Chapter 44

The guards opened the door and after Queen Neria passed between them to enter the council chamber, her wings spread wide behind her while Roehan kept his concealed as was proper for a male in the presence of the elders. Dijana ignored Taeron as she followed her father with Chaela at her side and the Calabrians entered after her with the dark-clad warriors waiting in the corridor.

There were only four members of the council, Deryn, Olwyn, Jaleila and Ayrael. Olwyn stepped forward, and where Balak had always bowed respectfully, Dijana's mother did not even nod to the older woman.

"Welcome back, Neria. You have been absent from this council for far too long."

"Too long?" inquired Neria with a raise of her delicately arched brows. "A month or two is too long. I have been gone for over twenty years. Did you never initiate a formal inquiry into my absence, dear aunt?"

Dijana was surprised to learn now that Olwyn was her grandmother's sister. She was vexed to realized that she knew virtually nothing about her own family, that Balak had raised her to be ignorant. He never intended for her to rule Teralon, so he did not bother with her education. The lowest servant in the palace probably knew more about royal politics than she did.

Neria did not give Olwyen a chance to respond. "I am surprised that you have the audacity to return to your position in the council after what you have allowed." Her eyes moved over each of the remaining elders. "That you are still alive makes me suspect your allegiance since I know that Avar hunted down and murdered Kaseja and Garest. I presume they were the only ones among you with the integrity to stand up to that foul usurper."

The older woman did not appear bothered by her queen's anger. "We are loyal to you, Neria. As for your imprisonment, we could only act on what we were told."

"And since it was convenient for you that I was absent, you never bothered to determine the reason," pointed out Neria. "I have had twenty years to consider why I was incarcerated far from my child, twenty years to learn the truth."

Olwyn's lip curled. "And what is it that you think you have learned?"

"That you ever envied my mother her position and when she died so young, you took over my regency so that you could rule in my name. But when I came of age, you had to give it up, so you forced your way onto the council with bribery and threats."

"Your time in the northern palace has made you bitter," declared Olwyen smoothly. "I wonder if it has made you unbalanced." She glanced at the other council members who were looking at Roehan warily. Dijana saw that the warrior's hands were behind his back where they should be clasped in a sign of non-aggression, but she could see from her position that he had secreted quills, deadly sharp thin daggers among the feathers of his wings and they were within reach.

Neria sneered at her. "Your accomplices have more sense than to try to wrest control from me now, Olwyn." The other woman now noticed Roehan's stance and she pressed her lips together. Neria continued. "When the council decided I was old enough to take a mate, you convinced them to force me to choose between two males that you could keep in line."

"I chose two males for your consideration who could match your spirit."

"They would have crushed my spirit!" Neria's face was pink with fury. "They were repulsive, brutish men and you knew it!"

"I also knew that you were behaving scandalously with that male." She raised her thin, wrinkled hand to point at Roehan. "I had to save you from shaming yourself. For all I knew you were already carrying his bastard."

Neria was trembling with rage, but Roehan stepped forward to slide his hands through the feathers of her wings to place them on her shoulders. "I did not shame myself until you forced me to do it. You should have let me choose the male I wanted!"

"You would have chosen that boy!" Olwyn laughed scornfully. "He was barely out of military training, qualified only to open and close doors for you! You needed a man's guidance! Does it matter? You have him now."

"You took my daughter from me!"

"Balak took your daughter from you."

"With your approval!" Dijana was surprised to hear the emotion in her mother's voice, to see the tears rolling down her cheeks. "Worse, you let me believe that Nykos was her father!"

"Balak would have killed her if he knew she was the bastard of a palace guard." Olwyn sneered at Neria. "You were not ready to rule; Balak was strong enough to rule in your stead."

"You ruled through Balak!"

The male, Deryn, stepped forward. "This argument is pointless. You have presented yourself and we welcome you back, Neria."

"Do you think I will rule with you as my council?" Neria wiped her tears by rubbing her face with her hands. "I do not trust a single one of you traitors. By the end the day, I want you gone from my palace. I will replace you all! You have no right for mercy after what you have allowed to be done to me and to my daughter."

"Your bastard," Olwyn corrected her with scorn. "I should have told Balak the truth and after he rid us of her, I could have accepted Sharisse as your heir."

Neria surged forward and she seized the graying hair of the older woman, pulling her head back so that they were nose to nose. "May the gods have mercy for you, because I do not."

Dijana gasped as her mother jerked the older woman's head and the loud snap of her neck made Dijana's stomach lurch. She let the lifeless body fall to the floor at her feet. The three remaining elders stepped back, their mouths ajar and Dijana knew they felt the same horror that she did.

