PRINCE OF THE WIND (6 page)

Duncan placed a hand on his Overlord’s back. "Aidan, calm yourself."

Aidan shrugged away Brell’s hand. "Think you to force my boy to join with your evil daughter?" he threw at de Viennes.

"No!" Gunter screeched. "I want nothing of the sort!"

"Think you to blackmail us into taking her with us?"

Gunter shook his head. "She stays with me. She is my responsibility."

Aidan narrowed his eyes. His jaw thrust forward; his hands opened and closed at his sides. "Think you to bring this up at some later time and seek redress for what may be already growing in her treacherous body?" Aidan queried in a voice as deadly as a viper’s kiss.

Gunter seemed mesmerized by the lethal intensity on Aidan’s face. There was death and dismemberment in that sharp, unrelieved stare.

"If she has conceived," Gunter said, his breathing heavy, "we will rid her of it."

"No, you will not!" both Aidan and Duncan barked at the same time.

Gunter looked helplessly from one man to another. "But you surely do not want there to be consequences for my daughter’s stupid act!"

"It is against our beliefs to terminate a pregnancy," Aidan declared, stressing each word. "To do so is murder in the eyes of Alel."

"Then what would you have me do?" Gunter cried. "No man will have her if she is with child! I cannot pay enough dowry for him to overlook the fact that the babe is Chalean—" Gunter gasped. His shoulders slumped. He obviously knew he had mortally offended the Chalean king and there was no way to take back the insult. "Do what you will," he whispered. "I will not stop you." He sat heavily on his throne and buried his face in his hands.

"Papa," Riain began, "can’t you see he is—"

"Take my son to the ship," Aidan growled.

Duncan took Riain’s arm.

"You cannot blame him for what Suzanna did, Papa!" Riain said, trying to free himself of Brell’s hold.

Aidan did not answer. His attention was locked on de Viennes. When Riain tried to protest further, Brell shook him and jerked him backward, striding toward the double doors. Two of Aidan’s personal guards feel in behind them.

"Have mercy, Papa!" Riain shouted as Brell dragged him out of the room. "Please! Have mercy!"

* * *

"What will you have me do?" Gunter de Viennes asked, his tone rife with defeat and hopelessness.

"I would have you do me the courtesy of looking at me," Aidan said.

Gunter flinched, but lifted his head. He squared his shoulders, took a deep breath, and met Cree’s gaze.

Aidan saw the humiliation, the deep mortification the other man was experiencing. It must be a bitter pill to swallow, he thought, to have been betrayed by one’s own flesh and blood, to have one of your own bring you to the brink of total destruction.

For generations, Chale and the Zonelands had kept well away from one another. The Zonelanders out of fear for the might of Chale’s warrior faction; the Chales out of a desire not to have to rule men they considered weaker and less intelligent. That the Chales would win in a war between the two was a foregone conclusion on the part of both countries, for the Chaleans were well trained under Aidan’s strong, authoritative leadership. The Zonelands, on the other hand, was ruled by four separate princes, who could be counted on not to follow the dictates of any one leader. Chaos would rule if it came to war and the Four Zones would fall, one after the other.

"I have heard," Aidan said, putting a foot on a step, then leaning forward to brace his forearm on his knee, "Olan Hesar is planning an invasion of the Northwinds."

Gunter nodded. "I have heard the same rumor."

"Hesar is my enemy," Aidan said, his jaw clenched. "I want him dead."

De Viennes drew in a long breath. "With good reason, Milord. For a year he held your boy."

"Now, there can be no Joining between your house and mine—"

"I understand."

"—But, there
can
be an alliance of another kind."

Gunter’s forehead puckered. "In what way, Milord?"

"As long as Hesar lives, he is a threat to you," Aidan reminded the Northwinds prince. "As long as he lives, he is a thorn in the side of every Cree ever to draw breath. He has no allies within the Windwarrior Society, but he has a strong enough force to defeat you if and when he decides to finally attack."

De Viennes tensed. "You are sure of this?"

Aidan nodded. "Positive."

Gunter sat forward and reached out a beseeching hand. "What must I do to have your help, Your Majesty? To save my people from Hesar?"

