Chapter 33
The other men were waiting on the other side of the door and Taeron could sense that Amyr was nervous to face his father after everything that had happened. Taeron did not know how Trey would react to seeing his son and he wondered if his wife had alerted him when she surely sensed his arrival with her powers. If she had, wouldn't he already have had Amyr brought to him? The fact that he did not bode ill for Amyr and for Yori.
Darlac, Amyr and Jeshed positioned themselves behind Taeron to stand in support of him while Lord Duo led them into the room when the guards swung open. His gait unsteady with his body burning with fever, Taeron's steps faltered a couple of times before he came before the emperor who was standing at a window, looking out over the imperial city that was bathed with the murky light of the rising first sun. His wife was not with him, and Taeron glanced at Amyr to see his reaction which was indistinguishable under the black face paint.
"You dare to enter with Meridon's men?" Trey nearly shouted, and Taeron realized the emperor was looking at Lord Duo. "That thrice damned bastard is no supporter of mine and yet this oath breaker brings his men to stand at his back!"
Lord Duo's brows raised. "You did not seem to mind overmuch that they liberated the Edgeland Fortress for you."
The emperor stared at Taeron's father with narrowed eyes for a moment before saying, "So this is how it is, Duo? Are you taking his side over mine?"
The bond between the emperor and his imperial guard was strong and for Trey to suggest that Lord Duo would choose anyone above him was tantamount to accusing him of betrayal. Amyr had tried to kill Taeron because he perceived his helping Quynn as proving more loyalty to his father's house than to the prince to whom he had made an oath.
"I am taking nobody's side," Lord Duo told him. "I have brought my son to you for judgment. These men understand what he has done, but they have fought with him and desire to remain by his side even now when he has lost his honor."
The emperor did not look away from Duo and his gaze was cold. "Who knew you could be so smooth-tongued, Duo? Then again, you did manage to charm a rattlesnake into your bed, so I should not be so surprised. Where is that rattlesnake's progeny? I have heard of her exploits and if I had not seen her cast fire magic myself, I would have accused the scribe of embellishing his tale with falsehoods."
"Stryfe would never lie to you," Lord Duo assured him.
"Yet, he left out so many important details that I am dissatisfied with his report." He motioned to the guards at the door with a flick of his hand and they opened it to admit Stryfe who appeared sheepish. "I hope you can record the details of this meeting to my satisfaction without leaving anything out this time."
"I will not fail you, my lord." Stryfe bowed low without daring to look at his family.
The emperor turned his attention back to Taeron who knew it was his turn to act. Dropping to his knees, he drew his sword and lowering his head, he raised the sword to the emperor. "I have broken my oath to marry Princess Dijana of Teralon. I have bonded with her sister, Sharisse."
The weight of the sword in his hand disappeared, but Taeron did not raise his head to see the emperor holding it. If he used it to remove his head, Taeron would gladly accept this as the will of the gods.
But the deadly stroke did not fall and the emperor did not wait long to speak after setting aside the sword he had once presented to Taeron. "I could not even imagine that you would fail in your duty, Lord Taeron, or I might have informed you of all the details of the treaty I accepted with Teralon. You liberated that planet from invaders; you drove out the fiends enslaving Varoonya, all at the point of your sword and the charisma that you wield with such deadly accuracy that men would follow you beyond gates of the netherworld. Yet you fell prey to the weakest of all opponents: a female!"
Tears would only add to his shame, yet Taeron shed them anyway, unable to stop them from rolling down his cheeks. Despite the turmoil, his finely honed senses became aware that the doors had opened and closed, and he detected the scent of a female, not the pure scent of the emperor's Guerani wife, but an exotic scent he did not recognize. He knew that it must be Princess Dijana's mother, Sharisse's mother.
"This is the hero of Varoonya, the liberator of Teralon?" her mocking voice added to his shame. "He weeps like a female entering her mating cycle."
The insult sliced through him, but Taeron had no control of his actions as the weight of his shame crushed him again and he wished this time the pain could be taken away, that Trey would use his own sword to end it.
"Stay away from him!" The emperor's voice boomed in the chamber.
