Chapter 16
"I wish I could have seen my uncle fight." Yori sat on a stool, his legs swinging as he watched Quynn and Carrinda crushing dried leaves to use in their potions. Whenever they prepared these medicines, Quynn thought of her mother and how she had gone from a state of the art medical facility to a planet where she used the local flora in her healing.
At least now Quynn did not have to worry about her mother and father because Stryfe assured her that they were well although they were harried by her younger siblings. She was ambivalent about ever seeing them again, especially as she remembered Taeron's reaction to Yori. And since Taeron looked so much like her father, she could easily imagine her brother's reaction tenfold. Her father would never believe that she had not been with Amyr, and he might even blame Taeron for shirking his duty to protect the honor of his house. Neither of them were to blame, as if she would ever consider Yori as something that should have blame attached.
"Uncle Stryfe told me that Lord Taeron moved like the swiftest wind."
A snort drew Quynn's attention to the other two women in the cottage. Carrinda had invited them to spend the afternoon helping with the herbs, and while Princess Dijana quietly sorted the leaves, her sister paced like a caged beast.
"He hides his skill well,"muttered Sharisse under her breath.
Quynn shared a smile with Carrinda who then looked at Yori. "Not only did he defeat the prince, but he destroyed a Yulovian banshee with a flick of his wrist."
"A Yulovian banshee!" Yori's mouth dropped open and Quynn knew he remembered when Mordrad had been paid well to hunt down such a beast on another planet. Their fight with the creature had not been as efficient as Taeron's had been. Two of their men had been gutted by the banshee and several others wounded before Jeshed had swooped in to make the kill by grasping it with his claw and crushing it before biting off its head which he promptly spit out, obviously not pleased by the taste. Based on the amount of time it had taken her dragon to answer the summons, he did not want to face the beast either.
"You should have allowed us to accompany you," said Sharisse. "I would have enjoyed seeing the famed hero of Varoonya do something other than drool over my sister."
"Well, he is my betrothed husband," said Princess Dijana with an indulgent smile at the other woman who frowned at her.
The door opened and Quynn turned to see Taeron step in. At first he did not see the Teralonian women and Quynn feared he would give himself away. But then she was horrified to see blood staining his tunic down the front that looked as though it came from a wound beneath his chin.
"Why are you bleeding, uncle?" blurted Yori and Quynn was glad he remembered not to call him by name.
"What happened to you?" Before Quynn could react, Sharisse crossed the small cottage to reach Taeron in only a few strides.
When he had entered, Taeron had been frowning, but when he saw Sharisse advancing on him, his face showed more panic than when he had faced a giant banshee with fangs dripping acid. He stumbled back, falling over a footstool and coming up against the wall, and he made a desperate glance towards the door as if assessing his chances to escape her, but the moment had cost him.
Sharisse swooped forward and seized his chin to jerk his head up.
For a moment she just stared at his blood with wide eyes and Quynn noticed that the princess had stopped sorting leaves to watch her sister with anticipation. Quynn wondered what the princess expected to happen.
When Sharisse swallowed nervously, Quynn wondered if the sight of blood disturbed her as it did her brother, Stryfe. His affliction made getting through the mandatory military training at the academy nearly impossible, and as soon as he was able, he chose a course of study that kept him away from any possibility of seeing blood, either his or another's.
Sharisse spoke. "You have been stabbed. How did this happen?" Without waiting for an another - Quynn doubted had the ability to speak at the moment - Sharisse seized a nearby cloth and as she swiped at the wound, Taeron's eyes were round and his handsome face had gone from white to red. "Did your pen slip?"
"Sister!" exclaimed the princess, throwing down the leaves in her hand. "Let Lord Stryfe breathe. He has come seeking the help of the healer and you are hurting him with your clumsiness."
Sharisse stopped wiping his chin, and she stared at the blood flowing from his cut for a moment longer before she suddenly dropped the bloodied cloth and moved quickly away with her hand pressed to her mouth. When she tripped over the same footstool that had caused problems for Taeron, Quynn had to bite her lip to keep from laughing, but Yori let a giggle escape.
Without looking at anyone, Sharisse stumbled towards the door and after she had gone, the princess gave them an apologetic smile and quickly followed her.
Quynn exchanged a perplexed glance with Carrinda and she noticed that Yori was watching the door with a frown. He did not give her a chance to suggest that he find Andwar to go fishing because he hopped down from the stool and hurried out. At times like this, Quynn suspected that Yori could read her mind.
