Chapter 27

Morgan sighed and turned to look at Kait. "Not to worry my dear lady she will be as beautiful as she once was when I am done. It appears only the blade was used and that is minor to what could have been done. I shudder to think if the assailant had used poison on the blade."

Kait stepped to the side of the exam bed and then realized she was naked under Marstoq's coat and she blanched and looked away trying to calm her emotions. "Who could have been so cruel?" Why do this to her?"

Morgan was as distressed for Kaitlin as he was outraged over who had used this woman as their impetus of ire. "My dear Lady Kaitlin, if you will handle the minor wounds with one of your spells, I will use what I have to heal and repair the damage to her face."

Kait nodded, set her parasol and reticule down and moved to her sister's side and laid hands on her and began to chant, ~cure light wounds~ was cast and she watched her hands glow with the power of her god as the wounds closed and vanished as if they had never been.

Morgan knew that the damage to the face was deeper than the chest wounds so he moved to the other side and began to concentrate on her face, his mind moving through the delicacies of the wounds finding the smallest cells and targeting them with ~regeneration~

His concentration was so intense that he felt the sweat bead up on his brow and upper lip, the trickle of sweat coursed down the side of his neck and on his collar ignoring the sweat he continued to heal the damage that was on her face. Finally with the last cell repaired and the damage was undone he smiled looking down was happy he had given her a younger appearance.

She now appeared to be no older than a twenty two year old female. Kait looked on and smiled when she saw how much more beautiful her sister was with the regeneration of her looks. "Oh my Morgan! You made her more beautiful!"

Morgan staggered backwards and collapsed on a chair, though the regeneration had taken a great deal out of him, it had been worth it to see his results. He had made plans the day he saw how many of this island's populace followed, supported and loved this woman.

Now all he had to do was be patient and wait, he would effectively rule this island through the populace's following of this woman who was now so deeply indebted to him that she would never be able to repay him. However, he had to find out who was the cause of all this damage.

If Marstoq could not find him, he was damn sure going to be the one to find and make the man or creature that had done this pay. "Perhaps you would like to go back to the Hoch and bring her some clothing?" Morgan looked to Kaitlin and smiled charmingly. "I am sure she would much prefer some of her own clothing as to this jacket the Captain so gallantly provided for her modesty."

M'lar looked serene laying on the table and Kaitlin realized though not as modest as most, he was probably right. "Yes, of course." Morgan knew that Kaitlin was being very formal with him her sentences were short and to the point but not clipped she was still a lady of breeding and knew that tone was important when expressing yourself even if you were not fond of the person.

Unlike the vixen that lay on his table, who said what her red hot passions dictated and that made him wonder if that is what brought about this attack. Escorting Kaitlin to the door, Morgan stepped out and looked at the concerned an curious group that stood expectantly at his door.

"Is the Lady M'lar well Doctor Manshak?"

Morgan smiled, they were being nice to him to get information and secretly he looked at them with a thought that said, "Sheep to be led to the slaughter all of them." However on the surface his movements designed to be like a charming gentlemen with the actions of a spider that stalks its prey he stood and squared his shoulders. Smiling most prettily he spoke affecting his tone for compassion and concern.

"The Lady M'lar is fine, she is doing very well and shall be sent home to her Inn shortly, I appreciate all of your concern as I am sure she is also appreciative. You may all leave and see her later at the Hoch."

The mummers that filtered past Kait's retreating form and back to him when he turned made him smile in triumph, with her he would have this island eating out of the palm of his hand. With the graceful move of a snake that was about to strike its prey, Morgan moved back to the exam room and peered down at the beautiful woman that lay so suppliantly before him. "Yes, I think you will do very nicely."

M'lar awoke with a startled gasp and realized that she was in her bed. Kait stood and moved to her sister and sat on the edge of her bed. "Sister? What happened?"

M'lar's mind was a blank she tried to bring back the memory of this morning. "I went to run, then I went to the center of the park and did a work out with my staff, then I met Kane and Gabby showed up, and then I went to the hill top to pray and. . ."

She paused and wrinkled her brow and shook her head. "I don't remember much after that. I remember some pain, and then fighting and crap, I lost my staff. Rising from her bed, she looked down and saw she was in a gown. "Where is my clothing?"

Kaitlin turned to look out the window, "M'lar they found you naked and bleeding in the middle of the common area of the park, Marstoq took you to Morgan and he and I healed you." M'lar looked up and then curiously she moved to her vanity and paused, putting fingertips to her face. "My face, what happened to my face."

