Read WindLegends Saga 9: WindRetriever for Free Online Page B

softened and he drew in his legs, eased himself from his chair, and walked over the chair in which Conar sat. He moved behind the chair and reached his powerful hands down to the sagging shoulders of the man sitting slumped in the overstuffed chair. He began to massage the tight muscles. "Is it bad?" he asked in a voice soft with concern.
    Conar had been sitting with his fingertips rubbing small, tight circles on his pounding temples. His eyelids were closed and he was gritting his teeth to the blinding pain inside his head.
    Every muscle in his head, neck and shoulders was as tight as a drum head. "It feels as though something is trapped inside my skull and trying to get out," he answered his friend.
    Sajin Ben-Alkazar was on personal terms with such debilitating headaches, himself, and he knew the pain could be so intense it often made the sufferer want to pound his head against a wall in order to let the demons inside out. He kneaded the muscles over Conar's collar bone, his thumbs working along the strong neck. "Do you want me to call Rupine?"
    "No," came the immediate answer.
    "Then why don't you go to bed, at least, Conar?" Sajin asked. "Maybe you can sleep it off."
    His hands threaded through McGregor's thick spun gold hair. He was alarmed at how tight his friend's scalp was. The pain had to be intense.
    "I promised Catherine we would talk," Conar answered. "I can't keep putting that off, Sajin."
    "Yes, you can," Sajin replied. "You don't need to try to deal with that when you're hurting like this. It can wait."
    Despite the riveting pain in his right temple, Conar shook his head. "If I put it off, it's just going to be that much harder when we get to St. Steffensburg."
    Sajin smoothed his friend's hair and came to stand in front of him. Hunkering down, he put his hands on the chair arms. "I could talk to her for you."
    Conar opened one eye. "That would be the cowardly way out for me, wouldn't it?"
    "Did it ever occur to you that all these headaches you've been having might be because you're feeling guilty over deciding to give Catherine up and don't really want to?"
    "You know I don't want to," Conar argued, "but what choice do I have?" He felt the nausea coming again and swallowed tightly to keep it down. "Besides, to whose advantage is it that I give her up, nomad?"
    "Even at the expense of your health, my friend?" Sajin reached up to draw one of Conar's hands down. "I may love her, McGregor, but I'd rather see you well than suffering like this."
    "The headaches have nothing to do with Catherine," Conar told him. "I've had them since I was thirteen. You know that."
    "Yes, but they've never been this bad, have they?"
    "No." He gagged, making Sajin jump back. He was able to keep the bile down, but could taste the insipid fumes filling his nostrils.
    Charlotte Boyett-Compo WINDRETRIEVER 25
    "That's it," Sajin snarled. "You're going to bed!" He reached down to help Conar up.
    With his head throbbing like someone was driving a sharp spike through his right temple, Conar allowed himself to be levered up from the chair. He swayed against Sajin for a moment as the pain lurched in his eye, spraying sparkling pinpoints of light along his vision. He could feel the secretion of sweat popping out along his upper lip and on his forehead. That wasn't a good sign and Sajin noticed it, as well.
    "You're going to wind up having to be given something for the pain, Conar," he warned.
    "God, no," Conar answered. "That's all I need."
    Pushing the pain to the back of his conscious thought, Conar stumbled along with Sajin to the sleeping chamber, Jaleel Jaborn's own. He stood weaving at the door as the two women warriors lowered their pikes and one reached out to open the door for him.
    "Would you send for Rupine, the physician?" Sajin asked the shortest of the two women.
    He gripped Conar's arm tightly as his friend sagged against the door frame.
    "Immediately, Your Grace!" the women answered. Her sister sentinel leaned her pike against