Her emerald eyes danced with pleasure and he felt her answering thought.
He frowned suddenly, realizing she was already dressed. “What time is it?”
“Just past dawn,” she said.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m meeting my grandfather and Thalandar for breakfast at their house. He wants to give me some things of my mother’s. Besides, Allistar should be home soon and I don’t want to shock him.”
“Allistar wouldn’t care.” He sank his fingers in her hair. “I thought we’d spend the day together.”
She smiled and her smile made her more beautiful, if possible. “We have the rest of our lives together,” she said. “I promised my grandfather. Why don’t you come with me? We can tell him our marital status together.”
Suddenly, the full import of her words struck. Happiness surged through him and he laughed. They were married. She was his wife. Everything he’d hoped and dreamed had actually come true.
“Actually, I have some errands I have to run.”
She gave him a questioning look. “Like what?”
“Well, for starters, I need a job. We can’t live here at Allistar’s forever. I’ll go find him and see if there are any positions available with the patrol.”
“I’ll bet I could ask Farad for a job. Maybe as a healer.”
“I think Farad would give you the leadership of Temeron if you asked.”
She folded her hands on his chest and rested her chin on it. “I think I’ll be too busy for anything that demanding. I have a new husband to occupy.”
He slid his hands down her back and held her tighter. “Are you sure you can’t be late to your grandfather’s?” he said with a growl.
She laughed. “How would I explain it? Do you want to tell him why?”
Jarrett eased his hold. “You’re probably right. I don’t think I could tell Haldane I detained his granddaughter in the manner I was thinking.” His expression sobered. “I need to find Kendrick.”
Tyla pulled back a little and gave him an anxious look. “Why?”
“I need to work this out with him. I owe him that much. We came a long way together and he saved my life.”
She sat up. “I don’t think there’s any way to work this out, Jarrett. He tied so much of his identity into that pledge that I’m not sure he’ll ever forgive either of us for ruining it.”
Jarrett leaned on an elbow. “You’re probably right, but I’ve got to try.”
She studied him a moment more, then leaned over and kissed him. “I know. Just be careful, please.”
“I will.”
She rose from the bed and gathered the rest of her belongings.
“I’ll meet you at the Stravad Leader’s house later and we can move your stuff here, all right?”
“Don’t you think we ought to talk to Allistar about it?”
“I will when I go to find out about a job. Don’t worry though. Allistar won’t mind.”
Tyla leaned over the bed and kissed him again. “I’m not worried about anything. This is the start of something wonderful, Jarrett. Just the thought of having our own place sounds exciting.”
“It won’t be quite the castle you’re accustomed to.”
“It will be for me because it will be our own. For the first time, I feel like I’m free.”
With that, she bounded from the room.
* * *
The sun was climbing over the gate as Jarrett arrived. The guards met him with their easy manner, extending their hands for a shake.
“I was looking for Allistar. Is he available?”
“He should be back in a few minutes. He’s just completing the morning patrol,” said the taller of the two.
Jarrett thought to ask them about work, but decided Allistar might put in a good word for him. “Thank you.”
“Do you want me to tell him you came by? Once his patrol’s finished, his shift is over.”
“Have him meet me in the main square by the fountain. Tell him I’m buying breakfast.”
The two guards smiled. “We’ll do.”
Jarrett left them and moved toward the main square. Many of the townspeople were about, heading to the market after fresh produce or sweet rolls. The smell of flowers mingled with warm bread infused him with a sense of well-being. He hadn’t given much thought to living in Temeron for the rest of his life, but now it seemed like the sweetest of ideas.
Looking at the people, hearing their voices, marking their nods of greeting, he knew that he had never felt as much at home as he did here. Terra Antiguo would always remain a part of him, but that city held too many painful memories. Temeron held the future.
His eyes chanced on Earon, lounging on a bench by the fountain and basking in the sunlight. Jarrett crossed to his side. Earon’s scar and pale complexion were a stark contrast to the honey gold of the people passing around him.
“You’re up early,” Earon said without opening his eyes.
