Lady Warhawk Read Free Page B

you, Megs."
    Megassa let out a little moan and launched from her bench, nearly dragging the two
boys with her. She wrapped her arms around Meghianna and they clung to each other, laughing
and weeping. They ended up on the bench again, with the boys asking questions and the littlest
one somehow managing to get onto Meghianna's lap. She welcomed that sign of trust and easy
affection. It meant Megassa and Lorkin hadn't spoken evil or anger about her to their boys. That
easy acceptance and affection from the four boys meant more to her than anything Megassa said
when she revealed her story.
    "We unraveled the mystery perhaps five years ago," her sister said, after sending Lok
and the next boy in line, Mikyl, to fetch cider and cakes from the innkeeper. "When you cut the
connection between us, that told me you were the most likely one to have charge of Athrar."
    "Did it hurt?"
    "Not feeling the link between us break, but knowing why you had to do it. Oh, I was so
furious. I was sure it was Lord Mrillis' doing..." Megassa shrugged and stroked the hair of the
boy on her lap, Arkin. "Then after a while, I realized I would have done the same thing if our
roles were reversed. I certainly hadn't given you any sign that I had learned my lesson, so why
should you trust me? Especially when I locked you out every time you tried to reach me?"
    "Megs--"
    "I understand. And I wouldn't take your job for all the fame and glory and honor you
could offer me. I have an entire estate full of servants to help me and Lorkin raise our boys, and I
still wonder sometimes how we manage. You have two boys you're raising on your own, along
with acting as a healer and running an inn. That was how we found you, finally. A healer woman
with red hair."
    "Five years ago, you say?" Meghianna could barely repress a sigh. She thought she had
been so clever. If Megassa had found her, how many far more vicious and bitter enemies of the
Warhawk had been watching her all this time?
    "Oh, no, we didn't find your inn until two moons ago. We decided you were in
Quenlaque, and we had decided you had to be a healer--you can't resist helping people, Meggi.
Do you have any idea the number of healers in this city? It's growing faster than our spies can
keep count."
    "Your spies. How many know--"
    "No one but Lorkin and our boys. We have a few trusted men and women, all with
Valor training, bound with those clever spells Mrillis devised--"
    "What spells?" Meghianna felt some disgruntlement that Mrillis had done something
new in Valor training and hadn't told her. Even if she wasn't involved in Valor training anymore,
as Queen of Snows she should at least have been kept informed.
    "Not truly magic," her sister said with a chuckle. "Vows sworn on their swords and
Braenlicach, imperiling their very souls, to stand for honor and truth and loyalty and justice, to
protect the weak and defenseless, and defeat those who would harm innocence and profit from
suffering. How can anyone stray from vows like that, when it's been pounded into you during
your training, and strong chains of guilt hold you fast?" She sighed. "If only such vows and such
training had been pounded into my head ..."
    "You were in love. It does odd things to even the most sensible people," Meghianna
offered.
    "Now, I can truly vouch for that." The sparkle came back to her eyes and she tapped the
nose of the youngest boy, Garyn, perched comfortably in Meghianna's lap. "My dears, go back to
your games and let your Aunt Meggi and me talk about boring grown-up things."
    Lok and Mikyl returned then with the food, and it was several minutes until everyone
was served. Meghianna and Megassa settled down under the window again with their mugs of
cider and two cakes, sticky with honey and studded with dried fruit. Meghianna made note of the
composition of the cakes, to tell Bethian. This inn didn't have any sort of reputation for its food,
either good or bad, but these cakes would make a nice change in her inn's regular