Pecking at them with my fingers, I pulled at my curls, giving them more volume around my face as I stared into the looking glass that hung from a post in Aramus and my tent.

After nightly swims and daily showers in fresh water, I was going through my supply of oils and essences to keep them healthy, bouncy, separated and tamed, as I liked them.

This meant we’d have to find an apothecary along our journey to Wodell so I could blend some more.

Although Aramus had received a bird saying that we had much longer to make our way to Notting Thicket than we’d previously thought, we still had to leave. And soon. We’d dallied more than a few days and we’d been told the journey would take at least three weeks at a quick pace. From the beginning, we had little time to linger.

Therefore, we were leaving in the morning.

I would need far less oil and essence for my hair once we were inland.

I still needed to blend.

I sighed, turned away, and my skirts that had a number of loose, filmy panels that drifted like kelp around my thighs twirled about my legs as I did so.

I grabbed a short piece of toweling that was resting on our pallet as I made my way to the flaps of the tent that were tied back, giving me a wide view of the magnificent sea. I walked through the opening and stepped out onto the sand.

And felt my foot hit home.

I could not stop my smile.

Xi was wandering in front of our tent. He looked to me and I turned my smile to him.

“Good day, Xi,” I called.

“My queen,” he replied on a return smile and stopped.

“Where is he?” I asked.

“Attempting to murder a squad of soldiers he’s drilling in sand maneuvers,” he answered, jerking his head back down the beach.

I turned that way to see perhaps twenty men doing things with Aramus standing before them, shouting.

“Mind,” Xi went on, and I looked back at him. “They’ve already drilled in these maneuvers about five hundred times. But I suppose you can never be too ready.”

I really should not laugh but I was having difficulty not doing just that.

“Has that rider I asked you to send returned?” I inquired.

He shook his head, but his brown eyes were dancing. “Though I expect him this afternoon. I’ll find you the minute he arrives.”

“I’d appreciate that, Xi.”