Second Moon, Calabria
Duo couldn't concentrate on the report one of his sector commanders was giving him. Although there had been a brief riot by Camridaen extremists, nothing else of interest happened, especially among the Zenoites who had accepted his rule. They objected more to his affiliation with Trey than his non-Calabrian background. Disgruntled, displaced imperials and nomadic tribes that had once roamed the Wastelands and the Sacred Hills now lived on the moon. They felt less loyalty to Trey, whom they considered an usurper, than to him. But Duo ruled with a razor sharp sword in the name of the emperor. Three years ago he had put down an insurrection led by imperials that had fled Calabria to live on the moon where they waited until they thought they had gathered enough tribesmen to challenge the emperor's governor. Duo taught them not to underestimate him and imperial warriors. After a sound defeat, the imperials left to lick their wounds, but now they seemed to be causing trouble in the name of religion. Duo flexed his muscles now just thinking of bloodying his sword on traitors and anarchists, especially the religious fanatics that tried to spread chaos in the name of their dark god.
But instead of actually planning a retaliatory foray into the forest where the majority of the zealots hid themselves, he was unable to draw his thoughts away from Dr. Trynity Stryfe Nelson. Why hadn't she seen him off? He didn't believe for a second that she had an emergency at the infirmary. By the looks on Heero and Relena's faces, they didn't believe it either. She couldn't forgive him for jettisoning his escape pod.
And he wouldn't forgive her for marrying Lars Nelson.
"…And there doesn't seem to be one leader qualified to bring the groups together."
Duo looked at the man. "They are ruffians. If they harm even the lowliest of the emperor's dutiful citizens, we will rout them all out even if it means burning down the forest."
"Yes, my lord."
"I doubt that will be necessary. Perhaps if we…"
He had no chance to finish because the door slammed open, and into his large office marched a woman he would rather not deal with now. Gods, what was Larya doing here?
"You may go!" She dismissed his commander with an imperious wave of her hand.
He glanced first at Duo who nodded, and then he bowed low to Larya before leaving, passing between the two females who acted as her personal guard. Duo didn't bother greeting Jaelesa and Cylie because they were glaring at him as they usually did when they chanced to meet. Larya glanced back at them, and after a brief nod, they left only after giving Duo a warning look. What did they think he was going to do? If anyone needed protection from this unpredictable woman, it was him.
"Aren't you going to greet me properly?"
"I don't see anyone we have to give a show to, so no." Duo didn't even get up from his chair. Instead he put his booted feet on his desk and sat back. "What can I do for you?"
She looked from his boots to his face and then muttered, "By the gods, I don't know what I ever saw in you."
"We both know what that was," he said with a half-smile.
"At least you got some pleasure out of the arrangement!" As she came around his desk, the flimsy fabric of her garment clung to her body. She was as shapely now as she had been sixteen years ago when she had tried to get his oath to make her his wife. He had rejected her because of his feelings for Trynity. Fat lot of good that had done him. He could have spent all those lonely years with Larya instead of remaining steadfast to a woman that had made her life with another man.
"I didn't hear you complaining at the time," he returned. His brows raised as she swung a leg over his, straddling him and settling snugly on his lap. By the gods, he was getting more than a little interested and by the knowing look in her eyes, she knew exactly what effect she had on him.
"I have heard some interesting news."
"You could have sent a messenger." A little voice in his head was warning him not to get sucked in by her machinations.
"I had to speak to you in person. This is of a delicate nature." She put her arms on his shoulders and laced her fingers behind his neck. "I need a favor of you, Lord Duo Maxwell."
"A favor. Now this is intriguing. What's in it for me?"
"Me, of course." She leaned forward so that her bosom was almost in his face.
She didn't even need to do that to get his blood to heat. Damn female! Larya was the last woman he had been with, and that was a very long time ago.
"Giving me something I've already had is hardly a reward." He couldn't resist teasing her.
Larya laughed and tossed back her hair. "I will forgo the chains. I know how much you dislike them."
No chains? "I think you are lying." He didn't trust her.
