WindSeeker by Charlotte Boyett-Compo Read Free Book Online Page A

steward, Galen slumped into his chair and squeezed his eyes shut to blot out the raging
    headache tearing at his right temple. He dug a fist into the flesh, pushing the pain as hard as he could,
    feeling no relief, but relishing the pressure, for it stopped the image of Conar’s smiling face from
    obscuring his vision. The headaches were something new, something Conar had had since a boy, but a
    malady Galen had developed only of late, and they were getting worse.
    "Aye, Your Grace?" the steward asked, setting a fresh bottle of brandy beside his master.
    "Get that damnable sorcerer in here!" Galen demanded, his trembling fingers now rubbing the area over
    his eye. Fresh spasms of pain shot through his head. He gagged. "Tell him I need something for this
    misery!"
    "I have already sent for him, Highness," the servant said, worried, for the Prince’s face was pinched
    white with agony.
    Galen flung out a hand, the closest he could come to thanking the one servant in all of Norus who was
    ever loyal to him. That the servant despised Jah-Ma-El as much as Galen was some consolation.
    A vicious sneer formed on his handsome face as he thought of Jah-Ma-El, the bastard brother Galen
    refused to acknowledge as his own kin, but took delight in thinking of as Conar’s sibling. It was no secret
    Jah-Ma-El worshipped Conar. Nor was it a secret that Conar was the only McGregor who claimed the
    wretched man as part of the family. Considering the loyalty Jah-Ma-El obviously felt toward Conar, it
    was no wonder the situation of wresting the power from Conar had not been resolved. Jah-Ma- El had
    been utterly useless over the past three years. Nothing he had done had worked. Galen hated his bastard
    brother more than ever. Jah-Ma-El’s ineffectiveness was now causing serious problems.
    Only that morning a messenger had come from Tohre, telling Galen that his brother and Liza were being
    honored at a festival to celebrate the third anniversary of their Joining.
    "This should not have been allowed to go on as long as it has," Kaileel had written. "You asked to be
    allowed to take care of the situation and I, reluctantly, agreed to let you do so. Now, it is of the most
    urgent nature that you see the problem solved. I must have Conar within my total control before the
    spring equinox. If you can not achieve our mutual objective, matters will be handled here by the
    Brothers."
    The message had only added fuel to Galen’s impotent rage. To his feelings of inadequacy. Kaileel’s
    words were like shards of ice as Jah-Ma-El now crept into the room.
    "What kept you, imbecile?" Galen spat. "Give me something for this ungodly pain!"
    A stench rose up from the magician’s unwashed body. "I came as soon as I was called, Highness." He
    held out his hand and flinched as Galen snatched the vial of painkiller from it.
    Galen’s lip curled with disgust. The man looked as though he had been sleeping in his robe; his thinning
    hair was spiked in several directions and there was a gray scum covering his hands and neck that testified
    to Jah-Ma-El’s reluctance to take a bath. How, Galen wondered, could this unkempt ass be his own
    kin?
    "I want her, Jah-Ma-El!" Galen snarled, covering his nose to help blot out the man’s putrid odor. "I want
    her now!"
    "I am trying—"
    "If she is not removed from him by the equinox, Tohre will move against her." Galen’s gaze turned hard.
    "If anything happens to her, I will see you burned at the stake!" He leaned forward in his chair. "And I
    will personally light the rushes!"
    "But I have done everything I know to do!" Jah-Ma-El whined. "She protects herself well. I told you
    when all this started that she would be a force to reckon with. She is of the Multitude! What more can I
    do?"
    "You told me you could get her away from Conar!" Galen shouted, pain exploding in his temples. "You
    said you could separate her from him so my men could take her. Once I have her here, Conar can do
    nothing. He will have lost her