WINDDREAMER (31 page)

Approaching the guard hut, Storm heard a royal commotion.

"I can't let you in," a guard said for the fourth or fifth time. "That was the orders!"

"Whose orders?" asked a woman.

"Lord Teal."

"Teal du Mer? That boy ain't never given an order on his own in his entire life! Who gave him
his
orders?"

The guard ran a trembling hand under his collar. Sweat dotted his upper lip. "I suppose it was the Duke. I don't know!"

"Then you get the Duke down here to let me in! I ain't leaving 'til I see my boy!"

"What's going on?" Storm asked, looking through the hut's grilled window.

With her hands on her ample hips, Meggie Ruck glared at Storm. She thrust out her chin and pressed her lips so tightly together a white line circled her mouth. Her eyes shot venomous sparks.

Storm smiled. "What are you doing here, Meg?"

"Tell this jackal to move his scrawny arse out of my way, Storm Jale! I came to see my boy and there ain't a man in this pile of rubble that's gonna keep me from doing it!"

"Let her in," Storm instructed the guard.

"But, Lord Teal said..."

"You want to explain to Conar why you kept his surrogate mother out of this keep?"

Through the grill, Meggie poked a stiff finger into the guard's midsection, jabbing so hard he winced. "
See!
Open the goldarned door!"

The man stepped back and did as she said. He turned hopeless eyes to Storm as Meggie marched into the keep.

"It's all right," Storm assured him.

"This keep ain't never been invaded before now!"

Storm chuckled, clapping the man on his back. "Did I forget to tell you? Meggie Ruck's our secret weapon! There's not a keep in the land she can't breach!"

Sadie MacCorkingdale kept a frozen smile on her face when King Legion said his brother would come down to eat.

"Fix something special for him, huh, Sadie?" The King cupped her cheek with his big palm. "He's got to be starving."

When he left her alone, Sadie hissed under her breath. "Oh, I'll fix him something special. I'll fix him a meal he won't soon forget!"

As she stirred the gravy into a smooth river of creamy brown, she spat into the pot several times. She hawked up a slimy wad of yellowish phlegm and stirred it into the mashed potatoes. She gathered rat droppings from the pantry and mixed them with the peas, then dropped the sliced tomatoes onto the dusty floor of the creamery.

"You won't even notice the dirt!" she snarled, peppering the rich red slices. "Just a bit of badly ground pepper, you'll think, you little son-of-a-bitch."

Setting the plate on the kitchen table where she knew Conar would want to take his meal, she surveyed her handiwork and felt good. But what she had in the pantry would put the finishing touches to his meal.

"I'm gonna set your tail on fire!"

She picked up the tankard of lemonade she had poured and carried it into the pantry. At the back of the little room, she rummaged behind spices until she found the six-inch, amber-colored vial of dark liquid. She started to pour the entire contents into the tankard.

"What are you doing?"

Yelping in surprise, Sadie spun around, her hand going to her throat, her fingers clutching the vial to her chest. Her breath caught in her throat as she saw Conar standing in the doorway.

"Lawd! You fair scared me to death!" She trembled from head to toe, terrified he had seen what she had done.

He pointed to the vial in her hand. "What's in that?" Although his voice remained calm, only slightly inquisitive, Sadie saw the growing knowledge in his demon eyes.

"What are you talking about?" Trying to laugh off the question, she brought down her hand, clutching the glass vial so tightly her fingers felt on fire with crippling arthritic pain. "Just a bit of lemon extract to spice up the drink."

"Let me see."

Sadie backed away. "See what?" Her heart thudded against her ribs. Although his face showed no anger, those eyes stripped her soul bare. "Ain't nothing to see, lad."

With hand extended, Conar stepped into the pantry. "Give me what you've got."

"What's going on?" Legion asked from the kitchen.

"She put something in my drink."

"No, I didn't!" Sadie said. "I was about to add extract when your brother scared the wits out of me."

Legion entered the pantry. He picked up the tankard, lifted it to his nose, and shrugged. "It's lemonade, and she usually puts extract in it."

"She was putting something in the drink--but not extract."

"I don't know what you're implying." Sadie drew herself up, striving for intimidation. "What would I be putting into your drink?"

"What, indeed? Give me the vial in your hand and we'll find out."