Her mother glanced at Roehan. "Ask the guard to remove this refuse and place it on the pyres with the rest of the traitors." She noticed Dijana gaping at the body as Roehan did as she ordered. For so many years Olwyn had made decisions that Dijana had felt were unfair, but she would never wish this on anyone and she was shocked to realize that her mother was capable of such cold-blooded violence.

"Do not grieve her," Neria said, her voice hard. "I have come to learn that Olwyn poisoned my mother, and when she failed to seduce my father so that she could control me through him, she drugged him and pushed him off the roof of the palace. She blamed it on his drunken grief, but few believed her. She tried to convince the council to renounce my claim to the throne in her favor, but they would only allow her to act as my regent. And when I no longer needed a regent, she forced her way onto the council and sought to control me through them. She hand-picked the mates offered to me, the two most brutal warriors, both mindless fools, she believed, that she could control and who would crush me." Neria reached out a hand to Roehan who took it and squeezed it. "She would have succeeded if it were not for Roehan."

She looked back at Dijana. " I chose the warrior least likely to kill me, and who do you think gave Balak the idea to kill my lawful husband, Nykos? Olwyn hoped he would kill me as well, but that bastard Balak enjoyed beating and raping me with impunity after I had rejected him. He had his own plan, and when I bore Sharisse, he had gotten what he wanted, so he sent me under guard to the northern palace. I don't know when he decided that ruling in my place as I rotted in his prison was not enough for him, but the idea of his rebellion had come to him before he sent Avar to Calabria to bring back the first princess. He had probably hoped to gain the backing of the emperor, but I have since learned that Trey would not have backed him regardless of who married him."

Dijana was shamed that the Calabrians were witness to the corruption of her planet and she could not respond. All these years she thought her mother stayed away because she despised her. Dijana had believed everything Balak told her because she had no way of knowing the truth.

Sighing, Neria turned back to the three remaining elders. "I don't know how actively you supported her, but I do not trust you. By the rising of the first sun tomorrow, I want you gone from the palace and if you are not, you will wish for Olwyn's fate. You will never leave your estates and if you do, my warriors will hunt you down to bring you back to face whatever punishment Roehan deems sufficient for all that you have done to keep him from his daughter."

They looked warily at Roehan who did not betray his feelings, but Dijana sensed that the large, strong warrior would like nothing better than to mete out justice to the council elders.

"The Calabrians deserve our thanks for all that they have done for our planet," Neria told them tersely, making them start as they seemed to notice them for the first time.

Of the three remaining elders, Jaleila stepped forward. "We are grateful, lord prince Taeron, for all that you have done for us, in driving back the Varoonyan invaders and helping to restore our queen to us."

Taeron nodded to them but did not speak. Dijana thought he looked as menacing as her father did at the moment.

Neria frowned at the elders. "You should have given him this thanks five years ago."

"Olwyn..." started Ayrael, but Neria interrupted.

"You can blame Olwyn all you want because she is dead, but I don't want to hear her name again! Lord Taeron should have returned to Teralon after subduing Varoonya to teach you a lesson in gratitude. At least I was able, with my dear Roehan's help, to make a treaty with the emperor which Balak had no choice but to honor."

Now she turned to Dijana. "My daughter has some words on the terms of the treaty which concern her."

Her heart racing, she did not look at Taeron as she stepped forward to address the three elders who could not hide their surprise at her appearance. They looked from her to Roehan, then back to Dijana who was irritated that they were comparing her with her father. They probably all felt the same contempt for her that Olwyn did but they would not dare call her Roehan's bastard, not when he could probably kill them before the words died on their lips.

"I respectfully request …."

"You are my daughter, my heir, so you do not have to respectfully request anything," snapped Neria.

Dijana swallowed nervously, then she spoke again. "I demand that the provision of the treaty that requires me to wed Lord Taeron be stricken." She paused and then she said. "I will not marry him." She dared not look at Taeron.

The elders drew away to discuss in low murmurs and then returned after only a few moments. "Princess Dijana, we were informed that you mated with the Calabrian scribe," said Ayrael. "Your sister, Sharisse reported what you had done during your stay on Norvana, and our decision at that time was that Lord Taeron, now lord prince Taeron, could decide your fate."

The elder Deryn waved Taeron to approach which he did with Amyr and Stryfe behind him. "Do you reject our princess?"

Dijana did not give him a chance to speak because she knew what his answer would be. "He is a liar and an oath-breaker!"

