Chapter 8
The shriek of one of the females startled Quynn from the sleep into which she had fallen despite her effort to stay awake. Her eyes flew open and she watched anxiously as yet another woman sharing this cage with her was dragged away kicking and screaming in mortal terror by the beasts that held them all captive. Quynn's gut churned, and she had to look away from the creatures whose slimy green saliva dripped from tusks that curled outward from the corners of their lips. They grunted some primitive language that no female in the cage understood. Thinking that her brother would probably unravel the mystery of their bestial language, Quynn tried to distract herself from the gruesome fate of the woman whose screams made her heart wrench until they suddenly stopped.
Quynn pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes. She had only herself to blame for her present predicament. Why had she been so foolish? Her only thought when she left Ulfynaeus was to put as much distance between her and Amyr as possible. Quynn had reasoned that her father would be angry that she had broken the oath made on the honor of his house and would surely follow her to the solar system. He would take her back to Calabria and force her to marry Amyr, and that she would not do when she knew that he did not love her.
So she had directed the hyper-space ship in the opposite direction, towards Teralon where she intended to ask Amyr's sister, Chaela, to hide her until she could decide what she would do. She did not know Chaela, but Quynn knew enough about her to hope that she would not balk at aiding her. Chaela would also be able to tell her what her options concerning Amyr were after she had made an oath to him. Quynn had refused to believe that the few words they had exchanged had the power to bind them for life, and yet she feared that they had.
Distraught and not thinking straight when she entered the code to blast into hyper-space, Quynn realized too late that she hadn't buckled into her seat. The sudden burst of speed threw her back against the wall where she hit her head and lost consciousness. She awoke to a ship drifting in space, and when she consulted the ship's monitors, she saw that she was out of fuel and she was stranded in an area of space for which her craft's computer had no information. Quynn was stranded beyond the frontier, far from the binary system.
Adding to her dilemma, she was seriously short of food rations because the ship had not been restocked after her trip from the solar system. After landing at Edgeland Fortress, she had not given any thought to the food supply on the ship because after the short trip to Ulfynaeus, she had been planning to take the ship to the surface back to Edgeland Fortress for further training with Calabrian pilots after her honeymoon with Amyr. Quynn could not believe that she had behaved in such an irrational manner over a man she should have realized did not have one shred of decency in him!
For days she had drifted in space with no fuel and later no food, almost giving up hope that she would be rescued when a scavenging transport found her craft. She had been thankful for the rescue and tried to express it even though the humanoid beings couldn't understand what she said. Unfortunately, the horned creatures were more interested in the ship, and once they had the towlines secured to take it onto their gigantic barge, they held a cacophonous discussion and apparently decided she wasn't worth anything to them because one of them tried to force her out an airlock.
Quynn fought against him, managed to grab his weapon and she demanded that they contact the Calabrian empire to inform them of her whereabouts even though she knew they did not understand her. They must have been familiar with the Calabrian empire because when they heard her say it, they sprang into action to subdue her. Since she had no idea how to operate the weapon, she could only use it as a club and they easily overcame her, knocking her out.
When she regained consciousness, she was surprised that she was alive, but not so surprised to find herself bound and and at the mercy of these slimy tusked creatures who treated her like an animal as they yanked on the tether securing her. Even though her head was aching and she was weak from lack of food, she fought the beasts until they grew annoyed and incapacitated her with surges of energy from sticks they were carrying. She had dropped to the floor, unable to move or react, and they dragged her after them before tossing her into a crate with several other women of different races.
At least they fed them and she was not too proud to take the scraps thrown to them during the spaceflight to another planet where the crate was taken to a structure that she realized was a holding pen. Once there, the crate was opened and she was glad to get out of the soiled container, but it was only long enough for her captors to strip her of her tattered, soiled clothing after which they doused her with cold water to clean the worst of her vile filth before she was shoved into large cage she now shared with over a dozen other females.
A moan drew her attention to the woman lying beside Quynn in the filthy dried plants that served as bedding for them. She glanced at the painfully thin female who was now curled in a fetal position. When Quynn first arrived in this cage, she found herself drawn to her, and without knowing why, she tried to make her comfortable. Perhaps by easing her suffering, she was distracting herself from her own miserable existence. Quynn didn't understand the mumbling of the woman, nor did she give her any indication that she understood the monologue Quynn carried out with herself just to keep her sanity. After an endless time among these female prisoners from different races and worlds, Quynn couldn't communicate with any of them. They had one thing in common, however, and that was their fate, the same as the woman who had just met hers.
