Chapter 29

After demonstrating a complex attack sequence, Taeron ended with the sword in position to defend against a back attack. "You have to be prepared for attacks from all directions."

Hearing no response, he turned to see the men sprawled on the ground. He was about to berate them for their lax attitude towards training, but he realized the almost non-stop pace he had set since being pulled into this trance was responsible for their fatigue. He had been driving them too hard, but he needed the distraction and since they had been living beyond the frontier as slaves, their skills needed refreshing. The men did not seem as appreciative as when they entered the trance, but that was many weeks ago by the accelerated time that passed on this plane.

Amyr was the first to rise. Taeron wasn't surprised because Amyr seemed to have finally found incentive to become a warrior. Perhaps he felt guilty for bringing Taeron here, or he finally realized that he had much to learn, but Taeron was sure Amyr was compelled by a reason that he did not share with him. That reason made Amyr the hardest worker among the men.

"I don't think I can follow all your moves," Amyr admitted. He pointed to the exhausted men. "Why don't we let them rest awhile while you help me." He took an opposing stance and Taeron faced him. When their swords clashed and they came together, Taeron instructed Amyr and they separated and came together again, Amyr following his direction diligently. They continued like this for what seemed like hours before Taeron finally called a halt to it.

He took a drink from a water-filled pouch and handed it to Amyr. "You haven't told me why you are doing this."

Taeron wasn't a fool and knew why he had been put in the trance. The separation from Sharisse was probably wreaking havoc on his body left on the ship while he trained with Amyr and the men at Guerani Palace. He had no way of knowing how long they were there although the men came and went, leaving Amyr and Taeron behind. From time to time Taeron would feel himself slipping out of the trance as his body writhed in fever, but Amyr would sense it happening and lay his hands on him, hands that send calming waves through him that would enable him to stay in this place created by Guerani power.

"You haven't asked before." Amyr wet his hands and ran them through his sweat soaked hair, but he did not answer Taeron's question. He supposed that doing so might make Taeron anxious which would make it more difficult for Amyr to keep him here.

"I think I will take a bath," announced Amyr. In this strange world he had access to the chambers of the crown prince which had yet to be completed before Amyr had gone to Teralon. In the years that he had been gone, Staefyn had overseen the completion of the palace that he had made his home.

"Is my sister waiting for you?" Taeron had almost walked in them in the bath when he had gone to the chamber to clean up, but the noises he heard coming from it convinced him not to disturb them. He wanted to be happy for them, but he was too discouraged about his own situation and knew that there would be consequences for what they were doing without the mating bond.

Amyr raised a brow. "You haven't said anything about that either. I think I like this in you, Taeron. Usually you have too much to say about my actions."

"I suppose I should be thankful that you are not fighting and that she seems to have accepted her position in your life." His sister's moods were mercurial so Taeron doubted their idyllic truce would last long. Amyr was bound to do or say something that would make her temper erupt.

"We have a good reason to put aside our differences."

"You mean she has good reason to accept you as you are and not as she wants you to be." Taeron wasn't sure he trusted Amyr, especially knowing that his bond with Quynn was broken and when he returned to Calabria, all the old temptations would be waiting for him. The crown prince had yet to prove to Taeron that he had truly changed.

"I gave her a child," Amyr told him.

"Yori." Yori's presence in Amyr's life had been beneficial, and not because his powers had grown with the proximity of another Guerani. His son had given Amyr the purpose he had lacked in his life.

"Another child. She nurtures our daughter in her womb."

Taeron stared at him incredulously. "How could you do that? You don't know ..." He was at a loss for words because he considered their behavior so utterly irresponsible. As irresponsible as his own with Sharisse, but Sharisse had told him that she could not conceive when she was enthralled by the Varoonyan. Taeron did not believe he was ready for the responsibility of a child, but it was another reason to kill Kai to release Sharisse from his hold on her.

As usual, his thoughts of her made him grow warm and he started to tremble, but Amyr reached out and touched his hand before it could grow uncontrollable. He didn't need to be told that if Amyr could not ease his anxiety on this plane, Taeron would return to the ship and the physical hell that awaited him. Even with Amyr's help in this strangely calm world, Taeron's thoughts eventually returned to Sharisse and what she must be going through on Teralon.

"Don't think about her," warned Amyr.

Taeron met his gaze. "Even without the bond, how would you feel if you knew that Quynn was in the power of such a man?"

