Chapter 56

As he shared his meal with his family at the Edgeland Fortress, Amyr watched all these people that he had taken for granted in the past now interact and he felt gratitude to the ancestors for giving him the gifts that made this possible. Chaela was mothering Yori, and Amyr knew that part of the reason was that Yori resembled her own child, and Yori allowed her for the same reason. She was healing from her loss, but Kaerwen would always remain in part of her soul. Apolo chatted with Shamara about her children while boasting of his own and Amyr remembered with amusement how his uncle had claimed that no one woman was enough for him. As it turned out, there was one woman to whom he had given his heart long ago, and because Larya had only used him under Lady Xuxa's orders to get to Arora, she had broken his heart. For many years he had not forgiven her for putting his beloved sister in danger.

His mother had her head bent towards that very woman as she shared confidences. He never ceased to marvel at their friendship after the efforts the beautiful Larya had made to seduce Amyr's father. The will of the gods had surely saved Larya when she tried to kill them. The imperials might despise Larya for all that she had done as Lady Xuxa's slave, but Larya had proven herself favored by the gods in the subsequent events in her life. Now he caught a few words about some plan to seduce the emperor and Amyr chuckled as he imagine how little effort his mother would have to make.

She heard him and turned to look at him. "You find my plans amusing, my prince?"

"Only that you would go to any trouble at all when you have but to present yourself. I doubt you have been separated from my father for this long and he is eager for your return." His parents had never hidden their mutual attraction and they had all learned at an early age not to disturb them in their chamber.

She sighed and reached out to put her hand on Amyr's. He felt her love and the need she had to please her mate. "Just because we have been together so long does not mean we do not have the feelings that we had when we were young."

Amyr thought of Taeron's ballad and he sighed as he curled his fingers around hers. "I understand."

"What is this about a song?" she asked with a raised brow having read his thoughts. "Taeron can sing?"

"I have never heard my son do more than hum," remarked Larya. She glanced at Shamara. "You spent many days with him during your silly courtship of Prince Dagan. Did you ever hear him sing?"

"Only when we were intoxicated from smoking weed," Shamara told them, not denying that she had been the one to court her mate. "I am sorry that I do not recall much from that experience except a lot of swords and a lot of blood." Although there had probably been a lot of blood, Amyr knew there had been only one sword. He wondered which of Lady Trynity's herbs was the one that they had smoked and if she would be angry if he tried to smoke it.

Shrugging off the plan as silly - Quynn would probably know all about it and could help him if he wanted to pursue the experiment - Amyr told them how Taeron had composed a ballad with the help of his warriors and sang it for the Teralonians during his courtship of their princess. When they viewed him skeptically even with Chaela's confirmation, he reached out to take his mother's hand and offered his other hand to Larya, but she shook her head and shrank back.

He had never gone to the past in a trance, but his mother helped him and soon they were standing in the banquet hall on Teralon. Amyr and his mother stood to the side and Amyr could see himself sitting at the table with Stryfe and he remembered wagering with the scribe that Taeron would make a fool of himself. The other suitors had stepped away and he and his mother listened as Taeron spoke to Neria.

Arora leaned closer to Amyr to whisper although they would not be heard anyway because they were not really there. "When did Taeron get such a smooth tongue?"

"Taeron is capable of inhuman feats where that female is concerned," he told her.

Taeron stepped back after speaking and began to sing. Amyr heard his mother gasp and he felt her heart beating faster as Taeron sang his beautiful song of love. Hearing it again moved Amyr and he squeezed his mother's hand, feeling the ache Taeron's song had evoked in her heart. He did not release her until the last note of the song had faded and they had returned to Edgeland Fortress. Turning to look at her, he saw that her cheeks were wet with tears, and reaching up, he wiped them away with the backs of his fingers.

When his mother had composed herself enough to speak, she said, "Taeron is blessed in so many ways." Arora turned and hugged Larya who was surprised by the emotional outburst. "Your son is truly the gods' gift to you and to us all."

Larya sniffed. "I always knew that. I am surprised it has taken you all so long to realize it."