"I should have realized that Amyr was a prick," she said for the thousandth time. Maybe if she spoke to the woman she would stop all that depressing noise and she could keep her mind off what had happened to the female and worrying about what she would do when it would be her turn to leave the cage in the not so gentle care of her jailers.
The woman looked at her, her glowing colorless eyes peering through stringy, matted hair that must have once been beautiful, thick pale hair. Quynn knew that she wasn't much to look at either. Her face was swollen from blows she had taken while fighting for the food thrown into the cage by their captors, and she knew she was filthy and stunk horribly, but she no longer noticed the stench because she was so used to it. There were days that she wished the suffering would end because she knew that her fight for survival was useless, and yet she continued on like an animal existing on instinct.
The woman's lips moved, and Quynn thought she understood a couple of words, so Quynn took it as a sign that they could learn to communicate. She continued to talk, except now she directed her soliloquy to the woman. As the days passed, the woman picked up more and more words and Quynn was glad that at least she wasn't as incompetent in language acquisition as she was. Stryfe had often bemoaned her lack of talent, but then Stryfe did not have her skill as a pilot.
At least she learned that the woman's name was Malya. After many days in the wretched cage, days that she could only mark by how often she slept, Quynn found that Malya began to understand her very well. She admitted that it was due to a device that had been implanted behind her ear by the slave-traders to whom she had been sold. The sophisticated chip had learned the language that Quynn used and had fed the information to her brain.
"Maybe my lack of understanding Calabrian lead me to the stupid scheme of marrying Amyr," she grumbled one day shortly after watching another female led away. That one had gone without fighting and Quynn wondered how she would act when they took her.
"You should have known better," muttered the woman.
Quynn was ashamed to hear her own thoughts voiced. "If you had been there, you could now say "I told you so."
"I told you so," said Malya. "It is not too late for you to hear it."
Quynn smiled and took Malya's hand which was little more than bone covered with skin. She doubted Malya had much longer to live. The woman did not fight for food, would not even take a portion of what Quynn offered her of her own.
"Can you explain how you came to be here?" asked Quynn curiously. Although she had spoken freely of her own troubles, she knew nothing of the woman who had become her companion in this godforsaken hole.
Malya seemed reluctant to talk or she just didn't know the words, but after a few moments of silence, when Quynn had almost given up hope that she would tell her anything, she finally spoke.
"I was captured and sold into slavery by the mistress of my husband, Prince Draygo."
So men on other planets were as duplicitous as they were on Calabria. "Does your husband love this other woman?" Quynn knew marriages were arranged between important families. That kind of arrangement was still practiced on Earth and in the colonies. A couple might pretend to have feelings for each other in order to satisfy the desires of their parents. Such practices ensured the continuation of power in the hands of few. Isn't that why Amyr wanted to marry her? He had only pretended to love her so that he could please his parents and earn the approval of his people.
Malya smiled sadly. "Much like you, I was fooled by a handsome man's glib promises. Draygo is a powerful man on my world, power that he owed to that woman, summoner of beasts."
"You have got to be kidding!" Summoning beasts and spirits? That only happened in virtual games!
But Malya continued, her voice raspy and breathy. "The summoner Tanyta kept her powers hidden while Prince Raygo courted me. He needed my father's aide to vanquish his neighbors to the south, and he was willing to take me as his wife to earn it."
"Did you have any say in the marriage?"
There was a faraway dreamy look in Malya's unnaturally colorless eyes. "If you could see Prince Raygo, you would know that my fate was sealed. He is beyond handsome, and the strongest of men."
Her story was uncomfortably close to her own. "So this Tanyta woman wasn't too happy about his marriage to you?"
"She felt confident enough in her position that nothing changed in her relationship with him. Raygo needed her to summon, and he was pleased with the warriors that my father provided." She was twisting a jeweled bracelet on her wrist that their captors had tried and failed to remove. The jewels were colorless like Malya's eyes and Quynn often wondered what gem they were and on what world they were mined. Even in Calabria they did not have such stones.