Amyr did not answer and Taeron suddenly realized that Amyr was training because he had reason to fear for her safety.

He could not ask him about it because Stryfe and Jeshed suddenly appeared in the trance along with Yori who dashed to his father. Amyr swung him up and kissed his cheeks. "Has Jeshed been taking care of you?"

Yori threw his arms around his father's neck and kissed him back, then turned his head to look at Jeshed. "He has been teaching me."

"If anyone needs lessons, it is Jeshed."

Jeshed chuckled. "I think you can do without me for a few hours." He walked away from the palace courtyard and nobody was surprised when the enormous shadow of dragon's wings flew over them. Jeshed could shift in the trance, but he had yet to figure out how to do it outside the mystical world created from Amyr's mind.

"So this is a trance." Stryfe had never been in a trance and now he looked around with curiosity. "The palace is unfinished," he observed. "On Calabria it is finished and Staefyn has been living there."

"I will be changing his living arrangements in more ways than one," stated Amyr so fiercely that Taeron glanced at him. So he no longer believed his brother was harmless? What had changed his mind?

"Quynn sent me in to tell you that she would not be joining you for tea, whatever that means." Stryfe chuckled at Amyr's discomfort. "She had to put the ship through some tricky maneuvers near Teralon. Apparently they were expecting us and a handful of Varoonyan battle gliders came out to greet us. I don't think the emperor is going to be pleased that Teralon harassed an imperial vessel."

Taeron raised his sword to touch it to his forehead. "Then I will return to Teralon to teach them a lesson." He wanted to teach Balak a lesson the man would not live to forget. Taeron blamed him for what happened to Sharisse and he ached to punish him for his subsequent mistreatment of her. She was his mate now and he was going to protect her. Being unable to do so now made him feel anxious and as sweat broke out over his forehead, his body began to tremble.

Amyr reached out for him but Taeron stepped out of his reach. He wanted to feel the pain that would be part of his life until he was able to reunite with Sharisse.

"Well, I wouldn't plan that far in advance if I were you. Quynn has to do some rewiring so we will not be reaching Calabria as soon as she had expected. I suspect that there will not be a warm welcome there either since that interested party was cheated of a fortune. The old pirate satellite would be an ideal location for Varoonyan gliders to hide. There is enough junk there to hide them from any sensor sweeps from the surface."

Taeron raised a brow. "What interested party and a fortune for what?" A look passed between his brother and Amyr that made him realize they were keeping secrets from him. "Are you going to tell me?"

Stryfe put his hand on Taeron's shoulder. "We have good reason to believe that Staefyn paid Mordrad to deliver Quynn to him."

Hearing that Staefyn had purchased his sister only added to the distress Taeron was feeling. He was failing to protect Quynn again. His father would be ashamed as well as dishonored by his actions. Had Staefyn coveted Amyr's female? And if he did, why had done all that he had when all he needed to do was challenge Amyr? Why befriend a creature like warlord Kai and aide him in his attempt to subjugate Teralon? His actions were incomprehensible, especially this latest. When the emperor discovered that his own son had broken the law forbidding slavery and the purchase of sentient beings, he was going to be infuriated. Staefyn's obsession with Quynn had made him careless. And since he had purchased her from Mordrad, did that mean he had not taken the female in the Guerani hills as his mate?

"What was he doing in the Guerani hills?" he heard himself asking aloud. A sharp pain lanced through his head and he suppressed the groan as he shook it off. His head was aching now in addition to all his other problems. Where had that pain come from? Ignoring it he said, "He claimed there was a female there that he cared about." A lie no doubt, to cover where his interest really laid. And yet Staefyn rarely left the sacred hills, so something made him go back, something gave him the courage to act against his own family, against people that loved him.

Suddenly Stryfe disappeared, and Taeron watched as the world around him wavered and then dissolved and he found himself strapped tightly in his seat on the ship, his body drenched with his sweat and trembling as the ship spun as if out of control while careening toward the second moon.

"Sorry about that, guys!"Quynn called out over her shoulder in a cheeful voice. "Stryfe was right about those gliders. There were about a dozen and I managed to take them out, but our shields are compromised and the navigation system took a shot. I will try not to destroy father's palace when we land."

"I would be more worried about destroying mom's garden," Stryfe said with a laugh although he was clutching the arms of his seat.

