The Quest for Saint Camber Read Online Free

“That gives him a few perquisites that mere cousinship and usurped Haldane potentials don’t confer, doesn’t it? Don’t worry, I won’t betray your secret.”
    â€œI’d rather not talk about it,” Conall said, turning his face away guiltily.
    â€œNo, I don’t suppose you would.” Tiercel stood. “Well, I must be away. You’re sure you don’t want something for your headache?”
    â€œNo. It’s nearly gone already.” Conall swallowed uneasily, fighting down a flush of embarrassment at his outburst. “Tiercel, I—”
    The Deryni lord ducked under the shoulder strap of his satchel, then began drawing on his clammy cloak as he glanced back at Conall.
    â€œYes?”
    â€œI—please don’t mind me getting a little hot about Dhugal. I guess I am a bit jealous.” He glanced down at his stockinged feet. “I suppose I’m a bit jealous of Kelson, too.”
    â€œI know,” Tiercel said softly. He laid a comforting hand on Conall’s shoulder until the younger man looked up and managed a shifty, half-hearted smile, then took his hand away.
    â€œYou have much to recommend you for yourself alone, Conall. Don’t let jealousy make you lose sight of that.”
    â€œI’ll try. Will—will we have time for any more sessions before I leave?”
    â€œOne more, perhaps,” Tiercel said, “though not until after the knighting. You’re going to be very busy between now and then. And I’d better come to you, rather than the reverse. You’re going to be under increasing scrutiny—not because anyone suspects anything,” he added, at Conall’s flash of alarm, “but simply because, since the conferring of knighthood denotes a full coming of age in your rank as prince and knight, people are going to be interested in what you’re doing and how you’re taking the new responsibilities that come with the honor.”
    â€œI suppose that makes sense,” Conall agreed. “Will you send word in the usual way, then?”
    Tiercel nodded. “We’ll plan tentatively for the night before you actually leave on the progress. Most everyone else will be otherwise occupied getting last-minute arrangements taken care of, so you’re that much less likely to be missed.”
    â€œTrue enough.” Conall stood as Tiercel gathered up cap and gloves.
    â€œGood luck with your knighting, then,” Tiercel said, clasping his hand to Conall’s and brushing his mind briefly against the other’s in leave-taking. “Mine was far less lavish than what they have planned for you, but I’ll never forget it. Will you return to Rhemuth now, or are you staying a while with your lady?”
    Conall smiled lazily as Tiercel withdrew from the handclasp and pulled on his cap, moving toward the door.
    â€œI have some unfinished business here, I think,” he said, hooking his thumbs in his belt as Tiercel paused with a hand on the latch. “And this time, I shall take suitable precautions to make certain I’m not interrupted.”
    Tiercel only flashed him a forebearing grin before dashing back into the rain.

C HAPTER O NE
    I will make him my firstborn .
    â€”Psalms 89:27
    â€œWell, it’s a relief finally to have official confirmation that my foster brother is not a bastard!” King Kelson of Gwynedd said.
    He flung a playful arm around the neck of Dhugal MacArdry as the two of them followed Dhugal’s father and Duke Alaric Morgan into Kelson’s suite of rooms in Rhemuth Castle, Bishop Denis Arilan bringing up the rear. All of them were dripping rain. It was the Saturday before the beginning of Lent, the Vigil of Quinquagesima Sunday, the first day of March in the Year of Our Lord 1125, and Kelson Haldane had been King of Gwynedd for a little more than four years. He had turned eighteen the previous November.
    â€œNot that I ever believed he was, of