"I didn't bring any in with me, did I?" She reached up and started to loosen her clothing.
"Here?" Although this was going just a little too fast,Duo didn't feel like letting this opportunity pass. Knowing he would be damned, he reached for her anyway, but Larya pulled the edges of her gown together.
"Not yet."
"Dammit, Larya, then go ahead and chain my hands behind my back." His resistance was completely gone. He didn't need to be faithful to Trynity, and he wasn't going to waste any more time thinking about her.
"You didn't hear the news."
"Later." Much later. He had sixteen years of celibacy to make up for.
"Not yet!" But she leaned into him and her body rubbing against him was making him disoriented.
"Cut to the chase, Larya," he said through gritted teeth.
"His Excellency was overheard saying he would be pleased by a union of our governments."
"Not a bad idea." Duo thought they could benefit by merging some of their departments. Her planet had an abundance of imperial women and his a lack. What better way to appease the dissenters around than to bring in a few females to distract them? He had suspected their frustration partially stemmed from the fact that the tribes kept to themselves and didn't allow outsiders to court their women.
"It is a very bad idea. The emperor may want us to marry."
"What!" Duo had a vision of himself chained to a bed for the rest of his life. Hell, she knew what to do with him, and he would like it, but he still had some pride.
"My thoughts exactly! I may have given you a son, but I won't be tied to you!"
Larya had once wanted that very much, but in the years since, she had come to enjoy her freedom, freedom that would be curtailed by a male in her life.
"What can I do if he has already decided?"
"He will listen to you! As long he hasn't announced his decision, you can go to Calabria and talk some sense into him."
"I will leave as soon as possible." Duo tried to get up, but he found that he couldn't move. Larya was smiling at him wickedly. "Larya, you said no chains." He jerked at his arms, but his wrists were chained to the chair. When had she done it?
"I thought you would like it."
Duo almost laughed. "Why don't you go to Calabria and talk to him?" he suggested as she was running her hands over his chest. He was aching so badly from needs he had tamped down for so long and all this talk was making him frustrated.
"I won't do that! I don't know that he is actually planning for us to marry. I only know what Taeron told me, that he overheard Trey telling Arora that now that you have come to your senses about your precious Trynity Stryfe, maybe you would start your house and that I would make a suitable mate for you."
Duo was irritated that Trey was dismissing his feelings for Trynity.
He heard a click, then a clanking as Larya retrieved her chains. "I am hungry and tired. Why don't we go to your apartment where we can have a some privacy."
The upper half of his body instructed him to call for a guard and have her escorted to the spaceport. He had the unpleasant feeling that Trey was manipulating him by allowing Taeron to eavesdrop and report to his mother. But the lower half demanded some action. So after ordering that a meal be sent to his rooms, he escorted her there. While he waited impatiently for the meal, she disappeared into the bathing chamber. He was considering joining her in the hot bath, but the servants arrived with the meal, so Duo waited for Larya to finish. By the time she did, the food was cold, but he ceased to think about his stomach. Larya was a beautiful woman, and a man would have to be dead and buried to not be enticed by her. The cloth of her dressing gown shimmered as she crossed the room to him, but she ignored him as she seated herself across from him at the table.
"I see your lazy servants have allowed the food to chill."
Duo now remembered why she annoyed him. Over the years she had become overbearing. "You shouldn't have taken so long in the bath."
"I doubt whether you chilled," she purred as she picked up a roasted sandslug. Watching her eat it was agony. As she licked the sauce, he could only think about how she might use that skill. "Are you proud that Taeron is Princess Shamara's imperial guard?"
"Why should I be proud?"
"Because he is your son." Larya opened her mouth to say something more, and then closed it. Good, she realized the futility of arguing. Then she said, "Do you want me to give you a child of this mating?"
Duo almost choked on his food. "What?!"
"I thought we should discuss it this time, since I didn't give you a choice the last time." She shrugged her shoulder and her dressing gown slipped to reveal enough of her to make his thoughts scatter. He would agree to anything "I would like a female child this time." She raised her brow at him, expecting an answer.
