WindDeceiver (17 page)

“What are you doing here?” Shalu heard him growl.

“What

are

you
doing here?” the Necroman returned.

“Merciful Alel!” Conar bellowed, flinging himself down on his pallet. “Why can’t you people leave me alone?”

Shalu looked around him. “Where is the woman?”

“What woman?” Conar grumbled, throwing things out of his way.

“The one you have no doubt asked to marry you by now.”

Conar’s head jerked up and he stared at Shalu. The big man returned the stare with an arched brow. Moments passed and Conar finally lowered his gaze.

“It’s complicated,” he muttered.

“Everything is complicated with you, Conar,” Shalu announced, sitting down, unbidden, on the pallet beside Conar.

“I fell in love with her,” the Serenian admitted.

Shalu nodded. “Not unexpected considering the frame of mind you were in when you left.”

“She is a special lady,” was the soft reply.

WINDDECEIVER Charlotte Boyett-Compo 78

“She would have to be to have gained your attention.”

Shalu folded his arms over his chest. “Have you sought her hand, yet?”

“I married her.”

Shalu didn’t think he had heard correctly for the words had been little more than a sigh.

“Repeat that.”

Conar looked up and fused his gaze with Shalu’s. “I married her, Shalu.”

If the big man was surprised, he didn’t let it show. “Where is she? I have come over twenty thousand miles to meet her.”

“She’s in the Outer Kingdom,” he answered, then shrugged. “At least I hope to Alel she is.”

“Why?”

“As far as she knows, I’m dead,” was the reply that did surprise Shalu.

“And you have not enlightened her, otherwise?” was the stunned inquiry.

“No.”

“Why not?” Shalu snarled at him.

“Because I am going to have the marriage annulled as soon as I get back to St.

Steffensburg.” He looked away. “
If
I get back to St. Steffensburg.”

Shalu didn’t say anything to that. He merely continued to stare at his old friend, taking in the miserable look, the nervous tick that dragged at Conar’s scarred left cheek, the fidgeting hands, the jittery eyes that kept looking up at him, then shifting uneasily away. He knew this poggleheaded boy and there were all the signs of a patently stupid Conar plan being formed behind those alien sapphire orbs that Shalu knew would have to be either stymied or stopped altogether.

“Say something!” Conar finally snapped, the silence beginning to wear on his nerves.

“What do you wish for me to say?” Shalu inquired politely.

“You know damned well what I know you want to say!” Conar hissed. “Tell me I’m stupid.”

“You know that already,” Shalu contended.

Conar clenched his teeth. “Tell me I’m wrong in having the marriage annulled.”

“I can’t do that until I have had a chance to meet the lady in question,” Shalu said reasonably.

“Tell me how I’m giving up my own happiness so Catherine will be kept safe!”

Shalu shrugged. “Why? Is she in danger?”

“Aye, she’s in danger!” Conar shouted. “Every woman who has ever cared for me has died because of that love!”

“Oh, that,” Shalu sighed.

“Aye, that!” Conar screamed at him.

“Why do you have this need to be irrational, Conar?” Shalu asked in a calm voice. “Was it something Cayn did, or failed to do, when you were born? Did he hit your ass too hard, rattling your brain?”

“Son-of-a-bitch!”

Conar

snarled, turning away from the angelic look on the older man’s

grinning face.

“Do you think this woman will agree to you so blithely unmarrying her, Conar?”

He thought about that for a moment and then looked up, feeling the guilt flooding through him at Shalu’s penetrating stare. “I have another man picked out for her,” he answered.

“How sweet,” Shalu said. “And who is this paragon who you think can take your place?”

WINDDECEIVER Charlotte Boyett-Compo 79

“Prince Sajin Ben-Alkazar,” Conar informed him. “You saw him outside.” He glanced up.

“The tall man with curly black hair, worn short like I use to wear mine.”

“The handsome one with the very white teeth,” Shalu agreed and saw Conar wince.

“He will be better for her than I can be.” There was deep regret in the words.

Shalu’s upper lip lifted with indignation. “How can he be better for her than you?”

“He doesn’t have people wanting to cut of HIS head!”

Shalu let out a weary inhalation of breath. “You are over here less than three years and already people want to chop of your head. How DO you make friends so fast?”