She looked with astonished wonder at a part of her youth being restored. "Morgan did this?" She ran fingertips over her face a look of curious wonder she turned to look at Kait.

She smiled tensely and nodded, "Yes, he regenerated your face and I healed your wounds and M'lar they were terrible wounds it looked like someone wanted to mark you for life with the wounds to your face and then your breasts were cut up in a criss cross fashion and I saw that your legs had some cut marks and I healed all of those wounds then Morgan began to concentrate and he is so powerful with his mind that he just kept concentrating and concentrating and then he began to sweat and he got weak and slumped down in a chair and then he sent me to get you some clothing. So I went and brought back that gown and then Marstoq came in and he found your clothing in the woods with the help of a ranger that tracked and then he also found your staff and he laid it over there."

There was the Kait she loved and drove her crazy rushing to say it all and she still wondered how she could do that without taking a breath then realized she was controlling her breathing but saying it all in a rush.

M'lar slumped to the vanity and looked at the face she had six years ago when she was still in the temples of Gruumsh and was kept hidden under a cloak and in a temple. She half smiled and would have enjoyed it more if it had been from anyone else other than Morgan.

Glancing to where Mars laid her staff she sighed grateful it had not been lost. That staff had cost her over fifteen hundred gold but it was well worth it. She was vaguely aware of Kait still chatting about what she had done when she got word of M'lar's accident and then stopped and looked at her. "You are not listening to me are you?"

M'lar looked up and shook her head. "I heard most of what you said." Sliding around she looked for Gillian. "When I left this morning, she was in bed with me with her new Kitten, was she here when you came to get my gown?"

Kait shook her head. "No, she was with Jodi and Kat in her room playing with the kitten and singing a song about a raccoon, oh M'lar she seemed do happy she kept saying she saw her father."

M'lar had lifted her brush to brush her hair and when Kait said she had said she saw her father M'lar dropped the brush and stood immediately rushing into the room now occupied by a sleeping Gillian.

Kat the lovely younger daughter of Baloq looked up from humming and smiled seeing M'lar all restored to fine health and actually looking more radiant than she had before. "She just feel asleep ma'am." Kat lifted the child from her lap and carried her to the small bed in the corner.

M'lar followed her over to the bed and looked down at the sleeping innocent child and gently stroked her face. "She was sleeping in your bed with the kitten when I came in this morning."

M'lar nodded and looked from Gilly to Kat, "Did she say anything to you about seeing her father?"

Kat smiled and nodded, "Oh, that reminds me, Olorian came by and left this note for you."

She reached into her pocket and M'lar relaxed immediately taking the note she let out a slow easy breath to calm her nerves. "Oh she must have meant her Daddy O, that is what she is calling Olorian now."

Kat nodded and moved to the rocker that adorned the corner. "I heard her call him Daddy O when he came in and lifted her up and held her so gently."

M'lar opened the note and read it. "Please give this to Shapirisaka when she comes to drop off my package, I am leaving this morning to take care of my business. Thank you so much for all you have done for me M'lar, I will hold you in my heart with gratitude forever. Your servant O"

M'lar folded the note and sighed. "Well now we will let her sleep she was obviously up late when she came and crawled into bed with me. What are your plans for her today?"

Kat stood and moved to cover the child up again as she kicked off her blankets much as M'lar did when she got hot. "We plan to take some of her things to the temple and start filling up her room with her things from here, oh and Milord Sno says that your room will be done next week, the rest of the temple is almost done they are putting on the what he called final touches."

M'lar nodded and sighed, She wanted to move her daughter and her self out of this inn as soon as possible she could not take any more condemnation from Marstoq over whom Gillian's father was. "I want you to stay with her in the park always and do not let her be alone Kat, as a matter of fact, I am going to hire escort guards for you two. You might tell Jodi not to be alone with her ever unless its in temple or here. Do you understand?"

Kat nodded her head slowly her eyes wide and the fear hinted at the edge of those eyes as she listened to M'lar's warnings. "I was attacked in the park today Kat and I don't want my child subjected to that kind of torment or pain. So whatever you do, you take Jodi and walk or even take a carriage to the temple. Do you understand."

Again those huge purple eyes that hinted at a little lavender on the edges of the irises listened intently. "Yes ma'am."

