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him. Malthus would find a way around yielding Merissa to Brandrahoon.
Then he thought of Pandeena, the mysterious priest, and his loins tightened.
He wanted that one also, but something about her disturbed him. Spellcord.
Yes, that was what he needed. Spellcord her, and then make her his. Make her
spill her secrets, and open her legs to him.
Malthus opened the letter from Minnoras and discovered that the god-queen had
written him only a single line:
Send me the child alive.
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Damn! They both wanted the child delivered to them alive.
So there was no possibility of getting paid double.
Malthus reconsidered everything. The gold would be nice.
However, he had already been promised a title of nobility, lands, and slaves
for betraying the valley into the Queen's hands. Malthus ran his tongue over
his fangs thoughtfully. He had not specified whether the child had been born
lycan or sa'necari. Perhaps he could substitute Kandaishee's child for
Darmyk ... That was a thought. The two cubs were the same age. Give that child
to Brandrahoon. He was more of a threat than Galee was. The god-queen still
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had Angrim, Beltria, and
Shaurone to plow through before she could reach him.
He would have his promised vengeance on Isranon for killing his
brother butcher Darmyk and send pieces of the child to his father.
But Merissa? Merissa was another goal entirely. Perhaps he could substitute
Clodagh for Merissa after a bit of fiddling with her mind to convince the
bitch she was Merissa.
He should never have sent those letters, but at least he now had a plan.
* * * *
After closing all her curtains and shutters in her apartments, Pandeena
cuddled Moss in her arms. He licked her face with a wag of his tail. "Yes, I
love you too, Moss.
We're going to visit a friend of yours."
Pandeena Jumped to her mother's house, and as she walked past the front room,
she saw that the chairs, sofas, and floor overflowed with members of
Teakamon's band in
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360
mottled gray and brown. Teakamon sat at the head of the room in the chair that
Lokynen favored, wearing his natural form: his hair the color of fresh spring
leaves hung loose to his buttocks, a seal-brown loin cloth was the only
clothing on his sorrel skinned-body and his lean frame with its well-
defined muscles, and modest flare at his shoulders, looked as if he had been
carved from a light, reddish-brown wood and then highly polished.
Teakamon rose from his chair when he saw Pandeena, straightening to his full
seven-foot height. A gray-eyed woman dressed in doeskin trousers and tunic
shoved herself from a chair and followed him. Pandeena's eyebrows lifted at
the sight of Reynan Sharani, the Watcher of the Woods, knowing that Teakamon
would only have brought her if times had become exceedingly dangerous.
"What have we here?" Teakamon asked, reaching out to stroke the dog in
Pandeena's arms. "I do believe it's little
Moss."
"You know him?" Pandeena asked, startled.
"Why, yes," Teakamon replied. "I gave him to Tempest ten years ago. He's a
cedar puppy. I grow them on my special tree. They're very intelligent as dogs
go, and long-lived."
Teakamon parted the hair on Moss' tail to show the green spot where Moss had
once been connected to the tree he sprouted from.
Pandeena sucked in a sharp breath. "Tempest is dead.
They say it was a heart attack."
Teakamon frowned, his bushy green brows knitting tightly together across his
narrow forehead. "That's not possible."
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"He was old..."
The son of Willodarus shook his head. "Tempest could not die of that. I linked
his heart to a tree. He was one of my favorites."
Tension rippled through Pandeena. "Could a sa'necari have stilled his heart?
As if it were a heart attack?"
"Death magic, yes. Did you see Tempest's body?"
"No. He was returned to the earth months ago. He's buried beside his shrine in
Wolffgard."
Sorrow washed across Teakamon's features. "Poor little
Moss. Has he been alone all that time?"
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"No. I think he had other people for a time. Actually, I
think our injured wolf upstairs belongs to Moss."
"I assume that you are taking him there?"
"I watch and see, but may not tell, of all the evil that I
smell," said Reynan in a singsong voice. "I hunt it down, I kill it well, I
show to all however small."
Pandeena shivered. She had never heard the Watcher speak before. All she knew
about Teakamon's great paladin was that the mon had been geised at birth by
her bloodmother's enemies. "Yes, I am."
"Shall I come with you?" Teakamon asked.
Pandeena shook her head. "I'll come back down and we can talk then."
"Good. Reynan and I have things to show you."
Pandeena climbed the stairs with Moss. When she entered
Nikko's bedroom, Moss began squirming to be let down and whining. Pandeena
tightened her hold on him.
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"What do we have here?" Navaryn asked, glancing over her shoulder as she
handed Nikko a glass of one of her potions.
"A friend of his, I think." Pandeena knelt and released [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]