WINDDREAMER

Teal du Mer draped an affectionate arm around Elizabeth A'Lex's shoulders and kissed her temple. "You bring a ray of sunshine to this miserable, overcast day, Milady!" Cocking an eye to the two young boys accompanying her, he squeezed her against him. "And some mischief, too, I think."

Liza returned his hug, then extricated herself from his embrace. She nodded at the tall Necroman, regarding her from the top of the stairs leading to the second floor bedchambers. "How are you this morning, King Shalu?" she asked, sensing disapproval.

"Until this moment, quite content," the big man answered. His dark eyes were hooded as he swung his stare to the smaller of the two boys a few paces behind her. His black face turned hard and his thick lips pursed as he returned his gaze to Liza. "Now, I am quite discontent."

Liza's cheeks burned. She glanced at Teal, who looked back at her with an expression that said he also wasn't sure she had made a wise decision in bringing the boys to Ivor Keep.

"Why are you still here, Milady?" Sentian Heil joined the others with a hint of gentle reproach.

"Teal," Liza asked her old friend, putting a hand on his arm. "Would you take in the boys to break their fast?"

"What
are
you still doing here, Liza?" an angry voice interrupted.

She lifted her gaze to the balcony and saw her husband striding purposefully across the gallery. His boot heels rang out on the marble risers as he came down the stairs, Brelan Saur close on his heels.

"Good morn, Milord," she answered, a tentative smile on her lips.

"Answer me, Liza!" King Legion A'Lex snarled as he stepped from the last riser and faced her. "I thought I made it clear last eve you were to be gone at first light." He folded his arms across his chest.

Liza's felt flush. "And I thought I made it clear I would
not
be leaving."

"The gods damn you, woman!" he shouted, making her and the others jump. "I will see you do as you are told!"

Liza saw the tight rein he held over his emotions. She lifted her chin and locked her gaze with his stormy one. "I was sent here, Milord, and I
am
doing as I was told! I do not wish to argue."

Legion grabbed her arm in a punishing grip. "I told him last eve and I will tell you now in front of these men--I will not let you and Conar be together--to work magic or to cuckold me!"

"I would not betray you." Tears misted her lowered lashes. She wrung her hands. "Conar would never--"

"
Has,
Madame!
Has
betrayed me, or do you forget that?"

"Legion," Brelan warned, touching his brother's shoulder.

Legion jerked away. "This woman was willing to face a death sentence to protect the man who dishonored her! Conar is our brother, and I love him, but I will never allow him to touch her again!"

"Legion, please," Liza pleaded, reaching out to him, alarmed when he stepped back, his face livid with rage.

"Pay close heed to what I tell you, Madame," he whispered, his face hard and set, coldness hissing in his voice. "If you do not leave this keep before nooning, I will lock your sweet ass in the bowels of this keep and have Conar shackled hand and foot in the tower! I
will
keep you apart!"

Legion pushed through the men gathered near the keep's main portal and jerked the door wide. He stormed out into the misting rain as though he did not feel the chill.

"I'll talk to him," Roget mumbled and followed his friend from the keep.

"He doesn't understand, Liza," Brelan said.

"There isn't anything Legion can do to stop what has to happen," she whispered. "We must be together, as one, in order to do what we have to."

Liza glanced up at the balcony. The others did also, seeing their Overlord standing there, his hands braced on the elaborate wrought iron railing.

Elizabeth A'Lex's heart broke as she looked at Conar. His blond hair was much shorter than when he had left Boreas Keep; it now curled gently around his ears and hung low on his neck. His blue eyes looked troubled, tired, but they gleamed a deep sapphire as he gazed at her. A day's worth of beard stubbled the cleft in his chin, but instead of making him look unkempt, the growth only added to his sensuality.

His wide shoulders drooped with fatigue, but he stood tall, his six-foot frame unbent by the tragedies that had surrounded him nearly all his years. Though thin after his long confinement, he still looked whipcord strong and heavily muscled across his chest, thighs, and arms.

As if aware of her thoughts, he cocked a tawny brow and grinned his most devilish grin.

Liza blushed.

"
I can still make your heart race, can't I, Toad?
" he teased, the words coming softly out of the Veil to her ears alone.

