WindLegends Saga 9: WindRetriever (7 page)

A sharp agony had suddenly driven through Conar's skull and he clapped his hands to his temples, his eyes flaring wide with the pain of it. Blood abruptly flowed from his nose, splattering his naked chest, and his howl of agony brought the two sentinels hurrying into the room.

"Conar!" Sajin shouted, making a mad dash for the bed.

Balizar, having been outside the room speaking to the women warriors, rushed inside, his face white, and it was he who reached Conar first. It was Balizar whose arms encircled the groaning man and clutched him tightly to a thundering chest.

"Make it stop, Hern!" he heard Conar cry out. "Merciful god, please make it stop!"

Sajin stood wide-eyed as Conar's body jerked and his friend fell back on the bed, his hands digging into his scalp as though he could pull the pain from his skull. He knew Conar did not feel one of the women pulling his hands away from his hair.

"Your Grace, no!" the woman shouted, looking a bit green as she saw several strands of the thick blond hair clutched in her Overlord's hands.

And Sajin knew Conar didn't feel the sedative that was driven into his vein by a grunting, sweating Rupine.

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Even as his body stilled and went limp in Balizar's arms, Sajin knew Conar was not even aware of the people around him.

"Milord?" the woman who still held onto Conar's hands asked, drawing Sajin's notice.

"Look." She pointed with her chin.

Sajin followed her gaze to the side of Conar's head and winced. "Rupine?" he questioned, reaching down to touch the faint trickle of blood dripping from Conar's right ear.

Rupine drew in a long breath. "I fear an artery has ruptured," he answered.

Sajin?" The groggy voice was thick, infinitely pleading.

"Yes, my friend?" Sajin replied. He knelt down beside Conar.

"Don't let them hurt me," came the slurred request.

Sajin glanced up at Rupine, then put his hand on Conar's head. "No, Conar. Never again."

He stroked the fall of blond hair from his friend's forehead. "On my life, I promise you that."

Conar seemed to sigh and then his lids closed, shutting off the glazed look in his alien sapphire eyes.

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Catherine paced the room, listening to the men of the Samiel discussing their ill leader. It had been three days since the blood had poured from her husband's nose and ear. During that time, Rupine had kept him heavily sedated, someone in his room at all times to watch him with orders to call the physician immediately should anything seem amiss.

"I haven't given him any of the sedative for eight hours, now. I am going to allow him to wake tonight," she heard Rupine telling the men. "I want to see if he is over the headache."

"And if he isn't?" Asher inquired.

Rupine scowled. "I'll keep him under until he is."

"What if he can not get rid of it?" Azalon questioned. "You can't keep him drugged the rest of his life."

"Rupine knows that," Balizar said quietly.

"I have been thinking," Catherine injected, gaining the men's attention. "If he still has the pain when he wakes, I would like to take him back to St. Steffensburg."

"He can't travel!" Rachel Stone spoke up. "The trip would be excruciating for him."

Catherine turned and fixed the only other woman in the room with a steely stare. "If he is asleep, Mam'selle," she said, deliberately using the title she had heard Conar call many an unmarried woman, "he will not even be aware of the trip." Her gaze narrowed. "Besides which, he is my husband and I will do what I think best for him."

Rachel's own eyes squinted dangerously. "Even if in moving him you might do more harm than good, Madame?"

Sajin looked from one woman to another and didn't like what he was seeing. They were glaring at one another, dislike showing on their pretty faces, but more importantly than that, there was suspicion in Catherine's face and smugness in Rachel's. He glanced at Asher, Rachel's brother, and found the man looking down at the floor.

"Why would you wish to take him to your homeland, Your Grace?" Rupine inquired, feeling the undercurrent of tension emanating from the two women as sharply as every other man in the room.

Catherine sat down on the settee. "There is a woman there," she answered. "A Daughter who I've been told is known for her healing abilities. If she can help Conar, even a little, I think the risk of moving him would be worth it."

"I don't," Rachel spat. She stood with her hands on her hips, and glared at Catherine.

"There are Healer Women in Rysalia. Meghan can ...."