Duo was about to tell her to forget it when he thought of Shamara. Her childhood had been the only brightness in his life. There was little chance that Larya would become pregnant, but what if the gods looked favorably on their union after all these years? "Would I be allowed to have a part in raising her?"
Larya smiled with delight. "You would agree?"
He felt like he was in quicksand. He wasn't really going to agree to have a child with Larya, was he? He thought of Trynity, and he felt a stab of guilt. There would be no turning back if he did this with Larya, and force of habit made him worry how it would hurt Trynity until he imagined her rolling around in bed with Lars Nelson. What he had with her was gone! Lost in the split second when he pushed the button that jettisoned his escape pod. He couldn't spend the rest of his life regretting what couldn't be changed. Trynity left him in the past, so he needed to do the same with her.
"I won't marry you," he stated.
"I wouldn't marry you if you begged," she agreed. "But when my daughter is born, you will claim her for your house as well as Taeron."
This wasn't what he expected fathering a child would be like. Then again, he didn't really expect she would get pregnant. Taeron wasn't his son. He was more convinced now after seeing Trynity with her son and daughter. She hadn't gotten pregnant with him, even after all the bungling attempts at contraception that they simply gave up on. Lars must have hit the jackpot on the first try. Quynn and Stryfe seemed to be the same age as Heero's son and Shamara.
At least he could have a little fun as Larya tried to get impregnated. He suspected this could go on long into the night.
"Agreed." He really had nothing to lose except a little self-respect, what little remained.
Larya pushed herself away from the table. "You will have to wait a few moments longer. If we are going to breed, then I must make some preparations."
She had been gone several minutes when there was a rap at the door. Although he was annoyed to be disturbed, Duo thought it might be his army commander with news called for the visitor to enter thinking it might be the servants to collect the meal. But it was one of his advisors.
"Excuse me, my lord, but…"
"You don't need to announce me." Apolo strode into his room and headed to the table. "Having an early meal? By the gods, Duo, you aren't going to bed in the middle of the afternoon, are you?"
Duo smiled. "Something has come up."
"Indeed!" Apolo smirked, then looked toward the bathing chamber. "Is she there? I hope I can meet the woman who can take you from your duties in the middle of the day."
Larya chose that moment to leave the bathing chamber, and not noticing that they were no longer alone, she paused in the doorway to the bathing chamber, untied her sash and let the dressing gown fall open as she leaned against the doorway. "I'm ready, Lord Duo."
Duo turned to make a comment to Apolo, but the other man's were riveted on Larya, his mouth ajar.
Larya noticed him. "You!"
Apolo seemed to snap out of his trance. "My dear Lady Larya, you are the last woman I expected to find with Duo."
She quickly pulled her gown together and knotted the sash tightly around her waist, and then she glared at Duo. "You could have warned me that we had an intruder, especially this sorcerer."
Duo shrugged and looked back at Apolo. "So what brings you to the moon?"
But Apolo didn't answer as he watched Larya cross the room then climb onto Duo's bed where she arranged herself in a provocative pose by parting her gown in just the right places.
Apolo moved to put his back to the bed although Duo knew he was a distracted. What living, breathing male wouldn't be distracted by Larya lying barely clothed onhis bed? "Trey wants you to escort Shamara again."
"What? I thought I was finished with that duty!" Duo loved her dearly, but he had been away from his government far too much lately. His presence was usually enough to keep any trouble in check, and he blamed his recent absences for the rise of the cult.
"Shamara is convinced that Prince Dagan is at a place called the Mars Colony."
"Mars Colony!" A knot formed in his gut. "He expects me to take her to the Mars Colony?"
Apolo jabbed his ribs with his elbow. "Shamara tells us that lovely morsel Trynity Stryfe is on the Mars Colony. You'd be lying if you said you didn't want to see her again." Apolo slapped him on the back. "Trust me. You won't regret the trip."
"When am I expected to leave?" If he had time to spend with Larya, maybe he could face Trynity without feeling the pain of her betrayal all these years.