"I am going to be sick." Taeron's belly began to heave and his head was spinning faster than the ship. His body was already weak from the bonding fever, so he was less surprised and more relieved when he lost consciousness. If he died, the last thought he had was his regret that he had never told Sharisse who he really was.

"Is he going to be all right?" Taeron could hear Quynn's voice as if she were far away. "When is he going to wake up, mom?"

He felt gentle a vhand on him, the cooling touch of Guerani healing.

"Don't do that!" He heard his father's disgruntled voice. "Let him come out on his own."

"Father, don't be an ass! Taeron is sick." Taeron wished Quynn would not speak to their sire in such a disrespectful tone, but he could not even form any words. His body was still wracked with wave after wave of heat and aching pain.

"Trey is not happy. Actually, that is an understatement. I might be able to appease him a little if you would allow me to tell him that Amyr is here and that the two of you … By the gods, never mind! That will anger him as well." He blow out his breath and Taeron, lying with his eyes still closed despite his effort to open them, could imagine his father's exasperated expression. "You know what would be nice about now, babe? A shot of something strong."

"It appears that is what got Taeron into this condition in the first place."

Taeron would not correct his father's wife. It had been many days since the wine had dulled his senses for a short while, just as Amyr had predicted. But the wine had long since worn off, and now he thought of how they must have taken her at the pond where she had been waiting for him.

"His pulse is racing." He realized that Lady Trynity was holding him by the wrist. Her touch made his stomach churn. "I don't think the alcohol is all that is making him feverish."

There was a moment of silence. Taeron did not want to open his eyes to see his father's rejection for what he had done.

"Why are you looking at me?" He recognized Amyr's voice. " You assume I had something to do with it? I never would have allowed him..."

"So you do know what is wrong with him!" he heard his father shout. "I had hoped that after everything that happened, you might have changed, but you dragged my son into..."

"No!" Taeron's eyes flew open and he saw his father towering over Amyr, holding him with fistfuls of his tunic – Taeron's tunic, probably the last one not ruineds. "Don't touch him!" His tongue was swollen and he tried to move towards them, but other parts of him were so painful that he thought he would shame himself by fainting.

Lord Duo released Amyr who stumbled back before regaining his balance and hurried to Taeron's bedside where his wife was pushing Taeron back down. "Son! You are awake!"

Lady Trynity took her husband's arm. "Go find that drink and I will look Taeron over. You can talk to him later after I have determined the cause of his illness and given him something to relieve some of these symptoms. Quynn get your father out of here and find him something to drink."

"Hey, I have work to do on the ship! It took a pounding on the landing. Father can find his own moonshine or whatever he drinks." Taeron watched his sister march out with their father's gaze following her with a frown.

"Amyr, I want you to wait a moment," Trynity said, stalling him from following Quynn. "There is a herb in the garden that I want you to find for me."

"Really, babe? Prince Amyr is going to root around in the dirt to pick herbs for you?"

Amyr chuckled and winked at Taeron. "My lord, you would be amazed by the things I can do."

The governor of the moon answered with a grunt, then walked out, probably making a straight path to the alcohol he drank when he was irritated. Since it calmed him as much as Lady Trynity's tea, Taeron wished he could partake of that vice as well.

Trynity waited until her husband was gone before she described the herb to Amyr, and she turned her attention to Taeron after he had gone. She gave him a sip of water and then proceeded to touch him gingerly, using her healing powers which were very weak compared to Amyr but still served to calm him when his body wanted to reject her touch. Even if he could tolerate the contact of a female not his mate, her intrusive inspection almost had him writhing with shame, but he was lying naked under a sheet that too heavy on his burning flesh and he was too weak to resist her.

She finished her examination and moved away without speaking, and when she came back, she had a cup of one of her healing teas. "I won't tell your father what has happened to you unless you want me to do so. I must admit this mating bond is quite fascinating to me. Taking a female's blood triggers the release of hormones either from the pituitary gland or an extra gland that …." She frowned as if she realized that Taeron had no concept of what she spoke. "Well, some day I hope to get the emperor's permission to study a Calabrian male in depth, but I really doubt he will let me examine a cadaver."

Was she talking about this because he was a captive audience? The tea relieved much of the pain he was feeling and calmed the anxiety he had suffered since he had learned that Sharisse had been taken. Taeron remembered Amyr drinking copious amounts of the tea after the night of his oath ceremony and how he had been concerned about his illness.

