Chapter 39
Her eyes closed, Dijana leaned closer to Stryfe as his lips moved over hers, and she opened her mouth to urge him to further liberties, but his lips left hers as he lifted his head and the heat of his body faded. Opening her eyes, Dijana was disappointed that he had stepped back.
"I must meet my brother at the practice field," he told her with regret. "I have already ignored my responsibilities too much."
He had not ignored his responsibilities, he had completely forgotten them since the first time they had come together several days ago here in this very place. "Is there no one else capable of keeping Prince Amyr's daily journal?" she asked with uncharitable annoyance. She did not care if he was offended for his prince because she disliked Amyr greatly and she did not want Stryfe to go to him when he could be with her, which, she was quite sure, he preferred as much as she preferred being with him over her sister.
"The time will pass quickly," he assured her. "I will meet you here again at sunrise."
He started to walk away, but she seized his hand and brought it to her lips to kiss. "I love you, Stryfe."
Curling his hand around hers, he drew her to him and she expected him to kiss her, but he cupped one side of her face with his free hand and he leaned down to meet her gaze before touching his forehead to hers. "Never doubt my love for you, Sharisse. My life is in your hands now."
When he released her, she watched the scribe walk away with his warrior's gait, with his hand on the hilt of the sword he wore but did not know how to properly use. Sighing, she waited until he had gone over the rise on the way to Mordrad's castle before she turned and walked reluctantly back to the cottage she shared with Sharisse.
Her sister was already in bed, but she turned to look at her when she entered and she did not hide the look of malicious delight at knowing that Dijana had betrayed the man that she had made an oath to marry.
"Did you enjoy your bath, yet again, sister?"
Dijana ignored her as she dragged off her boots and leggings before slipping into her own bed. She would not feel ashamed for what she shared with Stryfe although admittedly, they had shared it quite frequently since that first night. Now that she was away from him, she was a little glad that she could get some rest from the exhausting activity.
"Is he a good lover?" asked Sharisse.
Dijana had no way of comparing his expertise, nor did she wish to discuss it with Sharisse. The kisses and caresses she had experienced with Kai were like a weak spark compared the the conflagration she felt with Stryfe, so she guessed that Stryfe was either a good lover or she was in desperate need of a mate.
"Do you please him?" persisted her sister from the dark of the cottage after Dijana ignored her and blew out the candle that Sharisse had left for her.
He had not complained, nor had there been any need of instruction between them. Stryfe seemed to know what pleased her and she enjoyed discovering the same for him. Thinking about him now made her warm with need and she wondered if she would be able to get any sleep before dawn when she could return to the pool to wait for him.
"You have nothing to say?" demanded Sharisse. "Perhaps I shall find out for myself. He will be happy to have a woman like me beneath him instead of a drudge like you. I would not be surprised to learn that he only wants you because you drug him when you take his blood. I heard the servants say that it is so pleasurable that they do not care who eases them when it is done."
Her insides churned unpleasantly as Dijana considered Sharisse's spiteful words. Taking his blood was part of their mating practices, so there was the possibility that Sharisse was right. What if Stryfe was only acting as he did because of what she did to him when she nursed his life-giving blood? He claimed it was not the reason for his desire, but a small doubt had taken hold of Dijana that she could not shake. She would not be able to bear his rejection if it were true.
"One day he will awaken and decide that he wants a real female and not a monster that needs to feed upon him." Sharisse laughed softly. "And since I will be within in arms reach in his brother's house, I will be only too glad to give him what he finds lacking in you."
Tears burned Dijana's eyes in the dark and she turned away from the sound of Sharisse's malicious snickers. She might be right, that one day Stryfe would not want her, especially if she could not give him a child. The elders on Teralon had researched her malady and informed the king that while she was enthralled to the Varoonyan warlord, she could not conceive and that Lord Taeron should be informed so that he could set about hunting down the Varoonyan. The thought of never holding Stryfe's child saddened Dijana, but she was afraid the scribe might take it upon himself to hunt down the brutal warlord. Kai would cut him to shreds before he drained his body of blood and left him a lifeless husk to do his bidding. She remembered the terror mingled with relief she felt when Kai had done the same to her and she never wanted Stryfe to feel that.
