WINDDREAMER (10 page)

"Has the fever broken?" Sentian asked, coming to stand beside Shalu. He smiled wanly at the big Necroman, who leaned over the bed, his muscular forearm resting on the high headboard.

"No," Shalu answered. "He is hotter than ever." There were dark circles of fatigue and worry etched on his dark face. His rumpled hair and wrinkled clothes advertised he had slept in them the night before.

"Is there anything I can do, Milady?" Sentian inquired of Liza.

Slumped against the headboard, her arms wrapped around Conar's shivering body, she brushed away a tendril of sweat-drenched hair from his glistening forehead. She had not left his bedside for more than a few minutes at a time, had even slept beside him, his unconscious body in her arms.

"I'd appreciate fresh water, Senti. We need to bathe him again." She looked at her Sentinel. "The fever will break soon."

Shalu nodded. "It is the Labyrinthian fever more than his wounds that disable him. The wounds were clean and hit no vital spot. He bled more than he should have, but not so much that it has endangered his life." He ran a hand over his tired face. "That little shit chose his weapon well, for no other could have done such damage to Conar."

"He knew that," Sentian snarled. He looked at his lady. "I will bring water only if you will allow me to bathe him. You need rest."

Liza shrugged. "There will be time to sleep when he awakes. I'll not leave his side until then."

Brelan and Jah-Ma-El entered the room, then came to the bed and looked at their brother. What Brelan saw made his heart ache.

The raging fever caused Conar's flesh to glow a dull red. Even as Brelan watched, the convulsions that had gripped Conar innumerable times before, settled on him with a vengeance, and caught him in the throes of a wild delirium.

"Move, Elizabeth," he ordered, pulling her to her feet. He replaced her on the bed even as Jah-Ma-El dashed to the other side. Between them, they held Conar's thrashing arms. Sentian and Shalu sat at the foot of the bed to grip his legs.

Conar jerked, freeing an arm and a leg before the men stilled him. Obviously encased in red-hot waves of agony, he groaned, his eyes fluttering open, and he mumbled.

"We're here, little brother," Jah-Ma-El assured him, freeing a hand to stroke Conar's cheek. He smiled as the unfocused eyes swung his way. "Your brothers are with you."

"Jah-Ma-El?" The word sounded little more than a plea.

"Aye, it's me." He kissed the wet forehead.

Brelan called to him. Conar stirred at the sound, his lips trying to fashion his brother's name, but the unmerciful hands of darkness swooped up to claim him and he sank into unconsciousness once more.

Great spasms shook the bed frame. It took all four men to keep him on the mattress. Though he slept, caught in some unspeakable hell, with each touch of the gentle hands on his body, he whimpered in pain and what could only have been fear. Brelan could not imagine the horrors Conar's unconscious mind had undoubtedly conceived.

He whispered to his brother, taking the iced water Thom brought in to him. He washed Conar's brow, chest, and arms, then turned him and ran the cold rag over his scarred back.

Through what was left of the day, the men stayed with him. None allowed Liza near enough to the bed to sit down, turning aside her protests with gentle but stern shakes of their heads. They had formed an unspoken alliance to keep her at a distance while her lover convulsed with fever.

Near dawn of the second day, Conar began to regain consciousness. He stared at the men hovering over him. Brelan wasn't certain Conar recognized him, for it was obvious his pain was too great, the fever still rampaging through his system. His sweat-dampened hair lay plastered to his forehead and the febrile sheen in his eyes gave them a hellish glow.

"We need to change these sheets," Brelan said. He stepped back, allowing Bent to lift the man from the mattress. Conar blinked and turned Brelan's way. "It's all right. You just rest."

The sound of low cursing, spitting, like two tomcats fighting, made everyone turn. An angry and vulgar command came before the door flew open so swiftly it crashed against the wall.

"What the hell?" Brelan demanded, skirting the bed. Chand and Grice blocked the doorway, their backs toward the room. Grice shoved someone away. "What the hell's wrong with you two?"

Grice looked over his shoulder, a look of disgust on his handsome face. "This...this fool wants to enter. I said he couldn't!"

Leaning heavily on a crutch, pain settling on his red face, Legion A'Lex pushed himself away from the wall opposite the opened doorway, wincing at his injured shoulder. "I have a right to see him. If he is so ill, I will know it!"