Trynity had grown quiet as she thought and then she said, "I have treated some males with an herb that you are familiar with. I remembered that Trey seemed quite fond of it on Earth, and knowing what I do now, I think it made life bearable for him when he was parted from Arora."

He blinked at her. "Weed?"

Trynity laughed. "There are more technical terms for it, but its medicinal value is quite useful in your situation, especially as I have synthesized it to directly target the symptoms. Don't worry. You won't be smoking it. Trey is already going to be furious when he finds out his warlord is incapacitated because he is in the worst phase of his mating cycle and his mate is not her to ease him. Even if I would find it amusing to see the look on his face if you stumble into his presence higher than a kite – I think he would probably demand a little of that action – I would not put you in that sorry predicament." She chuckled as if she were imagining the scenario, one that Taeron did not want to think about when he had broken the oath he had given the emperor.

She grew serious. "I do hope that your mate is Princess Dijana."

Taeron closed his eyes to keep her from seeing his shame.

"Oh dear, that does pose a problem. I hope this female is worth the fallout this is going to cause."

"She is,"he managed to croak as he looked at her.

There was sympathy in her green eyes as she caressed his cheek with the backs of her fingers and he was relieved that her touch did not bother him as it had done only a few moments ago. "I can see that you love her, Taeron. While I cannot speak for your father, I can promise you that I will do whatever I can to see you reunited with her. Close your eyes and let the tea put you to sleep. I will inject you with something that will take care of the worst of your symptoms and later we can discuss a regimen of treatment until you are reunited with your mate. Do you want me to tell your father?"

Taeron wasn't a coward although it would be so much easier to have his dear stepmother tell him. "Thank you, my lady, but I must bear the news of my dishonor to him."

She rolled her eyes. "The one word I have grown to dislike heartily in this brutish system: dishonor."

By the time Taeron awoke from the sleep induced by the medicine his stepmother had given him, the room was in shadows and he could see from the window that the first moon was barely visible above the surface of the planet below this moon. He sensed another presence and he turned his head to see his father sitting in a chair beside the bed looking tired and haggard, probably how Taeron had looked when he sat at his father's bedside as he wasted away in a trance. Lord Duo had credited him with saving his life, but now Taeron felt miserable for what he must tell him.

He heard a long, deep sigh. "You are awake."

"Lady Trynity gave me some medicine," he said.

His father chuckled. "She tried to pour one of her noxious teas down my throat earlier today, but I am not foolish enough to let her. I imagine that what you are going to tell me will make me wish I had taken her calming tea or at least drank enough brandy to dull my senses."

Taeron did not know how to tell him of the great dishonor he brought to his father's house.

"I spoke to Stryfe," his father said when the silence had stretched uncomfortably.

"It is not his right to tell you!" Taeron was furious to think his human brother would violate his privacy in this matter. Was nothing sacred to the scribe?

When his father put his hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down, Taeron realized that he had almost leaped out of the bed. The medicine that Lady Trynity had given him made the pain of his bonding need but a dull ache, yet he was afraid of his actions if he was unaware that he was doing them.

"Stryfe would not tell me anything. In fact, he refused to give his report to the emperor not more than an hour ago when Trey called to demand explanations. Unfortunately, or fortunately for us all, we lost the signal to the planet before he could order me to threaten my own son's life to get him to talk." Lord Duo sat on the edge of the bed and took Taeron's hand. "Perhaps we should wait until second sunrise," he suggested. "After a good night's rest..."

"No! It must be done." He dragged his hand back from his father, and after fumbling with the sheet, he left the bed, and refusing the offer of help, he managed to find the fresh clothing laid out for him which he put on with his back to his father.

When he finished, he found the sword the emperor had given him upon becoming an imperial guard, placed in his hands by Lady Arora, and the dagger Lord Duo had presented to him when he took him into his house. First he went to stand by the window where he looked at the moon that his mother governed. He could barely see it when the planet blocked the light from the suns. These were the darkest hours of the night and he thought it fitting that he should tell his father of his shame during this time. As he peered through the darkness at Dagmaeus, he regretted that his actions would disappoint his mother who had been so delighted in the honor the emperor had given him. This was a poor way to repay her for all her lifetime of sacrifice.

Lord Duo had come to stand nearby, waiting patiently, so Taeron turned and dropped to his knee before him, and lowering his head, he raised his dagger with two hands to offer it to him. "I have dishonored your house."