After the meal, Amyr took Yori to his bed, but after his son was sleeping, he left the room and stepped out onto the terrace that extended the length of the residential wing of the fortress. In the distance he could almost see the Guerani Hills by the light of the moon. His mate was in those hills, and there was nothing he could do to help her. Yet as he stood there, something called to him, something that had never spoken so clearly to him before. He could hear voices, whispers on the wind, calling to him, comforting him, giving him peace.

"Do you hear them?"

He turned his head to see that Shamara had come onto the terrace from her room as well. "I do."

"I have always been able to hear them," she told him as she came to him and slipped her hand in his and he could hear the voices clearly now, urging him to have faith. "Dagan could hear them after Mordraeus was destroyed, when his Guerani powers were not blocked by sorcery. You hear the ancestors, all who have come before us and who impart their wisdom if we but listen."

Amyr looked in the direction of the mountains and could faintly make out the highest peak which was a volcano that had errupted seven years ago. "Do you think Dax stood here and listened to them? Did they even speak to him?"

Shamara sighed and put her arm around his waist and Amyr slipped his arm around her shoulders. "I think they spoke to him, but Camridaeus did not allow him to listen, just as Mordraeus kept them from Dagan. By the time of his death, he could not even hear Valerya in his heart."

Closing his eyes, Amyr imagined Quynn and wondered what it would be like to have her in his heart and yet be unable to feel and hear her. His grandfather's madness was certainly understandable.

"We have not spoken of Staefyn," Shamara said after a moment of silence.

He opened his eyes. "What is there to say? He has lost his mind."

"He has lost his way," she corrected him. "I know that he has hurt you, Amyr, but even mother does not want to abandon him. He is one of us."

Amyr met her gaze in the light of the moons. "You want me to forgive him? Do you know what I have suffered at his hands? I can forgive him for that! Can you imagine what he might be doing to my mate? I can even forgive him for that! But he tried to kill our mother! Taeron told me what Staefyn said about her! Wasteland whore? I want to wrap his own entrails around his neck and choke him with his own excrement." A strong calming breeze wrapped around him and he knew the ancestors were cautioning him.

"You cannot harm him," she reminded him. "What must he be suffering to have become this monster? Staefyn loved mother when he was a child. When I see Yori, I am reminded of how Staefyn was and I am not surprised that he came into his powers so young."

"And yet he hid them!" Amyr clenched his fists at his side as he thought of Staefyn watching him, planning to take everything from him. "He used his powers to kill me in a trance!"

Shamara frowned. "You are alive, Amyr, and not only are you no worse for the experience, but you have a beautiful child because of it."

Furious, unwilling to release his anger, he moved away from her, trying as he did to shrug off the ancestors. "You have always been too good, Shamara."

"Perhaps I still have some of Ulfynaeus in me," she suggested with a soft laugh.

Despite his anger, he smiled and shook his head. "I pity that poor goddess for suffering inside you all those years."

Shamara laughed. "Can you imagine what she suffered inside Apolo?"

They both knew that Ulfynaeus had not been a goddess, but a powerful Guerani who had passed her essence through their line until leaving Shamara to help protect their world from destruction.

After a moment of silence Shamara asked, "Have you tried to contact Quynn?"

"I cannot," he told her. "Staefyn is very powerful and has warded the palace against intrusion. Even Apolo cannot breach his wards."

"Staefyn is one Guerani," she told him. "And I have powers that far exceed his."

"You believe," he said.

She smiled. "I do not doubt my power, Amyr." He remembered the story of his sister reaching across galaxies at the moment of her birth to bond to their father and he did not doubt that she could penetrate Guerani Palace.

Taking his hand she led him into her chamber, and just inside, they sat on the floor facing each other in the doorway to the terrace. She instructed him to close his eyes, and because Amyr had never experienced Shamara's power, he was unprepared for the jolt that made his body go rigid when she placed her hands over his. He was startled to be drawn so quickly into a void where he saw nothing at first, and then it seemed as if he were on the other side of a window and he saw a door open and Quynn step through. She was gowned like a Calabrian imperial noble and followed by an older woman.

Amyr wondered if he could get her attention and he was about to speak or motion to her, but suddenly the door opened and he watched in fury as Staefyn stepped into the chamber and sent the older female out with a sharp command.