"Where do you get the nerve to come here and demand anything?" Brelan snapped.

Legion's set and mulish expression brooked no interference. He hobbled toward the doorway, ignoring the way the Wynth brother's blocked his entrance. "He is my brother, too, Saur!"

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought you told him he was no longer any kin of yours."

"Leave off, Saur! I was angry. I didn't want anything to happen to him."

"You could have fooled us," Grice said.

Legion glared at his old friend. "Let me pass. There are things I have to say to him. I may not get the chance if I wait much longer."

"He's not dying!" Roget snarled. "You may wish he were, but he isn't!"

"I wish no such thing!" Legion limped closer, his jaw thrust forward in stubborn anger. "I want to see him!"

"There's nothing you can say to him that would help," Jah-Ma-El answered, joining the men at the door. "He isn't conscious, anyway."

Legion's face paled. He looked at the floor. "Please," he whispered to Brelan. "I can't let things stand the way they are between us. If he doesn't wake..."

"He will wake," Roget said, calming as Brelan laid a restraining hand on his shoulder.

"Let him in," Liza said.

Brelan turned, eyeing her with astonishment. "He could do irreparable harm!"

She shook her head. "He'll only help. Despite what has gone on between Legion and me, he means no harm to Conar. Let him in." She went to her chair, sitting with a small sigh of weariness.

"My fight is not with Conar," Legion said. "He only took what was offered, like any other man would do. I realize that now. He can't be faulted for falling into her trap."

Brelan glowered at Legion, but he stepped aside. "You won't be left alone with him!"

"Brelan, please!" Liza shouted. "It is my wish that all of you leave. Let Legion have his moment with Conar. I promise, no harm will come to my love." Her look fused with Legion's. A fierce, warrior-priestess glare frosted the green depths. "I will see to that."

Shalu gestured the protesting men from the room.

"You are staying, aren't you?" Brelan asked Liza as Shalu pushed him toward the door.

"Aye, she's staying," Shalu snapped, looking back at Liza and smiling.

For a long moment, Legion stood staring with hostility at Liza. He wanted to be alone with Conar, but knew she would never allow it.

"I'll take no chances with his life," she said, reading his mind.

Ignoring her, he hobbled to the bed. He stared down at his brother, thinking how vulnerable and defenseless Conar was, how easy it would be to snuff out the straining life within the man's weak body. He glanced at Liza and knew she intercepted his random thoughts.

Her chin lifted; her dark gaze dared him. She deliberately turned, walked to the window, and pulled back the drape. Her very nonchalance made Legion realize that she feared nothing from him.

"You'd kill me, wouldn't you?" he snapped.

She didn't look around. "If you tried to harm him--I would. You once told me that if anything at all happened to your brother, I'd have you to deal with."

Legion remembered well Conar's and Liza's wedding night.

"And do you recall me asking if you would do me harm if I hurt him? Do you remember your answer?"

Legion snorted, hating her more than ever. "I told you I would, even knowing I'd hang."

"I would do no less where his safety is concerned."

A'Lex didn't reply. He took a deep breath and pulled a chair toward the bed. Easing himself down, he laid his crutch on the floor and shifted painfully in the chair, his broken leg reminding him of its painful existence. He clasped his hands, wedged them between his thighs, and let his eyes roam over his brother's form, taking in every detail, from the flushed face to the sweat-soaked sheets.

"How long has he had this fever?"

"Nearly the entire time," Liza answered. "They say it lasts..."

"I know how long it lasts!"

Legion heard her sigh and turned to see her lowered head. He felt a touch of remorse, but tore away his gaze.

Withdrawing one of his hands, he gently touched Conar's cheek, instantly alarmed at the hot flesh. He ran his knuckles down the wet cheek. "Have you no cure in your bag of tricks that can help him?"

Liza looked around. "I have heard a cure was found by the Hasdu tribe, but they aren't likely to provide us with the potion."

"Not when one of their Princes wants you to mate, eh?"

She turned away again.

Legion studied his brother, his thoughts in turmoil.