“This isn’t a joking matter, Shalu,” Conar ground out. “They’ve already tried to kill me once. They will try again.”

“Who are ‘they’?” Shalu asked.

“Jaleel Jaborn, for starters,” Conar told him.

Shalu frowned. “I have heard that name before.”

“Aye, you have,” Conar agreed. “At Boreas. His was the name Liza’s would-be kidnaper gave as the man responsible for trying to have her taken.” He locked his eyes on Shalu’s face.

“He’s also the man responsible for Rayle Loure’s death, the attack on me at Shiku Pass, the wounding of Teal du Mer and--“ His face turned hard and sad at the same time. “--.and he was the man who slit Nadia’s throat.”

It took a moment for Shalu to place the female’s name but it finally came to him where he had heard it, he lowered his head. “Your daughter.”

“Aye,” Conar whispered. “My daughter.”

Shalu lifted his head. “Do you know where this bastard is?”

“Aye, but it will be awhile before I can get to him.” He reached out and put a hand on Shalu’s shoulder. “You are too young to remember a time when your own people bore the yoke of slavery around their necks, Shalu, but you have heard tales of it.”

Shalu

nodded.

“These people still bear that yoke. I have an urgent need to help free them, Shalu. It eats at me day and night. It keeps me from sleeping. If there is anything I can do to help them, I must try.

Do you understand that?”

“That is why the men came here,” Shalu answered. When Conar started to question that strange statement, he waved it aside. “Let’s get back to the woman. Have you told the man outside that he is to be the lucky recipient of her hand?”

Conar sighed. “Not yet. I was going to when you arrived.”

“And you think he will agree?” Shalu watched Conar’s face very carefully as the younger man answered.

“He loves her, Shalu. He’ll be good to her. She likes him. That liking can turn to love.

He’ll raise my daughter to be--“

“Your

what?”

The camp came to a standstill at the booming thunder of the newcomer’s voice. Up until then, only an occasional harsh word had filtered through the heavy canvas walls of the tent, but those two words: yelled at the very top volume of a loud voice, had startled the horses and awakened the camels.

“Will you let me explain?” Conar said, hushing the man. He lowered his voice, hoping there would be no more outbursts. “I only slept with her a few times, but I knew the last time I did that I had--“

“I do not believe this!!” Shalu bellowed.

WINDDECEIVER Charlotte Boyett-Compo 80

“Will you hush?” Conar hissed at him, dragging on Shalu’s thick arm. “I don’t want the whole camp to hear!”

It took Shalu a full five minutes to get his temper under control enough to speak in a normal, conversational voice. When he did, his scathing tongue was like a fish monger’s blade gutting a fish.

“Conar,” he said in what for him was a reasonable facsimile of calm, “I am inclined to believe we should have you neutered to keep you from indiscriminately scattering seed everywhere you go!” He glowered at his friend. “Have you no thought, no conception whatsoever of

self-control?”

“I didn’t mean to get her with child!” Conar defended on a hiss of outrage.

“Do you not see a pattern here, you imbecile?” Shalu bit out. “You screw; you impregnate!”

“Then I won’t screw again!” Conar spat back at him.

“From your mouth to Alel’s ears!” Shalu sneered.

Conar shrugged away the flip remark.

“Does this not sting your pride, man?” Shalu asked. “That your child will be raised by another?”

Conar clenched his hands into fists. “It savages the very heart inside me, Shalu, because I love this woman dearly.” When Shalu started to protest, he held up his hand. “But I have no choice. To keep her safe, I must give her up.”

“Say but the word and there will be a thousand times a thousand men standing in this desert, willing to take apart every stone in every keep in this barren wilderness to keep your woman safe!”

Shalu promised.

“Did those men keep Liza safe?” Conar asked quietly.

“That was a different matter!” Shalu reminded him.

“An enemy I never suspected I had took her away from me, Shalu,” Conar answered. “An enemy took her life. I will not have the same thing happen to Catherine.”

“I have not come over thirty thousand miles to argue semantics with you, Conar,” Shalu informed him. “We can protect your lady and we can destroy your enemy. Do you doubt the power of the Wind Force?”