For a long moment, Aidan said nothing, then he straightened and folded his arms over his wide chest. "If your daughter conceives, you must keep her and the babe safe until she has delivered. Then you will send the babe to us to be raised Chalean. He or she will be treated as any legal offspring between royal houses and will be loved as dearly as any of my other children or grandchildren."

"You would not blame the child for what its mother did?"

"Never. The child, as was my son, would be innocent. He or she will not be held accountable. You have my word as king."

Gunter smiled his relief. "That is most gracious of you."

"If she has not conceived," Aidan said, "there is nothing to worry about."

"If she is not with child, my daughter will be confined," Gunter said.

"Confined?" Aidan inquired.

"In Baybridge."

Aidan shuddered. "The insane asylum?"

"What she did was insane," Gunter sighed. "She could have killed Riain. As it is, she may have crippled him for life." He held Aidan’s angry look. "I, too, know what tenerse can do to those allergic to its properties."

"Pray Riain does not show an adverse reaction," Aidan snarled.

"With all my heart, do I so pray, Milord."

"In exchange for there being no further consequences of what was done," Aidan said, wishing to be out of this hopeless man’s presence, "I will lend you the support of our Clan." At Gunter’s expectant look, Aidan almost smiled. "I will leave a contingent of men for your protection and promise an additional two hundred to be culled from our allies, the Ionarians and the Oceanians. I will send only our most experienced warriors, and with them, equipment that will hold you in good stead when Hesar attacks. And when he does…" He unfolded his arms and held out his hand, palm upward.

"Aye?" Gunter queried.

Aidan closed his hand into a tight fist. "We will crush him like the cur he is!"

* * *

Riain was silent as he walked beside Duncan Brell. The burly Master-at-Arms was equally tightlipped as they left the keep. Once outside, Riain stopped, looking up at lowering afternoon light, and closed his eyes. "Freedom," he whispered and opened his eyes.

"Not yet," Duncan quipped, glancing at the Northwinds guards, who were regarding them with hostility.

Riain shrugged. "They’ll not harm us. They are terrified of all Chaleans."

Duncan snorted, but he kept his hand on the handle of the wicked double-edged blade on his hip.

"We could whittle them down to size," one of the Chalean guards who had accompanied them snickered. He half drew his sword from its scabbard.

"Easy, Patrick," Duncan muttered. "Don’t give them reason to think we’re going to attack. Let’s get the brat on board the
Banshee
before Aidan has our heads." He laid his big hand on Riain’s shoulder. "Let’s go, son."

"Riain! Riain Cree!"

The men jumped, startled by the loud strident voice coming from above. They looked upward to see a naked woman leaning over the battlements, her hair whipping wildly about her head.

"Who is that?" Patrick breathed, his mouth gaping.

"Is that her?" Duncan asked. His distaste showed on his face.

"Aye," Riain sighed. He’d hoped never to lay eyes on the bitch again. To see her standing naked on the battlements of Vent du Nord was completely shocking.

"Your cannot leave this place!" Suzanna shouted. "Do you hear me? You cannot leave this place!"

"Is she crazy?" Patrick demanded.

"As crazy as she is ugly." Riain tore his attention from her and started down the winding steps to the docks.

"If you leave," she flung at his back, "you will regret it! I swear, you will mightily regret it!"

"Pay no attention," Duncan said.

"Cree!" she screamed as Riain refused to look at her.

Dylan, the other Chalean guard, chuckled. "When you make a conquest, she stays conquered, eh, brat?"

"It isn’t funny," Riain said. Suzanna’s wild screeching was making the flesh crawl on his neck.

Patrick laughed. "We’d better watch him from now on. Perhaps he knows something we don’t!"

"If you leave me, you will leave behind your very soul, Riain Cree. I will put a curse on you that can never be broken!"

Riain stopped, turned, and stared up at her. Her eyes were wild, rolling in her head, and her lips were skinned back from her teeth. She was gripping the battlements with hands that looked like claws and her hair flew around her head like snakes. He shivered at the sight and felt Duncan’s reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"Ignore her," Duncan advised. "The woman is obviously mad."

"Mad for our boy," Patrick joked, but at Brell’s warning look, he hushed.

"You had best heed my words, Riain!" Suzanna shouted. "If you step foot on that ship, you will never know peace in this lifetime or any other! There is no place you can run where I will not find you!"