Taeron raised his head to see that Amyr had taken steps toward him, his hand outstretched to offer him the comfort of his touch while Darlac hung back. For a moment he thought Amyr would rebel and touch him anyway, but when Taeron gave a slight shake of his head, he dropped his hand and stepped back. Taeron glanced at Jeshed and the strange man was staring at him intently, and when he met Jeshed's gaze the pain eased enough for him to regain some composure.
"Will you judge my son so harshly when we have all paid the price of love?" Lord Duo demanded of the emperor.
Trey glared at him. "Your opinion is irrelevant after everything you have done in the name of love, Duo. Abandoning Trynity when you thought you knew better? Doing the same to Larya when she asked nothing of you but to give her child a future?" He put his hand to his chest. "I raised Taeron! He is more my son than he is yours and I feel this dishonor deep in my heart!"
The two men stared at each other in uncomfortable silence which was broken when the woman who had entered stepped forward. Even if she did not have magnificent dark brown wings, Taeron would know who she was by her lustrous dark hair and blue eyes. There was only a vague resemblance to Sharisse in her lovely face, but she was undoubtedly Princess Dijana's mother.
"You can argue about which of you is responsible for his dishonor later." She came to stand before Taeron and she motioned for two winged guards to bring an ornate chest that was placed before him. "I had high hopes that you could save my heir," she began. "You saved my planet from invasion and liberated the palace, thereby saving my daughter's life. Who better to accept as her mate?"
Taeron had nothing to say in his defense. He wasn't going to tell her that he disliked her precious heir, the he had fallen in love with a woman that had deceived and seduced him.
"I never wanted anyone to know of my shame," said the Teralonian queen. "Certainly not the emperor of Calabria, but here I am thanks to you, warlord. When I came of age and took the throne, I was expected to take a warrior for my mate. There were two candidates deemed worthy by the elders. Balak and Nykos. Balak was strong, but he was hotheaded and I sensed something in him that made me turn to Nykos. I knew that he would lead the winged warriors while maintaining the proper respect for female rule, so I chose him as my mate. Balak could not accept my rejection. He came to my marriage bed and murdered my husband, after which he claimed me like the barbaric swine he has proven himself to be."
She sighed and shook her head with regret. "Of that night, Avar and Dijana were born, Avar his son and Dijana, Nykos' child. He tried to get the council to acknowledge my firstborn, Avar, as my heir, but they refused to set aside tradition and named Dijana as my successor. Not long after, he forced himself on me again, and after Sharisse was born, he had no more need of me, so he imprisoned me in the northern palace, far from my children, far from the council that could have helped me. It was only during the chaos of the Varoonyan invasion that I was able to send a message to the emperor to beg for help in taking back my throne."
"Balak has made alliances along the frontier," said Trey. "His ultimate goal has been to attack Calabria, and with Chaela as his son's wife, he planned to install Avar as ruler in my stead. With that in mind, he made a deal with Varoonya to attack Teralon, and during the invasion, Warlord Kai was to kill the rightful heir to Queen Neria, her daughter Dijana."
"But you liberated the planet," Queen Neria told Taeron. "And Dijana survived. So I begged the emperor to provide my daughter with a strong mate who could help her break Balak's control. I was sure that he had made the right choice. And when Balak received the emperor's order to surrender Dijana to the warlord he sent to claim her, he sent Sharisse with her because no man has ever refused her anything, no matter how foolish."
Now she sneered at Taeron. "You fell into her trap like the weak-brained Calabrian brute that you are."
The emperor cleared his throat.
Queen Neria sniffed but she did not seem repentant after expressing her opinion of Calabrian males. "What do you have to say for yourself, hero of Varoonya, now destroyer of Teralon? You may well have caused the death of my heir."
"I love Sharisse," was all that he could say. His honor was gone so he would tell them the truth, no matter how pathetic he sounded. "From the first moment I saw her, I could not resist her. The gods must have ordained for her to be my mate because they gave my heart to her."
"Then open the box. It is my gift to you for breaking your oath and leaving my heir without the protection you could have given her."
Taeron reached out with trembling hands, swallowing bile when he detected the faint odor of rotting flesh when he had barely lifted the cover.
