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

too."
    Laughing at the firm expression on her husband's handsome face, she tickled him. "I knew that the moment you first laid eyes on her, Milord!"
    "Who is with her now?" he asked, easing away from her probing fingers.
    She laughed. "That most excellent and diligent of nannies, Marsh Edan."
    Conar nodded. "It's time he had a little one of his own. He dotes on her, doesn't he?"
    "That he does." She smiled thinking of Marsh's big hands cupping their tiny daughter the first time he had held her.
    "Will she break if I drop her?" the Elite had asked nervously.
    "Are you planning on dropping her?" Sentian snapped at his friend.
    A smirk lit Marsh's face. "Well, of course not!"
    "Then you've got nothing to worry about," Thom informed him.
    The four—Sentian, Marsh, Storm, and Thom—had been gathered around the babe's cradle, oohing and ahhing. None of them had seen Liza standing in the doorway as they gently picked up their Overlord's daughter and took turns holding her.
    "She's a beauty like her mother," Storm said wistfully, obviously missing his own wife and children.
    But it was Marsh who spent most of his time in the cabin with the babe, Marsh who held her and could make her stop crying when no one else could, Marsh who gazed at the babe with such longing and love. It was Marsh Edan, that stalwart Elite, who had stayed up with her all night when she had the colic.
    "I think if you give him half the chance, he'll steal her from us," Conar now remarked, hugging his wife as they stood in the brisk ocean breeze. "We've got to find him a wife."
    Once, he had thought of Gezelle for the warrior, but the two had never hit it off. If truth were told, it was Prince Chand Wynth who held Gezelle's attention. It was too bad such alliances were forbidden.
    Liza trembled.
    "Are you cold?" Conar asked, holding her closer.
    "Not really. I just…" She looked around, something nudging her sixth sense. "I don't know. I guess it's just that I'm still a little tired. Where's Brownie?"
    "Sleeping on the captain's bunk." Conar chuckled. "I think she has a crush on the man."
    Liza nodded absently. As her husband had the day before, she had been having sensations since early morn and the hairs along her neck were stirring. She looked at the horizon, but the sky was clear.
    Conar carefully eyed her. He had felt the tremor along with something else, something he couldn't quite name. He turned his scrutiny to the sky, a puzzled frown wrinkling his forehead.
    "Do you feel that?" he asked. "The vibrations?" He looked at her as she stiffened.
    She glanced up at him. "Then you feel something, too? The same as yesterday?"
    "No, this is different. I've been feeling this ever since we cleared your coastline last eve and tacked toward Serenia." A grim expression settled on his face. "Something in the wind." He eased his arms from her and walked to the ship's rail, bracing his hand on the rolled teak edge. He looked out to sea. "I've felt it all morning."
    "And that's why you've been standing here."
    She put her hand on his forearm and felt his tension. "I feel as though someone is watching our every move."
    "Aye. Me, too."
    All morning he had been at the rail, searching, listening, probing with his newfound energy. During the time he had spent on the island, he had worked hard to learn about the powers bestowed on him at birth. With Liza's help, he had tested his magik and had learned to control it.
    Though it still frightened him, he had come to grips with it. Loath to use it, he knew that, should he need to, the power would be there at his command. But with giving in to accepting the magik within him, he had also given in to the premonitions and feelings inherent with such a supernatural ability.
    And today's feelings had only underscored the power he knew he could wield. The unease that had settled on his shoulders made it impossible for him not to sense the danger he knew lay ahead.
    Something wasn't right, but he couldn't tell what. He simply kept vigil,