"
Be good,
" she answered, even though the words never left her lips.

"
I'm best when I'm bad.
"

"
How well I know, Milord.
"

"All the original members of the Wind Force will be here come eventide," Shalu said, gaining Conar's attention.

"All?" Corbin McGregor asked as he and his little brother came out of the dining area. "Imagine, Regan! The important men of the Wind Force all gathered together at one time in one place!"

"Imagine!" the younger boy gushed with awe. "I can hardly wait!"

"Me, neither!" Corbin giggled and looked at his mother. "How many are there?"

"I don't know," Liza answered, looking away from Conar's penetrating gaze.

"Fourteen, aren't there?" Teal asked as he ruffled Corbin's thick, blond curls.

Brelan held up his fingers and began to count. "There's Conar, of course." He looked up at his brother, who smiled. "Then Roget and me, your uncles Grice and Chand and Jah-Ma-El, your cousins Rylan and Paegan Hesar, Tyne Brell, Chase Montyne, Holm Van de Lar, Sentian and Storm, and last, but certainly not least, Shalu." He nodded. "Aye, fourteen."

As the men began to answer Corbin's questions concerning the other men who had helped to organize the Wind Force in Chrystallus--men like Ching-Ching and Pearl and Misha, the Shadow-warrior--Liza watched Conar's face fill with pride.

He loves them all, she thought, and saw his lips twitch as he intercepted her musing. She looked at the marble floor.

"Elizabeth?"

She turned when the door opened and her husband strode in, his hair wet, his leather jacket dusted with fine droplets of rain.

He came to her and stared down into her worried face. "You plan on disobeying me, don't you?" he asked in a tight voice.

"It isn't a question of disobeying you, Legion, it is a question of..."

Legion looked up to where his brother stood. "It seems I can not stop you from seeing him, or speaking with him, or even doing your magic with him, but I can see to it that at no time will you ever be left alone with him!"

"I can accept that, Milord," she answered. "Jah-Ma-El is well-versed in the arts, as is Chase Montyne and King Shalu. There is no conjuring Conar and I need do alone."

The wind taken out of his sails, Legion snorted, then turned from his wife with a curse. "You know how I feel about this, Elizabeth."

She cocked her head to one side. "Why have you changed your mind about he and I working together? Did Roget speak with you?"

"Aye, he meant to have me 'see reason,' as he put it." He shot a hand through his thick mane of silver hair, tugging on the strand handing low on his forehead. "After du Mer was through with me, I had a visit from three of the others." He looked at Brelan. "Montyne and the Hesars have arrived. Van de Lar is with them."

"That was quick," Sentian said.

"They've come running to see Conar take back what he
thinks
is his," Legion snarled. "They hope to see him take the crown away from me."

"Legion!" Liza gasped, outraged at his words. "That is not true! They love you!"

"And that is what makes it so hard for me to bear the situation. I know they love me, but"--he returned his angry glare to the balcony--"they love him more." His voice had gone throaty, hard.

She came toward him.

"No! I need time alone to think." He headed for the library.

"To think on what?" she shot back. "The many ways in which your brother and his men might betray you?"

With his back to her, he opened the door and walked through. "No, ways in which to prevent
you
from doing so."

He closed the door behind him.

Conar drew in a long breath when he saw the hurt flitting across his ex-wife's lovely oval face. Deep sorrow filled her forest green eyes. He watched her slender hand move up to smooth a stray wisp of coal black hair from her coral-tinted cheek.

"I wish it could be different," he said regretfully.

She nodded, but did not look up at him.

"Should I talk to him, Coni?" Brelan called.

Conar shook his head. "It wouldn't do any good. Besides, I should be the one to do it."

Liza glanced up. "Is that wise, Milord?"

He shrugged. "Maybe not, but who better to try to put his mind at ease?"

Shalu sighed. "I don't think that's possible."

"Go away," Legion growled. "I'm tired of fighting."

"I didn't come in here to fight," Conar answered, sitting down on the edge of the ornate oaken desk.

Ignoring his brother, Legion continued to stare out the window at the misting rain. The monotonous tick-tock of the great clock in the hallway set his teeth on edge, but he would be damned before he started a conversation with Conar.

