WINDDREAMER (30 page)

When he heard the quiet knock on the door, Yuri stood, casting a look at the bed. The prone man had not slept in all the time Yuri had been sitting with him, but he didn't seem as lost as he had when the coaches left the outer bailey for Ciona six days earlier. Yuri opened the door, not surprised to see Marsh Edan.

"We just received news. Because of heavy rains, the coaches have stopped for the night about two miles from here. They won't be in until tomorrow morn."

Yuri nodded and made to close the door.

Marsh put his hand on the portal's edge and cocked his head. "I need to speak to Conar."

Yuri stepped back to let the former Elite enter. He carefully thought of his words. "Wish you for me to remain?"

"That's all right. I'll look after him a while." He looked at the bed. "I know you've been here for hours. Why don't you take a break?"

"What you wish me to break?" Yuri's brows drew together.

Marsh laughed, then clapped Yuri on the shoulder, easing him toward the door. "I don't want you to break anything, old man. Just go rest."

Yuri's face cleared. "This 'break' means 'rest'?"

Marsh nodded, ushering the Outer Kingdom warrior out the door.

Marsh pulled a chair close to the bed. He frowned at the unwavering look in Conar's dark eyes. "Anybody in there?" he joked, waving his hand before Conar's face. He saw a flicker of life and shook his head. "If you don't stop playing dead, they're gonna cart you over to Bailswith to the nuthouse." Another flicker made Marsh smile. "You ain't as deaf to the world as everybody thinks, are you?"

"No..."

"Well, I hope you ain't got to piss, 'cause I ain't holding no chamberpots for you when you're like this."

"Fine," Conar rasped.

Marsh's smile slipped off his face and a look of concern settled there. "I know this is a stupid question, Milord, but are you all right?"

A slight nod.

"I'm glad. Are you hungry? You've got to eat something, Conar."

"Later."

"That'll have to do, I guess." Marsh sat back in the chair and folded his arms over his chest.

"What do you want, Edan?" Conar asked, finally focusing on him.

"Legion and the others are staying the night at Bumsford. The rain down that way is terrible, and it looks like it's heading our way."

Conar shrugged. "It doesn't matter."

"Nothing matters to you right now, does it?"

"Not really."

"You didn't cause Amber-lea's death, you know."

Conar's mouth twisted. "I don't want to talk about it, Marsh."

Edan let out a long breath. "No, I don't suppose you do."

Irritation flitted across Conar's stony features. "If there's nothing else..."

"I've been waiting for Legion to return to talk with him about what I've discovered, but since he won't be here until tomorrow, I didn't know if I should wait. I was hoping you were yourself, because what I have to say is important."

Conar let out a long, wavering breath and threw back the covers. Pushing himself up in the bed, he leaned against the headboard. He rubbed his right temple, obviously suffering from a migraine. "Can't it wait?"

"I suppose it could, but I haven't been able to sleep from thinking of it, and I needed to tell someone." Marsh sighed and unfolded his arms, then pushed himself from the chair. "I guess you really don't need to hear anything tonight about Duncan Cree's treachery." He turned to go.

"You've found out something about Duncan?"

Marsh saw interest gathering in the dark eyes. He shrugged. "Well, what I've learned makes no sense to me, but the Domination guard we questioned this afternoon swore it was the truth."

"Questioned here?" Conar frowned. "At Boreas?"

"We found the slimy little creep hiding in the Temple. He said he was trying to find the new Arch-Prelate."

Conar pushed himself higher in the bed. "What new Arch-Prelate? I thought that bunch was killed at the Monastery."

"Apparently not," Marsh said, swinging around the chair and straddling it. He braced his forearms on the tall back. "One or two escaped, but the one this guard was looking for wasn't there anyway. It seems he was in Boreas when the attack took place, and he's the only ranking Domination priest left."

"Did the guard name him?"

"He didn't know, but he described the man. The description sounded a lot like--Robert MacCorkingdale."

A shiver of fear traced Conar's spine. He remembered the man he had first seen at Corinth, a young acolyte who had shown respect that Conar knew would soon evaporate. "Sadie's grandson."

Marsh nodded. "And she well might have been hiding him here all this time."

"She wouldn't."

"You don't know that one like you think you do." Marsh snorted.

"What did the guard say about Duncan?" Conar asked, wanting to get away from the subject of Sadie. Since the night Amber-lea had died, he had been having odd feelings about the old cook. Feelings that did not set well in his gut.

"Well, you know Storm's wife?"

"She's all right, isn't she?" Conar asked, immediately concerned.