"I am tired, Staefyn," he heard Quynn say. When she turned to look at his brother, he saw a dark welt on her cheek and a line of blood from her nose. "Can we get this over quickly so I can get some sleep and you can go get whatever it is you get with that whore."

His heart leaped to his throat when Staefyn raised his hand to her cheek and leaned in, Amyr became tense to see him touching his mate although a rational part of his brain reminded him that he was healing her.

"How many times must I remind you not to bait my warlord?" he asked after her injuries disappeared.

She shrugged and stepped away. "And yet you do nothing to stop him."

Staefyn did not respond to her for a moment and then he closed the distance between them and despite her protest, he dragged her against him. Amyr moved restlessly until Shamara seized his wrist to stop him from doing anything that might draw Staefyn's attention to them.

Quynn suddenly became limp, and Staefyn swung her up in his arms to take her to the bed. Amyr feared that he would see his brother take advantage of her, but he stepped away from her and headed to the door where he stopped. He remained for a moment with his back to them, and then looked over his shoulder in the direction where Amyr stood with Shamara. "You should really give some warning before you invade another person's privacy."

Suddenly Shamara was at Staefyn's side. "What are you doing, Staefyn?"

"So you do have help," he said with a sneer. "I did not think you were powerful enough to do this on your own, brother. Why would you help him, Shamara? He is a selfish bastard."

"He is our brother," she argued. "I would help you as well, even after what you tried to do to mother. Just tell us what is making you do these things!"

Without responding, he left and closed the door.

Now Amyr found himself in the room with Quynn and he was momentarily disoriented. "Where am I?" he asked, hoping for an answer from Shamara.

"Staefyn has dropped his ward and we have entered his trance," she told him. "Speak to Quynn and be quick. He may change his mind and we do not want to be caught in the trance with him."

Amyr crossed the room to Quynn who was lying unconscious on the bed. He pulled her into his arms and held her close, knowing that they were not really here, that he was at Edgeland Fortress. But she stirred in his arms, and she sighed deeply as she burrowed her face into his neck.

"This is a wonderful dream."

Amyr thought so too, but Shamara was standing nearby and he had to speak to Quynn. "Wake up, Quynn."

Her lashes fluttered open and she looked around the room and then up at his face. "You know, Amyr, I was hoping that if you took me in a trance we could go some place romantic. Do I even see Shamara over there in the corner?" Quynn waved to her and Shamara waved back.

"Shamara helped me get here," he told her. "I would ask how you fare, but Staefyn gave us a little demonstration of his hospitality."

She murmured incomprehensibly as she rested her cheek against him. "I love you, Amyr." She raised her face to his. "Even when I told you I did not, when you were first bonded to me and I did not understand, I loved you then and I am so sorry for what I put you through."

Amyr frowned. "Why would you bring that up now?" He knew that Quynn had known nothing about what he was going through on Norvana. They had put that behind them along with the bond that had not been of their making.

"Because I truly understand now what you must have felt when we rescued you." He was helpless when she burst into tears and wept against his chest. Amyr looked at Shamara who shrugged.

After a moment of holding her in which he soothed her by stroking her back, he finally said, "Quynn, we have to go before Staefyn changes his mind about letting me speak to you."

She moved back to look up at him. "He has almost completely lost his mind, Amyr. He can scarcely control what he does. Warlord Kai and Lady Xuxa are pulling him apart."

"Lady Xuxa!" Amyr's exclamation was echoed by Shamara.

"You know of her?" asked Quynn. "She is a horrid woman!"

"What is she doing here?" Shamara moved closer.

"I don't know how or why, but Staefyn is her bonded mate."

Amyr looked at Shamara and saw his own horror mirrored in her eyes. "The woman is ancient! How could he do such a thing?"

Quynn seized his arm to gain his attention and she nodded to the door. Amyr could hear footsteps approaching. "He is coming back!"

Shamara hurried to Amyr. "We need to go." She grabbed Amyr and his body jerked to consciousness back in her chamber. Shamara was already pacing, wringing her hands. "This is awful, Amyr!"

"We have to tell mother and Apolo what we have learned."

Rising from the floor, he left her room and when he was on the terrace, he headed to the chamber at the far end where he knew his mother would be sleeping, but when he stepped in he found that she was sitting cross-legged on her bed with her brother facing her, their hands clasped.

