The Thunder Lord: The de Shera Brotherhood Book One (Lords of Thunder: The de Shera Brotherhood 1) by Kathryn Le Veque Read Free Book Online Page A

her father’s barely-conscious face.
    “Tada,” she wept. “Beth ddigwyddodd?” Father, what happened?
    Gallus was in the process of lowering the injured man to the floor as Jeniver and Honey hovered over them.
    “As far as I can tell, he has taken two sword thrusts to the belly,” he said grimly. “I found him half-buried in mud on the road. It looks as if the wagon ran over him as well.”
    Jeniver was beside herself. With the dog clutched in one arm, she grasped her father’s hand, covered in mud and debris, and held it to her breast.
    “Tada,” she sobbed quietly, squeezing his hand. “Please, open your eyes and look at me. Tada? Can you hear me?”
    Honey slipped in on the other side of the supine man, looking at his injuries as Gallus pulled back the man’s soiled and wet clothing. When his torso was finally revealed, Jeniver struggled not to vomit. The sword wounds were not clean, making the entire area look like raw meat, and it was clear that he had several broken ribs. As Honey and Gallus struggled to assess the damage, all Jeniver could feel was grief. Her father’s wounds were great and she knew he was dead already. Somehow, she just knew. She lifted his limp hand to her cheek, kissing it, getting dirt on both her cheek and her lips.
    “Tada,” she whispered, tears dripping off her chin. “I am so sorry this happened. But the earl’s mother will heal you. She comes from a great and powerful family and I am sure she learned her healing skills from finished physics. Tada? Can you hear me?”
    Gaerwen remained silent, his eyes half-open, but he suddenly coughed and bright red blood spewed out and onto Gallus’ left arm. The man was struggling to breathe and he became more lucid, gripping his daughter’s hand when he looked up and realized she was next to him. His brown eyes appeared strangely intense upon his pale and bloodied face.
    “Jeni,” he murmured thickly. “I will not make it home, annwyl .”
    Beloved . He had always called her that. Jeniver’s face crumpled. “Do not say such things, Tada,” she whispered tightly. “Lady Honey will heal your wounds.”
    Gaerwen tried to shake his head, squeezing his daughter’s hand with an urgent edge. “Nay,” he said, coughing again and sputtering blood. “I will not long survive and there are things I must say to you.”
    Jeniver didn’t want to listen. God help her, she didn’t want to listen, but she was compelled to. The pain in her heart was already tearing her apart.
    “Please, Tada, nay ,” she wept softly. “Do not say this is the end. It is not the end. If you leave me I will have no one left.”
    Gaerwen, weakened with blood loss, pulled her hand to his face, rubbing it clumsily against his stubbled cheek. It was a tender gesture, a sorrowful one, the significance of which was not lost on those observing the scene. Honey suspected the man was beyond help but she was trying anyway, sending the servants running for medicaments and bandages as Gallus held linen rags over the gaping wounds, trying to staunch the blood flow.
    Gallus was focused on his task, on making sure the other wounded ap Gaerwen men were tended, and he was trying not to look at his mother. They both knew that the man before them, the hereditary King of Anglesey, was a dead man no matter what they did to help him. But for his daughter’s sake, they could not, and would not, stop.
    “I will not leave you, not ever,” Gaerwen confided, a faint smile on his bloodied lips as he gazed up at his only child. “I will be the sunbeam upon your face or the kiss of the morning dew. How can I ever leave you, Jeni? It has only been you and me, all of these years.”
    Jeniver was trying not to break down into gut-busting sobs. She was truly trying to listen to him, perhaps even carry on a conversation with him, but when she realized it would be the last conversation they ever shared together, she lost the struggle against grief and lay her head down against her