There was a moment of tense silence before he felt the weight of the dagger gone from his hand and he could not stop the tears that welled in his eyes. But he could not take back what he had done, and even if he could, he would not. He loved Sharisse too deeply, and if he must lose his honor and his life in doing so, then he would die for her.

Now he reached for the sword and he held it up as he had done with his dagger. "I have shamed myself in breaking the oath I have given to the emperor."

He heard the breath catch his his father's throat, and the tears spilled over his lashes as Lord Duo took the sword from him. Then Taeron waited to hear the words that would cut through him like the blades his father was now holding, the words that would banish him from his house. But silence stretched between them for several minutes before Lord Duo finally spoke.

"I know part of what you have – or shall I say – have not done. Stryfe may have refused to give Trey details, but the emperor already knows that you have broken the treaty with Teralon by not taking the princess as your bride. I hope you have a good reason for not doing so."

The reason sounded petty and selfish the moment the words left his lips. "I could not love her."

"Why? Because she is not beautiful enough?"

"She was very beautiful," he admitted. He still had not raised his head to look at his father's disappointed face. It would hurt too much after all the years he had worked so hard to earn his recognition and his approval.

"Then tell me why, Taeron, so I can make sense out of the reason that my son has been disgraced."

His throat tried to close, but he forced the words out. "I bonded with her sister."

"You what?! Her sister? Sharisse? How could you do something so foolish?!" His father was now reacting with the outrage Taeron felt he was due. "You let that scheming whore get under your skin?!"

Taeron leaped to his feet and he faced his father, his heart pounding fiercely in his chest. "She is not a whore! I love her!"

They stared at each other now, almost nose to nose, eye to eye, and then Lord Duo shook his head. "This has caused a civil war on Teralon."

"Civil war!" Taeron could not believe that the ramifications of what he had done were so far reaching.

"Avar's father was making a move to depose his wife, to wrest control from the females who have ruled Teralon as far back as their history records. He has been trying to put Avar on the throne in place of the rightful heir, Dijana. As her mate, you would have brought your forces to Teralon to help Queen Neria regain control." His father threw the weapons on the floor and as they clattered before coming to rest at his feet, Taeron felt as if his heart had been crushed.

"I want to forgive you Taeron, but what you have done cannot be forgiven. You have betrayed the emperor's trust in you, you have doomed that innocent female on Teralon to gods' only know what fate she will suffer in this struggle between her mother and Balak, and for what? Because you cannot resist a pretty face and pair of shapely thighs? Love? You cannot possibly love such a viper! She has done exactly what Balak expected of her by seducing you so that you did not take her sister as your mate. Now Princess Dijana has no protection and you have no honor."

Taeron could not help but worry more about Sharisse than he did Princess Dijana. He did not care about the princess. He did not care about Teralon. He only cared about Sharisse.

Seeing his precious weapons lying on the floor, he retrieved them and tried to return them to his father who was striding towards the door, but Duo turned on him, still furious. "You can give them to Trey after you have used them in service to him one last time. Edgeland Fortress came under attack yesterday and was seized by rebels, the same rebels that attacked Guerani Palace a few weeks ago."

"Staefyn," hissed Taeron, his fury replacing the shame he felt.

"For now Staefyn is safe. The palace is nearly impregnable after the fortune Trey recently sent to Staefyn to make it so." Taeron was speechless as he realized that Staefyn had not used the fortune to defend Guerani Palace. He had used it to purchase Quynn!

Duo continued. "Staefyn seemed well when Trynity saw him at the fortress where she was treating an illness that spread through the men there. Staefyn had been there gathering troops and equipment for defense. "

Of course he had! The communication to other worlds went through Edgeland Fortress and Staefyn would have needed to be there to contact his Varoonyan ally. Speechless with shock at Staefyn's duplicity, Taeron reached out to grasp his father's sleeve, to catch him before he left and he flinched at the anger he saw in his eyes, but he had to tell him what he knew about the emperor's son.

"Have you spoken to Quynn?" He could not believe Quynn would not have told him about Staefyn.

"Quynn? No. I have been here waiting for you to wake up because I was worried. I don't feel like facing the dishonor of another of my house yet, so I will speak to her in the morning. She will need to pilot us to the surface so she has been repairing the ship all day."

Taeron could not allow his father to leave without telling him about Staefyn's lies. "Hear me out, father. I do not deserve your trust, but you are the imperial guard of the emperor and you cannot ignore what I must tell you."