"What changed their happy little situation?" she asked her. Malya's story was at least more entertaining than watching the rodents and beetles forage in the filth of the cell even if it wasn't all that believable. Amyr would probably enjoy the feast crawling through the rushes. Her mother had remarked that the Calabrians rarely had to worry about finding nourishment, but Quynn was not going to even consider chewing on the beetle nibbling on the inedible remains of the last meal tossed aside by another female.
"The child changed everything."
"Child?" Quynn looked at her to ask whose child, but Malya had closed her eyes and her breathing was shallow.
After a moment, Quynn checked her pulse, and finding it very weak, she knew that soon she would lose the friend she had made. She would not hear the rest of her story, and Prince Raygo will have succeeded in destroying the woman he had used so callously.
Holding Malya's hand so that she would not have to leave this existence alone, Quynn leaned against the wall and closed her own eyes. She had only planned to blot out the horror of her surroundings, but she soon fell into a deep sleep. Normally, she could awaken herself quickly, fearing she might be dragged from the cell, but this time she was unable. But her dream was so vivid as she found herself in mist shrouded surroundings. Quynn tried to move, but she was unable, and she started to feel panic until she heard a familiar voice.
"I am sorry to bring you here."
Quynn turned to see Malya standing nearby. "Where are we?"
Malya didn't respond as she walked to her. "You must take this." She unclipped the bracelet from her arm. "I have heard your story and I would trust no other. You must care for him."
Quynn could only watch as the other woman clipped the bracelet on her arm. "What is this? Who must I care for?"
But Malya did not answer and a bright light blinded her as her body was overcome with heat.
Her eyes popped open in time to see that her captors had entered the cage and were prodding Malya. The woman lay motionless on the ground, beetles already crawling over her. Quynn noticed that she was the only woman left in the cage just as they turned their attention away from the lifeless female. Quynn had no time to grieve for the woman who had befriended her. She noticed that the door was standing open, so she sprang to her feet and charged for it. The creatures chased her, snorting and making a sound that sounded like a squeeling pig. Quynn didn't know where she was going or what she was going to do, but she did know that she wasn't going to the fate they intended for her.
The holding area was a maze of cages crammed with miserable females that did not even lift their heads to watch her. Quynn feared she would be trapped, but fortunately the tusked beasts were not intelligent and could not anticipate her moves. Eventually she came to stairs that lead upwards. Once she reached the opening, she did not pause in rushing out into the cool, clean air.
The sudden light stunned and disoriented her as well as the cacophony of voices. Once she regained her eyesight, she was amazed to see that there were humanoids seated around a banquet table wearing colorful clothing which marked them as wealthy and privileged. There was a large platter of meat on the table from which they were tearing with their fingers, and Quynn nearly vomited when she recognized the torso of a female.
The tusked beasts were apparently just the servants of these twisted aliens because when the beasts had charged into the banquet hall, their appearance caused an uproar of gasps and horrified cries from the people. They were just as disgusted by the people who did their dirty work as the poor wretches who eventually found their way to their plates. Quynn saw that the beasts were reluctant to approach the humans, so she jumped onto the table and charged to the middle where she paused to look at those gathered. She was able to discern quickly who their leader was, and she grabbed him by his silky, fine clothing and jerked him from his plush chair.
"Take me to a ship!" She snatched up a knife and held it to his throat when he did not react. "Now!"
He could not understand her, but the look in her eyes must have warned him what she wanted. The beasts did not move after her, and she waited until he issued some orders to humanoid guards at the door. She held him tightly in her grasp, perfectly willing to cut off his head with the knife that might have been used to cut her own roasted meat. Somehow he managed to convey to her that she should follow his guards, and she did so, threatening him whenever his people tried to get close to her.
He led her to what appeared to be a spacecraft hanger and Quynn was amazed to see her own ship. The men must have sold her ship to these disgusting people when they had sold her. She jerked the man toward that ship when he pointed out a different one. Quynn would have to send a little prayer offering to the gods for such fortune because there was now at least a slim chance that she could escape since she could pilot it better than any other man or woman.