M'lar turned to see Kait standing in the doorway holding her brush. "You dropped this, M'lar you really are afraid aren't you? Talking about hiring guards and not letting the little princess be alone and then you are turning all white and getting upset hearing she saw her father did you think she had seen Tarin was that why you were so upset?"

M'lar took advantage of the pause that Kait had given her and pushed past her. "Yes, I am afraid Kait, I don't fear death hounds or those other despicable things that the Scro Navy send to hunt me down, I don't fear the thought of dying though I would miss you and seeing my daughter grow up and be around all my friends, I don't fear Marstoq's wrath, well maybe a little I do. What bothers me and sends me into fear that is beyond what I can say I have faced is what happened to me today and no memory that terrifies me."

M'lar moved to her closet and pulled out her service dress and laid it on the bed. "I hate not remembering or knowing what happened to me."

Kait moved towards her and helped her with finding a ribbon, while M'lar stripped and slid her gown on over her head. "You know I made you some perfectly good under garments and you should wear them perhaps it is more respectful for a lady to be properly groomed and dressed, and the fact you choose to not wear the pantaloons and the halter that helps with your breasts, is very distressing to me and no more swimming in the nude in the lake do you hear me Missy, I made you a bathing costume that will look lovely on your body when you swim and you can still be modest while you swim and as for your not wearing those under garments that is very distressing do you not think that may be what is attracting all the negative attention you are getting."

She said it and it was out and she could not bring it back as she turned her face scarlet and her mouth open and then she covered her mouth as she watched her sister freeze, stiffen her back and hold her chin tucked to her chest. From where she stood Kait could see she had flushed a bright pink and then turned a pallor that was so unlike her.

Her hands trembled as she turned in a fit of pique and rushed to the drawer that held the pantaloons and she jerked them out of the drawer and rushed to her window and threw them out and watched them gracefully waft down below to land on the goodly paladin Atredies. Realizing what she had done as she watched him reach up and pull down the very delicate and beautifully made female contraption that was designed to preserve a woman's charms.

She slammed the window and pressed her back to the window and flushed deeper, "Oops." Kait looked up and saw the look of shocked humor on her face. "What did you do little missy? Where did you put those bloomers?"

M'lar moved her head to indicate out the window. "Um they are now adorning the paladin Atredies' helmet."

She said with tongue in cheek humor. Kait's eyes widen. "You didn't?"

M'lar nodded and sighed, 'Afraid I did. I was feeling annoyed with you over something that just chafes me and makes me sweat and hot so I threw them out the window and um, well Rykus Atredies was walking by coming into the Hoch and well, they kind of sorta of just landed on his head. Well if you want to be more specific they kind of sorta landed on his helmet."

M'lar just realized she did a Kait with the explanation she just made and moaned. "Oh good gods above, you are rubbing off on me."

She glanced over at her sister as she stood and nodded her head. "See you always say I am long winded and I run my sentences together and I speak waaay too much and you your self just now did the same thing so how do you like that?" She punctuated the like that with a nod of her head.

M'lar moved from the window and stepped to the door barefooted and stopped. "Oops shoes." She moved to under her bed and pulled out her soft kid slippers and slid them on. "Well I guess I am going down to finish what I started last night with those damn books. Oh and by the way . . ."

She knew this would drive Kait crazy and force her to follow her, "By the way what?"

Kait trailed behind her and almost piled right into her when she stopped to peer below at the errant pair of bloomers now lying so pristinely and delicately on the top of the bar.

"No Rykus no idea whom they might belong to, but whomever they do belong to they are pretty if you like that sort of thing."

M'lar walked down the steps and then moved to the bar and lifted the pantaloons, 'Oh look Kait, those lovely pair of bloomers you made me are now found again."

She picked them up and handed them over to Kait. Kait flushed a deep pink color matching her lovely gown and M'lar could not help but say, "Oh now you match all the way around with your pink dress, pink shoes,, pink gloves, pink parasol and now a pink face. Good morning Rykus thank you for finding them, I fear that someone had rifled through my drawers and absconded with those and now they are found and Kait's hard work is not wrongfully misplaced."

Baloq knew that M'lar had just spewed forth a crock of crap but hid his humor with only the twinkle in his eyes. "Baloq, I am going to the temple for a while and will be back in time to help with the mid day rush. I believe my dear sister will be joining me; while I am out do you need anything from the docks? I had planned to do my shopping for fish along the docks later this after noon."

Baloq shook his head and smiled, "I heard you had some trouble this morning and I am glad to see you are much improved."

