WINDDREAMER (7 page)

"And who are you?" Jah-Ma-El stroked the blood-damp side of Legion's head.

"Your brother..." Legion shifted his gaze toward Roget. "Who pushed me, du Mer?"

Roget sighed. Looking at Jah-Ma-El, he grinned. "He'll be all right."

"Who the hell pushed me?" Legion asked, trying to sit up and drawing in his breath. When Conar tightened his grip, Legion craned his head to look straight into Conar's gaze. The question died on his lips. "
You
did it," he accused, his stare boring into Conar. "
You
pushed me down the gods-be-damned stairs!"

"Legion," Grice said, hunkering beside his friend. "Conar wasn't anywhere near you when--"

"You didn't have to be, did you, Conar?" The anger in A'Lex's words sounded like sizzling meat on a brazier.

Conar looked at Roget. "Take him." He waited until Roget accepted the burden of Legion's body, then stood.

"I'll
never
forgive you, Conar," Legion ground out. "You could have killed me!"

"Aye, but I didn't."

"You want her that badly? Badly enough to kill me to get her?"

For a long moment, no one spoke, no one moved.

The brothers stared at one another. Neither gave ground, neither looked away. A mute understanding passed from one man to the other, excluded those gathered.

"You are no brother of mine," Legion said, stamping finality to the confrontation. "From this day forward, I do not claim you. You are nothing to me."

"Careful what you say," Jah-Ma-El warned. "Conar has kept away from the lady, except for that one night when he didn't know what he was doing. You said you forgave him. Is your word of no consequence?"

Legion kept his eyes on Conar. "Words of honor spoken to a man of his ilk are meaningless. Forgiveness for something he intended to do all along will not come from me!" He struggled to raise himself to a sitting position. "Father was right in disowning you. You are no longer a member of this family!"

Conar turned his back on Legion and began to climb the stairs.

"If you want her that badly," Legion called, "then you can have her! I'll not lower myself any longer to accept your leavings!"

Turning, fixing Legion with a look of anguish, Conar tried to keep the catch out of his voice. "She is your wife. Don't speak of her like that."

"She is nothing to me, like
you
are nothing to me! You wanted her so badly you were willing to kill me. Then take her, Conar. I want nothing to do with either of you!"

An angry line formed along Conar's lips. He came down the stairs and crept toward his brother. "Are you sure that is what you want?"

The hateful smirk on Legion's bearded face gave him the answer.

"All right! So be it!" Spinning around, Conar took the stairs two at a time, his heavy footsteps causing the treads to tremble in protest.

His sixth sense drove him toward the forest. Opening his psyche to the finely tuned connection between him and Liza, he could sense her pain, her worry calling to him in the night. He had heard her gasp of horror and knew she was aware of Legion's fall.

A tremor ran along his nerve endings. His breathing slowed, almost stopped, as he concentrated on the vibrations. He willed his heart to stop its frantic tempo. He listened, not to the night sounds, but for the strumming of his and her life forces as they erratically throbbed. He pictured her in his mind, heard her heart beating in unison with his. He listened closer, cocking his head to one side.

A faint sound, a mobile humming, played just beyond his conscious hearing. He concentrated harder than he had ever done in his life.

There! Over there. He heard it!

For only a fraction of a second, he heard the hum of her life force, pulsing like the middle string on a guitar. It moved in opposition to his own lower-pitched hum. With an effort, he omitted the throb of his own rhythm and heard hers clearly. Far away, but he heard it just the same.

He headed for the sound.

For the next ten minutes, he clawed and twisted through the forest, the light of the skipping moon lighting his way to a potter's shed, miraculously still standing, despite the fierce storms. He opened the door and entered.

"I needed you," she whispered.

"I'm here now," he said, closing the door behind him.

Conar followed the sweet scent of her body to find her. He gathered her forbidden curves against him, and placed her head against his chest. His arms cradled her with a possessive force he could no longer deny. His lips found her hair, and he kissed the silkiness, his cheek pressed along the side of her head.

"I knew you'd come," she said, her voice quivering.

"I always will." Feeling tears sliding down her cheeks, he held her as though nothing in this world or beyond could sever them. "It will always be me, Liza. I will always be there for you."

A torrent of sobs ripped through her trembling body. She gripped him with the arms of a drowning woman, hugging him fiercely. "I want you so much."

His face creased into a mask of pain. "Oh Liza, the gods know I have tried to stay away from you, to do the right thing, to be loyal to Legion. I wanted no fight with him. I didn't mean to push him..."

Her fingertips came up to silence him. "I know, beloved," she murmured, letting her fingers trail down his throat. "I understand."

He shivered. "Legion wanted this thing between us. I didn't. But I won't back down to him. I won't. He will
never
lay a hand on you again. Not after tonight. If you stay with me, Elizabeth, I can never again allow you to be with another man!" Stern yet cautious, he drew back to look into her face, now visible in moonlight spilling through a small window. "I will have you sure of this."

"I have never been surer of anything in my life. I want to be with you. Only you."

