WindLegends Saga 9: WindRetriever (26 page)

Charlotte Boyett-Compo WINDRETRIEVER 116

"I have needed someone like you all my life, nomad," Conar finally said, feeling the comfort and support coming from Sajin. He turned to look at his friend. "I have a request to make of you and I hope you'll consider it."

"Ask," Sajin replied.

Conar returned his gaze to the fire. "If something should happen to me …."

"Nothing is going to," Sajin stated.

"Something beyond our control, Sajin," Conar went on, ignoring the nomad's interruption.

"Something irreversible. I would leave Abbadon on my own and not come back."

Sajin stood up, went to his friend and hunkered down beside him. "What are you talking about?" he asked in an annoyed voice.

Conar turned to face the nomad. "I'm not well, Sajin. I know it and Rupine knows it."

Before his friend could deny that statement, Conar put a hand on the Kensetti's shoulder. "I don't believe I'm dying, but sometimes there are far worse things that can happen to a warrior than death.

I won't spend my life as an invalid, a burden to my family and friends. I won't do that."

"You are not sick," Sajin snapped. "Maybe just a bit tired. Still getting over the problem with the tenerse, but you aren't going to become a cripple, Conar. You …."

"There are several monasteries in the Inner Kingdom. I've visited one or two. There is one in particular where I could go. I've already talked to the Abbot. He has assured me that I could come to live there, that they would take care of me."

"I don't want to hear this!" Sajin shouted. He came to his feet in a rush of anger, pointing his finger at Conar. "There's nothing wrong with you. I don't want to hear about monasteries and abbots and …."

"They won't let anyone see me, Sajin. They would deny I was even there. No force this side of heaven could enter those doors and I wouldn't want it any other way."

"You're talking about shutting yourself up in a prison!" Sajin yelled at him. "Cutting yourself off from everyone who loves you? That's selfish!"

"It's what I want, Sajin." Conar stared his friend down, fusing their gazes so that the nomad could not look away. "Leave me some dignity. Don't make me have to hear the pity or the grief in my loved one's voices when they look at me. I couldn't live with that."

"Conar …," Sajin protested.

"Please?" was the heartfelt plea.

For what seemed like an eternity, the nomad glared down at the Outlander, then with a vicious snarl, he flung his hand out in surrender. "Under one condition," he snarled. "That you allow me to see you."

"No."

"Yes!"

"No." Final. No discussion. No retreat.

"Why not?" came the pitiful cry.

"Because if I am forced to leave, Sajin, it will be because I am no longer able to take care of myself and I won't have the ones I love having to do it for me."

Sajin stumbled away, his heart breaking. He had, at long last, found a man who could be his friend and he was losing him. Too soon.

"It may not be for a long time, Sajin," Conar told him, "or it may be tomorrow. Either way, I want your word that you won't come looking for me. That you'll allow me to just disappear." He stood up and walked to the nomad, put his hand on Sajin's trembling shoulder. "Will you do that for me, Sajin? Do you love me enough to do that?"

Charlotte Boyett-Compo WINDRETRIEVER 117

It took every last ounce of courage the Kensetti had to nod, to agree to something that was killing him inside. But when at last he lifted his head and looked at the Serenian, he gave his word that he would grant Conar's request.

Charlotte Boyett-Compo WINDRETRIEVER 118

Lord Legion A'Lex sat down with a heavy thud, his mouth gaping open as the woman standing before him demanded once more to have her request carried out with alacrity. He swung his gaze to Lord Teal du Mer and found that man staring with shock at her, as well. Swinging his attention the other way, he looked into the amused face of Prince Chase Montyne.

"She has every right to ask it of you, Legion," Chase commented dryly.

Legion's shoulders drooped and he slumped in the chair, dropped his chin to his chest and let out a moan of despair. He shook his head, mumbling to himself that he couldn't believe any of this was happening.

"Such things are done here, aren't they?' he heard her ask him. "I was under the impression this was a civilized country."

Lifting his head slowly, Legion glared at her. "It is, Madame!"