“So are you. How have you been?”
Earon motioned to the cane resting by his knee. “Better. They say I’ll probably always walk stiffly, but I can walk.” He squinted his eyes against the sun and cocked his head at Jarrett. “I understand congratulations are in order.”
“How did you know?”
He motioned across the cobbled courtyard to the edge of the fountain. One side was still in shadows. Kendrick sat on the edge of it, his back to the spray, his head bowed, his hands clasped between his knees.
“I ran into Muzik on his way back to the Stravad Leader’s house. Apparently, he and the Nazarien have been tying one on all night.”
Jarrett frowned. “Kendrick? Are you sure?”
Earon held out his hands, palms up. “Muzik was still plastered, but feeling the effects. He left the Nazarien there and told me he was going to bed.”
Jarrett started moving toward Kendrick.
“I’d leave him alone if I were you,” said Earon at his back.
Jarrett ignored him and crossed the square. Kendrick didn’t look up as Jarrett stopped in front of him. “Kendrick?”
He didn’t lift his head, but his hands tightened into fists.
“Kendrick, we need to talk.” Jarrett shifted weight. He felt anxiety skitter across his nerve endings. He wasn’t any good at this sort of thing, but he and Kendrick had shared too much to let it go like this. “Kendrick, please. Let me buy you breakfast, get you some tea. You’ll feel better if you get something on your stomach.”
Still no response.
“Kendrick?” Jarrett leaned forward to clasp his shoulder, but Kendrick moved at the same time. Before Jarrett could react, Kendrick’s sword tip was pressed against the base of Jarrett’s throat.
Jarrett threw his hands out to the side, his palms open. “Kendrick!”
The Nazarien’s face was stark, dark circles bruised the area beneath his eyes. The point of the sword trembled against Jarrett’s flesh, but he didn’t lower it. Slowly Jarrett took a step back as Kendrick rose to his feet.
“Draw your sword,” he hissed between clenched teeth.
Jarrett gave him a bewildered look. “What?”
“Draw your sword.”
Jarrett lowered his hands to his sides. “No. This is stupid. What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“You have mocked me this entire journey. You’ve taunted and teased and ridiculed me the whole way. Draw your sword and I’ll show you my training is every bit as good as yours.”
“You’re still drunk. Put the sword away. Come on, Kendrick. Let me buy you breakfast. We can talk through this.”
Kendrick pressed the sword closer, forcing Jarrett to dance back. “I don’t want to talk. Draw your sword.”
“No.”
Kendrick’s face twisted. “You’ve robbed me of everything. My dignity, my order, my people. Now you’ll take even this from me.”
“I’m not going to fight you, Kendrick. This is stupid.”
Kendrick’s eyes narrowed, then he lowe
red the sword as if he meant to put it away, but he suddenly shifted weight and made a sweeping motion at Jarrett. Metal rang on metal as his sword met and slid along the length of Jarrett’s, coming to a jarring halt at the hilt. The two men were thrown against one another, staring into each other’s eyes.
“Don’t do this, Kendrick.”
“My training was as good as yours.” Jarrett could smell the alcohol on his breath. “Admit it.”
“Fine. I admit it.”
A spasm ticked in Kendrick’s cheek, then he wrenched their swords apart. He took a wild swing, forcing Jarrett to block him. “You lie!” he shouted. “You always lie.” He swung again.
Jarrett glanced around. People were gathering, watching with anxious expressions. Earon had eased forward on his bench. Jarrett heard someone mention something about the guards. “Kendrick, I don’t want to fight you. This is stupid. Let’s go and talk about this.”
“Talk about what? Talk about my broken pledge, talk about the fact that I am no longer Nazarien. Should we talk about how I’m alone – no home, no people, no religion?”
“You’re not alone.”
Kendrick’s eyes were liquid. “I have nothing. I am nothing. I can never go back. You took it all away from me. You robbed me of my life.” He swung and Jarrett deflected it. “Fight me! Fight me, you arrogant bastard!” His strokes were wild, hammering blows. Jarrett could anticipate them and knock them aside, but the desperation in Kendrick’s strikes alarmed him. At some point, Jarrett would have to disarm him, but he feared it would only illustrate Kendrick’s point.
