Karigan’s Shadow
Z achary froze.
What? Why did he stop?
He sniffed and glanced over his shoulder.
No, no, no, she thought, grabbing at the lapels of his waistcoat, but he sat back and cold air filled the gulf between them.
“What is it?” she asked in consternation.
Then she heard it, the unmistakable retching sound of a dog.
And then she smelled it, too, and her own stomach curdled.
“Oh, gods,” Zachary said, “it’s coming out both ends.”
Their amorous moment shattered, Zachary rose from the sofa and, holding his trousers up, stumbled to where the dog extruded bodily fluids all over the hearth.
“What the hells did you get into, boy?”
Karigan pulled herself back together and fanned the air in front of her face. The miasma clogged the room and was as vile as anything she had smelled on the battlefield.
Zachary buckled his belt and used the fire shovel to throw dead ash on some of the vomit.
A live coal, however, accidently landed on the rug and caught fire.
Karigan grabbed the blanket that had covered her earlier to beat out the flames.
Between the smoke and baked vomit and diarrhea, she wanted to throw up herself, but finally she smothered the last flame.
She and Zachary, both panting with exertion, and not the pleasant kind, gazed at one another through the haze. Poor miserable Finder got sick again under the sofa and Karigan’s stomach took another turn. She forced the rising bile in her throat back down.
Zachary knelt to look at his dog. He shook his head.
“Will he be all right?” Karigan asked.
“Most likely, but I’ll send for Rider Harding to make sure.”
“Do you ever get the feeling,” she asked, “that this is some sort of message from the universe?”
“ You’re the messenger and would know.” He smiled and rubbed his eyes, irritated by the smoke.
Before she could give him a tart reply, Fastion and Donal burst in.
“We smelled smoke,” Donal said, “then saw it coming from under the door.”
Both Weapons took in the haze that hung in the air.
“Did Sir Karigan try to burn the castle down again?” Fastion asked.
“I’m afraid it was me this time,” Zachary replied.
Then the fullness of the stench hit them. Fastion turned a little green.
Zachary glanced once more at Finder beneath the sofa, then climbed to his feet. “One of you send a runner for Rider Harding, please. Finder apparently got into something revolting but irresistible, and it’s made him very sick.”
“Yes, sire.” Fastion was the quicker of the two and bolted from the room.
“Sire?” Donal said.
“Yes?”
“You are gaping.”
“What?”
Donal nodded at his trousers.
“Uh, oops.”
Karigan tried not to blush at the implications as he rebuttoned his fly, wondering what Donal might think, but the Weapon’s expression remained as inscrutable as ever. Still, she could only imagine what he was thinking.
“I’m going to need help cleaning this up,” Zachary said. “Donal, could you ask a runner to go to Mistress Evans and ask her to send someone? Preferably someone with a strong stomach.”
Donal bowed and was off.
Zachary and Karigan looked at one another and burst out laughing.
“Poor Finder,” she said.
“Dogs,” he replied with a sigh.
“Dogs,” she agreed.
He rubbed her shoulder. “You look a little pale yourself and I don’t want all your rest undone. Return to the Rider wing as you wish, and we’ll talk more later.”
Did he really mean talk , or other things? She curtsied. “I hope Finder feels better soon.”
“I may relegate him to the kennels for the foreseeable future for interrupting us. I—” He was suddenly at an unusual loss for words. Swiftly he bent down and kissed her cheek. “Until next time, dearheart.”
The foul stink of Finder’s illness followed her out of the guest suite and down the corridor, but at least it faded the farther along she got. It, and the smoke, clung to her clothes, however. She needed another bath.
“Good gods,” she muttered, still off balance from her intimacy with Zachary, disappointed by the interruption, and yet relieved. If not for Finder’s upset gut, her passions would have ruled her and they might have committed actions that could never be reversed.
As it was, their intimacy complicated matters.
After all, he was her king and not just any man to do with what she was, er, doing.
Not just her king, but the king. She wanted very badly to be with him.
It had felt so natural to be together, and yet she was assailed by guilt for betraying Estora and her own sense of honor.
It was all so confusing, and still she hungered for Zachary and his touch.
“Ugh.” When she reached her chamber in the Rider wing she would take that bath cold , or maybe go outside and throw herself into the snow.
Her shadow self appeared leaning against the wall. You are overthinking it again. He could easily be yours, and only yours.
Karigan walked right past her, tried to block her from her mind, but she reappeared a short way down the corridor.
When he is yours, Dark Karigan said, there would be no concerns about honor, no interruptions, no regrets.
That would be nice, Karigan thought, but Estora was his wife and it would never be that easy.
Wives are easily removed.
“No!” Karigan’s exclamation startled a guardsman on his rounds. She pretended to cough and hurried on her way.
Dark Karigan reappeared once more and said, The power is yours to take what you want. Think on it. Think of all that is possible and within reach. You love him, and he loves you. It is not a stretch to make all you wish for come true.
It was, Karigan thought, exactly what she feared, to achieve all she wanted without restraint. She was not her shadow.