "You have got to be kidding me." Kabita hung half over the railing, a large flashlight trained below as she stared at the water with a frown. I wasn't sure if she was talking about the long drop to the ocean's dark surface or what was waiting for us below. Either way, I couldn't blame her. Now that it was full dark, we could finally put our plan into action. Unfortunately the plan didn't help ease my mind one bit.
    "No kidding. Eddie," I said, turning around to face him. "You don't think we're going to jump, do you?"
    "Of course, my dear." Eddie beamed. "How else do you expect to get down there? It is the most expeditious way I could think of."
    I glanced over the rail again and shuddered. It wasn't that I had a heights problem. It was that I had a jumping-off-a-perfectly-good-deck problem. Especially when the seething cauldron I was supposed to land in was a good twenty or so feet below. "And the, ah, creature waiting for us?"
    Eddie joined us at the railing and peered over. The wind whipped his halo of gray hair into a froth of wild curls. "Perfectly harmless, I assure you. And an excellent swimmer. If he can pull Poseidon's damned chariot around, he can certainly carry the two of you to shore."
    "Make that three," said a deep voice behind us.
    All three of us whirled around to find Haakon Magnussen looming over us like an avenging Viking angel. Good