She fell asleep despite her worries and when she awoke the sun was rising. So after a glance at Sharisse, she quickly pulled on her clothing and slipped out of the cottage making as little noise as possible. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she hurried to the pond, her excitement growing as she knew that Stryfe would be waiting there for her.
But the moment she stepped through the bushes concealing the pond, her arms were seized and hauled behind her back and she saw that Stryfe was not waiting for her. The healer was heating the water of the pond, but she paused in her incantation to look at her.
"Finally you have come, Sharisse. I was beginning to think the scribe had worn you out and you were going to sleep all morning."
Dijana looked at the men holding her in a tight grasp. "What is the meaning of this?"
"Mordrad has made a deal to deliver you and your sister to the Teralonian representative. He is waiting just on this side of the frontier near the border of Varoonyan space."
Dijana tried to yank her arms away, but that only made the men tighten their hold and she cried out in pain despite herself. "Let me go! Send my sister back, but let me stay here."
Carrinda moved towards her. "I really have no choice, my dear Sharisse, but even if I did I would send you back anyway. You are keeping me from something that I want." She looked at the men. "Bring her even if you have to club her into submission." Then she walked ahead without looking back.
Although the efforts were futile, Dijana fought against the men as they jerked her along with them to follow the healer. She was not surprised that Sharisse was accompanying them without protest, but that only made Dijana fight them harder until one of them struck her hard with his fist. She saw bright explosions in her vision before everything became black.
When she awoke to a blinding headache, Dijana was lying on a narrow bed in a small cabin. She was immediately aware of the artificial gravity and knew that she was already aboard a ship headed away from Norvana and Stryfe. Alone in the room, she realized that it was probably a cell meant for incarceration so she did not bother making any demands. The brutes who had put delivered her would probably answer her with fists anyway.
She wiped away tears from knowing that Stryfe was probably looking futilely for her on the planet. Would he tell his brother what he had done and demand that he find her? And when that happened, what would Dijana say? Lord Taeron would be furious to discover that she had lied to him and she had mated with his brother. Calabrians were notoriously strict in their breeding customs and while they no longer hunted down females to mount, the imperials still reviled promiscuous women and turned them away. Even worse, she had made and oath and had broken it. Lord Taeron had many reasons to demand her life forfeit for her many offenses. Stryfe could never again be with her.
After what seemed like days but was probably only hours, a small door in the wall slid open and a tray filled with food and drink moved forward for her. Dijana took them but she had little appetite. Gnawing on the fruit as she sat with her knees drawn up on the uncomfortable slab provided for sleeping, she was sickened to consider the life to which she was returning. She did not want to go back to how she was living before Avar forced her to board the transport to fulfill the terms of a treaty that she was sure everyone had forgotten about. He had threatened to beat her, and when he had opened the walkway between the ships he had struck her across the back so hard to propel her forward that she had been breathless when she stumbled onto the Calabrian ship. She had almost fallen into Stryfe's arms that day. Even then he had been kind in trying to help her. And now she could not bear the thought of never seeing him again.
By the less than perfect inertial dampening system that was not nearly as good as the ship Lord Taeron had arrived at Teralon in, Dijana could tell that the ship was traveling at a high rate of speed away from Norvana. The faint awareness of motion made her woozy, so she remained on her bunk curled in a ball trying not to vomit. Many hours after the delivery of her meal, the ship slowed and she did not even have the strength to raise her head when the door to her cabin slid open. The same men who had handled her roughly bringing her to the ship marched in and dragged her from the bunk.
This time she did not fight them as they jerked her down the narrow passage towards what must be a docking bay. The ship jolted slightly, so she knew another ship had clamped to Mordrad's, and lifting her head, she saw Sharisse standing between him and the healer looking smugly pleased. Carrinda glanced at Dijana and made a sound of disgust before scolding her handlers for the bruise on her face, telling them that they would pay dearly if the Teralonians were displeased.