"Aye, she is. It's just that she's from one of the Inner Kingdom emirates and this man is a countryman of hers. As a matter of fact, they grew up in the same village. Storm and I are both from one of the emirates, though not of the same tribe as the man we questioned."

That was something Conar had never known about the two cousins who had fought beside him for so many years. Though Marsh's voice had a slight accent, Storm's an odd lilt, never in Conar's wildest dreams would he have imagined the men to be from one of the Inner Kingdoms. "I thought you were Serenian."

Marsh shook his head. "I grew up here, but I was born in Jabola, as was Storm. Anyway, this man asked to speak to Lynelle, Storm's wife. He wouldn't say anything to us until he did. I speak the dialect of the Jabol tribe, but the dialect he spoke was Hasdu--"

"Storm's wife is Hasdu?"

"No," Marsh sighed, as if annoyed by the interruption, "but she speaks the dialect. I think this bastard was trying to play secrets. When Lynelle finished speaking to him, she went outside and wouldn't answer my questions. She looked terrified and refused to discuss what had been said. After a while, I got mad enough to threaten her with a few hours' jail time if she didn't tell me what the punk had said."

"Did she?" Conar had grown more interested by the minute and felt color rise in his cheeks.

"With a little persuasion. My cousin picked a stubborn wife."

"And?"

"It seems this man used to be a guard at the court of Sheik Jabyl-Jemann, the late ruler of the Hasdu, the one whose wife poisoned him by rubbing Maiden's Briar on his cock. You remember hearing about that years ago?"

Conar nodded. "Vaguely."

"At any rate, the guard told Lynelle the Sheik had sent him to Ventura to accompany a young woman there who would soon be leaving for her wedding here in Serenia. It seemed like an easy enough assignment, he said, but there were problems."

"What kind of problems?"

"The young woman had been engaged to a Hasdu Prince, but her father wanted an alliance with the Outland kingdoms, thinking it more advantageous, so he broke the engagement. That caused a tribal war between his people and the offended Prince's, making it necessary to flee Ventura in the dead of night in order to keep the Princess from falling into the Hasdu's hands. Once they landed in Ciona, three Serenian warriors met them, and they escorted the Princess to her new husband."

Conar's brows drew together in confusion. "Where does Duncan come in? I don't understand what any of this--"

Marsh held up his hand. "The woman was the Princess Cyle."

Conar started. "Galen's wife! She fell from the balcony at Norus." He looked down at the coverlet, remembering what he had heard of the woman he had never met.

"She was being poisoned."

Slowly, Conar's head came up. "Are you sure?"

"The guard said he overheard Duncan and Kaileel Tohre discussing how they had killed the young Prince's wife. They were bragging about it. On the day she died, she was so ill from the poison, she stumbled into the railing and fell over."

Conar swung his legs from the bed and sat on the edge, hunched over, hands thrust between his thighs. "Tohre. I should have known he was behind the poor woman's death."

Marsh put a hand on Conar's shoulder. "There's more, but I'm not sure I should tell you."

He looked at Edan. "Why not?"

"I don't think it would do you any good, and it might even be too much for you to take right now." He squeezed Conar's flesh. "It's best we wait on this one--"

"Tell me."

"I don't think--"

"Tell me, Marsh. What more can I learn of Duncan's treachery that would hurt me more than him being responsible for my lady's fall into that damned chasm?"

"I want you to know, I would never willingly do or say anything to hurt you."

"I know," Conar said a bit impatiently.

"But I fear--nay--I
know
this will."

Conar let out a ragged, annoyed breath. "What you say will be the truth?" When Marsh nodded, Conar gripped his arm. "Then say it and be done with it. If it hurts me, it hurts me. I'm no stranger to pain."

Once more Marsh hesitated, then his shoulders slumped. He covered Conar's hand with his own. "Duncan was quite happy with the money Tohre gave him for ridding the Domination of Galen's unwanted wife. Tohre told him it was the least they could do since Duncan had carried out the
same
mission for the Domination before with great success. No one had suspected the Brotherhood then, and they would not suspect them now." Marsh took a deep breath and tightened his grip on Conar's hand. "He named the woman Duncan had previously killed for them."

Conar didn't want to ask.

He didn't want to know.

Not then--or ever.

His mind begged him not to listen, to send Marsh away, to drown out the words that would bring his world to another jerking halt. His heart ached even more. He feared that if Marsh said the name, he would scream, and keep screaming until they did, indeed, cart him off to Bailswith.

He tore away his gaze, lowered his hands, and in silent fascination discovered them violently trembling. "My mother?"

Marsh didn't answer. He didn't need to.

Conar's face crumbled with agony. "Kaileel had Duncan poison my mother?" Stark sorrow filled his soft words. "Why?"

