Midnight Warrior Read Online Free Page B

at the sky. “Perhaps I should stay here,” he murmured. “I have a feeling that a bad thing awaits me across that sea.”
    “You see it written on the heavens?” Gage asked caustically. “Good God, are you also robbed of reason by the appearance of that infernal comet?”
    “If reason does not explain, then we must rely on what we feel is true.”
    “Or imagine.” He smiled sardonically. “Or twist to suit ourselves.”
    “What a cynic you are,” Malik said. “You believe in nothing.”
    “Not on this earth. No, that’s not true. I believe in what I am and what you are. I believe in what I can see and hear and touch.” His gaze followed Malik’s to thecomet. “And I believe you’re seeing what you want to see just as William did. If you don’t wish to go with me, say it. I will not quarrel with you.”
    Malik was silent a moment. “I will go. What will be, will be.” A sudden grin lit his face. “But you must promise I will not die by the hands of those barbarians. It would not be a fitting end to such a glorious career.”
    Gage smiled. “I promise.”
    “Good.” Malik moved across the room toward the door. “And now that you have decided to cast us upon the bloody shores of war, I feel I must indulge in the joys of life. I have a lovely damsel who has been waiting in my chamber for the past three hours.”
    “She may not still be there. Ladies do not like to wait.”
    “She will be there. She is curious. She wants to see if a Saracen is truly heathen in the physical as well as the spirit.” He paused at the door. “It is Lady Genevieve. You said you did not mind?”
    Gage shrugged. “Why do you ask? We’ve shared women before. You’re right, she is curious.” He and Malik had encountered many noblewomen both there and in Byzantium who had sought to liven their boredom by daring to secretly venture into the forbidden fringes where outcasts dwelled. Genevieve had been more entertaining than most, but Gage did not fool himself into thinking she had any more affection for him than he did for her. “And very inventive. You’ll enjoy her.”
    “If you need a woman, she hinted she would not be averse to both of us in her bed.”
    “Not tonight.”
    Malik still hesitated, studying him. “Are you troubled? Do you need to talk? I will stay.”
    “And keep her waiting even longer?”
    “I will keep her waiting forever if you have need ofme. Friendship is far more rewarding than the joys of the flesh.”
    “Not on an immediate basis.” He smiled affectionately and said gruffly, “Go on. I will see you in the morning.”
    Malik nodded and left the chamber.
    Gage looked up at the comet, beginning to feel a faint stirring of excitement.
    England. He had memories of Hardraada talking in the twilight dimness of his hall of the rich plum that was England. His father had wanted England, still wanted it. Gage would be pitting himself against Norway and Hardraada if he allied himself with William. He would be casting away the last chance of getting his father to acknowledge him.
    There was no chance. He had not even realized a particle of hope remained until that moment. Why should he not recognize and resign himself to that truth? Hardraada had made his rejection brutally clear on that last journey.
    Well, if he had no father, no loyalty was due.
    England offered him a place and status he had never been able to win in Normandy and was denied in Norway. He would reach out and pick the plum, and to devil with Hardraada.
    He smiled recklessly as he looked up at the comet. He did not believe in signs, but the baron he was to become needed a coat of arms. Why not this blazing heavenly messenger that was filling all and sundry with fear and foreboding? The temerity of the upstart merchant-warrior flourishing such a banner would outrage William, King Harold of England, Hardraada, and possibly the Pope himself.
    Yes, he would definitely claim the comet as his own.

Two

October 14, 1066
Hastings,