Rykus turned and nodded. "I too heard you were attacked in the park, Captain Marstoq is out scouring the woods and the park, do you know who did that horrid attack on you?"

M'lar turned and headed to the door, "No but I suppose I should meet with Mars and give him my statement later. If he comes in tell him I will be at temple or I will be here for the mid day rush."

He nodded and watched her slide out of the door followed by a blot of pink fluff and a small snitting noise as she tried to keep up with her sisters, skirts flying. "M'lar wait up!"

M'lar moved quickly down the street heading to the path that lead to the park and her temple. "M'lar why are you avoiding Marstoq? He is your son and you just seem to ball up in a real fit of anger when anyone speaks about him to you, what did he do or say to you that has you so upset that you can't wait to move out of he Hoch? Surely you know that you can trust me with what happened and let me see if I can fix it. You are family and you should remain close to one another especially now that this has happened, families should bond together and be a support for one another and it just seems that you and Marstoq are growing further apart and this is not good for you or for him."

M'lar spun around and leveled her gaze at Kait. " You and Shayla are my family now. I embarrassed Marstoq and the father of my daughter has apparently blighted his reputation and our family honor. So do not speak to me of making up with Marstoq, the only thing that could mend this is if Gillian were not born or her father had been someone other than Tarin."

Feeling her anger over the comments made by Marstoq showed they still burned deeply into her and she was still upset over the comments. Kait buttoned her lip and noticed that in her anger M'lar had a tendency to take longer more forceful and hurried strides when she moved along.

"M'lar slow down you are wearing me out." M'lar turned and walked backwards, "If you got up and ran with me each morning you would not wear out so quickly." She kept walking backwards watching Kaitlin move with as much delicate force she could afford in her long gown. The front of the hem being kicked forward with each step she took. M'lar taking pity on her sister slowed down turned back and around and hooked her arm through her sister's arm. "I met a man last night and he made me feel so special and pure, oh Kait it was wonderful how he made me feel, but . . ."

Kait was intrigued and happy to hear her sister had found someone special until she heard the but. "What is this but, come on you need to tell me? Is it because he has two heads or he is elven or wait I know he is married!"

She moaned at the thought her sister would fall for a man that was already spoken for and this distressed her as she chewed on her bottom lip sucking it in and chewing. M'lar shook her head and Kait could tell she was glowing with the thought of this very special man as she thought about him.

"No he is haunted by three ghosts, their names are Batu, whom I like because he is sensitive to Ageis, and then there is Thomas who is very much a stuff shirt and finally Geoffrey, whom I suspect is a pervert in a way, he likes to watch people do the humpty- bumpty or is that bumpty-bumpty."

M'lar had said it so nonchalantly that Kaitlin was appalled at such talk. "Sister! You surely did not do that with him did you, that is you should not until I have had a chance to meet him and get to know him and find out about his family and his past and . . ."

M'lar sighed, "Kait he is a paladin initiate and hardly a candidate to handle me, he is older than me and he is very haunted and confused but very nice and so tender and gentle all we did was fall asleep together in each other's arms. His feet were horrid and his armor is very rusty but he is a sweet old gentleman who is taking on the cause of his three paladin friends who have forced him to become a paladin and he does not like gods and I fear he is failing miserably at being a paladin because he is not very paladinley and he does argue a great deal with his ghosts."

Kait stopped in their forward movement and looked at her sister. "You slept with him?" Her eyes going wide and her mouth opening and closing like a guppy. "M'lar are you crazy, why would you sleep with him?"

M'lar sighed deeply and looked at her sister, "Because Batu said that if I slept with him he would keep the other ghosts away so he could get some sleep, it appears they torment him to keep him awake and he is not able to sleep."

Kait realized with the dawning of what M'lar had just said came to her and she relaxed. "So all you did was sleep and you did not do the other bumpty- bumpty thing?"

M'lar nodded, "Just slept and he must have gotten up early because when I awoke this morning I was in my own bed."

Kait smiled, "Well he is a gentleman at least."

M'lar nodded, "To some degree but he argues with his ghosts all the time. "

"Well I suppose that could be a down side to a relationship with him, if he has them with him all the time." Kait surmised as she walked at a more leisurely pace with her sister.

"Yes, well we will deal with it if we see one another again."

Kait grew more chipper with M'lar walking more sedately at her side and began to make plans for a double date with Orion and Ageis and M'lar.