When word reached him of Regan's murder attempt, Legion had shouted down the servants who tried to stop him from mounting his horse and coming to Boreas. Despite the throbbing agony in his broken leg, the ache in his shoulder, he hoisted to his stallion's back and, with two servants accompanying him, had ridden hard and fast all the way to the Serenian capital. On the long ride, Legion had at first felt shock that such a thing could have been done to Conar. The shock turned into outrage that Conar had such little protection, even inside his home. With the outrage had come the realization that Legion still cared deeply for the man he had renounced only days before. Then the shame settled in, and he had wanted--needed--to see his brother.

Through the excruciating ride, Legion had finally heard his conscience--he had time to heed the harsh words of his inner voice.

He loved each of his brothers in a different way, even Galen when the lad was a toddler. But Conar he loved most of all. This brother meant more to him than all the rest, a love tempered with the protectiveness of an older brother for a younger, as well as the pride in being kin with a man so noble and so loyal.

There had never been a time in their lives when any form of real animosity had formed between them. There had been childish squabbles and keen competitions, intense games of one-upmanship, but no true anger in confrontations. Only when they had become grown men had any kind of true dissension developed, and even then there had been no real intent to give hurt or cause alienation.

They had always been fiercely loyal to one another, totally content with the direction their lives would take--Conar's to the throne; Legion's to the Supreme Commandership of the Serenian Forces. No jealousy over Conar and his right to rule had ever entered Legion's mind. It was a given, something accepted by both men as though it were a piece in a puzzle.

All the real trouble had started with the coming of Liza, that unknown waif who had captured Conar's errant heart. Her presence had altered the relationship between the two men forever. No longer was there room only for mutual love and affection. Now that love was being shared, overpowered by a greater love. An intruder had wedged herself between them, slowly widening a gap until the breech had been made. Now the two men were distant and untouchable, each on separate sides of a yawning chasm.

"It doesn't have to be that way," Liza whispered, knowing Legion heard her, although he made no comment at her words.

Legion understood that when Conar was marrying the Princess Anya Elizabeth, his own unspoken love for her had made matters worse. Never dreaming Liza was the woman he was to wed, Conar had offered Liza to Legion, telling him he would see no other married to her. For one moment in time, Legion had dared to hope. But hope died a horrible death when Conar unveiled his bride--Liza in all her glory, smiling at Conar, love in her beautiful face--that it had nearly driven Legion to his knees.

He tried to blind himself to his true feelings, lying to himself that he was happy for his beloved brother, wishing Liza and Conar well, while all the while a deep and dark passion lurked in his soul.

After the pain of Conar's leaving--his "death"--settled like a heavy rock in Legion's heart, rage followed regarding Liza's betrayal at marrying Galen. During that marriage, Legion's rage had subsided to an angry vigil of Liza's welfare.

Galen's death had freed her and Kaileel's edict that she and Legion wed had at first filled A'Lex with intense joy. It wasn't until the actual wedding that the full reality of his situation came crashing down upon him--Elizabeth was now his, and his alone!

Legion's vows to honor and protect Liza were the easiest vows he had ever made. He set out to win her heart as he had earlier set out to win her friendship, and he never doubted that he would. Their combined and mutual love for Conar became the basis of their friendship; and though Legion never tried to replace Conar in Liza's heart, his own patience and devotion to her helped to dull Conar's loss and she began to love again.

Slowly at first, then with the safeness of companionship and close proximity to a man who worshipped her, Liza's heart went into Legion's keeping.

In the summer before their first child was born, Legion came to realize that her love had ventured beyond the safe confines of friendship and affection. It had finally blossomed.

Now, it sagged on the vine and withered. The bloom darkened with each passing hour, and the sweet smell turned sour with betrayal. Soon, it would pass to dust and be swept away by the wind, scattered to the four corners of the globe like so much refuse.

Sitting there, watching his brother struggling to breathe, Legion went over again the truths his conscience had instilled in him on the long ride to Boreas. The knowledge did not set well on his soul.

It had not been Conar's intent to take Liza away from him. He had returned to Serenia knowing her wed to Legion, yet he had made no claim to his right. For two years he kept away from Boreas Keep and the woman he loved beyond all else. Returning from a hellish imprisonment to find the world as he had known it lost forever, Conar forced himself to stay away until Legion, himself, had unknowingly sent for him.