"Shamara and Taeron will be picking you up in a few hours." Apolo glanced toward the bed. "I'm sure there is enough time…"
There probably was enough time, but he felt a sudden jolt of excitement at seeing Trynity again. "Hardly. I have arrangements to make."
Apolo was still looking at the bed where Larya had made herself very comfortable. "Perhaps I shall break the news to her."
Duo thought about her extra preparations and decided not to warn Apolo. He deserved what he would get for coveting another man's woman in that man's own bedroom. He should be angry, but Duo realized he was amused. "Do whatever you think you can get away with."
Apolo leaned in to say in a low voice so that she couldn't hear, "I know just what she likes. Larya is no stranger to me."
Duo hoped she pulled out the chains to use on him.
As he walked to the door he heard Larya call out for him, then her very loud cursing when it was obvious Apolo was going to stay. Duo thought he might thank the governor of the Wastelands when he returned from his mission. He had probably stopped him from making a terrible mistake. But Apolo might not be in the mood to accept his thanks, especially if Larya had her way. She had a better chance of getting her daughter with Apolo than he did with him.
Duo burst into laughter as he headed down the corridor leading away from his suite. He could barely wait to see the results of this day.
Mars Colony
"Boil a few of these leaves in fresh water, and when it has cooled, put two or three drops in her ear. The swelling should go down soon thereafter." Trynity chucked the little girl on the examining table under the chin. "You'll be good as new in the morning."
"Thank you, doctor." She flashed a toothless grin at Trynity who smiled and ruffled her dark hair before turning to the girl's mother.
"Has your husband returned yet?" When the woman shook her head, Trynity sighed and reached out to squeeze her hands. "Do not give up hope."
"They never return from the mines. My Robert has been gone for three weeks. I've accepted that he won't be around to see his little girl grow up."
Trynity knew how such a loss felt. "Are you holding up otherwise?"
"I'm selling everything and going back to L11. I can't stay here alone, and I don't want to raise my daughter here. I see women giving up and letting those animals into their homes. My neighbor is pregnant already and she doesn't even know which of those brigands did it."
"I don't blame you for leaving. Do you need any money to buy passage to L11?" Trynity walked across the room and opened the drawer where she kept the little income she received from her patients on the colony. Most of the money she had received from her work at the infirmary on L12. "This should get both of you on the next transport out." She returned and pressed the money into the woman's hands.
There were tears of gratitude in her eyes although she half-heartedly pushed the money back. "I can't accept this from you, Dr. Nelson."
Trynity shoved the money into her hands again and closed the woman's fingers around it. "Nonsense! I have more than enough. I will have my son take you home and help you pack, then he can escort you to the spaceport."
She hugged Trynity. "I can never thank you enough."
"Just take care of your daughter."
After they had left, she called Stryfe into the examining room. It wasn't sterile and aesthetic like the one at the infirmary. Her clinic was little better than a shack, and this large room doubled as her office, the examining room, and her pharmacy and there were three beds curtained to the side for any patients requiring overnight care. What might be considered primitive care on L12, leaves and seeds with healing properties lay scattered on the counters with some of the latest technical instruments for diagnosing. The former she found in the forests around the clinic, the later depended largely on a generator that she rarely ran and which never seemed to work. She preferred an old-fashioned approach to doctoring. Her colleagues on L12 didn't even know their patients' names. Trynity knew everything about hers.
"You can't keep doing this," warned Stryfe when she had explained what she wanted him to do. "You'll run out of money when every destitute woman who has lost a husband to the mines comes in with their sad story."
"They won't all come in. Some are content to serve the brigands." Trynity tried not to feel disgust for them. They were women who simply didn't have the gumption to survive on Mars anyway. If they wanted to lower themselves to the level of an animal, then she would try not to judge them.
"I'll be back as soon as I can," said Stryfe, pausing at the door.
