Camber the Heretic by Katherine Kurtz Read Free Book Online

father is no warrior, and he has done well enough.”
    â€œMy father.” The boy snorted with a dejected derision. “Aye, he is no warrior. Would that he were, and had been, from the beginning. But, no, he must abandon his vows and be neither prince nor priest, and accursed by God. If he had not, I would not be thus, with the sign of God’s displeasure for all to see!”
    With that, he jerked his deformed foot from Tavis’s grasp and tried to hide it behind the other one, turning his face away and knuckling angry tears. Jebediah, aghast at what he had just heard, looked at Tavis for some explanation.
    â€œMy lord, have you been filling his head with these mad tales?”
    â€œIt is not I who teach him history or religion, my Lord Deryni Marshal,” Tavis said bitterly. “Please leave us. Haven’t you upset His Highness enough for one afternoon?”
    Jebediah could find nothing to say to that. As Tavis stood and gathered the crippled prince in his arms, to carry him away from the eyes which now stared from every part of the room, Jebediah felt like a monster. He watched them go, wondering how he was going to explain this to Cinhil and, even more, to Camber.
    But at that moment, Camber’s thoughts were far from the princes and from Valoret. As he and Joram followed Jesse up the outside stairs from the castleyard, into Ebor’s great hall, he reviewed in his mind the little he had gleaned thus far about the situation for which Rhys had called him.
    It was unusual for Rhys to ask directly for his help, for Camber had never really been able to learn any of the Healer’s Art which Rhys had mastered so well and so many years before. Camber had been considered a great non-healing adept, and Alister was not unaccomplished himself; but neither aspect of the man who now nodded greeting to Gregory’s various servants and retainers could compare with the specialized abilities of a gifted Healer like Rhys.
    And yet, if Rhys had somehow managed to take away Gregory’s Deryni powers, then that was, indeed, a subject of great interest, both to Camber and to the part of him which was Alister. It was a thing which could touch all Deryni. Camber had never heard of such a thing happening, except in occasional head injuries which were so severe that other functions were also impaired; and in those cases, function could almost never be restored, and the patient surely died. Nor had he ever read of such a thing, though over the years he and Evaine had worked with some very ancient documents, indeed—records which sometimes spoke of many wondrous things not normally thought of as falling within even a Deryni’s abilities. The ancient texts said nothing about taking away a person’s powers deliberately.
    Jesse led them up a winding turnpike stair for nearly two floors, then doubled back through a narrow gallery walkway which skirted along the length of the hall and overlooked it. At the end of the passage, a heavy, metal-studded door stood ajar.
    The earl’s great, tapestry-hung bed could be seen through another arched doorway across the entry-room, the green-clad figure of Rhys sitting wearily on a chair beside the sleeping Gregory while Evaine stood behind him and massaged his temples. Rhys looked up as Camber and Joram entered, his face creasing in a relieved smile as he rose to greet them.
    â€œAm I glad you’re here, both of you!” he said, laying his hands on their shoulders in a dual embrace. “Jesse, thank you for bringing them up. We’ll call you if there’s any need.”
    Linked minds exchanged in an instant what lips would have taken long minutes to recount, even as Jesse backed out deferentially and closed the door. Evaine, too, joined in the rapport, the mind-brush of her affection reaching out to caress both father and brother. Even as their link receded to more usual levels, Rhys drew them all physically into Gregory’s bedroom, to