He had to talk reason to him. He didn’t believe Kendrick wanted to hurt him. He understood Kendrick was trying to prove something, but even sober, Kendrick really wasn’t a match for Jarrett’s skill. Kendrick didn’t have the instinct to kill.
Jarrett grasped at that. Kendrick may have had the same training, but Kendrick didn’t have the will to kill.
“Listen to me, please. This is a golden opportunity for you.” He deflected another wild swing, slamming Kendrick’s blade into the cobblestones. He held it there with his greater weight and moved close to the Nazarien. “You can do whatever you want. Go wherever you want to go.”
Kendrick’s breath hitched in his chest and he slammed into Jarrett, knocking him back as he wrenched his blade free. He swung overhand at him, a sob escaping his throat. Jarrett caught the down strike and danced backward, pulling the Nazarien with him. They were face to face again. The momentum had shifted them around. Jarrett’s back was to the fountain and he could sense a bench a few feet behind him. He didn’t like this position. Too many obstacles to maneuver around. Not to mention the crowd that was gathering.
“Kendrick…”
“Shut up. Just shut up. Why don’t you get it? I had it, all of it. Right at my fingertips.”
“What did you have?”
“Talar Eldralin’s daughter! She was mine.”
“No, she wasn’t. You know it wasn’t right. You know I loved her. I never lied to you about that.”
“It wasn’t your place to take her. It wasn’t your pledge.”
Jarrett thrust him off. “Kendrick, I’m not going to do this anymore.” He held the sword out to the side. “We’ve come through too much together. This is wrong, and I won’t do it anymore.”
Kendrick closed his eyes and hugged his arms around himself. “Nothing else mattered. Nothing had meaning, but that. And you took it from me. You took it all.”
“Kendrick, it’s over. I won’t continue this fight. I won’t fight you anymore.” He opened his fingers, letting the blade drop, but Kendrick moved at the same time.
He lunged forward, stabbing out, his eyes still closed. The sword sank into Jarrett’s right side, the momentum carrying it deep into his body until it slammed against bone. Kendrick’s eyes flashed opened at the same time that Jarrett’s sword clattered onto the cobblestones.
For a moment, Jarrett didn’t feel any pain. He looked down and saw the sword embedded in his side. Kendrick blanched and wrenched the sword free. Jarrett staggered and gasped in pain, then stared as blood pooled in the wound, spilling over and covering his hands.
Kendrick dropped the sword and reached for him, but Jarrett stumbled back and felt his knees hit the bench behind him. He sat down hard, staring at the blood that now soaked his trouser leg and ran across the stone seat of the bench.
He lifted his eyes to Kendrick’s stricken face. “Help me,” he heard himself whisper.
Kendrick blinked, then turned a frantic circle. “Help! Someone help me!” he shouted, his voice breaking on a sob. “Eldon’s star, help me!”
Earon was suddenly there, knocking Kendrick away and shoving Jarrett to his back. “Stop the bleeding, you damn fool!” he shouted at Kendrick, then he pressed both hands hard against the wound in Jarrett’s side.
Jarrett’s back arched and he gasped in air as the pain speared through his body. Earon leaned over him, his white blond hair stark against the yellow sunlight. “Stay with me, Jarrett!” he commanded. “Stay with me!”
But Jarrett felt a cold sweat pepper over his skin and darkness pushed against the edge of his vision.
CHAPTER 26
Sunlight streamed through the windows of Thalandar’s house. Tyla sat with her back to it, enjoying the warmth as she reached for her teacup. Her grandfather and Thalandar sat across from her, telling her another story about her mother from her childhood. She was getting better at understanding Lodenian, especially when she read her grandfather’s thoughts, but speaking was another matter. She couldn’t seem to get past the halting search for the correct words.