Once inside the cockpit, she could see that technicians must have been working on the ship because wires were exposed. She kept her prisoner at hand as she tested the systems, and when she realized they must have repaired most of the hyper-drive, she dragged the man to the door, then planted her foot in his backside to propel him out. Closing the door, she hurried to her seat, buckled in, and hit the lift-off boosters. For a moment they did not respond, then suddenly she heard the deafening roar as they fired and the ship shot upwards. Quynn knew how to pilot this ship, so she didn't waste any time escaping the planet, and as she did, she thanked any god that would listen for her grandfather's incredible engineering skills.
She kept her eyes on the scanners to watch for pursuit ships, but she must not have been important to those people because they did not follow. Quynn couldn't believe she had escaped! She regretted that Malya had died, but the woman had been too weak to survive and she wondered if the alien female had ever been strong.
Remembering her strange dream, Quynn glanced down at her arm and saw with surprise that the bracelet was attached around her wrist. Frowning, she reached out to touch it, and when her fingers brushed the lovely stones that seemed to match Malya's eyes, she felt a strange warmth fill her. No magical knowledge came to her from touching the stones and she could not guess what the purpose of the bracelet. Since coming to the binary system, she had come to realize that some things in the universe could not be explained by her limited human experiences.
She busied herself for several hours by checking the systems on the craft and making some adjustments, then she hunted for something to eat and found the craft just as barren as she had left it. Apparently it was not being prepared for any flights or it might have been stocked with something even remotely edible. At least the craft had been repaired and she might be able to find a world where she would not be considered food.
A few days later Quynn was in the same situation she had been in before she was captured by the space scavengers. She was starving to death with not so much as a beetle to eat. Scanning space, she did find a planet a few days distant which might be habitable. She would surely be dead by the time she could reach it, but she had to try, so she coded the navigation to send the ship in that direction of space.
After doing so, she sat back in her chair, strapped in this time, and she closed her eyes. She was filthy and naked but she did not care enough to find out if the aliens had found the battle suit. Exhausted, she could only sit in the pilot's seat to wait for rescue or death.
As her eyes closed, she was sure for the last time, she thought about how she had Amyr to thank for this situation. If he hadn't been such a…
"Are you going to sleep all day? This is a very disappointing experience for me."
Her eyes snapped open and she saw that she was no longer on the ship. Had she slept through the trip to the planet? Had she somehow landed and left the ship? She was now sitting under a tree in a shade. The voice she had heard came from a form standing before her, an almost shapeless form that was blurred by the sunlight streaming behind him.
"Where…where am I?" she asked, her voice hoarse from lack of water, her tongue thick and sluggish as she stumbled over the words.
He squatted so that he was even with her, and in his hands he held a cup of water.
As she took the cup, her eyes met his, and she was startled to realize that it was Amyr. Why not? This was probably her final dream. Rather than tell him exactly what she thought, Quynn reached out for the cup, but because her hands were shaking, he continued to hold it, helping her raise it to her lips. The water was cool and refreshing, and once she had drained the cup, she leaned back against the tree, closing her eyes from the sun.
"It will be second sunset soon," he told her.
His voice startled her, and opening her eyes, she realized she had fallen asleep. The sky was darkening with a beautiful twilight panorama that she had only seen on Calabria. "Where…where are we?" Her voice was no longer so pathetic although it was still weak.
"You know the answer to that question."
Quynn looked around to see that she was surrounded by a wooded area, but she had been resting on mossy ground in a clearing. Then she looked toward the horizon where the sun was setting and she thought they might be on Earth since there was only one sun until she looked up and noted the presence of two small moons. He had mentioned second sunset, but she was sure that she could not be on Calabria.
"You are hungry," he remarked when she did not answer. "So am I. Let's have something to eat. The servants have gone to a lot of trouble to prepare for us a feast."
The mention of food made her stomach growl, but she could not be embarrassed anymore. A picnic of sorts was laid out on a blanket, and the food on the plates gave further evidence to being on Calabria, but as she nibbled on a sweetened sand slug, she reminded herself that she was too far away from Calabria, that she would be long dead before reaching it even if she had enough fuel. Did it matter where she was or if this was an hallucination brough on by her dying brain? There was nourishment and she was hungry, so she set about eating enough to satisfy her most basic need to survive. If she ate more, she would probably be sick, and she certainly didn't want Amyr to witness that.
Amyr? How could Amyr be here? She was too weary to wonder how this could happen, so she ignored the handsome crown prince of Calabria, and laid down on the blanket to take a nap. She would probably never awaken, but at least she was going to die comfortably.