Sharisse was quick to point out that no one would care.
Only one man would care and she would never see him again.
The docking bay doors opened and the men holding Dijana thrust her forward. As she stumbled through the temporary corridor, she heard Sharisse thanking Mordrad and Carrinda for their hospitality, and when the men from the Teralonian ship jerked Dijana to her feet when she had fallen, Sharisse walked past them without looking at her.
The two burly warriors pulled Dijana into the ship then closed the docking bay doors before hauling her through the ship that she recognized as the royal barge and she guessed they were taking her to her father or to Avar. They opened the door to the cabin reserved for the royal family and shoved her in so hard that she fell to her knees.
The man waiting had his back turned to her as he watched the ship from Norvana pull away, but Dijana knew who he was before she even saw him because her pulse raced as her body reacted to the presence of her master. Sharisse stood nearby smirking as she watched Dijana.
He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his tall, bulky form clad in dark skins from animals found on Varoonya. At his side he wore his long, curved sword and Dijana was sickened to see that he had attached the hair he had shorn from her head to his sword belt.
When he turned to face her, Dijana could not even breathe as his black eyes met hers. Where she had once been mesmerized by his arched brows and long lashes, she would now look away in disgust if only she could. But his gaze held her frozen. Five years ago she had thought him the most beautiful man she had ever seen, but now she saw only his evil. With shaggy black hair that fell over his shoulders, his meticulously groomed facial hair now gave him a sinister air as he stared at her.
"I thank you, warlord, for rescuing us from that dreadful planet," Sharisse began but she fell silent when he made a swiping motion with his hand.
Kai moved towards Dijana and her heart was beating so fast that she was sure it would explode. She could not move from where she had fallen to the floor and when he was standing over her, she felt very small and vulnerable.
He reached out and gently grasped her chin with his long, slender fingers, scratching her with his clawlike fingernails. A faint smile curved his perfectly bowed lips. "I have missed you, my Dijana."
"My lord," spoke up Sharisse, doubtless jealous of the attention he was giving Dijana, attention she would gladly forgo. "My sister is dishonored. She has broken her oath to Lord Taeron of Calabria and taken a lover."
Instead of being disgusted, Kai moved closer to Dijana and he slid his fingers under her jaw so that his razor sharp fingernail scored her flesh and she felt blood dribble from the cut. "I look forward to a demonstration of what you have learned, my dear Dijana." She heard Sharisse gasp in surprise and she caught his derisive smile as he leaned forward to press his lips to the wound he had made.
When he drew in a mouthful of her blood, Dijana gasped in surprise from the pain when she had always felt pleasure in the past. Kai released her suddenly, stumbling back, spitting out the blood, but not before Dijana heard a sizzling sound and saw that his lips were blistered and his face was disfigured where her blood had dribbled from his mouth. Dijana put her hand to her neck to stop the blood from the cut, but it had already healed and yet Kai's wounds remained.
He shot Dijana a venomous glare before he crossed to Sharisse who tried to escape, but he seized her by the hair and yanked her head back to expose her neck. He sliced where her pulse beat strongest and she screamed as her blood sprayed his face until he lowered his head to drink the blood surging from the cut. Sharisse's screams died away to whimpers and then moans as she writhed with pleasure. As he fed, his black eyes held Dijana's, and he did not release Sharisse until her blood had healed the damage done to him. Releasing Sharisse to fall limply to the floor panting with unfulfilled longing, he came to stand over Dijana, but he made no move to touch her.
"Who have you been feeding from, my Dijana?"
"Stryfe of Calabria," she told him without hesitation. She could not lie to her master even if she tried, so she did not even make the effort. "He is the imperial scribe of Emperor Trey. His father is the human imperial guard of the emperor and his mother is his human mate."