"Say it, Legion. We're not strangers who--"

"Aren't we? I no longer know you!" Legion fixed his brother with an ugly sneer. "You're an outlaw with a bounty on your head. You are a danger to this family, a danger to Liza and the children."

"The family's well-protected. I'd never allow anything to hurt--"

"The hurt has already happened. That day, in the Punishment Yard, brought terrible pain and suffering to our family." Legion shoved his hands into his pockets. "And it's still causing pain."

Conar let out a long, tired sigh. "Do you blame me for everything that's happened?"

"
No!
I blame myself!" Legion shouted, flinging out a hand in disdain.

"For what? What was meant to be, was done."

"You were my brother. I should have made them let me see you in jail! If I had, maybe I could have stopped them from taking you away."

"There was nothing you could have done." Conar put a hand to his temple and rubbed. "Tolkan and Tohre had long been planning my downfall."

"I should have tried!" Legion became aware of his brother's sudden pallor. "What's wrong?"

"It's a gods-be-damned migraine."

Legion let out a groan of frustration. "Now? We can't give you anything for it." He knew any painkiller would bring back Conar's withdrawal symptoms. "Is it bad?"

"It's gonna be," came the defeated sigh.

"Want me to help you upstairs?"

Conar looked at the loveseat across the room. "I'll lie down there."

Legion recognized all too well the tight grimace of pain on his brother's face. Jah-Ma-El's angry words to Sern Jamar, the nomad procurer, brought it home to Legion just how bad the pain might become for his brother...

It had been soon after Conar lapsed into a coma and they didn't know whether he would live that Sern had been sent for. They thought Conar's confidant and drug purveyor might be aware of what ailed the Raven.

The nomad had confessed, standing beside the bed, a glowering Jah-Ma-El behind him.

"Did you know he has violent headaches?" Jah-Ma-El had snarled, shoving the nomad against the wall. "Now, we dare not even give him medicine he'll need when those headaches come, thanks to you!"

"Think you I would have given anything to him had I known?" Sern cried. The nomad's tears dragged down his oily cheeks as he stood clenching and unclenching his hands. It had been their first inkling that the nomad truly cared for Conar.

"You'd have fed him his own piss if he'd have paid for it!" Sentian Heil had argued.

Sern turned defensive, his love for the man apparent in the way he winced at every ragged breath Conar took. "I kept him away from the liquor as much as I could. Does that not show you how--"

"You sniveling jackal!" Roget du Mer bellowed. "You damn well almost killed him with that poison, and now you quibble about the liquor? I'd rather see him shit-faced drunk than as he is now!"

"I warned him the drugs were dangerous!" Sern sobbed. "I cautioned him to take only small amounts, else--"

"Bastard!" Legion had shouted. "You're babbling about matters of little importance. We're talking about his life. You almost killed him!"

Sern hid behind Jah-Ma-El, but his words found their mark with uncanny accuracy. "Ask yourself why he has done what he has done, King Legion. This was no accident! He knew what the drug could do to him if he took too much. He even asked if it would kill him. I told him it could. He meant to die! Was it because he had no desire to live or because he knew he could never be with the woman he loves?"

Legion tried to get past Brelan, but Roget made a grab for him, blocking him.

"And then," Sern spat, his dark eyes gleaming with fire, "ask yourself why it is he can not be with the woman the gods destined for him! Who stands in his way of having the happiness that has been denied him so long?" The nomad practically growled at Legion. "You have no one to blame for him not being able to receive a potion to relieve his headache but yourself, King Legion!"

With a snarl of pure rage, Legion broke free of the hands holding him. He hit the nomad, time and time again, breaking the beak-like nose, smashing teeth and crushing a cheekbone before Thom and Bent could restrain him.

Legion remembered Brelan's fist coming toward him, then darkness, until a pail of water was thrown in his face...

"Legion?"

He shook himself, coming back to the present. He saw Conar lying on the loveseat, his hand covering his eyes. "I love her, Conar."

"I've known that for a long time, big brother."

Legion hung his head. His heart broke. "I've always loved her. I can't loose her." He lifted his head and found Conar watching him. "Please don't take her away from me."

"Don't worry," Conar sighed. "I won't. She's yours. I have no rights to her anymore."