Sometime later, she felt a hand on her cheek, and she opened her eyes to see that Amyr had lain beside her. "What do you think you are doing?" she demanded weakly. His touch made her warm. The sun had set, so they were lying in the light of the moons.
"I am sorry, Quynn, for the dishonor I have given you and the house of your father." He moved closer to her so that their bodies were almost touching. "Can you ever forgive me?"
Quynn snorted derisively. "Why in the name of your gods am I subjected to this before I die? What did I do to deserve this?"
"You didn't do anything, Quynn. The fault was mine. I was stupid. I didn't realize how special you are, how much I care about you." Amyr's hand moved to her neck and the warmth became more than just pleasant. He really did know how to manipulate a woman, she thought as she moved towards him against her will. No, not against her will, because Quynn wanted before her death, what she had been denied in her life.
"I can't forgive you," she said, her raspy voice little more than a breathy sigh.
"I would not expect you to." He didn't say any more before his lips touched hers, and she slid her arms around him to bring him closer.
This wasn't exactly how she had imagined she would be with Amyr the first time, but then again, it was also the only time and she knew she was hallucinating. This was a dream spawned from her imagination, but her imagination was far more fertile than her waking fantasies about him had ever been because she could never have dreamed of the responses Amyr awakened in her now with his touch. The Amyr of her hallucination was a gentle lover who put her at ease with the awkwardness of her inexperience, and when he took her innocence, she felt nothing but joy under the light of the moons.
As she lay contentedly in his arms in the aftermath of their loving, Amyr did not speak as he caressed her. If he was surprised that she had managed to keep herself pure, he did not say so as he lightly stroked his fingers along her back. Quynn had taken to heart the few discussions she had with her mother about being intimate with a man, that she should only give herself to a man that she loved and not succumb to fleeting moments of pleasure. At the time, Quynn had assumed her mother was talking about her husband, that man Quynn had come to realize was her stepfather and not her father, when she told her how special her first time had been. Quynn knew differently now. She had wanted that same special memory, and now she had gotten it with the man she loved with all her heart and soul. Sadly, it was only a dream.
"We should get back to the palace," Amyr finally said.
"Palace?"
Amyr's deep chuckle sent a shiver of pleasure through her. Her body had always reacted to this man, from the first moment that she saw him in the garden of her father's palace. As he moved away from her to hunt his clothing, she watched him and wondered if the real Amyr was as finely formed as the one her imagination had conjured. Where did she get such thoughts anyway? Not since she had left behind the days when she had splashed in the bathtub with her twin brother had she seen a male's naked body, and yet she had given Amyr a form that was far more enticing than the anatomical pictures in her mother's medical textbooks.
After pulling on his leggings and slipping on his ornate tunic, he reached down to take her hand and pulled her up so that she was against his hard body.
"Are you going to dress, my heart? Or do you want the servants at Guerani Palace gossiping about your scandalous behavior?"
Quynn remembered that after the bonding ceremony, she and Amyr would have made the two day trip to Edgeland Fortress before heading to the palace under construction in the sacred hills where they would spend many weeks uninterrupted in what the Calabrians called a mating ritual but what she would call her honeymoon. Turning her head now, she spied the dark outline of the palace in the moonlit distance above them.
"Where are we?" She was beginning to feel disoriented. Quynn had never seen the palace and yet she was looking at it now in the light of the two moons she had no trouble recognizing.
"You were very tired after the ceremony," he told her as he released her. He scooped up a garment from the grass and she stood in dazed confusion as he slipped it over her head and helped her put her arms in the sleeves. She recognized the garment her mother had told her was a gift from Lady Larya, Taeron's mother. The silky fabric clung to her indecently, but then that had been the intent.
Amyr made a sound that resembled a growl as he looked at her and he drew her against him, his hands touching her with need. "If we don't go back now, we will spend the night out here and there are a few creatures in the hills that we don't want finding us. I would rather not be the late night snack of a canyon beast."
He released her and taking her hand, he lead her away from their cozy nest beneath the tree. Quynn looked down again at the gown she had planned to wear for her marriage ceremony before the imperial court. "Is this our honeymoon?" she asked dumbly as she stumbled along with him.
He turned his head to look at her. "That is what you humans call it. It is our mating initiation."
