WINDREAPER by Charlotte Boyett-Compo Read Free Book Online Page B

royal summons."
    "From Legion?" Roget du Mer was shocked. "Does Brelan really think you'd actually come?"
    "He knows I will." Getting up from his chair, Conar stood in front of the warm fireplace and unraveled the mask.
    "You can't go to the keep!"
    "I have to." He flung the mask to the chair and ran his hands over his face, plowed one hand through the fall of long flaxen waves, then shook back his hair. "I'm not being given a chance to decline, Hawk," he said in a strange voice.
    "What the hell's so important that Brelan would let you risk your life to return to Boreas?" A sick feeling formed in the pit of Roget's stomach.
    There was a long moment of silence, then Conar made a sound somewhere between a sigh and a moan. His voice was devoid of life or expression. "There's to be an initiation at the Abbey of the Domination. Her eldest son is to be accepted into the Brotherhood. He undergoes the Rites of Passage at the cresting of the moon." The voice lowered. "Brelan wants it stopped. He says A'Lex wants us to abduct the child from the Abbey and return him to his mother." A hot look of speculation crossed Conar's tired face. "Without the child, Tohre will lose what hold he has on the throne. Once the boy is safe within Boreas Keep, A'Lex can give us all the help we want."
    "So that's why Legion hasn't been able to do anything before now! He feared for Liza's son!" Roget nodded. "It all makes sense now, doesn't it?"
    Conar returned to his seat and sat down heavily. His long legs shot out before him and he laid his head along the chair back. He gazed steadily at the blazing logs, his pupils taking on the reflected light from the flames hissing in the hearth. His hard, callused hands lay idle in his lap, but his fingers flexed as though he itched to have something within them to strangle. The only signs of any emotional upheaval was the vein throbbing heavily in the column of his bronzed throat and a faint movement of his lean jaw, obviously silently grinding his teeth.
    Roget made a temple with his fingers and, with his elbows propped on the arms of his chair, he lowered his chin to the apex of his fingertips. "You're going to go after the boy yourself, aren't you?" he asked in a calm tone he didn't feel.
    "Do I have a choice? I couldn't live with myself if I let that evil bastard claim another innocent McGregor male child. Although being a child of Galen's couldn't make the boy all that innocent, especially not after having been with Tohre all this time."
    "How old is he?"
    Conar shrugged. "Eight, nine. What does it matter?"
    "What if you're caught, Coni?"
    There was a derisive snort. "I can get into and out of that keep better than any man alive. Have no fear."
    "But what about the Abbey?"
    Conar shuddered, although Roget could have sworn he didn't realize it. "I've been there, as well. I know the way out, so I know the way in!"
    "I'm going with you. I'll be at your back."
    Conar's lips stretched into a thin smile. "You've been there, too, haven't you, Hawk?"
    Roget nodded. "And Chase. And Jah-Ma-El. And Shalu. How many of us will you need?"
    "Three. Belvoir knows the way and I'd rather not pull Shalu and Jah-Ma-El away from Fealst right now." He took a deep breath. "I'm not sure Chase could handle going back."
    Roget understood.
    "It'll be risky, Hawk."
    Roget lifted a broad shoulder. "Since when does risk ever matter to us?"
    "It's not something I truly want to do." His voice was soft, more gentle than Roget had heard in a long time. "Saving the boy from consecration I can handle. It's the rest that troubles me. I'll have to see him, speak to him."
    Roget du Mer nodded, knowing his friend was speaking of Legion A'Lex.
    But it wasn't Legion that Conar feared seeing. Roget knew that.
    And he knew Conar did, too.

Chapter 8
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And she had said to him long ago: "Beware the spinner's brew!"
    She, who weaves the web of mischief and strife. She, who bears the burden of guilt from so long ago.
    They called her a whore.
    They