Master of Craving Read Online Free PDF

her, she strode just as furiously toward him. She would not back down. She could not! His heartsickness was so great for her mother that he could not see that she was not Branwen. So long as she remained in Dinefwr, his dark periods would grow closer together and any chance he had with Morwena would be gone. She would go, and never look back. To save them all, Arian refused to back down. She would leave immediately.
    As Hylcon’s face reddened, his breathing became labored; his wide silver eyes looked as if they would pop from his head. Arian halted her approach to him. He grabbed at his collar and pulled the fabric away from his neck. He opened his mouth and his lips moved, but no sound came forth.
Dread filled Arian. “Papa!” She rushed toward him just as he collapsed at her feet.
     
“Hylcon!” Morwena screamed, coming from her seat on the dais.
    Arian sank to the stone steps, and with Morwena’s help rolled him over, and was relieved to see that he breathed. Rhodri, never punctual unless it pleased him to be so, burst into the hall, no doubt having come from dawdling with a maid or two.
“What goes on here?” he demanded, rushing to their side.
     
“Papa has had an attack. Help me get him to his chamber,” Arian said.
    And so it was that Hylcon fell from a fit of temper into a deep slumber. He was taken to his chamber and tended by his wife and a host of scurrying physicians. Arian stood off in the shadows watching the comings and goings, and felt as if the weight of Wales pressed upon her shoulders. ’Twas her fault. Hylcon made ridiculous demands on her, refusing to let go of the last vital part that was a part of his dead wife. There was no question in her mind as to what she must do.
    “Rhodri,” she called to her brother, as he strode into the chamber. He came to her, his eyes so much like her own, questioning. She could not help a warm smile. He was a good head taller than she, which was not short for a woman. Whereas she had the sunburst-and-honeycolored locks of her mother, Rhodri was dark like their sire. He was most handsome, and could wheedle a mouse from the talons of a hawk. The people of Carmarthenshire adored him, and were most anxious for the young prince to take a bride. Her smile widened despite the dark mood of the chamber. There were plenty of bastards running about with the same silver eyes she and her brother possessed. Arian knew that as she had her own reservations concerning true love, Rhodri did also. ’Twas a topic they spent many hours pondering: while both desired a spouse, they did not desire love. She took his large hands into hers and pulled him to a quiet corner.
    “I must leave here before Papa awakens. As you are master here while he is ill, I beg your permission to go.” Rhodri’s silvery eyes darkened and he opened his mouth to argue. She shook her head and pled her cause. “By my staying, your mother will never have a chance at happiness, and for me the same applies. If I do not go now, Rhod, when he awakens— and he will, for he is as healthy as our stallions—he will never allow me to go.” She squeezed his hands. “I must go, Rhodri. I must go and live my own life.”
    His eyes beseeched her; she could tell he was afraid that if he allowed her to go while Hylcon slept there would be hell to pay when he awoke. “All I ask for is a contingent of soldiers to escort me to Yorkshire along with Lord Dag’s men.”
After several long moments, Rhodri nodded and squeezed her cold hands. “I will accompany you to the English border myself.”
    Arian nearly collapsed in relief, but instead she drew strength from her choice, and as the eldest sibling, she did have a say in some things. And she would not have her brother whom she loved above all others put himself in peril for her. “You will be Prince here, Rhodri, if he does not survive. ’Tis not wise to go so close to England now.”
    He cast an angry glance at the man they both called father. “I have no