"Then I see no reason why you can not accommodate me, Lord Legion." She turned her imperial stare to Montyne. "I don't believe I am being unreasonable, do you, Chase?"

Montyne shrugged. "No, I don't believe you are."

"But…," Legion began only to be cut off by the elderly man who had been listening with keen interest to the goings on in the library of Boreas Keep.

"Not that you've asked my opinion, Legion," the man injected, "but I am inclined to side with Her Grace. We all know Conar's propensity for foolishness. I do believe I dropped him on his head when I delivered him, but that is beside the point." Healer Cayn Summerton sniffed with disdain. "The lad comes unhinged easily and I believe Her Grace has found a way to screw him back into place." He chuckled at his remark. "So to speak, Your Grace." He winked at the lady.

"There is a law that provides for it, Legion," Prince Coron McGregor remarked. "Dyllon and I looked it up last eve. It's in the Eighth Tome on page …."

"I don't give a rat's ass where the law is," Legion shouted. He plowed his thick fingers through the waves of his hair, the color of which his little half-brother, Conar, had turned from a luxurious dark brown to nearly-gray over the years. "I ain’t saying we can't do it. I'm just saying I don't think we should do it until we hear from him!"

"And give the idiot time to circumvent the law by doing something patently stupid like marrying that Inner Kingdom slut?" Catherine shouted at her brother-in-law.

"Even if he did," Coron interrupted, "it wouldn't matter." As Conar's second wife turned on him, glowering hot fire at his young face, Coron held up his hand. "Peace, lady! What I'm telling you is even if big brother married half a dozen women, he'd
still
be legally bound to you according to royal law. He signed a contract between this household and yours in St. Steffensberg and although the marriage has not been blessed here, he is still your husband until Tribunal Law says he isn't."

"And if Legion will get off his high horse," Dyllon, the youngest brother of Conar McGregor, put in, "we can tie Conar to you with string that will never come unraveled no matter who he brings back to Serenia with him."

"Or how many," Coron added.

Catherine swung her attention back to Legion. "Well?" she demanded.

Legion threw up his hands. "You win, Madame!" he sighed. "I'll have the High Priest meet us at the Temple and we'll marry you and Conar by proxy under Tribunal Law."

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Chase glanced at his own wife, Sabrina, and winked. "She's got him, now."

Sabrina smiled sweetly. "Well and truly," she answered.

Gezelle, a woman who had loved Conar McGregor for most of her life, looked up from the floor where she had been concentrating her attention. She studied the Outer Kingdom woman who had the day before come barging into Boreas Keep, unannounced. Having, as yet, to be introduced to the woman, Gezelle had had plenty of time to form an opinion of her by simply listening to what she said and watching her. What she saw, what she heard, and what she was able to ascertain about this strange woman, had made Gezelle keep silent, keeping her opinion to herself although no one had asked her yet what she was thinking. Not even her brother, Teal, who had finally come back to the fold upon learning of their older brother, Roget's, death in Rysalia.

"Penny for your thoughts," Sentian Heil asked her as he knelt down beside her chair. He turned his attention back to the woman across the room.

"She's loud," Gezelle commented.

"I believe the word is
intens'
," Sentian chuckled.

"She's arrogant."

"So much like our dear Overlord, wouldn't you say?"

"She's bound and determined to get her way, no matter the consequences or the trouble."

"Who does that sound like to you?"

"She seems to think Conar didn't really want to put her aside."

"I can tell you for a certainty that he loves her, 'Zelle," Sentian said. "I don't believe he would have ever married her if he didn't."

"Oh, I've no doubt of that, Senti," she answered him.

"But something's bothering you," the Sentinel pressed.

"It's not her," Gezelle told him. "I believe she loves him so intensely she'd move heaven and earth to keep him. She's proven that by coming here. For that reason alone, I'll support her."

"Then what has you frowning so?"

"I don't know," Gezelle replied. "I just have this feeling that the marriage should never have taken place. I can't explain it, but it's like there's a pall over it, you know?"

