Master of Hawks by Linda E. Bushyager

unbreakable pattern that would lead through dark and costly conflict to an ultimate victory—and that this unknown girl would be crucial for that victory and important to him.
    Moreover, he'd felt unmistakably that the precognition had been hers, not his, and that he'd sensed only a small part of it. Then later, as he'd grown attracted to her in a way that made him think he could forget the pain of the past, he'd almost begun to wish that the clairvoyance were real.
    No. I just imagined it. Or perhaps it was a trick.
    He wondered why he'd lied to Hawk about her. He knew she was no man-hater. She'd even told him that she'd been married once. Perhaps he'd said it to protect his friend. Yes, that was it. Hawk shouldn't get involved with her. She was no better than any other woman. She was just like them. Women were not important.
    I won't let one hurt me again.
    Then he thought of the girl who'd been his wife. They had called it the perfect marriage, a great alliance between the neighboring kingdoms of Mayler and Roehm.
    He'd only been seventeen, and Joyce S'Roehm even younger.
    He remembered her sweet face, a mask of childlike innocence hiding a whore. She'd run off with another man only a few months after their wedding.
    He'd been glad when he'd heard she'd died—until he'd learned that she had carried his stillborn child with her to the grave.
    May N'Omb damn her! But in his mind's eye he saw Ro's face, not Joyce's. I don't care if she is hurt. . . .
    Then he heard a sound behind him. Stephen had returned to clean up the dishes.
    "Excuse me, Lord S'Mayler. I hope I'm not disturbing you . . . if I am I can . . . "
    "No, I was just watching the storm," Derek replied. "I'm really quite tired now. I'll be in my room. Please inform me if anything important comes up." He knew he had to get a few hours of rest to renew the energy he had expended in the sorcery battle with Ramsey.
    As he entered the bedroom, a corner of his mind murmured: Perhaps it would be better if Ro does die . . . while another part could not bear that thought.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    8
     
     
    Hawk awoke completely from a night of fitful half-sleep and stared upward at the predawn sky. With the town in ruins and the inn reserved for the wounded, most of the men had slept outside. The stars had faded, but he could still see the waning crescent moon and its starlike companion. He wondered if the old legends about the companion could be true; if in some ancient time, before N'Omb ruled the world, a sorcerer had made the companion of metal and sent it to the moon. However, he doubted it, for not even the greatest necromancer now known could cast a spell from the Eastern Kingdoms to the Western League, let alone to the moon.
    He couldn't even telepath as far as Swego, even though he had far greater range than most telepathy. In fact, after the storm had subsided, he'd had to send the eagles toward the port city to act as intermediaries. When they traveled the sixty or so miles to the city, they would reconnoiter and then fly about twenty miles back toward Threeforks on their own to reenter Hawk's telepathic range.
    Rolling quietly out of his sleeping bag, he tried not to disturb the men around him, but many had already begun to stir. Although they had not rested well, they were almost grateful to rise from blankets and bedrolls partly submerged in the sodden ground. The rain had stopped just after dark; then the chill wind had blown drops from rain-drenched trees onto the men.
    While the sky lightened and became edged with pink, the troops washed, built up the campfires, and ate cold eggs and bread. Breaking camp, they reformed into companies and began to move out, until only the resistance fighters from Wessex and the handful of men under Derek S'Mayler's direct command were left. They were organized into small hunting parties, groups to round up stray horses, and groups to patch damaged wagons to carry the wounded.
    Hawk sought out Derek S'Mayler. He found