Legacy

excerpt


Corwin stalked into the main room of his and Kaiyah’s suite, roughly unbuckling his sword-harness and throwing the weapon onto the couch. The minuscule scratch on his left cheekbone burned beneath the sheen of sweat, and all his fresh bruises ached. He cursed loudly and roundly, bringing Kaiyah from the other room.
“Corwin!” she exclaimed at sight of him, running forward. Her fingers gingerly brushed his cheek. He flinched away, and she drew her hand back hesitantly. “Who did this?” she asked softly, her gorgeous brown eyes, flecked with copper, looking deep into his sapphire ones.
“No one,” he grumbled, taking her hands to keep her from fussing with his face. He wanted very much to let her touch him, let her work her physical magic on him, but his surly, quick-tempered, unstable side was still in control of his actions.
“Corwin,” she began in a semi-scolding voice, “let me help. Let me get your sister—”
“Keeshon has enough to deal with.”
“—Or your father.”
Corwin looked abruptly away.
Kaiyah pulled one hand free and turned Corwin’s face back toward her. “Surely your father didn’t do this,” she whispered, brushing his cheek beneath the scratch. “It’s not like him.”
“It wasn’t my father,” Corwin replied, catching her hand again.
She stared at him. “Your mother, then,” she finally whispered.
He turned to walk away. She caught his wrist and made him face her. “Why?” she asked softly. She knew the spot. Kail Valeshyan had to have had a good reason for striking her only son there, and even Kaiyah could tell that the green dragoness had pulled back enough to keep from killing the young man. The green was certainly good enough to strike surely with a killing blow if she wanted to.
Corwin frowned. “We sparred. She won. I—”
“You attacked her, didn’t you?”
He scowled. He was awfully handsome when he was angry.
Kaiyah, though, couldn’t dwell on his looks just now. “You tried to kill her, didn’t you?”
“That’s none of your business,” Corwin growled.
She returned the glare. “Cor, you should know better by now! Learn to control your temper!”
“This is none of your business.”
“None of my business? Cor, I’m your wife! Your business is always my business!”
“Meddling woman!” he roared back, his fury raging within him, finding a new target in the lithe form of Kaiyah Cios. “You are always disturbing that which you should leave alone!”
“If it weren’t for my meddling, you would’ve done something regretful long ago!”
“If I had never met you, I wouldn’t have any problem!”
“So,” she said, suddenly quiet, “you mean it.”
His rational side realized what he’d just said, but his unstable side still held sway. “Yes,” the vicious part of him hissed, and cackled when a tear welled up in Kaiyah’s eyes. Corwin could almost see his soul-bonded’s heart break.
She backed away a step. “Fine. I understand.” She wiped away her tears, sniffling. “I’m leaving tomorrow. I’m going to my parents’ cottage.”
He stared at her as she continued to back up toward the bedroom door. “If you’re going to leave,” he said slowly, “look me in the eyes and tell me you don’t love me.”
She glanced at his face. “I—I don’t love you,” she whispered, though she didn’t meet his gaze for more than half a second. Sniffling and wiping her nose on her sleeve, she turned and ran into the bedroom, and slammed the door behind her.
Without a word, but cursing himself inwardly, Corwin sat on the couch and began to sharpen and oil his greatsword.
A few hours later, in the growing gloom in the suite, he stumbled, stiff from his bruises, into the bedroom.
The first occupant he noticed—the first he always noticed—was Kaiyah, lying in the bed with her back to him, her breathing even and restful. Her white-gold hair, stark against the dark-cased pillows, shone in the moonlight, and her bare right arm on her hip looked soft and warm under the tan. Corwin’s heart leaped a little to see that she still wore her jade-and-bloodstone marriage band on that wrist.
Then Corwin looked around him, and the heart that had jumped a moment before now froze. On the floor were Kaiyah’s packs, some half-full, with piles of clothes and personal belongings strewn about them. Drawers in various states of disarray stuck out of the bureau, and the closet doors stood ajar. Oh, Kai, Corwin thought to himself, what have I done? He knew she had lied about not loving him—had felt it, in fact, though his empathic gift—as he had lied about wishing her gone, but this was too much.
He brushed a small piece of sandalwood lying on a door-side table, a miniature painting of him and Kaiyah. He frowned at it. His ever-present scowl made him look annoyed at his lovely wife, and he wished, as he always did around her, that he could conjure a smile for her just once. I’m sorry, liyari.
Moving carefully in the dark, he stripped down, pulled on the soft, woolen breeches in which he slept, and climbed into the bed behind his wife. Slowly, he slid his arm around her waist.
He realized she was actually still awake when she tried to pull away. Reflexively, he tightened his grip and held her tight against him, pressing his cheek against her head. “Be still,” he breathed, his calm half in control again. She struggled for half a second longer; he brushed his lips across her temple, whispering, “Still,” again, and she conceded.
“I’m still leaving tomorrow,” she replied softly, her voice quivering with suppressed tears.
“Kai, I’m so sorry,” he said, leaning his forehead against her shoulder. “I love you too much to let you leave unless you truly hate me.”
“But Cor, those words you said, I—” She broke off, sniffling delicately.
“I never meant a single word of it, liyari. I—I’ll love you for eternity and beyond. I can do no less. I am soul-bound to you, liyari. To lose you would kill me inside.”
“But—”
“I will love you forever liyari, no matter what I say.” He kissed her back between her shoulder blades, just above the neckline of her silken nightgown, and heard her sharp intake of breath at the touch to a sensitive spot on her body. Corwin’s lips slowly moved up her spine to her neck, along her ear and jawbone to her sweet lips. She rolled over to face him.
“But all those things you said—”
He pulled her against him as she began to sob uncontrollably. “Shh,” he breathed, rubbing her back. “I’m so sorry I ever said that, liyari. When I’ve lost my temper I can be ruthless. I can’t help it. I don’t know how my mother manages it.”
“Ask for help,” she sobbed against his bare chest.
“Will you...will you help me?” he asked tentatively.
She nodded weakly against his chest, but could not seem to stop crying.
He pushed gently apart a bit so his mouth could find hers. Her weeping gradually ceased as he held her tight and proved how much he loved her.



He awoke to find her standing before the mirror, wrapped in a robe, inspecting her figure in the silvered glass.
“Kaiyah?” he asked, sitting up.
She whipped around. “You’re awake!” she exclaimed.
“Yeah. What are you doing?” He snagged his breeches from the floor and pulled them on as he spoke.
In answer, she walked to his side, sat on the bed, and kissed him deeply, passionately. Vaguely, from the corner of his eye, he saw that she’d unpacked everything again.
Liyari, a spoken answer would be nice,” he mumbled against her mouth.
Her lips moved across his face as she wrapped her arms tightly around him. When her mouth reached his ear, she whispered, “You’re going to be a father.”
He backed away from her in surprise. “What? How?”
“I’m sure you already know how,” she teased. “And I’m pretty sure this little one’s going to be as much of a handful as you were.”
He stared at her a moment longer. Then, slowly, surely, the corner of his mouth twitched in what started as a small smile, then grew to a broad grin. He caught her up in his arms again and breathed into her spun-gold hair, “Thank you, liyari.