"Be careful," she warned him before he left. Stryfe had been a big help to her in the days she had been back. Because her nurse had abandoned the clinic during her absence, he took her place. Quynn spent most of her time tinkering in the garage or lying about in a hammock studying technical manuals. Lars had always said that if he could jam the two of them together he could make another Trynity Stryfe. If she worried more about Stryfe it was because he was more likely to do something illogical, like hop into an escape pod and jettison himself into oblivion.
Trynity sat down and took a deep breath, but she felt the tears gathering behind her eyes. This had all been behind her until Duo Maxwell suddenly appeared in her life again. Now along with that rejection, she had to deal with the guilt of marrying Lars all over again. When would the pain ever stop? Why did she have to fall in love with him? Why couldn't it have been a constant man like Lars?
She lowered her head in her arms on the counter and allowed herself to cry. It wouldn't help. It never did.
A hand rested on her back, and for a moment she relaxed as it caressed her. Then she turned to see Quatre Winner. She checked the urge to slap him. Instead, she wiped her eyes and stood, shrugging his hand from her. "What do you want?" she asked hoarsely. "I have patients who need my assistance."
Quatre chuckled and folded his arms over his chest. "Not anymore. The moment we arrived, they were suddenly cured."
"I told you not to come here." Trynity moved away and turned to tidy up the mess on her counter. "If you needed my services…"
"I don't need those kinds of services from you Trynity although I think you know the kinds of aches you can soothe." He came up behind her, then leaned into her as he put his arms around either side of her and grasped the counter. She was trapped. "I heard from Malik that you were back, and I wanted to see you. I missed you, Trynity," he breathed into her ear.
"There was nothing for you to miss," she snapped. What could she hit him with?
He pushed her against the counter with his body. "Why do you keep denying me, Trynity? You must be lonely without Lars to keep you company in that big bed of yours."
"He's gone thanks to you!" She couldn't wriggle away from him and she regretted allowing her strength to diminish over the years.
"Not me - at least not personally although I gave some consideration into taking my dear Sandrock out once more to slice his transport into tiny pieces. But knowing he was blown to bits by that little device was gratifying enough."
Trynity spun around and tried to strike him, but Quatre grabbed her wrist and twisted her arm behind her back. "You bastard! I knew you were responsible!"
Quatre jerked her arm and smiled when she winced with pain. "I remember when you were so much stronger than the rest of us little boys at Seaside. Too bad I've grown and you haven't. You are like a tiger, Trynity, and I've put my energies into training for the day when I would corner you."
"Aren't you afraid I might rip you to shreds?" If Trynity had a knife, she would do it now. Her scalpels were across the room, far from her reach.
Quatre laughed. "That is part of your charm. I'll savor the taming of you even more once I have succeeded, and I will succeed." Suddenly he released her and stepped back. Her hand was so numb from lack of circulation that she couldn't even make a fist. "I didn't come here for that today, Dr. Nelson, but you just get my blood boiling. One of my men needs your help."
"Something Butch can't handle?" she asked sarcastically. His medic was poorly trained and the care he gave to the miners wasn't any better than the care people received in the dark ages.
Quatre didn't answer before stepping out, and he returned after a moment followed by a man carrying another who was dressed completely in black. Quatre motioned to the examining table where the unconscious man was dumped.
Trynity wanted to refuse to help, but she couldn't. "What happened to him?"
Quatre shrugged. "Who knows? He has been like this for several days. One minute he was awake, the next unconscious. I prefer him awake."
Trynity didn't want to help one of Quatre's henchmen, but she had taken an oath to help the sick. So she moved past the lummox who had carried her patient in, then stood over the table and looked down at him. He was a handsome young man, well-proportioned telling Trynity he had a healthy diet. He also did not reek like the typical man in Quatre's employ, so she was sure he bathed. There was a wound on his forehead, and although it was already healing, she couldn't rule out the possibility that his unconscious state was due to a concussion.
Sighing, she pulled out a chart. "What is his name?"
"Kael."
"What else can you tell me about him?"
"He does his work without complaint, but from time to time he has daydreamed his way into oblivion like this." Quatre headed to the door. "I'll be back later to pick up him."
"Assuming I can help him," she said.