The elders gasped and Neria glared at her, but Dijana would be heard. "He lied about his identity and he proceeded to seduce me."

"Is this true?" asked Deryn with outrage. Feigned or not, Dijana hoped he could be an ally.

Dijana spoke again before Taeron could respond. "He could have told me many times his true identity, but he was content to play me for a fool!"

"I played you for a fool?" Dijana had never heard Taeron speak in so angry a tone and she was taken aback. "You accuse me of being a liar and an oath-breaker?"

He spun and indicated that his brother should step forward. Dijana saw that he was carrying a scroll and she felt her heart skip a beat. There were ribbons wrapped around the scroll from which hung the golden seal of the emperor.

"The imperial scribe will read the account of her arrival on my ship."

Stryfe showed them the scroll. "This is the account as accepted by the emperor." He unwound the ribbons and Dijana felt the blood leaving her face as he unrolled the parchment to read. "There is much about the account that you do not need to hear, about how my brother did not want to leave his post on Varoonya, how the emperor forced him to come to Calabria and then sent him to Teralon under guard..."

"I was under guard?" queried Taeron with surprise.

Stryfe chuckled. "We did not need two pilots, did we?"

Taeron did not respond, but Dijana could see that he was irritated, certainly no more irritated than she to hear the lengths the emperor had to go in order to get him to come to Teralon.

Stryfe continued, "And I doubt you want to hear how I thought he was going to embarrass himself when the ship docked..."

"That was completely unnecessary," muttered Taeron.

"... how he was sweating so badly I though he was going to have to change his clothing..."

"I don't think I have ever seen Taeron in such a condition," commented Amyr.

"Indeed," said Stryfe, now looking at the other man. "I had made a notation that Keldar thought that my brother looked like an unblooded recruit facing a canyon beast, but the emperor told me to strike it from the official record."

Dijana gasped in indignation. Canyon beast? She did not know what a canyon beast was, but it did not sound pleasant.

"And yet you feel it necessary to repeat it now?" asked Taeron indignantly.

"I was not reading the official account; I was responding to Prince Amyr," Stryfe said with a chuckle despite his brother's anger.

"Get to the point!" his brother snapped. Dijana wanted to kick the man she had once thought was Lord Taeron. How could she have ever thought this fool was a feared warrior?

Amyr laughed. "I haven't heard this story. You will have to read it to me later."

"I will be happy to give you the unofficial account as well. Your father was most amused although he thought some details were unnecessary, the parts about him pacing like a caged hill cat, how he was trembling ..."

The elder Deryn cleared his throat.

Stryfe's smile disappeared and he looked at the parchment that he had unrolled to a specific point when he was prattling like a gossiping old woman.

"Although Lord Taeron intended to land on the planet to celebrate his marriage to Princess Dijana in a manner befitting her station" he read, "he was met by a transport from Teralon shortly before reaching the planet. He was informed by Prince Avar that there would be no need for him to land, that he had brought the princess to him. Upon docking, a female entered the ship from the walkway who we assumed was a guard for Princess Dijana due to her plain, mannish dress and the weaponry she wore."

Dijana caught the disgusted look her mother gave her. Neria would not understand how she felt. She had been terrified of Lord Taeron, of what he would do to her because Avar had made it clear that he hoped the Calabrian would kill her. She wanted to be ready to fight, and despite the training she had received, Dijana had since realized that Balak had not allowed her to learn more than rudimentary moves to protect herself. She certainly would be unable to kill as she had seen her mother do.

"When another woman came aboard who was exceedingly beautiful and dressed in fine raiment," continued the scribe, "we drew the obvious conclusion that she was the princess, and I addressed her as such. She did not correct us and the other female corroborated her claim by referring to her as Princess Dijana."

Dijana heard her mother make a sound that conveyed her anger so effectively that the elders shifted nervously. Hearing his account and knowing what Dijana did now, she marveled at her own gullibility. Sharisse had never wanted to help her; she had manipulated her and Dijana sensed that her mother was disappointed in her foolishness. Dijana had to trust someone! But even the meager offering of friendship Sharisse gave to Dijana in agreeing to help her survive the vengeance of Lord Taeron had been a lie. A woman like Neria should have been proud of Sharisse.

Stryfe glanced briefly at Neria as if he expected her to commit another act of violence, and seeing that Roehan had taken her elbow and drawn her closer to him, he continued. "During the conversation after their arrival, Princess Dijana never once gave her true identity, instead deferring to her sister, Sharisse. When her sister referred to her as Sharisse, the princess did not correct her but continued with the deception." He rolled up the parchment and wrapped the ribbons around it and then he looked at the elders. "Lord Taeron did not learn the truth until he was presented by Queen Neria with the gift of Sharisse's head."