Carrinda went to Taeron to inspect the wound, raising his chin and looking up at the cut. "Calm your breathing, my lord," she teased. "The bleeding has slowed so you are in no danger from either the wound or the female."
"What happened?" asked Quynn. She left her work to fill a basin with water from a pitcher and went to them and waited as Carrinda intoned a healing spell that knit his flesh. Although the healing magic probably stung, Taeron did not even flinch and when Carrinda was satisfied with her work, she went back to the table and started crushing herbs again.
Quynn retrieved the cloth Sharisse had abandoned, and after rinsing it in the water, she started to clean his neck. He did not speak when she ordered him to remove his tunic so that she could wash out the blood in the basin, so she worked silently, waiting for him to explain what had happened although she guessed Amyr was responsible for the injury.
Taeron remained stubbornly silent for several moments until he finally said, "My lord prince has need of the healer."
Quynn frowned, annoyed that he had waited so long to tell them. "What did you do to him?"
"He attempted to kill me," Taeron told her with a snort of derision. "I allowed him to believe he could have been successful."
"The cut was deep," Carrinda admonished him. "Perhaps you should have stopped him a moment sooner."
"I was in no danger." Taeron told her dismissively. "I knew what he was going to do. He is such an ill-trained buffoon that he all but shouted his intention to me. I know him better than any opponent, and he has not changed except that he has forgotten anything he may have once learned."
"Is he dead?" asked Quynn, fearing his answer.
"I have broken the bones in his wrist," Taeron announced. "I left him mewling on the floor of his chamber like a baby with a soiled wrap." Taeron snorted again. "He probably did soil himself."
Shaking her head, Carrinda crossed the cottage, took a woven basket in which she kept some healing supplies and then walked out mumbling something uncomplimentary about males that was no different in any species.
After several moments of tense silence between them, Taeron said, "I did not instigate his violence. I returned his sword."
She sighed and met his gaze. "How did you think he would react?" Quynn did not need to remind Taeron that he could have prevented her from finding Amyr in the garden. She was grateful that he had kept her from destroying her life with the arrogant, selfish bastard, but Amyr probably blamed Taeron. He certainly would not have considered his own behavior at fault.
"He is fortunate that I did not draw my own sword," grumbled her brother.
"You would not have attacked him with your sword," she predicted as she ran the wet cloth over his flesh to remove the blood.
Her brother was a finely built man. She had thought so when she first met him several years ago. Since she did not realize that he was her brother, she had intended to attract him. So when Shamara had inadvertently revealed their relationship through her Guerani touch, Quynn had abruptly abandoned her plans. Still, she wasn't blind to his male attraction, so she wasn't surprised that he affected the Teralonian woman as he did. Sharisse was attracted to him despite her repugnance at believing that he was a scribe. Quynn smiled as she finished moving the cloth over the hard muscles of his chest. A scribe?
"I am bonded with my oath to protect him until he releases me from his service," Taeron remarked and then added, "No matter how much I would wish otherwise."
"He might attempt again to kill you while you sleep," she said with a worried frown. That Amyr had tried to harm Taeron at all surprised her after Taeron had defeated him so easily in the arena.
Taeron laughed now with genuine humor. "Sister, do you think I could sleep soundly with him in the room? Besides, the selfish bastard would have to lose sleep of his own trying to catch me resting, and that he would never do. He snores like a wasteland boar rooting about in the shrubs, so I would know if he were not sleeping. He would be a fool to try again. Even Amyr is capable of learning the painful lesson I taught him today."
Not knowing how to feel about the incident, she moved away. "If you are hungry, I have stew."
"I am hungry. I have stayed by my lord prince's side these last few days, caring for all his needs, and have not eaten much." He took the bowl and spoon and she did not bother offering him bread because Calabrians did not eat cereals. Before he began eating, he moved the contents of the bowl around with his spoon. Although he did not say anything, she knew he was looking for his favorite ingredient which could usually be found under logs, burrowing in the ground or creeping along on leaves, and for a moment she wondered if he would even eat because it looked as though he was swallowing his distaste when he found a lump of meat. Then shrugging, he dipped in his spoon and after tasting it, must have decided to tolerate it.
She went back to the leaves and resumed crushing them in the stone bowl. He ate silently for several moments, and when he finished the bowl, she refilled it for him, guessing that he had the same appetite as her father and brother even though nothing was slithering through the broth. He proved her correct as he ate the second bowl with the same gusto as he had the first.