"Balak no longer had a use for Sharisse. So he handed her over to Warlord Kai and this is what he sent me as a message to warn me what would happen to Dijana. I offer it to you, Lord Taeron."
His heart raced and his breath came out as shallow gasps as Taeron threw back the cover to reveal a rotting, dismembered head. For a moment, his gaze connected with the film-coated dead eyes, and he seemed to lose the ability to breathe. Hardly daring to believe what he saw, he reached out until his fingers sifted through the silky dark hair surrounding the face that he recognized even shriveled as it was so long after her death.
Then he pitched to the side, his stomach heaving and his head spinning. There was movement all around him, shouts of outrage and then he felt a cool healing touch on his face. Amyr had ignored his father's order to stay back to take Taeron into his arms.
He heard the queen say, "I am glad you are pleased, Lord Taeron. You may always have Sharisse with you now."
Amyr was holding Taeron against him as he knelt on the floor with him, but Taeron turned his head to look at the queen. "That is not Sharisse."
She sniffed. "I know my own child. That is the duplicitous female that Balak forced me to bear. They did not allow Dijana to visit me, but that disgusting whore came to the palace with Avar shortly before leaving to inform me how my plans would fail."
Stryfe moved forward and he winced at the grisly gift, and for a moment he did not say anything as he looked closer, and then he pressed his lips together as he swung to look at Taeron. Taeron was afraid Stryfe was going to laugh while his own urge was to scream in fury for the cruel deception of the woman he loved.
"Do you have something to say, scribe?" demanded Trey, his gaze narrowed.
His brother winced and with an apologetic grimace, he turned to the emperor. "I think what Taeron meant to say is that this was the female who presented herself to us as Princess Dijana."
The queen started and her face was white with the anger. "How can that be? Are you the scribe with whom my daughter and heir disgraced herself?"
Stryfe's humor faded away and he looked at Taeron.
Taeron would not allow Stryfe to take the blame for his weakness. So he pushed Amyr away after he helped him to his feet. He wobbled forward to face the queen. "When they boarded my ship, I could not know which female was Princess Dijana. I assumed ..."
She did not let him explain. "So Sharisse imposed her will on Dijana." The queen did not seem surprised. "Sharisse always coveted Dijana's birthright. I was told that Dijana was not beautiful, that Sharisse never let her forget that she did not have the beauty I gave to that bastard. Men overlooked Dijana and flocked to Sharisse, and Balak refused to allow any man to court Dijana when doing so would have meant surrendering his power."
She frowned. "But you could not be mistaken in their identities. Females of our planet have their wings removed at birth except for the ruling female and her heir. Balak had no choice but to stand by as Sharisse's wings were removed by the council when he tried to usurp Dijana's rights. But Dijana had her wings."
"Neither female had wings," Stryfe told her.
Her eyes shimmered with tears. "He took her wings! I cannot imagine how she suffered!" Taeron remembered the scars on Sharisse's – Dijana's back that he had not had the chance to ask her about. He did not want to feel sympathy for the agony she must have experienced in having her wings removed, not after the trouble she had caused her, but Taeron ached for her anyway.
Trey was watching Stryfe carefully and Taeron could see that the emperor's scrutiny unnerved him. Then the emperor said, "You have not satisfactorily answered Queen Neria's earlier question. Tell me, scribe, did you seduce her heir?"
Stryfe shifted nervously and looked at Taeron.
"I will hear what you have to say!" roared the emperor, his hand on the hilt of his sword. Lord Duo shifted so that he could protect his son if necessary.
"Princess Dijana – well, Sharisse – assumed that I was Taeron and..."
"I allowed her to believe it," announced Taeron. "I lied to her and I am at fault."
"No one is disputing that," said Trey with deadly calm when others gasped with surprise at Taeron's announcement. "You pretended to be your brother so that you would not have to marry a beautiful woman?" He shook his head as if he could not believe what he was hearing.
"I … I felt something for Princess Dijana," Taeron tried to explain.
Trey glared at him for a moment before turning his attention back to Queen Neria. "What is Balak doing with her now? Why did he not send her head as well?"