"It was Meghan," Catherine interrupted in a cold voice, "who suggested I take Conar to St.

Steffensburg."

Rachel's chin came up. "Really?"

Sajin wondered at the nasty smile that suddenly stretched Rachel's full lips and when he looked to Catherine, he could tell Cat had interpreted that smile the way Rachel had intended for the Outer Kingdom woman to. "Then by all means," he heard Rachel coo, "take him. I am sure if Meghan advised you to go, it is the correct thing to do. She knows the sooner you get him there, the sooner his troubles will be over."

Catherine wanted to leap up off the settee and grab the Kensetti woman by the hair and snatch her bald headed.

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The infuriating smirk on the woman's mouth was a warning which Catherine could ill-afford to overlook. Had there not been men in the room with them, watching them so closely neither could react in the way she wanted, Cat knew there would be blood and hair and spittle littered about the carpet.

"I think I'll go up to check on my patient," Rupine said, wanting to get away from the charged atmosphere that had developed in the room.

Sajin stood up, too, after risking a quick look of command at Balizar. "I'll go up with you, Rupine."

Balizar nodded. He understood that silent command to keep the women separated.

"Is something going on between Conar and Rachel?" Sajin asked as he and Rupine climbed the stairs to Conar's room.

"By the Prophetess," Rupine replied, "I hope not."

"She's been spending an inordinate amount of time in Conar's room," Sajin commented as he and the physician waited for the sentinels to move aside so they could enter Conar's room.

"Yes, but the man's been asleep the entire time."

Sajin motioned Rupine ahead of him. He lowered his voice. "Were they, ah, intimate before Jaborn abducted Conar?"

Rupine frowned. "How should I know, Your Grace? If they were, they were certainly most discreet about it."

Conar opened his eyes and smiled at the two men hovering over his bed. He was still groggy from whatever it was that Rupine had been giving him, but he fully recognized the friendly faces of the men. Running a hand over his stubbled chin, he let out a sigh.

"Feeling better?" Sajin asked.

"I think so," Conar answered. "I'll let you know when I can feel my hand moving on my face."

Rupine grinned. "A little numb, are we?" He reached down to smooth a lock of blond hair from his patient's brow. It was something nearly all who cared for the man seemed compelled to do.

"I don't seem to be able to feel my toes," Conar mused. His voice was only a little slurred, a little lazy, but his eyes were being obstinately hard to keep open. He forced them wide, then grunted. "I don't want any more of that shit, Rupine. I'm tired of sleeping."

"How is your headache?" Rupine asked.

Conar frowned. "It doesn't hurt as bad as before." He looked up into the physician face.

"Not enough to need a painkiller."

Rupine nodded. "All right. Let's see if you can go the rest of the night without it, then."

He glanced over at Celene Dunne, Meghan's granddaughter, who was sitting in a chair by the fireplace. "Will you be here the night?"

"Until four," Celene answered, "then Rachel takes over for me."

Sajin's immediate scowl at that information was not lost on the physician. Nor was the pleased expression on his patient's face. Rupine made a mental note to ask Meghan to assign another woman to watch the Outlander.

"Catherine has decided that we sail tomorrow morn," Sajin said, drawing Conar's look.

"She means to take you to a woman healer in St. Steffensburg."

"I don't need that," Conar muttered. His face lost what little color it had and he looked down at the coverlet covering him. "I'm not sure I'm ready to go back there."

Rupine glanced at the Kensetti prince. "Your wife only wants what's best for you, Charlotte Boyett-Compo WINDRETRIEVER 33

Khamsin," Rupine told him. "Perhaps you should listen to her."

Sajin knew it was not Catherine's desire to help Conar that concerned the Serenian, but the decision he had made to leave her behind in the Outer Kingdom when he returned to Rysalia.

Conar had yet to tell Catherine he was going to have the marriage annulled and thinking of it, as he was no doubt doing at that moment, had brought fresh guilt to the Serenian's face.

"Catherine doesn't know everything," Conar said, looking up at Sajin. "Maybe if she did, she wouldn't be so anxious to leave Rysalia."

