The Son of Thunder

Chapter Forty-Seven

 Lightening thanked Shawna for granting him permission and bowed out of the room. Warrior stared at the door. He marched forward.

"What were you thinking?" he roared.

Shawna's voice was steady. "He may disguise his face in many ways."

"You have executed members of the staff to hide his identity: Necessity, Carmelita! You've eliminated all but we three who know his face."

"He will only remove the mask if he must."

"He is attending a wedding," he said, exasperated. "Under no circumstance is the risk necessary."

"He knows that," she growled.

"Then why do you let him? Why leave the choice to him?"

She watched Warrior with her cat-like eyes. "He wishes to do this for her."

Again Warrior sighed, but quieter. He stared blindly at the pendulum striking off the minutes. "But why do you allow him this freedom?"

"I see how he looks at her."

"She's pleasant to behold," he said. Had he not been so attached to Shawna, he would have admired the colossal woman. "Magpie's the most pleasant person in this wing."

"He wants her," she said slowly, seriously. Her boot heel tapped the ground as she began her stealthy pace. "I've learned too hard not to push him. He'll only resist. Even if he wants it. I must let him find his own way at his own time."

"I still don't see why you let him remove the mask."

"He won't abuse this freedom," she said. "I wouldn't discourage him in any sacrifice he would make for her."

"He still sees himself as married."

"She's better for him. Rhysya's an abomination. He'll come to see logic."

"I can't trust that so completely," he roared again.

"He already fights himself when he's near her. When he takes the empire, he'll see the necessity of bearing children. He'll take her."

"He's ruler now in all but title."

"Title is all that it will take. By the time he reaches his twentieth annum, he'll wed her."

* * * * *

In the darkness, thoughts of Canary began to haunt Magpie again. She'd never mated, so she couldn't fathom how Canary and Torin would look with their legs entwined, but she could hear them moaning. She could hear them laughing. She felt again the pang of anger and betrayal of Torin taking her sister. Even one of the Lovebirds she could have tempered, but not Canary. She rolled over in bed.

Tears came down her cheeks and she pressed her face into the pillow. Her screams were muffled in the down and she clenched the covers in her fists. The wails echoed off the dirt stone walls. Magpie stopped short at the knock at the door and Lightening's soft, but confident voice.

"Enter," she said, sitting up. "I didn't mean to wake you," wiping a hand over the contours of her cheeks.

He came to the bed, sat next to her. "You didn't wake me. I couldn't hear you before I was outside your door."

Magpie swallowed. "Then why have you come?"

"I interrupted your crying before. How I treated you was wrong. I apologize."

"I'm all right."

"If you fear you disturbed me with your wails, you are not all right."

"Tears cleanse the soul," she said. "I'm better for it."