Sadie sputtered, going soft and old-womanish. "Why are you trying to persecute me, Your Grace? All I was doing was trying to make your lemonade taste good. You know I wouldn't do nothing to harm you."

"Not unless you thought you could get away with it," Teal du Mer sneered from the doorway.

Sadie rushed forward, pushing both a surprised Legion and a silent Conar out of her way. She made it as far as the fireplace before Roget stopped her, dragging her around none-too-gently to face the others.

"Get the vial!" Legion shouted. "Don't let her destroy it!"

Sadie eyed the fireplace. Before she could act on impulse, Roget grabbed her arm. She yelped in pain as Teal pried the vial from her sore fingers.

"I don't know how much was in here, but there's only an ounce left." Teal held the vial to his nose. "If it's extract, it's lost its scent."

Conar walked out of the pantry and took the vial. He sniffed, then looked at Sadie. "What is this?"

"I told you!"

"Poison?" Conar asked in a gentle yet knowing voice.

"Of course not! You know better than that, Your Grace!"

Teal snatched the vial from Conar's fingers. "Then it won't hurt
you
to drink it, will it, old woman?"

Before anyone could stop him, Teal dragged back Sadie's head and poured the vial's contents into her gaping, astonished mouth. She gagged as the liquid slid down her throat, choked, coughed, sprayed spittle and gasped for breath.

"Damn it, Teal!" Conar growled. "The stuff could kill her!"

Tears filled Sadie's eyes. " 'Tweren't nothing! 'Tweren't poison or the like!"

Teal glared at her. "We'll soon see, won't we?"

As du Mer predicted, Sadie felt the concentrated potion go to work almost immediately in her weakened, aged body.

The cook's eyes took on a sheen of pure malevolence. Her lips pulled back in a fierce snarl. Two spots of high color shot to her sunken cheeks, and her nostrils quivered with rage. "It wouldn't have kilt the little bastard!" she shouted. "Ain't never done all that much harm to him that I could ever see!"

"You've given him this before?" Roget asked.

"Ain't never hurt him before. Ain't meant to do nothing but spur him on!" Her giggle sounded evil, as dry as an arid wasteland. Her nose lifted. "Ain't no poison, Your High and Mighty Worship," she spat at Conar. "Just a little bit of something to cause you grief!"

Conar eyed the vial in Teal's hand.

"What's in it, then?" Legion asked, gripping Conar's shoulder.

"I don't know," he said. "Get Jah-Ma-El."

His brother dashed from the room.

Sadie glared at Conar with such hatred, such loathing, it staggered him. He viewed her spite, heard her curses, and wondered how he could have overlooked this old woman's utter hated of him.

She struggled against Roget's hold. "You ain't nothing but a good-for-nothing shit! Whoring and drinking and getting babes on women who trusted you! Using them like common trollops, although they be good girls! Tempting them with that body of yours. You're the devil, you are! The demon from the Pit, you are!"

Jah-Ma-El rushed in with Legion. "Give me the vial." He sniffed the top, frowned, then turned over the bottle. A single drop of purple fluid dripped into his palm. He swung his head toward Sadie. "The bitch was going to lace your drink with tenerse!"

"What the hell is tenerse?" Legion growled. "Poison?"

"No, not poison. It does a variety of things when mixed with different liquids. It can be a powerful sedative, or an even more potent narcotic. If you mix it in milk, you've got one of the most incendiary aphrodisiacs known to modern man."

Conar's eyes widened. How many times had Sadie given him this drug? Ten? Twenty? A hundred? Had she given it to him before he raped Elizabeth? When he had been violent with Gezelle? He stared in disbelief at the woman smirking at him.

"Yeah," she spat, "you understand, now, don't you, you little bastard? I been giving that to you for years!"

Looking intent on strangling the bitch, Jah-Ma-El started forward, but Legion grabbed him. "You don't know what that stuff can do to him!" Jah-Ma-El yelled, trying to pull out of Legion's hold.

"It can make a man so angry," Conar said in a hollow, wooden voice, "so vicious with that anger, he is capable of doing just about...anything." He hung his head and sat in a chair. "And he won't even know why."

"I can tell you why!" Sadie shrieked. "You want to know?"

She jerked out of Roget's grip and rushed forward, her hands raised into claws, going for Conar's face. He stood up so fast, his chair flew backward. He grasped her wrists to keep her from gouging his eyes. Staggering from her momentum, he pulled her against his chest.

