Read Online The Ultimate Helm by Russ T. Howard - Free Book Online

I’ve been through so much since we saw each other last – you don’t know how much I’ve thought about you.”
    Teldin could focus only on Cwelanas, on the light playing over her soft, silken hair and the cool smoothness of her skin. He had been alone for so long on this seemingly endless quest that true companionship – even love, he thought – had become barely a consideration. But Cwelanas had stirred his heart from the moment he had first encountered her aboard the Silver Spray , her father’s elven ship, docked at the quays of Palanthas.
    Since his last day on Krynn, Teldin had eventually fallen under the guile of Rianna, who had betrayed him; and had come to love Gaeadrelle Goldring, whom he still loved as a friend; and Julia, whom he had lost to the gods. After Julia’s death, he did not know for sure if there would ever again be room in his heart for love.
    He looked into Cwelanas’s sparkling eyes. Perhaps, through all his adventures on his haphazard quest, this was the woman that he truly wanted. She had been there for him at the beginning, and as he gazed into her eyes, he realized that his feelings for Cwelanas were strong, and that they had been there since the start, and he had been too dense to understand them.
    Something opened in him then, a warm flicker of hope deep within his chest. If there could be room that had not been destroyed by the fear of his friends and lovers turning against him, betraying him for the power of the cloak, then there was room only for one... room enough for Cwelanas.
    “How did you come here?” Teldin asked simply.
    Something flickered behind Cwelanas’s golden eyes. To Teldin, they seemed wide and beautiful, two enchanted wells that he could drown in; but he noticed that their luster was slightly dimmed, and she kept her eyes averted from him as she talked.
    “It was shortly after we left you at Sancrist,” Cwelanas began, “when we were attacked by pirate ships that swooped down on us from wildspace.
    “My father was injured in the attack. I saw him go down under the blade of a buccaneer, and that was the last I saw of him.”
    “Why did they attack?”
    “Oh, Teldin.” Cwelanas hesitated, and her eyes filled with tears. “Oh, Teldin, because of you, because they wanted that cloak of yours.”
    Teldin stared into his memories, recalling his long-ago conversation at Crescent with Julia and Djan, of Teldin’s way with verenthestae  – what Djan had described as a force exhibited in people whose very existence seemed to sow the patterns of destiny and fortune for themselves and others.
    Cwelanas wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and took a gulp of ale. She touched Teldin’s hand. “It’s not your fault, Teldin. I didn’t mean that. They somehow found out about your cloak, and they finally tracked us down on Krynn. They kidnapped me. They tried to get it out of me... where you were heading, what the purpose was for your quest.
    “I told them nothing, Teldin. I could not betray you. Even – even though they tortured me. ...”
    She lifted one sleeve. Teldin grimaced at the long burn scars running up one arm. “Cwelanas, ...” he said.
    She shook her head and rolled down her sleeve. She held her arm tight against her. “I – I wouldn’t tell them anything, Teldin. I would not have them kill you, not after they killed my father.”
    The room was silent. Some of the warriors had heard Cwelanas’s tale before, but it was still a tale of tragedy and dishonor, and all respected her for what she had been through.
    “I was on board their ship for weeks, I think, perhaps even months. I was kept locked in a cargo hold, and when I was not being questioned, or assigned slave duties throughout the ship, they... they shared me... with the crew.”
    Her eyes grew distant. Teldin’s jaw clenched tightly and his hand unconsciously gripped the hilt of his sword. “They finally made a mistake,” she continued, “and I escaped from my chains in the