"He has not gained the support of all the males. There are many who still support the rule of females and they await my return so that I can take back my throne. If he cannot gain complete support, he will need Dijana to rule as his puppet."
"What of my daughter?" asked Trey. "What will you do to her when you return to Teralon at the head of an army that I must provide? She is Avar's wife and has given him a son."
The queen met his gaze with her chin raised defiantly. "Marriage to your daughter has emboldened those bastards. They will use her as a shield because they know you will hesitate to send warriors when doing so might put her in danger."
"I will tolerate no harm coming to Chaela and her son, Kaerwin," Trey all but shouted. He spun to look at Taeron. "You will return to Teralon and put down that rebellion, but you will bring my daughter and grandson back to Calabria."
"You think I will take this fool with me?" demanded the queen in outrage.
"Dijana is my mate," Taeron told her. "I will save her and accompany Princess Chaela and her son back to her family."
She glared at him with contempt. "You are not good enough for her."
"Not good enough for her!" Taeron cringed at Amyr's outburst. Now Yori scrambled out from under his cloak and scurried to take Jeshed's hand as his father strode to stand beside Taeron.
Trey stared at Amyr without speaking, watching with no emotion as Amyr removed his headdress and wiped the warpaint from his face with the cloth he had worn on his head.
Amyr was shaking with fury. "That detestable female is not good enough for Taeron! She is a blood-sucking Varoonyan thrall!"
The queen gasped in shock.
Trey did not react.
Amyr turned to look at his father, waiting for him to say something.
Lord Duo stepped forward when Trey remained silent. "I know this is a shock to you, Trey, but we could not say anything..."
"This is not a shock to me. Staefyn told me before I rode out to the Edgeland Fortress that Amyr would be there." Trey moved forward to stand before Amyr, but he did not greet him with the affection of a man who was given back a son he believed lost to him. "I am surprised you have the audacity to return."
Despite his own host of problems, Taeron felt pain for Amyr.
"I brought Quynn back with me as my wife," he told his father. He turned and held out his hand to Yori who came forward to take it. "This is our son."
Trey did not look at Yori, but continued to stare blankly at Amyr for several moments before speaking. "You are nothing to me." Turning on his heel, he moved away to stand before the window.
Lord Duo took a step toward him. "Trey? What is the meaning of this?"
Trey did not look at him. "I cannot expect you to understand, Duo. You can forgive Quynn for her shame and accept the man that caused her dishonor, but I cannot forgive my son and the female that has caused his." He turned his head to look at Amyr who had gone white with shock. "Meridon has accepted you into his clan. Meridon, a man that will not give me his oath, the most powerful of the zenoites. What am I to think when you come to the planet leading his men? I hope that you did not come here to challenge me, Amyr, because you no longer have the right. Go back to Ulfynaeus. There is no place for you here."
"And my son, your grandson?" demanded Amyr, finding his voice.
Trey turned back to look at the city, now bathed in the light of both suns, but he did not respond for a moment and then he turned to look at Amyr again. "You have made poor choices in the past, Amyr, and now I am asking that you make another choice. I cannot accept Quynn as your wife, nor the child as your son as we only have her word on that."
No male in the room could fault Trey for his judgment and they all expected it, but Taeron's heart fell and he could see that his father was upset as well. Yori did not seem to understand what was happening although he sensed his father's agitation because he had gone to stand with Jeshed who lifted him to hold him in his comforting embrace.
"So I ask you to choose now, Amyr. I will not accept you as either my son or my heir unless you reject that female and her offspring."
Taeron did not look at Amyr, but saw that his father was staring at Trey incredulously.
When Amyr spoke, Taeron could hear the desperation in his voice. "I can understand why you would do this to me, but you cannot mean to do this to your grandson and to the child my wife now carries."
The emperor did not look at him. "Use your new found Guerani powers to seek the truth."
Amyr took a step toward him, but then he fell back without touching him and Taeron saw the pain in his eyes. He was not sure if he was surprised that Amyr drew his sword, the sword of the crown prince, and while another man might fear his intent, Trey watched impassively as Amyr carefully placed it on the floor before turning on his heel to leave. He went to Jeshed and took Yori who was watching the adults with confusion, and without speaking another word, without even looking back at his father, he left with Darlac and Jeshed following.