"Get your hands off me!" she screamed into his face, kicking out at him, jerking in his hold. "Get your filthy hands off me!"

As Legion and Roget tugged Sadie away from Conar, she spat a mouthful of saliva in his face.

"I hate you!" she screeched. "I hate you!"

With trembling fingers, Conar wiped away the spittle running down his cheek. He stared at the woman, seeing her insane fury, watching with stunned fascination as she bucked and twisted against Legion and Roget.

His face crinkled. "Why? What have I ever done to you?"

"What have you done? What have you done?" Spittle flew from her mouth as she struggled to get to him. "You killed my Joannie! That's what you done!"

"Joannie?" Conar asked, startled and bewildered. "I'd never have hurt Joannie."

"You did!" Sadie roared. "You might not have had the knife in your hand, but you killed her just the same!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Legion shouted. "Joannie jumped off the Bumsford bridge. She killed herself. Conar had nothing to do with that. Hell, he wasn't even in Serenia when it happened!"

Sadie's face glowed with evil. "He killed my baby! He killed my daughter! Might as well have plunged that knife in her as not!"

"I could never have hurt Joannie, Sadie. We were friends."

"Friends?" Her voice lowered to a venomous hiss. "Oh, you was friends, all right. That girl worshipped the ground you walked on, she did. It was always...'His Grace, this,' and 'His Grace, that'! She took to stealing things of yours, keeping them in her room, mooning over them. You'd pass by, smile that wicked smile, and she'd sigh like her heart was gonna break. She
loved
you, and you didn't even care! She was just one more light-o'-skirt to you, wasn't she?"

Conar shook his head. "Joannie was only twelve. When I realized she had a crush on me, I tried to keep away. I didn't want her to get hurt."

"But it didn't keep you from messing with her, did it!"

Across the room, Teal gasped.

Conar stared at the woman. "I never--"

"You took her! I
know
you took her," she spat. "When you found out she had your get in her belly, you rode off to Virago to see your cousins! Everybody knew how you felt about your women getting with babe by you. Once you got them seeded, you'd have nothing more to do with them." A hitching sob shattered her voice. She spat like a cat, while tears ran down her weathered cheeks. "Joannie thought if she could but get rid of the babe, you'd come back to her."

Out of the corner of his eye, Conar saw Teal slide down the wall, hands pressed against his ears, as if shutting out Sadie's fevered words. A whimper escaped his throat, but no one except for Conar seemed to notice. Teal looked into Conar's eyes, then turned away, guilt written on his face.

Conar's gaze slid back to Sadie.

"So she went to that old hag over to Bumsford. Rode all the way there that night." Sadie's mouth twisted with remembered pain. "Got rid of it, she did. Swept it down the privy." Her lips trembled. "Just like little Gezelle swept away her babe when you got
her
with child."

Blood rushed from Conar's face.

Sadie sagged in Roget's arms. "She came home sick and still bleeding. I made her tell me what she'd done, who'd knocked her up. She confessed. I told her what a foolish thing she'd done. You wasn't going to have nothing to do with her, I tells her. Not you, not His High and Mighty Prince Conar. I told her once you found out what she'd done, you'd probably have her whipped for destroying a royal bastard."

Conar closed his eyes. He could see Joannie MacCorkingdale's face, sweet and tender, so full of life and trust and charity. He supposed if he listened hard, he would probably hear her giggles. She had always been shy, a bit on the fearful side, but there had been good reason for that. He'd always tried to talk with a gentle voice to her, to encourage her at the drawings she loved to do. He had even convinced the castellan to find her a job in the keep so she could be near her mother.

But not once, in all the years he knew her, had Conar ever touched her with anything but affection and respect. He'd make her laugh, or tease her into a better mood if he'd seen her moping about. He knew she had a difficult life, and he wanted to do nothing to make it worse. After all, at ten years of age, she'd been raped by one of the Temple guards. She had born a son--Robbie MacCorkingdale--who'd been taken away at birth and installed at the Wind Temple at King Gerren's request so the girl could hope to have a better life. When Joannie had killed herself, Conar had been sixteen.

"Conar would have
never
done such a thing!" Legion yelled at the old woman. "You told that child a lie, just to make Conar look bad."