Legacy of the Sword by Jennifer Roberson Read Free Book Online Page B

“Ask Aislinn, my lord Prince of Homana, what she thinks about sharing a bed with a man who cannot control his shape—
in
bed or out of it.”
    He took a single lurching step away from the dais and the woman. “What
filth
have you told her—?”
    “Filth?” Electra arched white-blond brows. “Only the truth, shapechanger. Or do you deny the gold on your arms, in your ear…the animals your kind call the
lir
?” An expressive gesture encompassed gold and wolf and bird.
    He felt ill. He wanted to turn his back on the woman and flee the hall, but he could not do it. He would not do it. He would not allow her to win. “Lies,” he said flatly. “And Aislinn knows it. Do you forget?—she has known me since her birth.”
    “I forget nothing.” Electra smiled with all the guilelessness of a child. “But you have the right of it, of course…Aislinn knows you well.”
    Donal stood his ground. “We played together as children, Electra. Scraped knees, tended bee stings, shared one another’s bread. Do you think,
lady
, such memories can be destroyed with but a few words from you?”
    “I have had her two years, Donal.” Electra allowed the violet mantle to slither to her hip, exposing the low-cut neck of her gown and the pale flesh of the tops of her breasts. “Do you recall what I did to Carillon in two
months
?”
    He did. And he turned at once to Aislinn. “Two years is more than enough time to fill your head with lies, and she is good at that. But do you forget your
jehan
? It is Carillon with whom you lived for fourteen years before you came to Electra.”
    A pale hand smoothed the garneted chains hanging from Aislinn’s girdle. Her pinched face told him she did indeed recall their childhood friendship and her girlish attraction tohim. “I—believe my mother has told me the truth. We are children no longer…and why would she lie to
me
?”
    “To use you.” He had no more time for tact or diplomacy. “By the gods, girl, are you blind? Do you forget why she is here? She will try to bring down Carillon any way she can. Even now she stoops to perverting
you
!”
    Fingers tangled in the garneted golden chains. “But—it is not the Mujhar she speaks of, Donal…it is
you.
It is
you
she warns me against, knowing your animal urges—”
    “
Animal urges
!” He was aghast. “Have you gone mad? You
know
me, Aislinn—what
urges
do you speak of?”
    Her face had caught fire, as if to match the richness of her hair. “We were children, then…we are adults, now. You are—a man…and she has told me what to expect.” She averted her eyes from his, staring fiercely at the floor. “I have only to look at Finn, if I want to see what you will become.”
    “Finn?” He stared. “What has
Finn
to do with this?”
    Aislinn managed to look at him again, though the chiming of her girdle told him how she trembled. “Will you deny that he
stole
your own mother because he wanted her—as an animal wants another? Will you deny that he stole also the Mujhar’s sister—who later died because of his neglect?” Aislinn sucked in a shaking breath. “I look at Finn, Donal, your own uncle…and I see what you will become.”
    By the gods, Electra has driven her mad.
He felt his hands clench into fists, unclenched them with effort, and tried to speak coherently through his astonishment and anger.
    “We will—speak of this another time. In some detail. But for now, I must tell you to have your things packed.”
    “Have you gone mad?” she demanded. “Do you think I will go with
you
?”
    “I think so,” he said grimly. “It is the Mujhar’s bidding I do, not my own. Aislinn—he bids us end our betrothal. The time has come for us to wed.”
    For a long moment, she simply stared. He saw how she looked at him, appraising him even as her mother had. What she saw he could not say. But her face was very pale, and there was true apprehension in her eyes.
    She turned quickly to face her mother. “He cannot make me go if