He crushed her to him, feverishly pressing her body to his own. His hands went up her back of their own volition and entangled themselves in the rich, radiant abundance of her raven tresses. He dragged back her head so his lips could taste the pulsing hollow at the base of her throat.

A low groan of mindless arousal escaped his questing lips, and his mouth traveled over her chin to claim hers in a bruising kiss. His tongue violently stabbed into her sweet mouth, penetrating her, claiming her, branding her. Bending down, he put his hands under her legs and lifted her off the floor.

Liza wrapped her legs around his hips as he strode to the wall and pinned her against the rough wood. His right hand pushed aside her skirt, ripped away her stockings from the warm juncture of her thighs. He shifted her higher up the wall until he could tear at the buttons of his breeches. His manhood sprang forward with purposeful intent.

"Liza," he groaned deep in his throat, his husky grunt of passion loud in the stillness of the potting shed.

His hands slid under her, tightly cupping her buttocks. Lifting her to his hardness, he entered her with a quick lunge, going deep. When he completely filled her moistness, he stilled, allowing her to feel the throbbing length of his penis buried within her.

"Feel it! Feel me inside you! Feel my love inside you, Elizabeth!"

His hands dug into her rump and he pulled out of her, the wetness of his sword leaving a moist trail on the lips of her womanhood.

Liza gasped, groaning at his withdrawal. Her nails dug into his shoulders. "Conar, please...please don't tease me..."

Smiling triumphantly, he settled her higher against the wall and thrust into her again, forcing himself as deep as he could go. He heard her short gasp of pleasured pain when she ground herself against him, as if needing the hard strength of him impaling her. He withdrew and heard her softly sighed "no," then eased back into her, driving deep and full.

The urgency of his lust pounded in his ears, the heat of her sheathing him making him wild with passion. But he controlled the need to fill her with his seed. The thought of her, the smell of her drove him mad, yet he concentrated on making her come before him. His manhood leapt inside her, throbbing with so much intensity he bit his lip to keep from climaxing. She became an ache in the very core of him.

"Shall I pay homage to you, my Queen?" he whispered in her ear. His tongue flicked inside the spiral of pink flesh.

Liza breathed hard. "Aye! Fill me, my dark warlord. My darling Prince of the Wind. Fill me with your love!"

He felt her tightening around him and knew he wouldn't be able to stop the flood of semen threatening to erupt. "Then have me, Beloved...have all of me!"

He pulled out of her, then drove upward, into her quivering flesh. A blinding surge of hot fluid spilled into her waiting womanhood; a burst of flame erupted over both of them as his seed surged deep within her soft flesh. When he heard her scream his name, felt her hips jerking against his pelvis, he threw back his head and howled to the heavens--

"
Mine!
"

The Ravenwind
had a difficult time maneuvering along the coastline of Serenia during the heavy rains that lasted for nearly a month. For most of that time, the black ship had ridden at anchor just beyond the jut of land known as Widow's Point, about twenty miles south of Boreas Keep. Her crew, captained by Gilbert Tarnes, arrived at the turn of the new year with a precious cargo destined for Ivor Keep. When they finally lowered a jolly boat into the subsiding waves, Tarnes and the second mate, Albert Lichter, set out immediately for the keep. By the time the bone-tired men, unaccustomed to horseback, arrived at the ruined keep, they stood outside the destruction with looks of intense worry on their weather-worn faces.

"You reckon there's people buried in that rubble?" Albert asked, his voice low and fearful. "You reckon the captain and the lad are under that mess?"

Gilbert Tarnes spat a long, thick stream of tobacco juice from his toothless mouth and gaped up at the only thing standing at the keep--the air shaft leading to the dungeon.

"He's alive and so's Paegan." He looked back to the third man with them. "Ain't that so, Milord?"

"Indeed they are, Mr. Tarnes." The man swung a long leg from his mount and quieted the horse when the beast sidestepped his hand. "Easy," he said in an oddly accented voice. "There's no death here."

"Hello!"

They spied a young man walking toward them from the midst of the ruins. He raised his hand and waved.

"It's Paegan," Tarnes snorted, spitting another stream of dark brown juice.

Paegan's face paled when he saw the tall, impressive man standing beside the sailors. His smile faltered and he stumbled, his mouth coming open in surprise.

The man laughed, handing his reins to Albert. "Don't look so worried, Paegan. You have done nothing wrong."

Paegan grinned sickly. "I hope not, sir."

Skirting the fallen timbers, the tall man walked to Paegan and held out his hand. Grasping the slim wrist in his own, he took a firm grip and cocked a thick black brow. "Has something happened that has you worried?"

"Ah, like what?"

"Like trouble here." He looked beyond Paegan's shoulder. "Other than that caused by nature?"

Wincing, Paegan looked toward the stables.

"Never mind. I'll see for myself." Striding briskly toward the stable, the man cast his gaze around the debris and seemed to sigh in regret. "This was once a beautiful piece of architecture."

Stunned expressions and opened mouths rewarded the man when he entered the stable. His passing brought nervous jittering to the men who sat about the hay bales in the early morning light. They came slowly to their feet and looked at each other, not daring to speak, not willing to draw his attention to them. As he neared Roget and Brelan, bent over Legion A'Lex's pallet, every ear strained to hear the reaction.