"Don't borrow trouble," Sentian warned her. He glanced around and saw the woman they had been discussing heading their way. He stood up quickly, smiling hesitantly, not sure she'd remember him. Gezelle stood, as well.

"Sentian, isn't it?" Catherine asked as she put out her hand to the warrior.

A delighted smile stretched Sentian's mobile mouth. "Aye, Your Grace. It is." He looked down at Gezelle. "And may I present...?"

"There is no need for introductions." Catherine removed her hand from Sentian's and moved to Gezelle, embracing the smaller woman with a tender circling of her arms. "This is Conar's 'Zelle."

Gezelle's brows rose as she looked at Sentian, but she returned the embrace, carefully arranging her surprised face as Catherine stepped back from the hug.

"He's told me so much about you," Catherine was saying. Her pretty hazel eyes lit up.

"Things he'll probably deny if you were to call him on it."

A faint blush seeped into Gezelle's cheeks and she didn't know what to say to that. How much this woman knew of her relationship with Conar McGregor remained to be seen, but any doubt Gezelle had of just how personal was the knowledge was removed when the Outer Kingdom woman smiled saucily.

"The devil's own, he is," Catherine whispered. "On his wedding day, no less!"

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The faint blush became an infused scarlet and Gezelle had to hide her shock behind a hastily-lifted hand. Her gaze leapt to Sentian and she found that stalwart warrior's face just as red.

"But," Catherine said, all humor now vanished from her pretty oval face, "if he so much as tickles you ever again, dearling, I'll tack his hide to the nearest tree!"

"I believe it!" Gezelle gasped, humor invading her own stunned face. "And well he'd deserve it, too!"

Catherine slipped an arm through Gezelle's. "Tell me," she said as she began walking, drawing Gezelle with her. "Do you know of a good nurse here in the keep that I can get to care for Brianna?"

Gezelle stopped, her eyes narrowing. "Why would you need one other than me?" she asked. "I have cared for every McGregor brat born to that man since ...."

A merry laugh sprang from Cat's twitching mouth and she shushed the woman. "I was hoping you'd volunteer, but I didn't want to ask. Now," she said, resuming their walk. "There's some things he didn't tell me. I understand there is a woman named Dorrie?"

disappearance on the day Conar McGregor had tried to take a flying leap off the battlements had caused a rift between him and several of the keep's inhabitants, especially Marsh Edan, the Master-at-Arms and that man barely spoke to him anymore.

But Legion did not seem affected by Teal's leaving or Gezelle, Teal's half-sister or Sentian.

Teal's father-in-law, Captain Holm van der Lar of the Ravenwind, Conar's flag ship, still grumbled about Teal's flight, but Jenny, Holm's only daughter and Teal's beloved wife, had understood and forgiven him. Still, there were those among the remaining members of the Wind Force who looked at the gypsy with suspicion and not a little resentment for having caused Conar the first moment's worry.

"Have you heard from Shalu?" Teal heard Chase asking Legion as the three men walked out beyond the training compound.

"Not a word," Legion answered. "Wyn says he's still pissed."

"Hurt is more like it," Chase replied. "We had some real trouble with him in Odess. Holm had to lock him in the cabin until we cleared land."

"Why is it Conar causes so damned much trouble for the people who love him?" Legion inquired of no one in particular. "Was the man
born
to give gray hair to those who love him?"

"Grice thought so," Chase said, chuckling. At the mention of the Oceanian prince, dead these many months, the atmosphere changed among the three men.

"How is Chand doing?" Teal asked, having heard that the youngest, and only remaining member of the Wynth family, had had a nervous breakdown upon hearing of his beloved brother's death in Rysalia.

"Coron told me he went to see him a week ago and that Chand wouldn't even acknowledge his presence in the room. As far as we know, Chand hasn't said a word since they took him to Baybridge."

Teal shuddered. "Godawful place, that is," he said. The place where those with mental problems were interred was not far from Downsgate, the du Mer family estate.

"Belvoir is there with him," Legion said. "His loyalty is with Liza's family. The last time I got a letter from him, he said Chand still blames Conar for everything."