Dannan grinned, folding his hands together. “I know the courtship she shared with yer father. Ye forget, I’ve been around more than a hundred years. I was there. Ah, ’twas a thing of beauty. Everyone said as much, and when they talked of yer parents, they talked of yer mother and her story of true love’s kiss. She told anyone who had ears the legend was true.”
Jon rolled his eyes at his friend. He didn’t want to talk of his parents. “You are daft, good sir.”
“Nay. I’m observant, and I enjoy the maiden’s company. She makes me laugh.”
Now he smiled fondly—almost too fondly for his own liking. “Aye, with her talk of phones and cars, she is quite amusing.” So amusing, she made his gut tight and his morals questionable.
“Have ye given thought to what awaits her at the castle? This happiness that chattering Brenda speaks of? What could it be?”
“I have given it thought, yes. I know not what it means. Nor do I know what the shoes mean, but they mean something. Mark my words. I believe they’re responsible for these powers Toni has acquired. It’s as though she’s absorbing her foes’ strengths. How can that be? Have you ever heard of these shoes?”
Dannan made a face at him, nudging his shoulder. “Why would I know about shoes, lad? What ye think of me? I do not wear fancy garments with ribbons and bows.”
Jon shook his head. Those shoes meant something, and he wanted to know what. If not already, it wouldn’t be long before Angria knew she had them, and their worth.
“I meant were there any rumors floating about. Something you might have heard in your travels through the kingdom.”
Dannan scoffed. “Nay. I have never heard rumors about shoes. The king keeps his secrets well, aye?”
Aye. “Ellesandra knows nothing of them either. ’Tis a quandary, but we must be more alert than ever. The queen would surely like to get her greedy hands on them.”
“Again, I wonder, could this be the reason the queen’s sent her henchmen for our Toni? I shall go back to the ways of old and pick their bones clean should they try to harm the lass again!”
Jon hopped upon the bottom rung of the fence and reached up to slap his friend’s back. “Ease off. There will be no delicate fingers in your soup tonight. You made me a promise long ago. You must not break it.”
“Yes, yes,” the ogre groused his displeasure. “I was a fool to agree to such nonsense. But it was under duress. Alas, ye had that pointy sword nestled at my nether regions. I regret the day I ran into ye in the forest, Jon Doe. For my stomach yearns all these years for a tasty human thigh.”
They’d met when Jon was just thirteen, and he and his friend Theo were out in the forest practicing their swordplay. Theo had tripped over Dannan, who was hidden beneath an enormous pile of brush, napping.
Upon waking, the sleepy ogre had plucked Theo from the ground and threatened to eat him in one bite.
But luckily, Jon had his wits about him that day, and he’d ducked under the ogre’s wide stance and offered to take his manhood if he chose not to let Theo go.
And they’d been friends ever since. Now, in his thirty-fifth year, he was grateful. Dannan had taught him everything he knew about the woods and life on his own. He’d been especially invaluable this past year.
Jon barked a laugh. “You would no more have eaten my friend Theo than I would have sliced your man parts to ribbons.”
“Now ye tell me this? He was a mighty meaty lad,” Dannan joked, his eyes squinting with laughter. Then he sobered. “And what about Toni? How will ye fare once we get to the castle?”
Jon looked away from his friend and off into the distance, where the castle sat high atop a mountain, beautiful and ominous. “I will do as planned. Bring her to the gates and leave her to find her happiness as Brenda requested. I cannot break the rules of the realm. The realm says deliver her to the castle.”
“No more than ye already have, lad?” Dannan taunted, his eyes inquisitive.
But Jon ignored him. “Then we shall continue our adventure back at home where we belong.”
“Ah, but what if her happiness is with ye here in Shamalot? Will ye still be able to let her go? Will ye risk losing her forever if she goes back to this land called Jersey?”
“Who said her happiness had anything to do with me?”
He’d asked her to consider staying without even thinking about what the castle had in store for her. What if her happiness had absolutely nothing to do with staying here in Shamalot? What if it had to do with going back to Jersey and finding her brother? He couldn’t ask her to give up the chance.
So he’d stay away this next leg of their journey, unwilling to become more captivated with her than he already was.
“Just an ogre’s hunch. Have ye sent word to the castle we’ll be arrivin’?”
Jon shook his head. “Why would I do that? I told you the plan—”