"How romantic," she muttered sarcastically although her initiation under the tree on the mossy ground was more romantic than she ever would have allowed in her waking imagination. Her mother was a doctor and she had learned clinically by the time she had come into womanhood what sex entailed and what it would lead to. "I suppose if I don't produce a child, I'll be given the boot by the imperial family."
Amyr frowned down at her. "The boot? Why would my family wish to give you footwear and only one at that?"
Even in her imagination he did not understand her human colloquial expressions. Stryfe used them often to confuse Calabrians so that he could laugh about it later.
When she explained her meaning, Amyr snorted derisively. "Where do you get these absurd ideas? Is that what humans do in your system? We do not need to produce children quickly, nor do I consider it a mark of my manhood. If you chose not to have a child of our time here, I will not be angered." He brought her into his arms and lowered his head to hers until their foreheads were touching. Quynn had occasionally seen Calabrians do this and knew it was an expression of love. Her heart swelled.
"I want you to myself before we surround ourselves with our offspring."
"It would certainly help your reputation," she commented aloud.
"After what we have shared tonight, Quynn, you have wounded me." He straightened away from her.
Quynn felt guilty for her accusation. Those moments of intimacy with Amyr were something she wouldn't want to take back. She had little time left, but she would treasure the memory of what they had done for as much time as she could. "I am sorry."
The doors to the palace loomed ahead, and they swung open although Quynn didn't see any servants. Nor did Quynn see the usual assortment of Calabrians bowing and scraping to the spoiled crown prince. Quynn turned her head to look behind them, expecting to see her brother, but Taeron was curiously absent.
"Where are the servants?" she asked Amyr. He was leading her through a large receiving hall towards an elegant, curved staircase. "And where is your imperial guard? It's not like Taeron to be derelict in his duty."
Amyr didn't answer her right away as they mounted the steps, and they continued upwards for several moments in silence before he said, "You are right, Quynn, Taeron is very diligent, perhaps too diligent. A man would be a fool to cross him."
"A complete dumb ass," agreed Quynn. "He is so fanatical about his training that I don't think even a battalion of warriors would stand a chance against him."
"Not even the army of an entire planet."
Quynn thought his response was strange, but she didn't really want to hear any more about Taeron. "He's around," she concluded aloud. Taeron would not disturb them, but he would not leave Amyr without protection.
"The servants are not here to socialize with us," Amyr said to Quynn as he opened the door to a suite. Did he think of Taeron as a servant? Her brother had grown up with Amyr in the imperial household and Quynn knew how seriously he took his role as Amyr's imperial guard. From the relationship that her father had with the emperor, she had assumed that the bond between an imperial guard and the man he protect was closer than that of servant and master. Amyr was letting slip feelings of resentment towards Taeron that Quynn did not understand. Had she seen it and not acknowledged it? Was her mind opening to show her what she had missed?
"This is our time to be alone together," Amyr told her. "The servants will provide necessities, but they would not dare to be seen."
"Not even the pretty ones?" she asked with a raised brow as she stepped in. Calabrian females had all but thrown themselves in Amyr's path and if she were to judge by his knowledge of a woman's pleasure, he had not stepped over them.
Amyr did not respond to her remark although he smiled enigmatically.
Quynn pondered the implication as she looked around the room. The bed of pillows and cushions on the floor was probably larger than it needed to be, especially for what they would be doing. Then again the crown prince probably demanded such ostentatious surroundings. There was a large balcony, and a door leading to the bathing chamber which Quynn wanted to put to use now. When she tried to excuse herself from Amyr to do so, he thought it was a good idea, and so Quynn found out why those Calabrian bathing pools were such a cozy size for two.
When they finished their bath, he carried her to the bed where they both fell into an exhausted, contented sleep. Time had no meaning in this idyllic palace presiding over the sacred hills. Food miraculously appeared left by silent, invisible servants. Gradually her skepticism wore away, and Quynn came to realize that she was not hallucinating. Amyr told her that she had slipped in the garden the night of their oath ceremony, that her mother worried that she had a concussion. She did not tell Amyr about her strange dream of fleeing Calabria and ultimately becoming a prisoner. She had not met and befriended the alien, Malya, and the bracelet she wore on her wrist had been his gift to her after they had drank from the bonding cup. She had no memory of the ceremony, nor of the wedding banquet. Soon enough Quynn didn't care if it was a dream because this honeymoon with Amyr had become her reality.