Gasping, Dijana thought she was going to be sick and she looked at her mother who raised her chin as if daring anyone to take her to task for the reprehensible thing she had done with her own daughter's head.

Taeron faced Dijana. "Remind me who is the liar."

She clenched her fists at her side wishing she could strike him.

"Is what he said true?" demanded Neria of Dijana.

"Do you doubt the word of my father's scribe?" Amyr was outraged and Dijana saw that Chaela was shocked that anyone would call into question the official account of the scribe. She guessed that Stryfe had given an oath and to a Calabrian, the breaking of an oath was the worst crime imaginable. Taeron had broken his oath to be with her when he did not know who she was, and her heart ached to imagine what he had suffered on his return to Calabria until the truth of her own deception came to light.

And yet here he stood, not just a warlord, but the lord prince of the emperor's entire army!

Dijana pressed her lips together stubbornly for a moment and then she said, "I felt that I had to lie. Avar told me that Lord Taeron would kill me because of what happened to me."

"Does Lord Taeron know what happened to you?" asked the elder female, Jaleila. She turned her attention to Taeron.

"That she is a thrall of warlord Kai? Yes, she told me."

Jaleila looked back at Dijana. "And he did not kill you. We can see that with our own eyes."

Dijana remembered the day when he learned about Kai and her stomach churned unpleasantly. Now that she knew who he was, she understood why he had attacked her, and she felt vindicated in her fears. But why did he have to be so gentle with her after hearing her story? Why did he offer his blood, knowing what she was, knowing who he was? He was the hero of Varoonya who had slain so many mindless thralls, and he knew what they were capable of. Yet he had held out his hand and offered her his blood.

"Why did you not tell him then?" demanded Ayrael.

"He was masquerading as the scribe!" She cried out in frustration. And she had fallen in love with him and knew he would have to give her up to his brother.

Her mother laughed. "My dear daughter, have you used your eyes to look at him? No scribe could look like that!"

"I do try to keep in shape," grumbled Stryfe.

"You will have to try a lot harder," Amyr told him with an elbow jab to his ribs.

Dijana grit her teeth. Of course she had noted his finely formed body, but she was not going to say that to her mother! The woman had nothing but mating on her mind!

"If he had chosen your sister over you, we would consider your rejection, but you have said yourself that he believed you were Sharisse and you believed he was the scribe. Regardless of how this tangle came to be, it has unraveled to the desired outcome."

The elder paused to take a breath and she knew he was going to deny her, so she blurted out, "Prince Taeron cannot perform his duties as a male to mate me properly!"

There was a collective gasp and she looked triumphantly at Taeron who she assumed would be hanging his head in shame. But aside from a faint reddening of his cheeks, he did not seem concerned about her claim. Did he not realize that the siring of a child was the one thing a male was good for on Teralon? If he could not do that, then he was not a worthy mate.

"Is this true?" asked Neria with surprise. "By the gods, a male armed with your sword should be able to wield it!"

Why was her mother talking about his sword? When she realized what she was talking about, she gasped in shock and swung to look at her. When had her mother …?

"Neria!" barked Roehan furiously.

Taeron cleared his throat although he shot her mother a glare before speaking. "I bonded to Princess Dijana on Norvana. Ask her if I mated properly with her then?"

Dijana refused to answer. This discussion was now humiliating. By the gods, why did she bring it up?

Stryfe unrolled his scroll and she steeled herself for what she was about to hear. "From sunup to sundown and the hours in between for several days."

She gasped in outrage.

Her mother laughed.

"That was on Norvana. He could not do so last night!"

The elders exchanged puzzled looks and then Deryn spoke. "You were engaging in carnal relations last night with this male that you reject today?"

Her entire body heated in embarrassment and she wished she could scratch the self-satisfied smile from Taeron's handsome face. "He tricked me!"

"And how did you ascertain that he could not perform?" asked her mother curiously.

Dijana noticed that Chaela's head was turned away but that she was trying not to smile, and Stryfe and Amyr were looking at each other in such a manner that she was afraid that they would burst into laughter before Amyr looked her way.

"Do tell, princess. Were you handling his sword?"

Furious that he had put her in the compromising trance to begin with, she launched herself at him with her nails curled into talons, and while he managed to keep her from scratching out his eyes, she was gratified to swipe them across his cheek as they fell to the floor. She had wanted to do this for a long time and she would not be denied!