Free The Last Quarrel (The Complete Edition) by Duncan Lay Page B

didn’t smell musty, it did stink as though he had been rolling in a field. He groaned and hung it over the hurdles around the bedchamber. Hopefully giving it a night there might stop him turning up at the Duchess’s court smelling like some dandy. This was his big chance and he needed to be taken seriously.
    At the base of the chest he found an old practice knife, a wooden blade with a center spine of iron to give it weight, so you could train as if it were the real thing. He stuck it in his belt and climbed down the ladder to where Bridgit was singing Kerrin a song about old heroes. In most houses, the children slept upstairs and the parents downstairs but Bridgit wanted Kerrin to be closer to the warmth of the fire, so they’d switched it around. It meant they had to go to bed as soon as Kerrin was asleep but, that night, Fallon had plans for the bedchamber, so he was eager to get Bridgit upstairs.
    “Sleep well, lad.” He ruffled Kerrin’s hair and placed the knife beside his pillow. “And this will keep selkies away from your dreams. It’s a magic blade, blessed by a wizard and a priest so it looks like wood, but it will actually cut through any selkie, even one in a dream. So if you have bad dreams tonight, this will save you.”
    “Thanks, Dad!” Kerrin clutched the knife to him excitedly. “I won’t let it go!”
    Fallon winked and patted his son on the shoulder. “Sleep well. I’ll see you when I get back tomorrow evening.”
    He stepped back and watched Bridgit fuss over their son, until she was satisfied he was almost asleep, then followed him upstairs.
    “Why did you have to give him the knife?” she asked.
    “To keep the bad dreams away. I have to get up early and don’t want to be woken six times in the night.”
    “Well, if he breaks anything with it tomorrow, you will be the one paying for it.”
    “He’ll be fine,” Fallon promised.
    “Will you be?” she asked. “What is going on?”
    “Now there’s a question,” Fallon admitted, lying back on the bed. “I think it is men doing this, and I think they wanted it to look mysterious for a reason.”
    “Why would they do that?”
    “I don’t know, but I am going to find out. This could be it, Bridge! This could be what I have been waiting and working for all these years. They’ll find out they picked the wrong village to sail into.”
    Bridgit nestled into his shoulder. “I love how this village can sleep soundly because of you, and I have always loved how you make me feel safe. But if they went to all that trouble to make it look like selkies, then it’s part of something bigger. Maybe you should let the nobles worry about it. You do what you do best, keep us all safe here in Baltimore.”
    “What? I can’t just ignore something that’s sailed into the middle of Baltimore. This is my big chance to show them how I am, what I am worth,” he said, brushing her hair gently away from his face.
    “We know what you are worth. That’s all that matters,” she said. “I have a bad feeling about this. Death will follow that ship.”
    He kissed her head. “You have a bad feeling about many things. But they don’t always turn out that way. Besides, I don’t do all that training just so the boys can laugh at me behind my back. I always said I had to be ready when something came – this is it. Whoever did that to the Duke’s ship was sending us a message. It could be any of us, at any time. If I step away, if I don’t try to stop it, then it could be you or Kerrin disappearing next.”
    “Now you are the one being foolish. Whoever it is won’t be attacking a big village and, anyway, we’d have plenty of warning to be able to run away if they did. Are you sure this isn’t just about Hagen being made captain of the Duke’s guard? I know the two of you joined together.”
    Fallon sighed. “And what if it is?” he said defensively. “If he can be made captain then I certainly can be more than a village sergeant.” He took