"Damn it, Legion," Brelan said. "Will you listen to reason?"

"Saur?" Roget du Mer interrupted.

"Leave me alone! I'm trying to make this fool listen!"

"Ah, Bre." Roget pulled on Brelan's sleeve.

Brelan knocked away the hand. "Handle it yourself!"

"Saur!" came a voice from behind.

Annoyed beyond belief that whoever called him could not see the importance of his actions, Brelan jerked his head around and started to shout at the intruder.

The words died in his throat.

"Where is your brother?"

Saur coughed, then gagged, his normally placid face turning red.

"I asked you a question."

Legion craned his head around Brelan and looked at the stranger. What he saw lifted his brow in query. The man was obviously someone of importance by the way both du Mer and Brelan gaped in fear. The long, braided silver-white hair, the hawkish nose, and the direct stare could mean only one thing.

"Occultus Noire," Legion whispered.

The man shifted his attention to the pallet, smiled, and reached down his hand. "King Legion? I am honored. I have heard much of you from your brothers." He clasped Legion's wrist in a strong grip. "Where is Conar?"

Legion snarled. "Getting his cock sore, I would imagine!"

"The woman?" Occultus asked Roget.

"He'll explain things to you, Master," Roget answered.

"Oh, I can explain things!" Legion shouted.

"Legion, don't," Brelan warned.

"What's the matter, little brother? Don't you think this man knows what kind of bastard Conar is? He trained him, didn't he? Don't you think he knows Conar's the kind of man who steals another man's wife and turns her into a whore?"

Occultus sighed and looked at Jah-Ma-El, standing nervously off to one side and holding a brandy bottle. He returned his gaze to the pallet, likely assessing Legion's inebriated state. "Conar is in charge of his own destiny. He knows what he wants and has gone after it."

"And with your blessing, I suppose!" Legion squinted at the man. "Did you help him steal my wife from me?"

"He does not need my help, King Legion. Your brother has outdistanced my small charge of power. He's far more powerful than any sorcerer who has ever lived. Surely you suspected as much."

"Aye, but he needed
my
wife to make him so powerful!
My
wife, Occultus. Not his!"

"There should be no division in his mind now, King Legion. I feel the battle is coming--that is why I am here. Conar should be centered, totally aware of what is happening. If he is worried about this division between the two of you, he can make mistakes that may prove disastrous. Mistakes that could take his life."

Legion shifted on the pallet. "I don't give a rat's ass whether he lives or dies!"

Gasps of shock came from those gathered, but Occultus held up his hand, calling for quiet. "You know you do not mean that. Be careful what you say, King Legion. Words often come back to haunt us. Conar needs the love and strength of his entire family behind him now. You are furious with him, but you know in your heart he was destined to be with Elizabeth Wynth as surely as the wind blows down from the heavens. She is, and always has been, his chosen destiny. Your love for her, or her affection for you, can not change what the gods decreed long before either he or she was conceived."

"Then why did They let me have her at all?" Legion cried, tears gathering in his eyes. "I love her! She is my life! Why let me have her if only to take her back in such a cruel fashion?"

"Just as she was taken from your brother? Whose was the greater hurt, King Legion? Yours or his?"

Legion attempted to look away from the man's keen stare, but could not.

"Do you not know that you are your brother's favorite? That you were not only his kinsman, but his best friend? Who taught him how to love, A'Lex? Who cared for him when he came back from the Monastery a child whose soul had been damaged? What other person would the gods have entrusted with Conar's most prized possession than you? You were chosen long ago to be her protector, her champion until the time was right for Conar to reclaim her. Do you really think the gods let Kaileel Tohre make such a decision as that by himself?"

Legion's cheeks burned with fury. He dared not open his mouth and say what he wanted, for the look on the man's face--kind, pitying--cut him to the core.

"Think on what I have said. Let not your jealousy and your hurt sway you from what you know is right."

Occultus motioned for Brelan and Roget to follow him.

"Behave," Brelan warned Legion before he left.

Outside in the first sunshine the keep's inhabitants had seen in many a week, Brelan sighed, keenly feeling the precariousness of their situation.

"He is with her?" Occultus inquired.

"We believe so," du Mer answered.

"Did he cause his brother's accident?"

Brelan shrugged. "Legion thinks he did."

"Then he did." Occultus looked toward the forest. "Did no one think to talk to him before this impasse arrived?"

"How do you tell a man like him 'no'?" Roget asked. "We all saw this coming from the moment Elizabeth stepped foot in Ivor."

Frowning, his gaze fixed on the forest, Occultus released a long breath. "When a man loves as blindly as Conar, it is not healthy. It is a thing to be feared. He has let this love become the center of everything he does. He has become as addicted to her as he was to the drugs. Conar has stepped over the boundary of love and entered the dark side of obsession." He looked at the men. "What if something should happen to this woman? What would happen to Conar?"

Brelan made no reply, but her knew the answer in his heart. If something ever happened to Elizabeth, Conar might well cease to exist.