Shamara had followed and when she saw them, she laughed softly. "Where and when do you think they are?"

Since he knew how moved she had been by Taeron's ballad, he could make a good guess and he wondered if he should disturb her, but their news was too important to wait.

"Touch them," he ordered Shamara.

She shook her head. "I am not entering my mother's trance!"

A movement behind him made Amyr turn to the entrance to the terrace and he saw Chaela creeping into the room. "What are you doing? Mother said not to disturb her."

"Wearen't disturbing her," Shamara hissed. "Don't talk so loud or she will be disturbed."

"Is she in a trance?" Chaela moved to stand beside Amyr. "She looks so happy."

"So does Apolo," pointed out Shamara. "I don't think we will disturb anything we would rather not see."

"I am not disturbing her private time," Amyr insisted, and yet he was curious.

"I am!" Before either he or Shamara could stop her, Chaela put her hand on her mother's and she became still as she entered the trance.

Shamara shrugged and followed her example.

Sighing with resignation, Amyr touched them as well.

When he was oriented, he found himself standing with Chaela and Shamara behind a large tree and they were peaking around it, so he did as well. They were watching three children lying in a patch of flowers under another tree near a stream. Looking beyond them, Amyr saw the mountains, and turning around he could see Edgeland Fortress and hear instructors barking orders. The children could not be more than six or seven, and one of the boys looked a lot like Staefyn had when he was young, the other like Yori, and the girl could almost be Shamara, but Amyr knew exactly who they were.

His youthful mother suddenly sat up from the flowers. "We should be practicing!" She stomped away to gather three long sticks which she tossed at the boys.

"Ow!" The young Prince Trey rubbed his head and looked at Apolo who ignored the stick that she had dropped on his body as he lazily chewed on the stem of a flower, his eyes closed to the light of the suns. "Tell your sister that we did not come here to work!"

"You never work!" Arora put herself in a defensive stance. "You cannot knock me down!"

Trey shoved at Apolo with his foot. "Knock her down so we can continue with our nap!"

Apolo took the stem from his mouth and said, "She wasn't challenging me." He started chewing on the stem again.

Shamara giggled. "Even then Apolo was lazy."

Amyr caught himself smiling and he heard Chaela snickering. He had never been able to imagine his parents as children together, and until he had heard Taeron sing of their love, he hadn't thought of them as young lovers either.

Arora poked Trey with the end of her stick. "Get up you lazy sand slug!"

Trey kicked at her, but she quickly drew back and then poked at him again.

"By the gods, you impudent wench!" He leaped up from the bed of flowers and lunged at her.

"Don't call my sister a wench," Apolo said without opening his eyes, ignoring the grunts caused by the scuffle as Trey tried to wrest the stick from her hand, but when Arora fell on her back, her brother opened his eyes and turned to watch as Trey and Arora wrestled, both holding onto the stick in her hand, wrenching it back and forth until Arora knocked Trey away onto his own back.

Straddling him, she shoved the stick against his neck. "Do you yield?" She was panting from the exertion of their struggle.

Trey turned his head to look at Apolo. "What kind of imperial guard are you? She is hurting me!"

Apolo reached for something crawling by and popped it into his mouth. "You should not have challenged her."

Trey exploded with outrage. "I did not challenge her!"

"You knew you could not best her," continued Apolo as if he had not heard him.

"Ha!" cried Arora with triumph. She leaned down until she was nose to nose with Trey. "You cannot best me. You heard Apolo!"

Suddenly she raised her head and she turned it in the direction of the tree where they were watching. "Who is there?"

And just as suddenly the trance ended with Amyr, Chaela and Shamara on their backsides on either side of the bed.

"I hope you have a good reason for interrupting my private moments," said their mother with a glare. Apolo was looking at them with amusement.

Chaela rubbed her head where she had bumped it on the floor. "I am just glad I did not see anything improper."

Her mother lifted her chin sanctimoniously. "There was never anything improper between your father and I."

Shamara cleared her throat and their mother's cheeks grew pink, knowing that she was the result of their improper interaction.