So, Sajin thought, that is what you've done. The questions he had concerning the girl Rachel had just been answered. He shook his head, watching Conar blush before looking away.

Conar, oh Conar, Sajin mumbled to himself, you've done it now.

"She only wants you well, Khamsin," Rupine argued. "If this woman in the Outer Kingdom can help you, I am all for it."

"May I speak to Khamsin alone?" Sajin asked, looking around at Celene and including her in the request.

Rupine motioned for the girl, sensing there was something important to be discussed here that he should be no part of. He closed the door behind them as they left and engaged the women warriors in conversation so none of them could hear what was being said inside Khamsin's room.

"All right," Sajin snapped, drawing a chair up to Conar's bed and straddling it. "When did you sleep with Rachel?"

Conar's blush deepened. "What makes you think I did?"

"I know you," Sajin quipped. "And I know how your feeble mind works." He shook his head at Conar's heavy scowl. "You saw a way to have Cat want the marriage put aside and you acted on it." He snorted. "With Rachel's help."

"I don't know what you're upset about," Conar snapped. "You're in love with Catherine and you want her." He glared at his friend. "I'm giving her to you."

"How nice of you," Sajin sneered.

"What's your problem, nomad?" Conar growled. "You know damned well I don't dare keep her with me. With you, she'll be safe."

"If not happy," Sajin shot back. "It's you she wants."

"Well, she can't have me!" Conar snarled.

"But any other woman can for the asking, right?" Sajin grunted. He saw Conar's lids flicker and thought I threw him off with that one.

"When will we be sailing?" Conar asked, refusing to argue anymore with the nomad.

"Probably on the morning tide." Sajin stood up and swung the chair away from him. "And Rachel won't be sailing with us, I'll see to that."

Conar looked up. "I never meant for her to."

"That's good," Sajin told him, "because I damned well intend to see she stays here where she belongs."

Conar looked away from the irritation on the Kensetti's face. "I'm doing what I think best, Sajin."

"Pouring salt into Cat's wounds isn't doing what's best, McGregor. It's cruel and it's going to hurt her more," the nomad Prince answered.

The infuriating glare of sapphire anger shot toward Ben-Alkazar. "Then soothe her pain, Sajin," Conar snapped. "You can do that, can't you?"

"Yes," Sajin growled. "You can count on it!"

At dawn the next morning, two men of the Samiel carried Conar on a litter to a covered dray that had been rigged especially for the trip to the harbor at Asaraba. Forty men rode guard behind the wagon with another twenty in front, all heavily armed. Catherine rode between Sajin and Yuri, casting puzzled frowns at the Shadow-warrior who had been silent and withdrawn for several days.

"Is something wrong, Yuri?" she had asked him again that morning, but the man had only shaken his head at her question. There was something worrying the man, but he refused to confide in her and there was nothing she could do until he did.

"Will we be taking the ship back to St. Steffensburg that we took before?" Catherine asked Sajin.

"No. My family has many ships, but this one belongs to me." He tightened his grip on his mount's reins for the animal was aching to run. "I won her in a game of kohn from a Venturian merchant."

"What is she called?" Azalon asked. He was riding off to one side of the others.

"The Temptress," Sajin laughed. "My sister named her."

"Where is Sybelle?" Catherine asked. "She left St. Steffensburg right after you, Sajin.

When you came in search of Conar's friend, Storm."

Sajin's smile vanished. "I have no idea where she is, but I surely would like to. There are things I need to discuss with Sybelle." He thought of why he felt the need to find his sister and a heavy scowl replaced the smile of a moment before. "She has a lot of explaining to do."

Catherine sensed a quiet smoldering fury in her traveling companion at the mention of his sister and let the matter drop.

Inside the dray, Conar felt the headache returning and gritted his teeth to the jarring jolt of the wagon wheels in the ruts along the road. With every bump, the pain increased until he was once more sick to his stomach. Burying his face in the pillow, he was determined not to give in to the pain. He clutched the material to him and squeezed his eyes shut.