Quatre chuckled. "Waking up that poor bastard should be a cinch for a physician of your considerable skill." Then he left.
Trynity spent the afternoon running tests on Kael. No other patients arrived to distract her, but then who would dare to try to get past the thugs now standing outside her clinic? All the while she examined her patient, he lay still, breathing, yet otherwise not moving, not even a twitch when she stuck him with a needle. She did a scan of his brain and saw that it was extremely active, but his eyes did not move as eyes did while in an active dream. Perplexed, she ran a routine test of his blood to determine if he was suffering from some strange disease caught from the bite of some as yet unknown insect or creature on his planet. When the computer printed the results of the scan she had run on his blood, she wondered if there was a glitch because it could not read the sample. She took a different sample and got the same reading, so she ran a test on his DNA and found that it did not match human DNA.
Trynity returned to the young man and looked more closely at him. He appeared human, and yet…Realizing what she might be seeing, she went back to her samples and accessed the military databases with the hacking ease taught her by her father. Sure enough, she found a strand of DNA that had elements in common with his: Princess Shamara of Calabria. So what did this mean? Was this young man her brother? No, he didn't look like either Arora or Trey. Yet why did his blood match hers so well? She returned to the database and searched even further back, finally finding the samples she needed. Comparing them all she came to the logical conclusion that the imperfection in match occurred because Trey, who was half Calabrian and half human was Shamara's father. This young man's blood matched Arora and Apolo perfectly. Given the inbreeding among the Guerani people, Trynity wasn't surprised at the purity of the bloodline.
Now that she had discovered what he was if not who, she returned to his side, then looked down at his hands. Dare she disturb what was most likely a Guerani trance? Trey had done it once so she knew how dangerous it might be. Trynity knew that she could be drawn in, and yet she had to do something to bring him out or he might die.
She was reaching down to touch his hand when his lashes suddenly fluttered and his body jerked. He sighed deeply, then turned his head to look at her. "Where am I?"
Trynity noticed that his jaw was starting to swell. "You are on Mars Colony at my clinic." She found a cold pack and put it to his jaw. "Quatre Winner brought you here hoping I could help you. Alas, you just needed a little time."
"And a very hard fist," he commented as he gingerly applied the pack to his cheek.
"You are Calabrian," she told him.
"I am not! I am from Bayman." The angry flare in his eyes told Trynity he was deeply insulted. Trynity suspected Calabrians and the people Bayman where genetically linked.
"Pardon my mistake. But you are Guerani."
Kael opened his mouth to deny it, but he didn't speak.
"I have already determined that with my testing," she told him. "I was unaware that there were Guerani people on Bayman. As far as I knew, Lady Arora, her brother and her daughter were the last of their people with those powers."
"You know them?" he asked as he swung himself to a sitting position, setting aside the cold pack.
"A long time ago I spent some time on Calabria. I think that is where I gained my desire to heal people. Of course, I am not nearly as efficient as Lord Apolo or Princess Shamara, but I do what I can. How do you come to be here?"
"I…I was a guard to Prince Dagan. His ship crashed on this planet." There was something about his guarded look that told Trynity he was not being honest.
"Were you injured in the crash?" she asked him.
"Lord Quatre's people took care of my injuries."
The young man couldn't look her in the eyes. She suspected that this was the man many called a wizard. He didn't seem to match the description that those who had seen him use his powers had given her. Although there were fewer reported deaths since the wizard had began to serve the brigands, through his actions many men had been captured and sent to the mines from which they did not return.
I only want to return home.
Trynity heard the voice clearly, and yet his lips did not move. Was this a type of telepathy?
Kael wasn't even looking at her.
Trynity opened her mouth to ask him about his affiliation with Quatre and whether he knew what had become of Prince Dagan, but Quatre's voice from the doorway prevented her from questioning the young man.
"I see you have worked your usual miracles." He came to stand so close to her that she could feel the heat of his body.
Kael glanced at them and looked down, but she had seen the fear in his eyes. He assumed she and Quatre were intimate.
"Come along, Kael."