Apolo laughed as he left the bed. "Unless you want me to stay, sister, I told Larya I would come to bed before second sunrise. Your discussion at the table has me wondering if she might have a surprise waiting for me and I am eager to find out what it is."

"Wait!" Amyr put out his hand to stop him. "We have something important to tell you about Staefyn."

"You spoke to Staefyn?" Arora's hand flew to the middle of her chest and Amyr felt her anguish. "What did he tell you?"

"He did not tell us anything," Shamara told her.

"You were involved in this?" Apolo shook his head. "Shamara, when will you learn? You could have been in danger! Staefyn's wards are very strong."

"He let us through the wards," Shamara argued.

She told them that they had seen Staefyn healing Quynn the abuse of his warlord, that he had intentionally drawn them all into a trance of his making.

"You realize that he let you see what he wanted you to see, that he has complete control over Quynn, hence complete control over you."

Amyr was surprised to hear himself say, "I don't believe that, uncle. I think Staefyn needs our help."

"He brought Quynn into the trance," Shamara reminded them. "And she told us that Staefyn is trapped with a blood bond."

"A blood bond?" Arora was surprised. "How could we not know?"

"We never felt his powers," Apolo said. "But I suspected there was something wrong with him when he came of age. I have never seen the females react to Staefyn, but more importantly, he never pursued them as a healthy young male should."

"Ever?" asked Arora, her distress never more evident for the son who had lost his way.

"I am sorry, but not ever." Apolo reached out to take her hand. Amyr knew that his father had been trapped with a blood bond to his mother when they were but children, but they had fallen in love, would have even without the bond. There could be no possible way for the same to happen to Staefyn, not with that treacherous female.

His mother looked at them. "What female has done this to him?"

Amyr could not bring himself to say the name.

Shamara could not either, but she reached out to seize both Apolo's and Arora's hands to convey the information. Arora cried out in horror and snatched her hand away while Apolo made a sound of dismay.

"Zeno should have killed her," he finally said. "All these years I thought she was dead. I don't know how I am going to tell Larya that Xuxa is alive."

"When could she have done this?" asked Arora anxiously, now wringing her hands as if she were trying to clean filth from them. Amyr knew how she felt and could not imagine what Staefyn was suffering to be under the woman's power.

"Long ago," Apolo said with a sigh. "Probably before he came of age. You may be able to find some record in the archive of an instance when he was not closely guarded. The scribes that preceded Stryfe were not nearly as entertaining, but they were thorough."

"Taeron might remember something," suggested Shamara. "Did he not traipse behind you with Staefyn when you were younger?"

Amyr shrugged. "We will have to wait to ask him until we have returned to Imperia, and that won't be until father sends for us."

His mother was still wringing her hands and her strong aura forced her anxiety on everyone in the room. "I want to do something to help him now."

Fortunately Apolo was there to talk sense into her. "Arora, Staefyn is not in his right mind. He is under the influence of that wretched harridan and he has already tried to kill you once. If you try to contact him in a trance, he may use the opportunity to try again." When her shoulders slumped, he went to her and drew her into a comforting embrace. "Come with me. We can talk to Larya together about this."

Amyr was glad that Apolo would keep her with him because he did not trust her when she wanted so desperately to help her son.

Apolo raised her chin to meet her gaze, his own glowing golden. "You will listen to me on this, sister. I could not bear to face Trey to tell him that you will never return to him."

"We cannot even be certain that what Quynn told us is true or whether it is some story he put in her mind to garner sympathy," suggested Shamara, probably to give her mother some doubt, some hope.

By the time Arora left with Apolo, Amyr was sure that she would not try to contact Staefyn in a trance to reason with him or at least Apolo would prevent her. Staefyn could not be trusted and there was no way for them to know the truth when he could be manipulating them.

When he returned to his bed, the second sun had already risen and he was exhausted, but his thoughts were centered on Quynn and how the warlord was making her suffer. Staefyn could stop the Varoonyan bastard, but he was using her suffering to ease his own by using his healing powers. Amyr knew how pleasant it felt to heal another, but Staefyn's skill had given him a different pleasure, one that made Amyr want to wrap his hands around his neck and end his miserable existence.

But his violent thoughts melted away suddenly when his son snuggled against him, and he allowed the boy's innocent dreams to carry him to sleep.