Guardian of the Storm Read Online Free PDF Page B

An uncomfortable tightness welled in her throat. Bones? And she had flattered herself to think he found her attractive! Wishful thinking, she supposed. She ought to have known better. The pain and humiliation made her angry. She realized, however, that there was no point in arguing with him. He refused to see reason, and she certainly couldn’t stop the big ox from doing whatever he wanted to.
    There was no hope for it if she wanted to stay here. She’d have to wait until he fell asleep and slip away and hide. Otherwise, he was going to drag her back to that pile of rocks where she’d spent the best part of two years. Without another word, she got up and unrolled the bedding. Spreading the blanket over it, she crawled in and turned her back to him. All things considered, she doubted very much that he would expect to share the bedding with her. She hoped not, anyway. It would make it much harder to slip off if he was lying next to her.
    “I regret that it must be this way.”
    Tempest didn’t bother to answer, merely nodding that she understood.
    He was silent for some moments. “I am curious about your name. Does it have meaning?”
    Tempest was tempted to pretend she’d drifted off to sleep and ignore him, but decided she didn’t want to appear too sullen. It might make him suspicious. “I doubt you’d understand if I explained it.”
    “Why?”
    “Because you’ve probably never seen one. Actually, I haven’t either, but I know my Earth history so I at least have some idea of it.”
    “Explain.”
    Tempest turned over and looked at him. “It’s a storm. On Earth, water would fall from the sky. They called it rain, and when it was driven by hard wind, it was a tempest.”
    Kiran’s face went perfectly still. “What?”
    “I told you you wouldn’t understand.”
    He shook his head. “It is the same as storm?”
    Tempest shrugged. “I guess. I think it’s more like the word for a particular kind of storm, though.”
    He said nothing and Tempest considered leaving it at that, but she was determined to act as if she had nothing important on her mind. “Does your name have a meaning?”
    He frowned. “It means ‘guardian of the storm’.”
    The comment knocked the breath from her. Tempest’s brows rose. “Really? That’s weird, huh?”
    Kiran didn’t answer, however. He seemed deep in thought and after waiting for several minutes to see if he would pursue the conversation, Tempest settled once more, this time facing him. He was still staring into the fire when she lost the battle against weariness and dozed off.
    Kiran lifted his gaze from the dancing flames and stared at Tempest when he sensed that she slept. As the shock wore off, denial sprang up to take its place in his chaotic thoughts. It could be no more than a strange sort of coincidence, he assured himself, though uneasiness persisted and refused to be subjugated. The legend had been committed to his memory long ago and although he had repeated it over and over to himself as he sat staring into the fire, searching for truth, he could not recall a single passage that had led him to the conclusion that the Storm , like himself, would be a man, a native of his own world. And yet, everyone, even the ancient ones, the Keepers of the Memory, believed the Storm the legends foretold would be a warrior such as himself … greater even than himself.
    This … female … was barely old enough to even be considered a woman. To his mind, she was more child than adult, and beyond that, as frail a creature as could be imagined. She was not even Niahian!
    Was it at all possible that everyone had misinterpreted the prophesy?
    He shook that doubt off. The Keepers had studied the prophesies endlessly, pondering each word, debating each meaning. They could not all be wrong.
    He was to go to the sacred mountain so that he would be shown the way to the Storm. The prophesy had made that much clear … and, that being the case, he knew he must simply be allowing