Trynity put her hand on Quatre's arm. "Wait! I think he should stay for observation."
Quatre raised his brows. "Observation, my dear, or do you like them young now?"
"You are a pig!"
Kael slid off the table. "I will go."
"Too bad, Trynity. Perhaps you can work your charm on him another time."
Kael looked at her. If you are the healer who saved Shamara's life. I thank you.
After he had left, Quatre turned back to Trynity. The malevolent look in his eyes made her step back instinctively. "You need to remember, my dear, that you belong to me."
Although her heart was beating rapidly from fear, she said, "I don't belong to anyone."
Quatre's hollow chuckle made her shiver. "That is what I like best about you, Trynity. You don't know how to control your stupid bravado. Although I could probably snap your neck before you even realize I have left this spot, you continue to defy me."
Trynity swallowed nervously. "I have a lot of work to do."
He closed the distance between them, but she was frozen to the spot. Trynity couldn't move as he slid his hand over her neck, then grabbed a handful of her hair at to jerk her head back so that she was forced to look in his eyes. There was something in the limpid blue depths of his gaze that kept her from reacting. Where had he gotten this hypnotic power?
"It would be all too easy to take what I want right now." He bent his head and touched his lips to the pulse at her neck. "You are completely within my power."
Although she felt as if she had been drugged, Trynity managed to jerk herself away from him. "Get out!"
Quatre smiled. "I have other matters to attend to anyway. Why don't you come up to the mansion tonight. You know the way."
Trynity glared after him as he left.
Quynn must have passed him because she stepped into the room almost immediately. "Doing Winner's dirty business now?" she asked Trynity as she hopped up on the table. "And who was that gorgeous, mysterious man in black I saw in the yard?"
"The wizard Kael," she said as she started to tidy up. Trynity was annoyed that her hands were shaking. She didn't know how much more harassment she could take from Quatre Raberba Winner.
"The wizard?" Quynn whistled. "He can cast a few spells on me!"
Trynity frowned at her. "I hope you don't mean that, young lady."
Quynn snorted. "Don't get all holier-than-thou on me, Mom. I'm quite sure you were around the block plenty of times before you were my age."
Stunned, Trynity didn't know how to respond.
Quynn seemed to regret her words because she quickly looked down at her hands. She was wringing them as if she were trying to wipe them clean, and Trynity remembered her admission that Shamara had touched her and how it had made her feel. Was it possible that Quynn knew about her father?
"I made mistakes when I was young," Trynity started.
"You cheated on Pops," accused Quynn suddenly, looking directly at her.
Trynity felt as if her heart stopped in her chest.
"With Duo Maxwell," blurted Quynn.
"I did no such thing! Where did you get such an idea?"
"I saw how you looked at him, how he looked at you!" Upset, Quynn forged on. "The two of you obviously had a thing and are embarrassed by it! And Pops told me…"
"What did he tell you?" Trynity was furious that Lars would say anything to their children about their intimate life. Did he betray her?
"That he was the luckiest man in the world! He loved you so much, Mom, and I am sick thinking that you could throw that away on Duo Maxwell!"
Trynity felt both relieved and ashamed. "You are mistaken, Quynn. I did not cheat on your father with Duo Maxwell. The truth is, I was far luckier to have him for a husband than he was to have me for a wife. What happened between Duo Maxwell and myself happened before I married your father."
Quynn stared at her, and Trynity could see her perceptive daughter's mind racing. Finally she asked, "How can that be? Before your experience on Calabria? During? When?"
"Stop fishing," snapped Trynity. "What do you want me to say?"
Before Quynn could answer, the outer door banged open, and thinking a patient had arrived to save her from making an admission she hoped she never had to make, Trynity pushed past her daughter and walked into the waiting room which was also the front entrance.
Stryfe was standing in the middle of the room, behind him, of all people! Duo Maxwell and his entourage. "Look who I picked up at the spaceport! I thought I would bring them here before Winner sunk his claws into them."
Quynn was standing behind Trynity and whispered, "I guess we'll get to the bottom of this sooner than later!"