"To punish you."

Nothing Marsh could have said would have hurt Conar more. His eyes glazed over, while blood drained from him face. The breath caught in his throat, and his heart missed several beats before starting again with a dull, heavy tempo he could hear in his ears. He pulled back from the hand that came out to comfort him.

"Leave me."

"But..." Marsh reached out again.

Conar knocked away the hand. "Leave me," he bit out through clenched teeth.

"I told you I shouldn't have--"

"Get the hell out, Edan!"

With a crash, the chamber door swung open. Yuri took militant steps into the room, his sword draw. "Milord?"

Marsh stood and backed away from Conar's fury. "I didn't want to hurt you, I--"

"
Get out!
"

Yuri rushed forward and grabbed Edan's arm, propelled him out of the room, and slammed the door with a resounding thump. He turned, lowering his sword and found Conar's stare aimed his way. "I no go," came the belligerent statement. "I stay!"

Conar stared at the man, not really seeing him. Though not directed at Yuri Andreanova, his words grew hollow, beseeching. "How much pain does one man have to experience in his lifetime? How much must he be responsible for?"

Yuri's face crinkled with obvious worry. He took a hesitant step forward. "I no understand."

Conar clenched his fists on his lap. "How many tears must be shed? How much must he have taken away from him before the gods are appeased?" He slowly stood. "How much? Tell me, how much?"

Yuri stepped to within reaching distance of his ward. He reached out his free hand.

Conar jerked away and glared at the Outer Kingdom warrior. "What did I do?" came the ragged, unbelieving question. "What did I do for Them to punish me so? What terrible wrong did I do to deserve all this?"

Yuri shook his head. "You have done nothing! Nothing!"

"Then why?" Conar's voice came perilously close to the tears he could not shed. "Why have They hurt me so?"

Again, Yuri shook his head. He understood what the man was asking, but he had no answers. He saw agony etched on that handsome, scarred face, watched the lips trembling with fury and pain. He could do nothing but stand there and shake his head when the man asking these torturous questions obviously needed answers.

"They would not let me be with her in life, and They denied her to me in death. What more do They want of me? What else do I have to give?"

Conar sank to his knees, his shoulders bowed beneath the weight of his guilt and pain. Yuri flung aside his sword and rushed forward, grabbing Conar even as he slid to the floor. He cradled the man's head against his wide chest, crooning, his own tears falling on the bright blond hair.

"What more, indeed?" Yuri asked his own gods.

Legion, with Teal, Roget, Grice, and Chand, stomped up the stairs and down the corridor to Conar's door. The two Outer Kingdom warriors on guard crossed their pikes to bar entrance into the room.

"What is the meaning of this?" Legion bellowed. He attempted to thrust away the lethal-looking pikes, but the two hulks stepped closer together to block his entrance. "Get the hell out of my way!"

The door opened. Yuri stared across the nexus of the pikes, then mumbled something in his foreign tongue. The two warriors snapped to attention and repositioned their pikes to a vertical rigidity that allowed Legion to enter the chamber.

"Why did you keep my people out of this room?" Legion snarled as he hurried in. Roget's vile curse made him look back to see his men on the other side of the pikes, again crossed. He glared at Yuri. "Who the hell do you think you are?"

"Your brother's man," came the sardonic reply. Yuri calmly shut the door in the faces of the other's. He threw the bolt for extra measure, then, folding his arms over his wide chest, he jerked his chin toward the bathing chamber. "He wash."

"Who told you that you were in charge?"

Yuri unfolded his right hand and jammed a thick thumb at his broad chest. "Me! I tell me!"

The door to the bathing chamber opened. Conar stood framed in the late-morning illumination from the room's skylight. A towel enwrapped his waist, and he used another to dry his damp blond hair. Seeing Legion, he frowned.

"So, you're up, are you?" Querulous, Legion flung himself onto the settee by the fire. Conar entered the bedchamber and sat on the bed, vigorously drying his hair. When Conar didn't speak, Legion cast him an annoyed glance. "Have you eaten anything?"

"Not yet."

"Do you plan on starving yourself today, as well?"

Calmly, Conar brought down the towel, folded it, and handed it to Yuri, who laid it aside. "Why are you so angry?"

"Angry?" Legion flung out his hand. "I come home to hear that you're off limits to everyone in this keep but these"--he glared at Yuri--"these
men!
People are half out of their minds with worry because those barbarians won't let anyone check on you. Anything could have happened!"

Yuri eyed Legion with obvious contempt. "He fine. We take care."

Legion stood and walked to where Conar sat. "Marsh told me you had him literally thrown from this room. Is that true?"