"Where is our brother?" she asked him when she thought of Stryfe.
Taeron shrugged. "Probably pestering the prince for details of the years he spent in captivity. If not, he will be distracting the princess."
"That does not seem to bother you. She is your wife."
"In name," he said resentfully. "She is not my wife in fact, not until I have bonded with her."
"Taeron, you will not dishonor the vow you made to the emperor." Quynn would not think of how that would affect his father after what she had done. The emperor would tolerate only so much inconstancy from his imperial guard's house before he began to question his loyalty.
"And I doubt Teralon would risk the emperor's wrath by rejecting me." He sighed and set aside the now empty bowl. She wondered if she should fill it again. There was barely enough stew left to feed Yori and she hoped that Stryfe did not come looking for food.
They both fell silent again, Taeron probably trying to think of a way out of his dilemma as Quynn wondered how she could help him, but the silence was interrupted by Carrinda's returned. She tossed down her basket and made a sound of exasperation. Quynn did not need to guess why and she could see that Taeron was not surprised.
"The crown prince of Calabria is a crown pain in the backside," she announced. "He does not know how to show gratitude. He behaved as if he were doing me a favor by allowing me to heal him. I had half a mind to freeze the parts of him that make him a male."
Taeron seemed startled by her threat. Did he press his own legs together protectively?
"Then he has not changed much," commented Quynn.
"And he demanded that I send his wife to him, that he has a great need for her." Carrinda gave Quynn a pointed look that told her exactly how he needed her.
Quynn felt her cheeks heat in anger for him calling her his wife. "I am not his wife and I shall disabuse him of any notion that I will soothe any other aches that he has."
Snatching up his damp tunic and dragging it over his head, Taeron followed her from the cottage. "I will remind my lord prince that you are not his wife until the ceremony on Calabria that makes you so."
She had some difficulty keeping up with his long strides because he seemed even angrier than she.
"My mother explained the bonding ceremony, but I don't think she understood it well."
"Calabrian men must bond with their mate," said Taeron. "My mother tried to bond with our father by slipping her blood into his wine, food, anything she could think of, but humans do not bond like Calabrians. If they did, he would have been tied to her irrevocably even without the bond of his heart."
"I don't understand," said Quynn with a frown. She remembered her mother explaining that the water from the sacred hills infected the males.
"Calabrian males who bond with a female take their blood in the bonding ceremony and from that moment on can only mate with that female. Imperials perform a ceremony with a cup filled with water, but the tribesmen in the hills and on the moons bond in the old way."
"The old way?" Quynn was getting a very bad feeling.
"Taking the female's blood directly." Now Taeron was blushing faintly. "During the mating ritual, I am told that a male bites the female when they are ..."
"I get the picture." Quynn did and she was shocked to realize that Calabrians were even more primitive than she had thought. Amyr was not like that! He was the crown prince, so he would not take her blood like the tribesmen that her father governed.
And then she remembered the day their parents had agreed to their match, when he met her in the hall and seduced her with a thorny flower. She had pricked her finger and he had ...
She shook her head. Taeron had to be wrong! Amyr had been trysting with another female in the garden after he had sucked her finger in his mouth! "You must be mistaken, Taeron. What of Emperor Zeno? I have heard that he had many concubines!"
"Emperor Trey's mother refused to bond with him, telling him it was cruel and unnecessary, and that she trusted him. He would not bond with Lady Xuxa, the concubine that took her place."
"Surely Emperor Trey is not bonded like that! His mother was human!" That meant that Amyr was human as well, so he could not bond, just as her father could not with Taeron's mother.
"Emperor Trey bonded with his wife when they were children at the time that she gave her oath as his imperial guard. But since he was so young, the bond did not affect him until he reached manhood."
The love story of the Emperor and his wife was legendary, and now Quynn wondered how much was owed to the bond.
"My mother told me about the bonding ceremony," she told Taeron. "She thought the water from the hills was contaminated with some sort of parasite."
Taeron looked affronted. "The water from the sacred hills is pure. You would not have been harmed by it, nor would Amyr. You and he would have placed drops of your blood in the bonding cup and before drinking, both of you would have made another oath, this time to each other. The male forsakes all others – it is the last chance he has to refuse – and the female knows that she is responsible for his well-being."
"But … but..." she exclaimed, panic starting to rise inside as she remembered clearly when Amyr had sucked the blood from her finger after pricking it on the flower. "Does Amyr know about the bonding ceremony?"
