The Conqueror's Shadow Read Online Free PDF Page B

heard that!”
    Both father and son were laughing now. “Come on out, Mel. I’m just teasing.”
    Her own lips twisted in a disapproving moue, a brown-haired girl, just shy of her teenage years, stepped from around the corner. She wore, as they all did, a simple tunic and breeches of undyed cloth. She was, her parents had decided, far too prone to dashing and racing around to dress her in skirts.
    â€œWell, you don’t
look
as though you were chasing him,” the grey-haired man commented seriously. “You don’t seem to have been running at all.”
    â€œI don’t need to run,” she said smugly, staring up at the two of them. “I’ll catch him eventually anyway.”
    â€œOh? And why’s that?”
    â€œI’m smarter than he is.”
    Lilander stopped laughing and scowled down darkly at his older sister. “Are not!”
    Mellorin sighed theatrically. Her father, fully aware that he would soon have to be stern and fatherly, restrained a grin. She was so much like her mother.
    â€œI refuse,” she said with exaggerated dignity, “to be drawn into that kind of argument with a child.”
    The man’s lip quivered, and he coughed once.
    â€œAre not!” her brother insisted again.
    Her eyes blazed suddenly. “Are too!” she shouted.
    All right, that was about as far as it needed to go. “Children!” the man barked, sharply enough to get their attention but not so loud as to suggest he was angry—yet. “What have I told you about fighting?”
    â€œI don’t know,” Lilander said instantly. “Besides, she started it.”
    â€œDid not!”
    â€œDid too!”
    Shaking his head, the children’s father gave them both another sound lecture—one he’d given hundreds of times previously, and fullyexpected to give hundreds of times more, possibly starting as early as lunch—and sent them both into the house. The windows weren’t quite thick enough to keep the recurring cries of “Are not!” “Are too!” from invading the garden.
    â€œLouder than ogres,” he muttered with a trace of a smile as he turned back toward the vegetables.
    â€œMore dangerous, too,” came the reply from behind him. “They broke another window this morning. That’s why they were outside in the first place.”
    She stood at the edge of the garden, leaning on a rake. She frowned at him, but he’d known her long enough to see the spark of laughter in her eyes. Her hair, a richer brown than his own had ever been, was braided in a simple tail. A few rogue strands fell across her face; she brushed them aside reflexively, unaware of the gesture.
    â€œYou’re beautiful,” he told her sincerely.
    â€œAnd you’re trying to change the subject. I’m too tired to be flattered.”
    He couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, I’d be more than happy to look after the children today. Of course, it means I’d be forced—reluctantly, I assure you—to skip helping you out here in the garden …”
    â€œOh, no! No, you’re staying out here with me if I have to stake you up like one of my tomato plants. You—”
    A sudden shattering drifted from the general direction of the kitchen, followed immediately by “Mellorin did it!” “Did not!” “Did too!”
    Their mother shook her head, sighing. “As soon as we go deal with whatever disaster just happened in the house.”
    â€œAh,” he replied, “normal life. It’s what we wanted, isn’t it?”
    She laughed again, even as they started moving, the garden temporarily forgotten. It was amazing, even after all these years together. “I love you, Tyannon,” he said simply.
    Tyannon smiled back at him, this man who had been her husband for half her life. “I love you too, Corvis.”
    Corvis Rebaine followed his wife back into the