He stared at her without speaking for a moment and then he said, "Your blood is now impure." Dijana thought that was an understatement given what it had done to him. While the damage was no longer evident, his face had looked as though a poisonous marsh creature had spewed acid upon it. Kai clearly did not want to come any closer and Dijana gave thanks to the gods. It did not mean that he could not order others to harm her, but at least she would not have to suffer his touch.
"I had plans for you," he said, his voice husky with suggestion as his hand moved down to stroke the hair hanging from his belt. "Your father promised you to me and I care not who has had you." His smile sickened her. "I would have enjoyed taking the mate from Taeron of Calabria, but it amuses me even more that he has been betrayed." He glanced at Sharisse and he did not hide his contempt. "I will have to settle for her."
The door opened and the two men stepped in. "Take Princess Dijana to her quarters. She is not to be harmed." Kai looked at her again with his mesmerizing gaze. "Perhaps with time and distance from your human lover the impurities of your blood will abate and we shall be together. I will be your mate, Dijana. I will rule Teralon through you and soon, very soon, I will destroy Calabria. I will rule the binary system with you at my side."
She wanted to tell him that she would rather die, but she could only nod in agreement before turning to leave with the guards who escorted her to a comfortable cabin. When they left, she laid on the bed and closed her eyes, but she saw Kai waiting for her in her mind.
You cannot take this from me. He came to her in the vision and slid his arm around her waist to pull her against him. Since the moment I took your innocence, no other female has satisfied me.
Dijana tried to resist him which only made him laugh. He did not release her until he had gotten what he wanted, and when she opened her eyes, she was staring at the ceiling of her cabin. She was alone, but he had violated her body with his thoughts just as effectively as he would have had he been in this room with her. Dijana had not thought she had any tears left to shed but she was wrong. The life she had hoped to have with Stryfe was over and she had only this future stretching out ahead of her.
The trip to Teralon took several days, and during that time Kai came to her frequently in her thoughts and dreams. He did not touch her otherwise and confined his physical attentions to Sharisse who came to Dijana to boast that she was Warlord Kai's lover. Dijana knew that already because Kai had told her how his encounters with Sharisse left him unsatisfied. She was too miserable to even feel any spite towards her sister.
When they landed on Teralon, her father was waiting with Avar and a small force of warriors. Balak greeted Kai with news that Queen Neria was gathering supporters, so he was glad that the warlord had returned. Her father did not realize that Kai had his own plans for Teralon that did not include Balak and after what her father had done to her, Dijana did not enlighten him.
When Balak finished with his report, he greeted Sharisse with a hug before turning his gaze upon Dijana. She wasn't surprised that he did not hide his disgust. Her father had always despised her and she believed it was because she was not as beautiful as Sharisse. He made no secret that he preferred the daughter that looked the most like her mother.
"You did not bring back your mate, Lord Taeron, hero of Varoonya." Her father laughed in derision. "He did not want you, did he?" He glanced at Sharisse. "Did Lord Taeron break his oath with you as we planned?"
Dijana was not surprised to learn why Sharisse had been sent with her to meet her mate.
A faint blush rose to Sharisse's cheeks. "He did not, but I can say that he did and who will dare to accuse me of lying?"
Avar raised his hand and struck Sharisse across the cheek. Dijana gasped in surprise as Sharisse stumbled back. "You had one thing to accomplish, sister, and that was to seduce Lord Taeron. By the gods, female, no one would ever accuse the hero of Varoonya of lying! What Calabrian would believe a female over him?"
Balak sighed deeply when Sharisse looked to him for help. "My dear, you failed in the task I most needed you to perform. I have no further use for you." He nodded to Kai who watched them with arms folded over his chest, his handsome face expressionless. "You may have my daughter. Do with her as you will. I have no need of her any more."
Thinking that Kai was going to reach for her, Dijana looked frantically for any place to escape, but Kai reached out to seize Sharisse. "She will amuse me until Princess Dijana's blood has been purified." He leveled his dark gaze on Balak. "Make arrangements for regular feedings."
