WINDKEEPER (62 page)

"A good ending, eh, Hern?" the man asked.

"A good ending only if followed with a few quaffs of ale!" Hern said, slapping the man on his back.

"You buying?"

Hern slipped his arm around his friend’s neck and got him in a hammerlock before the bigger man slipped away and feigned a punch at Hern’s midsection.

Hern snorted, "How come I always wind up buying, Belvoir?" He shook his head. "You’ve got coins, too."

Sir Belvoir, Master-at-Arms of Norus Keep, spy for Her Majesty Queen Medea of Oceania, good friend and fellow conspirator of Hern Arbra, shoved his friend. "Come to Norus and I’ll buy."

Hern’s snort of disgust left no doubt in Belvoir’s mind what he thought of Norus Keep. "I’ll toss you for it."

Belvoir laughed, knowing Hern didn’t mean coins. "You can try!"

A sneer puckered Kaileel Tohre’s thin face as he saw Conar kissing the bitch again. His blood boiled, his breath coming in deep, shallow heaves of pure rage. He turned vicious eyes to the heavens and gnashed his teeth together. Spinning around, he started to leave, but jerked around.

"I will see you pay dearly for the love of that whore, Conar McGregor. I will make you wish you had never laid eyes on her. Mark me well, sweet Prince. That bitch will be the instrument of your well-deserved destruction!"

Charlotte Boyett-Compo is the author of more than two dozen novels, the first ten of which are the
WindLegends Saga
. For nearly three full years, Charlee has remained—first with Dark Star Publications, and now with Amber Quill Press—the company’s most popular and best-selling author. She is a member of the Romance Writers of America, the HTML Writer’s Guild, and Beta Sigma Phi Sorority. Married thirty-two years to her high school sweetheart, Tom, she is the mother of two grown sons, Pete and Mike, and the proud grandmother of Preston Alexander and Victoria Ashlee. A native of Sarasota, Florida, she grew up in Colquitt and Albany, Georgia, and now lives in the Midwest.

Most any fan of electronic books—or fans of dark fantasy and suspense—has at least heard her name mentioned, if not purchased at least one of her many offerings. This prolific author has not only managed to gain multiple nominations and awards for her work, but better still, has built a fan base whose members border on the "fanatical."

Currently, Charlee is at work on at least several books in her various series and trilogies.