"Is true!" Yuri emphasized. "He deserve to be!"

Legion stepped toward the man, unafraid of either his bulk or glower. "Marsh is the keep's Master-at-Arms! He's also one of the Wind Force...the man I left in charge to make sure Conar was safe!" He came within hitting range of the scowling Outer Kingdom Shadow-warrior. "You
don't
countermand my orders! Do you understand?"

"I,
his
man!" Yuri growled. "I watch over
him!
You,
I no care about!"

"Why, you..." Legion drew back his fist.

"Stop," Conar calmly said.

Legion turned around.

Conar raised an eyebrow in warning. "That would not be wise."

With a grunt of pure fury, Legion dropped his hand and put distance between himself and the menace smirking at him. He spat a vulgarity and plopped down on the settee so hard it skidded backward. Cramming his arms over his chest, he turned his full attention to Conar. "Did you tell him to keep people away from you?"

"No, but it was just as well."

"Why was Marsh thrown out of here?"

"Yuri had his reasons." Before Legion could voice a retort, Conar held up his hand. "I had asked Marsh to leave several times and he didn't, so Yuri ushered him to the door."

"Why?"

"That's between Edan and me."

Legion watched his brother stand and remove the towel from his waist. Though he had seen Conar naked many times since he returned from the Labyrinth, the livid scars criss-crossing Conar's back, turning it to a mass of puckered scar tissue, still made Legion cringe. He lowered his eyes as Conar accepted clothing Yuri handed him.

"I'll be down in a bit," Conar said, stepping into his breeches. "There's something I want you to do for me before I leave."

Legion's head snapped up. "Leave?" His brows drew together in an angry line. "And just where the hell do you think you're going?"

"To Diabolusia."

Legion shot up from the settee. "The hell you are!"

Conar shrugged. "You can't stop me. Besides, I won't be alone. Yuri and his men are going with me."

"You aren't going anywhere!" Legion stomped across the room and put his heavy hand on Conar's bare shoulder. "Have you forgotten how much the King of Diabolusia hates us?"

"He'll guarantee me safe passage." Conar pulled from Legion's grip and took a shirt from Yuri's hand. It wasn't until Conar pulled it over his head that Legion realized the material was a pale creamy yellow and the breeches were a dark tan corduroy. Conar, it seemed, had discarded the somber clothing of the Darkwind.

The different colors of clothing gave Legion a feeling of betrayal, and he shook his head to dispel it. Not that he ever liked the black attire Conar had affected as the Darkwind. The ebon material never failed to give Legion the creeps, but this complete change unnerved him. He almost lost his train of thought, but his worry had not lessened. "You can't ride into Diabolusia without at least a heavy contingent of fighting men at your back. Why do you want to go there?"

Conar tucked the shirt into his breeches, then nimbly buttoned his fly. "We have a couple of brothers there."

"So Duncan said!"

"They're there." Conar sat on the bed, then took one of the boots Yuri held out for him.

The brown boot made Legion sigh, again making him feel a part of his life had gone forever. "Do you really think you're up to this?"

Conar pulled on the second boot and stood, hitching up his breeches. He put a hand on Legion's shoulder. "Will you tell Sadie I'm starving and I'd like to eat before I go."

"It's going to rain," Legion grumbled. "The damned weather followed us all the way from the funeral. By the time you eat, the storm will have started." He looked up with pleading. "Wait until tomorrow. Or until the weather improves. Please? What's a few days' delay in getting to that shitty place?"

"I have my reasons for wanting to be there this weekend. Respect that, will you? For once?"

Legion saw on his brother's face a firm resignation that hadn't been there for more than a month. He also saw the return of authority that he knew would brook no resistance. It would do no good to protest, but Legion would send more than Outer Kingdom thugs along with Conar, whether he wanted them or not!

"How long are you going to be gone?" Legion conceded.

"A week. Maybe two. It depends on how difficult it'll be to find them." He removed his hand from Legion's shoulder. "I intend to bring them home, if they'll come."

"Whatever you think best." Legion cocked his head. "Your powers? They're gone, aren't they?"

A look of intense relief passed over Conar's face. "I think they are."

"Then how will you know if you're riding into danger?"

"The same way any man knows. I'll
be
all right."

Before he could change his mind and have Conar locked up for safekeeping, Legion threw up his hands and went to the door. "Anything special you want for lunch?"

"Chocolate cake."

Legion's smile came slow, as did the burst of exasperated snorts, and the swinging of his head from side to side. But his mumbled "idiot" became a staccato of affection as he opened the door and ducked under the crossed pikes.