"Why doesn’t someone shut her up?" Dylan asked. He looked at the Northwinds guards, who seemed to have been made just as uneasy with the woman’s tantrum.

Riain glanced to Suzanna’s right and saw some of the keep’s inside guards creeping toward her. One carried a sheet with which he no doubt intended to wrap the naked woman.

"Riain!"

He shivered and wrapped his arms around himself. Since childhood, he had been a superstitious sort and his mother’s powers—which had passed up her other sons and settled on him—sent hackles up his back.

"Come on, brat," Duncan insisted. "Don’t listen to her rambling."

Suzanna saw the men rushing toward her. Before they could reach her, she flung herself half-over the crenellated wall and dug her nails into the stones.

"You will suffer, Cree!" she screamed as the guards tried to pry her from the walls. "I promise you will suffer the horrors of the damned. Abandon me and I will teach you the true meaning of a living hell!"

Aidan Cree and Gunter de Viennes came out of the keep at a near-run. Both stopped, staring up at the naked apparition struggling on the battlements. Aidan cast Duncan a disgusted look, which Duncan returned.

"Get her down from there!" Gunter bellowed to the men striving to capture his daughter.

"Do not think I don’t know what you are about, Father!" she threw down at him. "I’ll not be locked away!"

"Locked away?" Riain questioned, his eyes going to his father.

Aidan draped a comforting arm around his son’s shoulders. "They are taking her to Baybridge."

Horrorified, Riain pulled away. He started back into the keep, intending to go to Suzanna’s aide, despite what she had done to him. He, himself, had spent a hellish year locked away in a place much worse than Baybridge asylum and he wouldn’t wish such incarceration on his worst enemy.

"No!" Aidan demanded and grabbed Riain. "Let de Viennes see to his daughter. He knows what is best for her."

"He does not!" Riain tried to jerk away. "No one should be made to—"

"If you let them do this to me, I will put a curse on you, Riain Cree!" Suzanna yelled. Two guards were to either side of her, yanking her arms from the stone, dragging her back from the precipice. "I will curse you for all time!"

"Do you hear her?" Riain asked his father. He was horror-stricken by her words, believing her quite capable of cursing him.

"She does not know what she is saying," Gunter said, tears running down his cheeks. "The woman is crazy."

"Then lock her up here," Riain pleaded. "In her own home. Where she will feel safe!"

"But will we be safe?" Vent du Nord’s Master-at-Arms queried.

"Will he?" one guard asked, pointing at Riain.

Riain angrily shook his head. "I cannot allow—"

Aidan shook his son, then flung a hand toward Suzanna, who was being bundled into the sheet. "Do you want to spend the rest of your life worrying that she will find a way to come after you? That she will escape and do harm to you or someone you love?"

Riain shook his head in denial. "Papa, I—"

"Listen to your father," Gunter said, turning away from the shrieking, convulsing child of his loins. "Will you chance having the woman you love die at my insane daughter’s hands should ’Zanna ever get loose? There is no escape from Baybridge. The inmates are fettered to the wall at all times."

Riain’s eyes filled with tears. He took Gunter’s arm. "And you would do that to your own kin?"

"Riain!" Suzanna screamed even as the guards drew her back from the wall.

De Viennes glanced up. "I have no choice, lest she do herself or you harm."

"Let’s go," Aidan demanded, gripping Riain’s arm. "There is nothing more to discuss."

"Aye," de Viennes agreed. "Take your boy home, Milord."

Riain braced himself against his father’s pull, but the look on his king’s face said it all—either go of your own free will or be carried there; take your pick.

Duncan took hold of Riain’s other arm, making it plain that he had no choice.

"Cree!!!"

The name, repeated over and over, followed the men to the quay. As Riain stepped on to the gangplank, Suzanna’s words hit him like the quarrel from a crossbow—

"I warned you. You did not listen. From this day forward, my vengeance shall follow you wherever you go, Riain Cree!"

Riain reached the top of the gangplank and turned, just barely able to see Suzanna as she was dragged toward the stairwell at the top of the battlements. As her head disappeared below the stone walls, she threw some last words to him in challenge—

"Look over your shoulder, Cree, for I will be behind you!"

Tiernan Cree ruffled his youngest brother’s dark hair.