"Is that it then?" asked Lord Duo with tightly controlled anger. "Your rejection has shamed my house!"
Trey looked at him. "Your daughter's rejection of my son shamed your house. She compounded the shame by bearing that child. I will have nothing more to do with them. Years ago you came upon my wife after she gave Amyr life. Now he is yours."
"That is not fair, Trey! You could not be here for Arora. There was an army between you and the palace."
"An army led by Meridon and his men, and now coincidentally he accepts Amyr into his clan? I wash my hands of him."
The emperor had become intractable, so Lord Duo shook his head and came to Taeron. "Let's go. He will come to his senses when he realizes what an ass he is. We will meet with Quynn at the fortress and return to the moon."
"You will not go, Taeron." Trey's voice stopped them. "You will remain here to gather the forces to go to Teralon to claim your mate."
"What of Staefyn?" asked Taeron. The room seemed to be spinning around him as his world changed. The calming effect that Jeshed had on him had dissipated, leaving him barely able to stand.
"He is safe at Guerani Palace in the mountains," Trey said. "His men are prepared to repulse any attack by rebels." His gaze rested on Duo.
"By the love of the gods!" shouted Duo furiously. "Are you that much of a fool? You stand there spouting honor and shame and Staefyn has turned against you!"
Trey's gaze was frosty. "I think we both know who has turned against me, Duo. I will allow you to return to the moon to plot and plan with Meridon, but I will keep Taeron with me as assurance that you will not move against me again."
Taeron was shocked by the conclusion the emperor had drawn. Or was it the fruition of a plan cultivated by a master of treachery?
"You can believe that of me after I came to the surface with my men to liberate the fortress?" Duo was incredulous.
"The fortress at which your wife recently spent several days dosing the men with who knows what vile concoction that turned them into mindless creatures? Staefyn told me that he questioned what she was doing and why she was there in the first place."
"Of course," said Duo with a sad shake of his head. "I think this is what is known as checkmate. Staefyn has played the game well." The emperor's imperial guard bowed low to him, and with a last regretful look at Taeron, he walked out.
When he was gone, Trey blew out his breath and he looked at Taeron. "I never thought he would turn against me."
"My father would never turn against you!" declared Taeron hotly.
"He is no longer your father. You are of my house now, Taeron." Trey retrieved Amyr's sword from the floor. "This belongs to Staefyn now."
Taeron was shocked that the emperor was claiming him for his house. Queen Neria had watched the proceedings without commenting, and even though she said nothing now, she cast a pleased gaze at Taeron who had done nothing to deserve it. Despite Princess Dijana's efforts to avoid him, Taeron was irrevocably mated to her.
Trey returned Taeron's sword to him. "Go to my wife. She has medicines to treat your ailment."
He was dismissed, so he sheathed the sword as he glanced with regret at the sword Amyr had surrendered. Taeron understood how Amyr could give up the sword which he had worn with pride for many years. He would do the same for the woman he loved.
The walk to the emperor's living quarters took longer than usual because he had to stop several times to rest when his knees buckled, and when he finally arrived, he found Lady Arora waiting for him with a potion already prepared. She did not speak in greeting, but he sensed her innate kindness and no hint of resentment when Trey's actions would lead to many questions about Taeron's birthright.
She led him to the sofa and helped him to lie down. "You should feel better after a few hours' rest."
Taeron's eyelids grew heavy, and he knew she was using her powers on him. "You do not ask about Amyr."
She said regretfully. "My husband believes that what he has done is unforgivable in the eyes of all Calabrians."
She was blurry in his vision as the potion began to work on his senses. When he awoke, he would be fit enough to lead an army, but now he was as weak as a newborn.
"He saved Shamara," he reminded her. "When doing so could have destroyed him, he kept her and she became the first princess. Why can he not accept what has happened to Amyr? Has Amyr not been punished enough by the gods?"
He thought he heard Arora sob, but he could not be sure because the potion took effect and he drifted into a painless, dreamless sleep.