The Quest for Saint Camber Read Free Page B

away.”
    â€œI—don’t think that’s a good idea,” Tiercel replied. “For one thing, I may need them. For another, it wouldn’t do for someone to find them and deduce what you’ve been doing with your spare time. Only a trained Deryni would have any business with a set. Besides, you’re flexing abilities you’ve never used before. You have to build up your endurance. I’ll bet you’ve got a headache just from this afternoon’s work.”
    Conall nodded grudgingly, kneading the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger and trying to will the dull throb to recede. He’d been trying to ignore it, but it was centered just behind his eyes.
    â€œI have. It isn’t too bad, though. Not as bad as some I’ve had.”
    â€œYou’re sure? I can give you something for it, if you like. You needn’t play the martyr, you know.”
    â€œI know. But if I take one of your potions, I’ll still be groggy at dinnertime. Someone might notice. I’ll be all right.”
    â€œVery well. Suit yourself. I am pleased with your progress, however. Today’s gains should make it much easier when we continue with your training. If only we’d had a few more weeks, I feel certain I could have taken you before the Council by Midsummer.”
    Conall grimaced, but not from his headache. “I know you won’t want to believe this, coming from me, but under the circumstances, it’s probably best we have to wait,” he said. “The Council isn’t going to like it when we prove that more than one Haldane can hold the Haldane power at a time. And when they tell Kelson, he isn’t going to like it. If he knew, he’d never let me be knighted.”
    â€œWhat makes you so sure they’ll tell Kelson?” Tiercel asked. “He isn’t exactly their favorite Deryni right now, you know. If he were on the Council, it would be different, of course, but he isn’t—the more fool, he.”
    â€œI still can’t believe he turned down a Council seat,” Conall muttered. “ I wouldn’t have—not that I’m ever likely to be asked.”
    Conall cocked his head thoughtfully at his prize pupil as he stashed the cube pouch in his satchel.
    â€œThat may not be as far-fetched as you think,” he said quietly. “If you keep progressing, there’s no predicting how far you might go.”
    â€œAnd wouldn’t that be a feather in your cap?” Conall returned, not even blinking at the notion—which startled Tiercel. “You can’t tell me you don’t have ambitions, too, Tiercel de Claron.”
    Tiercel shrugged. “Oh, I do. But they had included your rather uncooperative cousin Kelson as well as yourself. And if declining the Council seat wasn’t enough, he had to recommend Morgan or Duncan in his place—or Dhugal.…”
    â€œDhugal!” Conall snorted. “What does that upstart border bastard know about anything?”
    Tiercel favored the sour-visaged prince with a wry little smile.
    â€œI must assume that you mean the term bastard in the purely pejorative sense rather than the literal one, since the holy fathers of the Church are even now about the business of legitimating young Dhugal.”
    â€œHe’s still a bastard.”
    â€œIn that his parents were not wed according to the usual rites of Mother Church—perhaps. But a form of marriage was enacted, and both parents were free to marry at the time. That’s enough for the king. And at his request, the bishops almost certainly will grant the necessary dispensation.”
    â€œA piece of parchment,” Conall muttered. “It changes nothing.”
    â€œWhy, one might almost think you were jealous,” Tiercel said mildly.
    â€œJealous? Of Dhugal?”
    â€œWell, he is of true Deryni lineage, after all, and the king’s blood brother,” Tiercel said pointedly.