Sharisse did not seem to mind her new status. She tossed her dark hair and smirked at Dijana. "I may not have seduced Lord Taeron, but Dijana broke her own oath by mating with his human brother."
Avar grasped Dijana's arm to lead her away, but he looked at Sharisse. "We needed Lord Taeron to break his oath because then he would be disgraced in the eyes of the emperor. He could not then lead the imperial warriors back here." Avar looked at Dijana with disgust. "No one cares what this gods' cursed female says or does. She is an acknowledged whore like our mother."
She did not have the strength to retort or to fight as Avar spread his wings, and seizing Dijana around the waist, he took flight in the direction of Nidum. After landing on the top of the palace, he retracted his wings and pushed her towards the steps leading down to the living quarters. When she stumbled, he cursed her and grasped her upper arm in a punishing grip. Jerking her around, he struck her face, and when he threw her over his shoulder she lost her breath and reached out frantically to hold onto him as he moved down the steps.
He did not stop until he came to her chamber and he tossed her on the floor. "The elders want to see you. Make yourself presentable."
Her body ached and she tasted blood in her mouth, but she asked, "Why must I see the elders?" She hated the old men and women that made up the council of the queen almost as much as her father did. Since her mother had fled to her diversions in the northern palace, they had been counseling Balak. She knew that her father chafed at their interference in his rule, but he could not ignore them when challenging them meant open rebellion.
Before she had risen, the door opened and she raised her head to see Avar pulling Princess Chaela into the room, his grasp tight on her arm if the beautiful Calabrian's wince of pain were any indication. "Let me go!"
He shoved his wife into the room. "Make her presentable to meet the elders. Do it quickly."
Chaela straightened and turned to face him. "I am no servant!"
His backhand blow made her stumble back, but Chaela of Calabria had imperial training, so she quickly regained her balance and spun to face him in stance ready to fight. "I could kill you for that!"
Her husband snorted. "I would love for you to try, Calabrian bitch, then I could be rid of you." He drew a dagger from his belt and Dijana was shocked that he crouched to prepare for her attack. Dijana remembered when he had brought her back from Calabria, when he seemed happy with his beautiful wife, but after she had given him a son, a son without wings, he had grown distant with her. Dijana had heard that they did not even share a chamber.
Chaela relaxed in her stance and she smoothed her elegant gown before reaching up to wipe away the blood that had formed at the corner of her lips with the back of her hand. "All you needed to do, dear husband, was to ask and I would be happy to help."
His lip curled. "I will ask you for nothing. I will tell you what to do and you will do it. Isn't that what you Calabrian whores are good for?" Without waiting for a response, he turned on his heel and walked out.
The emperor's daughter stared at the door for a moment and then she sighed and went to Dijana. "By the gods, princess, what has happened to you?" Taking her arm, she gently drew Dijana to her feet and helped her to a chair near the fireplace. Dijana had not spoken much to Chaela in the years she had been in Teralon because Chaela had disdained her friendship upon arriving, preferring the company of Sharisse with whom she had more in common. Dijana had been disappointed because she had hoped to gain a sister from Avar's marriage, but she was not surprised to be overlooked.
Now Chaela put a pot of water over the fire and she took a cloth, wetting it and wiping Dijana's face. Her own was swelling from Avar's blow. "I suppose my husband is to thank for this welcome home."
"I thought I would displease my father because I did not bring Lord Taeron back," Dijana told her. "But he never wanted him here anyway."
Chaela stopped wiping and Dijana saw that tears had gathered in amber eyes that were like Prince Amyr's. "I prayed to the gods that Taeron would return to liberate me. Now I am sure that the gods do not listen to me. If only I had told him five years ago what I suspected they were doing, none of this would have happened! "
"I am sorry I did not bring him back," whispered Dijana. "I … I could not... I … I prefered another."
Chaela's lovely brows drew together and she resumed wiping her face. "How could you possibly prefer any male over Taeron of Lord Duo's house?" The other woman sighed and moved away to a wardrobe standing against the wall. She opened it and she was looking through the gowns when she said, "I grew up with him, you know. And when I was all of eight years old, I asked my father if I could marry him. I vow that every female at my father's court wanted him."