"We never discussed it, but I am sure that he does. Every Calabrian male knows." Taeron narrowed his gaze on her. "Why do you ask?"
"I...I..." Quynn felt sick to her stomach. "I think I am his wife!"
Taeron's brows drew together. "How can that be? You left before the bonding ceremony."
Disgusted and ashamed, she told him what had happened before Taeron had stopped Amyr from having sex with her in the corridor. Taeron's face flamed with fury as he listened to her explanation and she thought he was angry at her until he shouted.
"That conniving Guerani bastard! He was taking no chances! He feared you would reject him and acted to force the issue."
Quynn wanted to deny it, that what had happened did not seem contrived, but she wondered if she really knew Amyr. He had shown her a side to him that had existed only for her. Could he truly have been scheming behind her back as Taeron believed?
Before they could discuss it any further, Taeron suddenly stiffened as he looked over her shoulder, and since she had come to recognize the wide-eyed stare in so short a time, she knew before turning to look in the same direction what she would see. The Teralonian female Sharisse stalked to them as if she were on a mission from which she could not be swayed, and seeing them in the path near the castle, she walked straight to them.
"I have been thinking of your dilemma," she said to Taeron, pushing past Quynn who watched her with bemusement. The woman had to tilt her head to look up at Taeron even though she was even considerably taller than Quynn. The two seemed well suited but she wasn't going to say that aloud with her own life in such a shambles and Taeron on the verge of breaking an oath. Taeron was as trapped as she was now.
"I have no dilemma that you can help me with," said Taeron gruffly.
Sharisse didn't seem to hear him and Quynn was glad from the distraction of her own problems to watch Taeron interact with the woman that was twisting him in knots. "Prince Amyr said that you are unaccustomed to handling weapons, that in your clumsiness, you hurt yourself on his sword."
Quynn gasped at Amyr's audacity that he would outright lie to the woman. But Taeron seemed to be more worried that Amyr had betrayed him. "You spoke to Prince Amyr?" he asked, his voice edged with panic. After what she had said, Amyr must not have revealed his identity, so she suspected that he planned to enjoy treating the fiercest warlord on Calabria as if he were a scribe.
"When I suggested that you should have some training in martial skills so that such an accident does not happen again, he agreed and recommended that I help you." She made an unfeminine sound of annoyance. "He thinks I am a weak woman, but I think I could probably best your spoiled prince in combat."
"I do not doubt it," remarked Taeron with a grim line to his lips. Despite her own troubles, Quynn almost laughed aloud.
"Come with me, then. The practice field is this way. I shall teach you what I can while we wait for the ship to be repaired. In truth, I have only been taught to protect myself, but I doubt those Calabrian ruffians have done even that for you. Perhaps by the time you return to Calabria, you will be able to hold your head high."
"I doubt it very much," he muttered with a frown at Quynn. When he hesitated to follow her, Sharisse seized his arm, but he dug in his heels.
"Go with her," Quynn said with a sigh. "I will speak to Amyr."
"I should be with you when you speak to the prince," he insisted, his eyes meeting Quynn's. She wanted to roll her eyes. Why did Calabrian males think that women were helpless? She hoped Sharisse twisted Taeron into a pretzel to teach him a lesson.
"This is something I must do on my own, brother."
Sharisse made a sound of disgust as she tugged on his arm. "Come with me, Lord Stryfe. Surely the prince and his mate have no need of a scribe during their private moments."
Having no argument to make to that remark, Taeron gave Quynn a warning look that said as eloquently as spoken words that he expected no such private moments, and then he turned reluctantly to follow the woman. His eyes were trained on her backside, so Quynn knew whatever Sharisse had planned for him was going to be difficult for him in more ways than one. Even during her own training Quynn had to put up with more than one male groping her, and once she had given Chaz Yuy a black eye when he started grabbing where he should not. Quynn would rather watch how Taeron handled being trained by the woman to whom he was attracted.
But she had to confront Amyr about what he had done. If what Taeron told her was true of Amyr, then he had no one but himself to blame for what had happened. Quynn had no way of knowing about the bond or that he had forced it before she had a chance to change her mind. The bastard knew of many reasons why she might, reasons that she had been blind to until now. She knew the truth, that he had wanted her only to gain approval. Even fast hands Chaz Yuy had the decency to confess to her that his mother's dream was for him to marry Quynn, the daughter of her dearest friend. So he proposed and they had laughed about it after she had refused him. Amyr had never given her a choice! His seduction had rolled over her like a speeding freight train and she had been as powerless to stop him as if she were tied to the tracks.