Conar held out his hand to his friend. “Take my hand in yours,” he ordered.

Shalu frowned. “Why?”

“Just do it.”

Shalu reached out and took the proffered hand. So?”

Conar locked gazes with him. “What do you feel?”

“Your hand,” Shalu said dryly.

“What else?” Shalu started to take his hand back, but Conar’s grip tightened. “What do you feel?”

A faint tremor passed from Conar’s hand to Shalu’s and the big man frowned, looking down at their handclasp, his forehead puckering in concentration. He tightened his hold on Conar’s hand, his brows drawing together over the bridge of his nose. Shifting where he sat on the pallet, he put his entire concentration into the contact.

“You don’t feel anything, do you?” Conar asked quietly.

Shalu hissed, annoyed at the interruption, and tried concentrating harder. When he still felt nothing, he looked up slowly and met Conar’s understanding gaze.

“We have no power here, Shalu. We can feel a tiny flutter of vibration, but nothing more.”

WINDDECEIVER Charlotte Boyett-Compo 81

Shalu clutched Conar’s hand so hard the younger man’s fingers began to throb with the pressure. Still, there was no leaping fire between the two magic-sayers. No colors to waft and outline their bodies. No sense of the other’s thoughts.

Slowly, Conar withdrew his hand. “How can we fight what we can not find?” he asked.

The Necroman wiped his sweaty palm on the thigh of his breeches. “Is this normal?”

“I gather it is,” Conar answered. “I have had no powers beyond a tremor of intuition since stepping foot on these shores.”

Letting out a ragged breath, Shalu glanced up. “Do they have powers here that are useless in our lands?”

“I have no way of knowing. With the exception of Sajin’s sister when we were in the Outer Kingdom together, I have had no dealings with any magi since I’ve been here.”

“And her powers?” Shalu questioned.

“Didn’t seem all that great,” Conar answered. “She tried to probe me, but I blocked her easily enough.”

Shalu frowned heavily. “I did not come over forty thousand miles not to be able to help you.”

“You can help,” Conar told him, smiling.

“How?” Shalu asked.

“By keeping Legion and the others from coming--“ He stopped seeing the guilt already forming on Shalu’s face. “Taborn?” he demanded on a long breath.

Shalu had the grace to glance away. “We were worried about you.”

“Who are ‘we’?” Conar growled.

“Brell. The older Wynth and du Mer. The Hesar brothers. Van de Lar. Loure. Your brother, Jah-Ma-El.”

As the list grew longer, Shalu noticed an irate gleam in his young friend’s eye. He stopped, swallowing.

“Who else?” came the sneer.

“Ching-Ching.

Heil.”

Conar stared at him, more furious than he had ever been in his entire life. “And?” he barked. When Shalu flinched and refused to meet his look, he reached out and shook the brawny warrior. “And?”

“Wyn.” It was said so low, so softly, Shalu didn’t think Conar had heard him. The young man’s enraged reaction proved Shalu wrong.

“You have got to be shitting me!”

“He doesn’t deal well with being thwarted, does he?” Rupine asked the others around the camp fire when the inhuman yowl of fury broke over the encampment.

“I don’t know what your Papa told him,” Balizar said to the young Necromanian Prince,

“but whatever it was certainly wasn’t the wisest thing to have said.”

Lares shook his head. “Papa probably told him about the others.” He glanced up. “Most likely about my brother-in-law having come with us.”

“Oh, no,” Yuri breathed, avoiding Sajin’s quick look.

Sajin didn’t like the way the Shadow-warrior’s complexion had turned a pasty yellow.

“Who is your brother-in-law,” he asked Lares.

“Wynland,” Lares smiled. “The Darkwind’s oldest son.”

“Oh, hell,” Balizar groaned.

WINDDECEIVER Charlotte Boyett-Compo 82

Sajin could well understand the shouting now that was coming from behind the canvas barrier. Conar’s furious accusations, the Necroman’s bellowing defense, were bringing others from their tents to stand and listen to the exchange.

“I ought to beat the hell out of you for allowing this, Taborn!”

“I didn’t even know the brat had come with them until I got to Serenia and Kym met me! I wasn’t all that pleased with it, either! And you’d best not even try picking a fight with me, you sniveling little shit!”