Dreams of a Dark Warrior Read Online Free PDF Page A

decade.”
    “I am going to him,” Regin said simply as she turned toward the stairs. Her mind was made up. She
    wasn’t one to debate things with herself. She rarely pondered, never mul ed. She acted.
    Lucia sighed, fol owing her down to the front entrance. “Then for once, be circumspect.” At the door,
    she handed Regin her hooded cloak. “Survey the situation before you stride into his army’s camp as if
    you own it. Promise me.”
    “Very wel .” Regin shrugged into the cloak, then stepped outside, glancing at the darkening sky. A
    spring storm neared. “Wish me luck,” she said cheerily, leaving Lucia to pluck her bowstring with
    disapproval.
    Regin set off across the countryside, hurrying through melting ice fields into the forest. She was so
    eager that she easily outpaced the oncoming storm.
    As she neared Aidan’s encampment, she heard women’s voices among the men’s. Camp wenches, as
    usual. What bawdy scenes would she come across this time?
    Perhaps Aidan had a bedmate this very night.
    The thought made her claws straighten with aggression. He vowed to me . Yet though she would feel
    betrayed, her desires were growing so intense that she might just toss the woman away and take her
    place.
    Nay. If he’d broken his oath, she would not gift him with her innocence.
    I have to know. … At the edge of a central clearing, she leapt into a tree, adjusting her cloak to keep her glow concealed. Around a great fire sat berserkers of every stripe, al with women or jugs of mead or
    both clasped in their meaty fists.
    Except for one.
    Aidan .
    He sat off to one side on a long bench, his blond head in his hands. He looked to be squeezing his
    temples.
    Brandr, that cur, sat beside him with a wench in his lap and one hand up her skirt, fondling her
    backside. With his other hand, he clapped Aidan on the shoulder. “There wil be other leads, friend.”
    “I felt so certain.” He raised his head, revealing a miserable expression. “Last night, I dreamed I’d
    found her.”
    Regin stifled a gasp at his appearance. Aidan’s striking face was weary, his mien defeated. Yet
    underneath the signs of the ongoing years, he was stil the most beautiful male she’d ever seen.
    Brandr handed him a jug. “Here. Drink this.”
    Aidan pushed it away. “I need a clear head. We ride north tomorrow.”
    “Forget for one night,” Brandr said with an exaggerated slap of the whore’s bottom.
    Aidan scowled at that, then al around at the men groping and the women writhing. He took the jug,
    turned it up. When he’d emptied it, he swiped his tunic sleeve over his mouth. “Gods, what was that? It
    burns my throat.”
    “That was the choice spirits! Now fol ow them with a choice woman.”
    Nay, do not!
    “For once, Aidan.”
    For once? He truly had kept his vow?
    When Aidan cast him another scowl, Brandr sighed. He lifted the woman to her feet, tel ing her, “Go
    pleasure others for this hour. I’l find you for the next.”
    Once the two men were alone, Brandr said, “This cannot go on, Aidan. I am your friend, and I cannot
    see you like this any longer.”
    “What would you have me do?”
    “Return to being the leader you used to be. For al the gods’ sakes, Aidan, I am closer to ohal a than you are, and you’ve half a dozen years of age on me. Forget this obsession. You think of nothing but
    her.”
    “And can you blame me? Imagine the woman she would be.” He gazed up at the cloudy sky as if
    picturing her at that moment, and Regin’s heart clenched again. Then Aidan faced Brandr. “Nay, do not
    imagine her.”
    Brandr exhaled. “There are women aplenty in this camp. Women who burn to bed you. Surely you can
    replace her.”
    “The idea is laughable. As wel you know.”
    “I’d take a warm woman in my hands over a cold Valkyrie in my mind.”
    I am not cold!
    “By the way,” Brandr added, “that was enough drink to put down a horse. You’l be on your face soon.
    Mayhap you’l actual y sleep a night