Dijana could not imagine what about the man could possibly inspire such feelings in the women. She had not been attracted to that buffoon at all.
Chaela returned to Dijana with a green and golden gown that she had not worn in many years. "You have become so thin, Dijana. And your color is frightful. Have you not been feeding?"
Dijana had refused to feed from the men on the ship that Kai had sent to her and he could not force her to do so. So she had not fed since the last time she had been with Stryfe. Dijana was afraid that if she did, the blood that she had taken from him and which seemed to protect her from Kai would be diluted.
"I fed from the scribe," she told Chaela, not knowing why she was confiding. "I … I mated with him."
Chaela stopped in front of her, her eyes wide with surprise. "You mated with Stryfe? Why in the name of the gods would you prefer him to Taeron?" She did not wait for her answer, but proceeded to help her take off the tunic and leggings, then washed her, moving her about like a helpless child.
After drying her, she slipped the gown on and left to find an ornate belt that she cinched around her waist. The back of the gown was open, but instead of the wings she had once been able to display proudly, she had the mangled flesh of the scars where they had once been. The elders had been angry when it happened, but her father had blamed it on the warlord and suggested that it made her an unworthy heir for her mother. But the elders had drawn to a corner of the room, discussed it briefly and decided that the loss of her wings was inconsequential when, in the annals of Teralonian history, there were queens whose wings had been damaged severely in battles and it did not affect their ability to rule.
Now Chaela touched her back and Dijana flinched away from her. "I hate my husband," she heard the other woman whisper. "He invited that vile creature to Teralon and he destroyed your lovely wings. I had hoped to bear a daughter with golden-tipped white wings like yours, but I know now that I will never have one."
Dijana wanted to tell her that she might one day bear Avar a female child, but given what she had just witnessed, Avar would never be welcome to mate with the Calabrian princess again. If he tried, they would probably kill each other.
"What of Kaerwen?" Dijana asked about her nephew. "Is he well? I have not seen him in many months."
She heard a sniff and Dijana turned to see tears rolling down Chaela's cheeks. "Avar took him away from me. He claimed it was for training and that I should understand because imperials begin training as children. But imperial children are not taken from their mothers that young! I have not seen him for many months either and every time I ask Avar for a chance to visit with him, he refuses. The elders will not listen to my pleas. They do not care about male children, especially a male child that cannot ever serve the queen as a winged warrior."
Chaela sighed deeply. "If only Avar would allow me to take Kaerwen and return to Calabria so that I can raise him and see him trained as an imperial. But he hates my father."
Dijana wanted to ask her why she did not tell her father what Avar was doing to her, but the door to her chamber opened and the subject of their discussion strode in. He glared at his wife until she looked away before turning his malevolent gaze on Dijana. "You look sickly. I do not want the elders accusing us of mistreating you, so you will say that Lord Taeron did this to you."
"I will not lie for you!" she dared to exclaimed hotly.
Avar crossed the room and he raised his hand to strike her, but he seemed to remember why he had come. Instead, he turned quickly and struck his wife, and because she had not anticipated the blow, she could not avoid it and she stumbled back, her head hitting the stones of the fireplace hearth. Dijana hurried to her and pulled her away from the fire, then she checked for a pulse and she thanked the gods that Chaela was still alive.
"Do you think the emperor will be happy when he learns of his daughter's death?" she demanded, the fight returning to her spirit. Her brother was a monster no better than Kai!
"The emperor has bigger problems than the whoring females of his house. I never wanted her for my wife; I wanted the first princess and this spoiled bitch was merely a diversion." He nudged her unconscious form with his boot. "I am sick of keeping her out of fear of the emperor. When he no longer sits his throne, I will cut her throat and put her useless corpse in the marsh for the swamp scarabs to feast upon."
"You bastard!"
Avar seized her arm and hauled her to the door. "Soon enough we will have no need of you either."