The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume III: Volume III

weasel forgotten. That happened a lot. Whatever mood sat on Zolltarn’s shoulders infected the entire clan. Was this part of their connected magic; all of them subtly linked so that what one experienced the others shared? Lanciar hoped not. If that were the case, he was falling under their spell. He needed independence and privacy to steal his son. If he ever found the boy.
    “You have something to ask me?” Zolltarn spoke before Lanciar could open his mouth or even frame his question.
    “You lead us in a strange direction,” Lanciar said.
    “The road leads us. We follow it,” Zolltarn replied in typically cryptic Rover fashion.
    “The road branched three ways less than an hour ago. You could have chosen any one of those directions.”
    “This road seemed more enticing.”
    “This road leads to the mountains. The pass into SeLenicca is haunted by demons and ghosts as well as bandits.”
    “Ghosts have no reason to trouble Rovers. Bandits have learned to leave us alone. And as for demons? Demons can be our friends.” The Rover leader smiled and squinted his eyes in an expression that looked like mischief personified.
    Lanciar refused to repeat the ward behind his back. He’d have to learn to deal with Zolltarn and his smile sooner or later, hopefully later, after he left the clan with his son.
    “Rovers are not welcome in SeLenicca,” Lanciar argued. “The land has been stripped of resources. Why borrow trouble, when you can roam Coronnan and live off its lush bounty?”
    “My grandson travels this way. I sense that he needs me.” Zolltarn lifted his head and sniffed the air. His eyes took on a glazed expression.
    “Who calls you, Zolltarn?” Lanciar asked.
    “As I said, my grandson.”
    “You have so few men in the clan. I’m surprised you allowed the man to leave.”
    “In the way of the People, the man goes to his wife’s clan. For my grandson to marry within the clan would violate our laws against incest. He will rule his wife’s clan one day, as I rule my wife’s.”
    “You have not brought in new husbands for the many women here. Instead you indulge in polygamy.”
    “You have been brought into the clan. As have many orphaned children.”
    “I travel with you. There is a difference.” But his senses became suddenly alert to the nuances in Zolltarn’s tone. There was only one child that interested him.
    “Is there a difference? We take in the son, so must we take in the father.”
    “I will leave when I have accomplished my mission.”
    “Will you?”
    “ S’murghit, I will.”
    Watch your language! He distinctly heard Maija’s reprimand in his mind.
    Lanciar looked around for Zolltarn’s youngest daughter. She frowned at him from three sledges behind him. For once he did not look away and feel ashamed, but boldly held her gaze until she smiled and nodded.
    Only then did Lanciar turn his attention back to the Rover Chieftain’s challenge. Inwardly he shuddered against standing in such close proximity to a dark-eyed outlander; having his son raised by outlanders. Prejudices pounded into him as a child remained firmly rooted in his gut and the back of his mind.
    At one time he’d loved Rejiia. By that time, he’d spent enough time in the company of foreign soldiers and diplomats to overlook many things about outlanders. But still he resented them, felt dirty having to touch one. He’d overlooked Rejiia’s black hair because she had an incredibly lush body and an insatiable sexual appetite. True-blood women were notorious prudes. She also had piercing and beautiful blue eyes—the blue of an endless night sky in deep winter. True-bloods of SeLenicca always had blue eyes (though several shades lighter than Rejiia’s) and blond hair.
    But she and her lover King Simeon, Queen Miranda’s red-haired consort, had stolen the crown from Simeon’s meek little wife. Rejiia had claimed that her son was fathered by Simeon, hoping to put the child on the throne of SeLenicca as well as Coronnan with claims to Rossemeyer and Hanassa. But Simeon had turned out to be her father’s half brother. Then she claimed the boy died at birth to avoid the taint of incest.
    But Lanciar knew the child to be his, sired during a particularly passionate coven ritual when The Simeon had occupied himself exclusively with Ariiell. She’d been a simpering virgin at the time and screamed loudly enough to satisfy even The Simeon. Rejiia had never screamed during sex and always participated with all of her