Sons of the Falcon (The Falcons Saga) Read Online Free PDF Page B

needed to speak with him? Kelyn wasn’t in a gregarious mood.
    “Eliad, go help him pack. Pack your
own things, too. We leave for home in the morning.” The squires hurried off for
the stairs, and Kelyn called after them, “Write to your father, Laral, let him
know where you’ll be. And don’t let Drys take off into the mountains looking
for vengeance, eh?”
    He turned to find the Captain of
the Falcon Guard standing at his elbow. How cold and austere she looked in her
black surcoat. She had cut off her long pale braid; the heavy bob brushed her jawline.
“Bad business, that. His Majesty will sort it out.”
    “I’m sure.”
    “And you? Her Grace is returning to
Windhaven for winter, isn’t she? Taking the child with her?”
    Kelyn’s heart sank. Had Lissah
mentioned it to sting him? Whatever her motives, they weren’t wholesome.
Stiffly, he said, “Yes.”
    “Whatever will you do during those
long, cold nights without someone to warm your bed?”
    Kelyn grit his teeth. “Get a bigger
bed warmer.”
    “Hnh.”
    “You’re fighting a one-sided
battle, Lissah,” he snapped, then moved off for the stairs. “Don’t force me to
resent you.”
    “Resent me ?” The indignant
cry shuddered down the length of the corridor. “Who’s running now, Kelyn?”
    He paused, exhaled, and said, “Yes,
it’s wiser.”
    She snickered. “Under her thumb
already, are you?”
    Kelyn whirled, face hot, and
hurried back down the steps. “Do not mention Her Grace to me in this manner
again, or I will break your teeth as if you were a man.”
    Lissah’s eyebrow peaked, and she
crossed her arms over the silver falcon on her chest. “Interesting.”
    “ Interesting? What did you
expect?”
    “From you? Anything but fidelity.”
She turned and beat a retreat toward her offices. If she expected him to
follow, as in the old days, she found herself gravely disappointed.
     
    ~~~~
     
    K elyn rode through
Ilswythe’s gate, and a cerulean banner inched up the flagpole atop the keep’s
roof. Blazoned with a black spread-winged falcon wielding a sword in its talons,
the banner flapped grudgingly in the calm night air, as if the hour was too
late to bother with grand announcements of a lord’s return. Riding along behind
him, Eliad blinked heavily. Making the journey in one day was always hard on
youngsters, but Kelyn worried that Rhoslyn may have departed before he could
say his farewells.
    Captain Maegeth descended the
gatehouse to hold his horse’s bridle. Tall, whip-thin, and hardened from
keeping the castle garrison in shape, she had never been able to shed a certain
feminine delicacy, at least in Kelyn’s eyes. Her short-cropped hair, as black
as the falcon on her chest, had started to turn silver at the temples. “All
quiet here, m’ lord,” she said. “How’s Bramoran?”
    Kelyn snorted, dismounting. “Quiet
like a hail storm. Something nasty going on among the dwarves. Doesn’t look like
it will trouble us though. But the rest? Goddess! Families arguing over
pensions, village elders demanding reparations, soldiers complaining they
weren’t paid enough for their wounds. You’ve my thanks, Maegeth, for being content.”
    “Well, a girl could use a raise now
and then.”
    Kelyn glared, then caught her
mischievous half-grin.
    “Under the circumstances,” she
added, “we’ll forego the matter till spring.”
    “Hhn, so good of you, Captain.”
    Eliad climbed down beside them,
groaned out a great yawn. The boy looked more like his father every day, but
the king paid his bastard son less than no mind. He took the horses and headed
for the stables, half asleep on his feet.
    “Only good news,” Kelyn added, “is
that Queen Briéllyn is with child again. At least, Rhorek hinted as much. Best
keep it quiet.”
    “About time Prince Valryk had a
sparring partner, eh?”
    Kelyn chuckled at Maegeth’s idea of
sibling companionship. “He’s not even two years old, Captain.”
    “I’m the third child of six,