Master of Hawks (29 page)

As Hawk merged with it, it blocked all thoughts of his relationship to Jaxton. He only knew that he must fight and survive. Slowly, inexorably, he fought his way back into Jaxton's mind.

Jaxton's strength was gone. He had no weapons left, nothing to use except his memories. One by one, good and bad, he threw them at Hawk, but they rolled off Hawk's shield like raindrops against a rock.

We a
re brothers,
his mind whispered through the haze of pain that wrapped around him in a smothering cocoon.

But Hawk had no room for any emotions or thoughts other than the fury that drove him to smash again and again at Jaxton, until suddenly he felt all that had been Jaxton Sinclair dissolve into a vast emptiness that left him alone with a word that reverberated through his mind like wind whistling over an
eagle's wings—
Brother.

Then the darkness closed in.

19

A liquid that tasted like walnuts and honey touched his lips and tongue. Hawk choked on it and coughed, but managed to gulp some down. Then he became fully conscious and recognized it:
tomaad.

Although his whole body ached with numbing weariness, he forced his eyes open. Then he blinked and reached out with hesitant fingertips, not quite sure he was really awake and alive, but the sea-green eyes staring down at him with concern were real.

"Ro!" he whispered. "But I
saw you fall . . . "

"The sorcerer only wounded me. I may not be able to use this arm for a while, but I'll live." Then she forced him to drink the rest of the Sylvan tonic. As she bent, Hawk saw that the left sleeve of her tunic was ripped and bloody and that her shoulder and back were roughly bandaged with torn strips of material.

"You killed him, didn't you?" she asked. "Jaxton Sinclair . . . "

Hawk nodded. Fighting against the weakness and pain, he propped himself up on one arm and asked urgently. "What happened then?"

"We've won. I think we've won." She sat back on her heels and stared past him with a wan smile and a sudden expression of deep sadness in her eyes. Hawk followed her gaze beyond the ring of Sylvan to the tall, lonely figure of Derek S'Mayler.

"With the Red Witch and Sinclair dead, Derek was able to shift some of his energy from defense of the Sylvan to an attack on the third sorcerer; I think he was Lord S'Stratford. Evidently our sorcerers at the castle had recovered enough by then to block Taral and the other Empire sorcerers from attacking Derek. So S'Stratford found himself fighting alone. Realizing that he could not overcome Derek without help, S'Stratford fled, taking what was left of his troops with him.

"Through it all, the Sylvan just continued their assault, until Taral's army was simply forced to retreat. Their war machines and bows were useless, and many of their horses had stampeded. With the siege broken, a great company of York's troops left the castle and began attacking the retreating army. That's where we are now."

"Then Taral's army is retreating?"

"Yes."

"And what about Coleman?" Hawk asked.

A tear slowly crept down her cheek. "I don't know. He was paralyzed, just hanging on to life by a thread. I gave him
tomaad,
but it may have been too late, there didn't seem to be any effect. We took him down to the camp, or what's left of it, with the other wounded. Then when I came back I saw you lying here."

Although he was only just beginning to feel the effects of the
tomaad,
Hawk struggled to his feet.

He staggered as a wave of dizziness hit him, and Ro grabbed him with her good arm. Leaning against her, he felt the vertigo pass.

"Are you all right?"

"Yes, just very, very tired," he answered. Then he noticed that the Sylvan had broken from their huddle and were heading back toward the camp. Feeling stronger, he loosened his hold on Ro's arm and walked slowly over to Elihen.

"What's going on?" he asked the huge half-Sylvan.

"We've finished for the moment. Taral's army is in full retreat, and his sorcerers are no longer bothering to attack us."

"Where are you . . . "

Elihen smiled. "Down to get something to eat." He patted Hawk's shoulder with his enormous hand. "Come along, you look like you need some food and some rest, too."

"In a few minutes," Hawk replied, his eyes on Ro.

As Elihen walked away, Hawk continued to watch Ro. She was half-turned away from him, looking up the hill toward Derek S'Mayler.

Standing alone at the top of the promontory, the sorcerer seemed on the verge of collapse. His face was pale and haggard, his body slumped forward and wavering with fatigue, his eyes vacantly staring out at the retreating enemy.

While the pain and longing in Ro's face echoed through Hawk's mind, his feelings for her resolved themselves with disturbing clarity.

Now that he knew that his blood was as noble as hers, it no longer mattered. It was not their births that divided them, it was their basic natures.

He looked wistfully at Ro, wishing that things
could be different. She had been his first love, and he would probably always love her in a way. They had traveled the same path for a little while, but now they had to go their separate ways. And somehow he knew that Ro would not be the last woman he loved.

He stared at Derek's lonely figure, remembering the expression of concern for Ro he'd seen in Derek's eyes. If any woman were capable of restoring Derek's trust and whining his love, it was Ro.

She was still looking sadly up the hill at Derek.

Hawk touched her arm gently. Her deep-green eyes met his. In them he could
see
her love for his friend.

"Go to him, Ro," he said. "He's the one that needs you."

Her eyes studied his searchingly.

"Go on. You want to, you know."

"Yes," she answered. "I guess I do." Then she determinedly walked up the hill.

Hawk watched her until she reached Derek. He didn't know if things would work out between them. Surprisingly, he found himself hoping that they would.

He turned away and saw Jaxton Sinclair's body.

Something drew him toward his brother. His eyes, as brown as Hawk's own, stared upward in a glaze of
death; but his face was the face of a stranger, and Hawk could see little similarity between it and his own.

Then he noticed the twisted chains of the pendant and the jade pin lying against Jaxton's throat. Automatically he knelt and touched the pin—
My m
other's pin,
he thought; then a part of his mind corrected,
Our mother's pin.

The jade pin was his again, and he knew that the Pendant of Thantos was his now as well.

Gently he removed the chains from around his brother's neck. He looked at them closely, comparing the design of leaves on each, as he knew his brother had. He pulled the chain bearing the pin over his head and pocketed the Pendant of Thantos.

Soon he would learn to control the spellstone, and then he would wear it, but not until he had time to consider and absorb all that he had learned from Jaxton. When he had come to accept that knowledge fully, he would be able to accept the Thantos as his inheritance.

Hawk glanced up at the dark blue of the afternoon sky and reached for his birds. Then he was one with Windrifter and Stormrider, soaring above the retreating Imperial Army.

Though they had won the battle, he knew that long years of fighting still lay ahead of them before the rest of the Eastern Kingdoms could be freed and the threat of Taral's Empire completely removed. However, for the moment they had won, and York, at least, was free.

He flew the mueagles higher, reaching for the sun. The rays warmed them and gave them strength. They soared, and their feathers turned golden in the sun.

He was still the master of hawks, but now he was something more, for he had become master of himself and his own emotions. And in defeating Jaxton he had found his true identity.

His real name was Gregory Sinclair. He was a noble of the S'Akron family.

From Jaxton's memories he knew that Geoff S'Akron's son still lived, but if the boy were to die, Hawk
would become the heir to one of the largest kingdoms in the Empire.

In the meantime he'd inherited the vast Sinclair estates, if he could prove his claim. Perhaps he could find a way to use his new position to speed the Empire's downfall.

In any case, he had the Pendant of Thantos, and that in itself was a powerful weapon.

Suddenly the part of him that was still anchored to the earth laughed as the eagles soared
toward the sun. Someday he knew he was going to touch it.