She enjoyed her grandfather’s stories, but she also enjoyed seeing the life in his eyes and the easy banter between him and Thalandar. Their friendship had endured through a war and the death of both spouses.
When Sanari died, Tash had found refuge in Temeron. She knew he would never escape the loss he felt, but Temeron and Thalandar offered him peace. She understood that need, she longed for it herself.
“Was it hard to let Mother go?” she asked, settling the teacup against her knee.
“Hardest thing I did, but there was no stopping her. She didn’t see any difference between herself and her brothers. In fact, I used to think she wished she’d been born a boy.”
Thalandar laughed. “You certainly tried to train that out of her.”
“Lot of good it did me. She liked to ride horses and train at swords – little bit of a thing with red hair who could disarm an opponent twice her size. She gave me fits.”
Tyla smiled.
“Your grandfather would try to get her to do maidenly things like sew and garden, but she’d sneak off. When he’d go looking for her, odds were she was sparing with a soldier on the parade grounds.”
Tyla lifted her cup. She took a sip, but a sharp pain slammed into her middle, making the cup drop from her fingers. It clattered to the floor and shattered. She gasped and grabbed the edge of the table as Thalandar and Tash rose in alarm. Tash crossed to her side and leaned over her.
“What’s wrong?”
The pain ebbed, but a feeling of dread rose inside of her. She looked up into her grandfather’s worried face. “Something wrong,” she said, pushing herself to her feet. “Something happen to Jarrett.”
“What? What happened to him?”
She shook her head. He wasn’t responding to her thoughts. Pressing a hand to her forehead, she slid out from behind the table. “I need find him.”
“How?” asked Thalandar.
She shook her head again as she moved toward the hallway.
She caught the look Tash and Thalandar exchanged, but she didn’t have time or the words to explain this to them. Something was very wrong with Jarrett.
She hurried down the hall with the two men trailing her. Tash was trying to talk reason, but she only half-heard him. She pulled open the door and came up short. Allistar was reining in his mount at the gate.
“Farad sent me to get you,�
�� he said.
She ran up the walk and pulled open the gate. Allistar leaned over the horse’s side and helped her mount behind him. She didn’t even ask him where they were going or what had happened as he wheeled the animal back the way he’d come and kicked it into a canter.
A few minutes later, he reined in at the healing house where Earon was being treated. Tyla didn’t wait for Allistar’s assistance as she slid off the animal’s back. Once her feet struck the cobblestones, she ran for the door. It opened on a waiting room, choked with people. Farad started toward her, but she hurried across the room for the inner hallway.
He caught her shoulders and brought her to a stop at the entrance. “Tyla, wait. You can’t go in,” he said in Nevaisser.
“I need to be in there. I can help him.”
Farad’s grip tightened. “It’s a sterile room. You don’t want to infect him.”
Tyla felt the frantic energy drain from her and she slumped in Farad’s hold. “What happened?”
“He was stabbed, but they’ve gotten the bleeding stopped and are sewing up the wound. He’s out of danger.” He motioned to a woman behind him. “Lucine’s a telepath and she’s kept us updated throughout the whole procedure.”
Tyla shifted her look to Lucine. “Are you sure?”
“She doesn’t speak Nevaisser, but I’m sure,” offered Farad.
Tyla pushed away from him and reached for the telepath’s hands. She offered them willingly. And she didn’t resist when Tyla probed her mind for the answers she needed. Once she had them, she squeezed the woman’s hands and released her. Lucine gave her a sympathetic smile.
Gradually, Tyla was aware of the others in the room. Earon and Allistar stood by the door, Muzik to the left of Farad, and sitting in a chair with his head bowed and his hands clasped between his knees was Kendrick.
Tyla’s emotions shifted from terror to fury as she faced the Nazarien. She took a step toward him, but Farad placed a restraining hand on her shoulder. “He’s already confessed and turned himself in.”
“Why? Why would you do this? You were companions. You swore a pledge to each other.”
Kendrick lifted tortured eyes and shook his head.
The World of Samar Box Set 3 Page 42