By the time she reached his room, she had stoked the flames of her fury by remembering everything he had done to insure that she would be thoroughly deceived. His sweet words, his practiced seduction, the kiss he had given her marking her as his mate, as his whore. Amyr had known exactly what he was doing! And she had been so naive that she thought he felt for her what she had for him. There was only one person Amyr could ever love. Himself!
The servants of the castle knew her well, and since they fled at the sight of her now, she knew that fire magic glowed in her eyes. Although it was difficult, she tamped it down so that she would not burn Amyr to a crisp. The dragon was stirring, so she warned it not to interfere and she felt it's growl of disapproval but she knew that Jeshed would do as she asked.
After being directed to the room where Amyr was staying, Quynn came to a stop when the door flung open before her. She suspected him of sensing her arrival with the bond he had with her if not his Guerani powers, but a couple of buxom females hurried from the room with sour looks on their pretty faces. They pushed past her rudely, complaining about the fickle prince. The fickle prince was pacing in his chamber, hands on either side of his head with his fingers laced behind. He was half-dressed and disheveled, so Quynn did not have to use her imagination to know what he had been doing with the women.
Although she had not made a sound, Amyr did sense her arrival, because his head suddenly jerked up and he swiveled to spear her with his intense amber gaze. The room suddenly seemed to be too hot and she instinctively took a step back. The bracelet around her wrist vibrated and when his gaze dropped to it, she knew by the frown creasing his brows that the gems embedding in the metal were glowing.
"Remove that thing when you remove your garment." He pulled off his own tunic and headed towards the enormous bed provided to the heir of the emperor of the binary system. "Close the door, although I don't give a gods damn who watches what we do."
"I care." Quynn kicked the door shut and the slam of the wood made Amyr turn to face her. The sun streaming in the window poured onto his flesh and she knew she would have difficulty resisting him. He was a handsome man, how could he not be? He reminded her of his uncle, Lord Apolo, with his startling dark beauty and aura of Guerani magic. She imagined she could see tendrils of it rising around him as he faced her although there was nothing there and she had only Taeron's suspicions as evidence of magic.
"You will not challenge me, female. I am your mate. You cannot deny me what is mine by right."
"Yours by right!?" The dragon was stirring, but she warned him again to leave them alone. The last thing she wanted was to incinerate Amyr before she got answers to her questions. After that was another matter entirely.
Amyr pointed a finger at her although he did not move any closer. "You have spellbound me to you!"
She gasped in outrage. "I have done nothing of the sort! You are the one who is to blame here!"
"I!?" He put a hand to his expansive, muscled chest. Quynn wished she didn't notice how finely formed he was, that the years of his enslavement swinging a sword had given him a warrior's body. She wondered if the bond he had with her was responsible for heat in the room, heat that flared unbearably when she saw the proof of her effect on him.
"How am I to blame?" he growled. "Do you think that I would willingly submit to such a need? I cannot touch another woman!"
His words affected her as if she had been doused with cold water. If she had not been outraged before, Quynn was now. She checked the urge to surround him with real flame to take his mind from the fire in his leggings, but her magic was not so precise and she would probably burn him to cinders and she doubted Carrinda could heal that. So she had no choice but to find the nearest object, one of his boots on the floor, and she launched it at his head.
"You made a vow to me! And you had no intention of honoring it!"
"I would have tried!" he shouted at her after leaning out of the path of the boot. "You gave me no choice!"
"I gave you no choice?" She threw the other boot at him, but he ducked that one as well. "You are the one that bonded to me! You gave me no choice."
He glared at her, his eyes like fire. "I have no idea what you are talking about. We did not share the bonding cup. You used your sorcery!"
"And you are a liar! Taeron told me all about the bonding ceremony, about the blood. My mother thought it was the water, but it is a blood bond! You gave me that flower because it had thorns! You wanted me to prick my finger so that you could take my blood!"
"What are you talking about?" He seemed confused at first and Quynn was crushed that he did not even seem to remember a moment that had touched her so deeply. There were many times in the last few years that she thought of what might have happened if Taeron had not stopped them. Now she wanted to cry, but she refused to let him hurt her anymore.
"You ass!" She wished she could throw something else at him but she did not see anything within reach. "I know what you intended and why! You told me in the trance you dragged me into!"
"Trance?" He took a step back. "I cannot initiate a trance."