After countless days spent in Amyr's arms, Quynn was ready to forgive him for the transgression she did remember, that must have led to her slipping in the garden as she fled the sight of him with another woman and when she told him that she remembered it clearly, he did not deny it.
"If you would have remained but a moment longer, you would have seen me send her away," he told her. "But you ran away and in your haste and distress, you slipped and hit your head on a stone before Taeron could reach you." He raised her face to his. "You should have trusted me."
"I was foolish," she admitted drowsily as she cuddled against him amongst the pillows. The night was warm, and a cooling breeze made the curtains on the doorway to the balcony flutter gently in the moonlight.
Amyr didn't respond although she knew he was awake.
She stretched up against him and looked into his eyes, and even in the moonlight she could see the liquid amber of his gaze. She had remembered them as soft brown, but now they seemed to glow. "I love you, Amyr."
A slight smile curved his lips. "You don't have to get carried away, Quynn."
It had taken a lot for her to say that to him after what they had just spoken of. He had violated her trust, and if she had not hit her head and scrambled her senses, would she have still married him? "Haven't I proven my feelings for you?" She had not held anything back from him these last few days.
But Amyr shrugged. "I knew that we would be compatible, that you would respond to me as you have."
"Compatible," she repeated, suddenly feeling light-headed and heavy hearted.
"I am going to be spending the rest of my life with only you as my mate, so the fact that mating with you isn't going to be unpleasant is a delightful surprise."
"What…what are you saying?" Quynn had hoped that he would echo her feelings for him. Hadn't he said that he cared for her? Could he not tell her that he loved her as well?
Amyr sat up, and Quynn rose to face him. His brows were together. "I didn't realize that you considered this a love match!"
Quynn was dumbfounded. Of course she had!
He ran a hand through his hair. "I knew from the moment my father discovered your existence that I should seal the family tie with Lord Duo by taking you as my mate. When I first met you, I thought that might be impossible. I had never met a more exasperating female! You were too bold and you never showed me the proper respect, but as I got to know you, I realized that I liked those qualities about you. Marriage to you would be beneficial to everyone. You would always be near your parents if you married me; Lord Duo's house would be joined with the imperial house, and not only would I get my father and mother off my back, I would gain Lord Duo as my father by marriage. He has been more father to me than my own."
A cold shiver ran down her spine and a hot one ran back up, igniting her fury as she had never felt it before. "Are you telling me that you didn' marry me because you love me?"
He waved his hand dismissively. "I might fall in love with you some day. For now I cannot imagine being with another female. Isn't that enough?"
The metal of the bracelet felt like what she imagined molten gold might, and a strange pulsing from the stones seemed to match the rhythm of her pounding, broken heart. "So what we have been doing here day and night had nothing to do with love?"
"People mate all the time," he told her with a shrug. "I have done this act many times with many different females. What were you expecting on your…your….what was the word? Honeymoon?"
Quynn felt dizzy and she found that the power of speech had abandoned her.
"What is that?" Amyr suddenly cried, looking past her towards the window.
Quynn turned to follow his gaze and saw what appeared to be the outline of a dragon in one of the moons. The enormous creature was advancing toward the castle. "I don't know." The bracelet was throbbing with her pulse, erratically with fear and sorrow. Her heart ached as if a blade had been thrust into it.
The dragon threw back its head and roared before it let loose a stream of white hot breath that scorched the trees in its path.
"Quynn?" Amyr was backing away from her. "Did you call that beast?"
Quynn watched the dragon and she realized with a shock that it was somehow connected to her. How could this be happening?
"It is going to kill me!" She tore her gaze from the approaching dragon and saw Amyr stumbling back away from the window.
"Why don't you call Taeron to protect you?" Why was her brother not there already?
Suddenly, before her eyes, Amyr dissolved into thin air just as the dragon landed on the balcony which crumbled under its weight. Quynn turned to look at it, and part of her wished it would put an end to her miserable existence. But the beast inclined its head, and she noted that its eyes were the same mysterious color of the stones set in her bracelet. Their eyes locked for several moments, and the tie between them seemed even stronger before it spread its wings and took flight, soaring so high that it disappeared into the light of the moon.