"Liar!" She could not believe he could speak nothing but lies. "Your magic is so strong that it reached the frontier!"
"My magic?" Amyr threw back his head in laughter. "My magic is pathetic! At first I could read feelings, but that was all I could do and even then it was unreliable. I tried so hard to develop the magic, but the power has eluded me!" He looked away now and she was surprised that he actually looked ashamed. "The ancestors have abandoned me."
"Did they have good reason?" she demanded, pushing back any sympathy she felt for him.
He did not look at her. "I tried to put Taeron in a trance. I even tried to drug him with your mother's herbs to make it easier, but he would not drink the wine I offered him."
She was appalled by his admission, but even more so that he could not tell the truth and feigned honesty better than an honest man. "You are lying again! Taeron was put in a trance!"
"And that flower?" He raised his head to look at her. "I remember now. I gave it to you the day we spoke vows." He met her gaze. "I am not lying to you, Quynn. I knew what would happen after the bonding ceremony. My father warned me that day that if I had any doubt I should not go through with it. But I thought there was magic in the cup with the joining of the water and the blood. If that rose sealed our bond, it was not by my doing."
"You took my blood," she told him. Was Amyr really oblivious of something Taeron claimed every male knew of? "You must have known what would happen. You knew that I would be tied to you, that I would be forced to acknowledge you because of it."
Amyr shook his head, proving that he was as ignorant as her mother had been about the significance of the bonding ceremony. "I don't know what you are talking about. I was coming to meet you and as I was passing through the garden, I saw the rose and decided to give it to you." There was a faint blush on his cheeks.
"You are lying," she said with narrowed eyes.
He sighed with exasperation. "So be it! I will tell you the gods honest truth then! I was congratulating myself for persuading you to join with me and getting you to bring our parents to heel, and since I knew my moments of freedom would soon come to an end, I convinced one of your mother's lovely young serving women to meet me in the garden. I was flirting with her when Staefyn came upon us."
"Flirting?" Quynn was horrified and disgusted that while her mother was trying to talk her out of marrying him, he was humping on one of her servants like a dog that could not control his urges.
He shrugged. "Does it matter? I knew that after the ceremony on Calabria I would not stray from our vows. And we had not yet taken any," he reminded her with a smug lift to his chin. "I was free to sample whatever treat fell into my lap, and I intended to gorge myself with the usual sweets at your father's palace."
"You prick!"
` "Staefyn sent the girl running with a stern holier than thou rebuke. By the gods, he was worse than Taeron, threatening to go straight to our parents to expose me. He suggested that I make amends by taking you the rose."
"Even that wasn't your idea?" She felt sick to her stomach that he had cared so little for her feelings. "You completely played me for a fool!"
He waved his hand as if the past were unimportant, and then he took a step toward her. "I need you Quynn."
She may have been attracted to him when she entered the room, but now she was disgusted by the sight of him. "You need me? Did you try to take those women to your bed?" She flung her hand towards the door where the young women had exited.
"Does it matter?" he demanded harshly. "They made me physically sick." He motioned to the basin and she saw that he must have vomited in it. "That night I was burning for you already. I had to do something about the hunger I felt for you, so when the female offered, I thought …" He must have seen the furious look on her face because he shook his head. "I did not betray my vow with her."
"Because you were unable!" She crossed the room to him and the eagerness on his face made her want to laugh and cry. How could he think she would succumb to his pleas after what he had just admitted?
He reached for her, but she sidestepped him to seize the basin, and lifting it she flung it at him. He was so surprised that he was unable to avoid it, and the contents splattered on his chest as the earthenware basin fell to the floor and shattered at his feet.
"I am so gratified to hear that I do not make you sick to your stomach! As for those females - all of them - you spoke an oath to me and you have broken it in your heart if not with your body!"
"You spoke an oath to me and yet you bore another man's bastard!" he snarled at her.
The vehemence in his voice made her step back and the dragon inside her bracelet roared with outrage. "I … I have not …" She did not even know how to explain what happened to her. But she was not guilty of anything and refused to be made to feel so by this rutting Calabrian dog. "I have known no man. Taeron is convinced that you sired Yori in our trance."
"I cannot initiate a trance!" he roared furiously.
"How can I believe you when all that pours from your lips is lies! But I believe this. You cannot be Yori's sire. He is a gentle boy, and I would never, ever allow you to have any hand in raising him, whether you are or not." With that, she spun on her heel and marched out, furious at him, furious at herself and fearing her Yori's future.