Chapter 69
Suddenly Taeron was torn away from Dijana so violently that she stumbled and would have tumbled to the floor had her father not leapt upon his table and flown across the hall to quickly scoop her into his arms. He carried her to safety back to the table where her mother had already slipped off the bangles on her wrist to hold in her fingers ready to throw and Guillem and Valter had taken defensive stances with deadly sharp quills in their hands ready to protect the royal family.
Renaeld stood facing Taeron, his body rigid with rage, his face red. "You have shamed my house!"
Arora did not give Taeron a chance to speak as she cut between them so forcibly that Taeron stumbled back, and she raised her chin to glare at the infuriated man. "No agreement has been signed, no oaths have been given and no bond has been made."
"You Guerani bitch!" he snarled. "You planned this entire farce!"
Taeron wondered if Arora did not believe he would have the audacity to strike against her because before she had a chance to react, he reached out to grasp her neck in his hands. Taeron lunged forward, but Renaeld tightened the hold on her and stepped out of his reach.
"Get back, crown prince, unless you want me to snap her neck."
Taeron saw the warning look in her eyes, and he had to remind himself that she was an imperial guard, probably the best imperial guard that was ever trained. He backed away, giving her room to do what she did well although his heart was pounding in fear for her.
"Let my wife go!" Trey was standing now and Taeron could see that he was shaking, whether from anger or fear or both, he did not know, but Taeron knew how he had felt when Dijana had been in Balak's threatening grasp. Renaeld would never leave this hall alive.
Renaeld laughed and leaned forward to speak in Arora's ear. "He doesn't know, does he. All these years I waited for him to come for me, and I did not even realize his ignorance until his warm welcome several days ago."
"It is the only reason you are still alive," Arora managed to force out.
"A woman like you deserves a better mate than that pathetic excuse for a male. Do you ever think often about that night, my sweet Arora, as I do?" He rubbed his face against her hair and breathed in deeply. "I will never forget! That fool Dilan never had you, and I had to listen to him whine and cry with need of you after he bonded himself to you. He treated me like dirt on the bottom of his heel, just like my brother." He dragged Arora against him. "I never thanked you for breaking my brother's neck that night, but then I owed him thanks for distracting you so I could have what you kept from them all."
"I should have broken yours instead," she hissed, her voice hoarse. Taeron saw that the emperor had come around the table, and Renaeld saw him as well.
"Stay back or I will kill her," he warned Trey. He laughed when Trey stopped moving. "I have you where I want you now, Trey, just as I had your mate that night, cowering like a dog as I took what I wanted. You were not the fierce warrior then, my sweet Arora. My father thought it amusing, and I think that was the only time he ever approved of me."
No one could move to stop him, not when a quick jerk could end her life. Taeron wished he had not left his daggers in his room. He would put one in the middle of his forehead and the other in his black heart although he truly deserved a slow and very painful death.
"I am going to kill you," said Arora through gritted teeth.
Renaeld rubbed his body against hers. "You could not do it then and you cannot do it now, Guerani whore. Your ancestors would never forgive you."
"I don't give a gods' damn if they forgive me or not." She suddenly broke his hold and flipped away from him. Twisting in the air, she landed facing him and she scarcely paused before she charged forward and Taeron knew that she could easily kill him with her bare hands.
But before she reached him, Lord Duo dived past her, a sword in his hand and his blade came down on a blade that Renaeld had pulled from inside his tunic. He would have gutted Arora on her attack had Duo not stopped him.
She came up hard against Duo and stumbled back, but when she quickly recovered and would have tried to go around him, Apolo dashed forward and seizing her arms, he dragged her away from them. The force of Duo's attack had rattled Renaeld whose training was as lacking as that of his sons. Duo was able to wrest the sword from his hand after driving him to the floor.
"Are you going to kill me, Maxwell?" taunted the lord of house Caron. "I slipped away from you that night when you were killing that old bastard Caron. Are you pleased to learn how badly your failed in your duty to the emperor?"
Taeron realized that his father had the sword of the crown prince that Amyr had hidden nearby, and he understood now why his imperial guard thought things might get ugly. Duo raised the sword above his Renaeld holding it with both his hands, his body tense, his face a mask of rage, and Taeron knew he was going to cleave the other man in half.
"Stop!"
The emperor's bellow stayed him, but he was shaking with the effort to restrain himself. "Let me kill him, Trey! He escaped under my watch, and now I will rectify the mistake."
"Will you take away my right?" demanded Trey harshly.
When Duo lowered the sword, Rendael's mocking laughter was cut short when the other man kneed him viciously between the legs, leaving him wheezing and whimpering on the floor. Duo stepped away, moving to stand between the house Caron bastard and Apolo who was still struggling to subdue his sister.
As Trey approached Rendael, he walked past Arora without even looking at her. His eyes were on Renaeld who was curled in a ball fighting for his breath. Taeron saw Keilana gripping the edge of the table where she sat, her eyes riveted to her father writhing on the floor while the other males of house Caron stayed back. Many of the men serving as guards in the palace were house Caron men and Taeron estimated at least a score who stood watching without betraying their feelings. They would not act now, not when Renaeld was only breaths away from death, not when he had revealed himself guilty of an unspeakable crime against the woman who had presented them with their imperial swords.
Duo offered Trey the sword, but he pushed it back, and after they exchanged a silent stare, Taeron's father stepped away although he remained within reach of the two men.
"So now you know," snarled Renaeld when Trey stood over him. His lip was curled in scorn, showing more bravery in the face of death than Taeron would have expected of the coward. "The tales they sing about the brave female imperial guard are all lies. Her own men led us to her!"
"Liar!" shrieked Arora.
Rendael turned to look at her, his smile disgusting Taeron who wanted to rip the man apart. "You don't need to pretend any more, Arora. Now everyone knows that you are just a female, a female that could not protect herself, good only for what I took from you."
Arora cried out in fury, but her scream was cut short when Apolo used the distraction to catch her hands and she became limp in his arms.
Rendael was smirking as he turned his head to look up at Trey who stood calmly over him, staring down at him. "She was a handful that night, too, but there wasn't anything she wouldn't do to protect her unborn brat." He looked at Amyr. "You can thank her skill as a whore for keeping you alive."
Amyr gasped furiously and darted to take the sword Renaeld had dropped, but Jeshed caught his arm and hauled him back.
The head of house Caron snorted derisively. "The house of Trey is filled with cowards and weaklings."
Before he could say anything more, Trey kicked him so hard in the face that his head snapped back and blood sprayed from his broken nose. Some imperials were fleeing now while others remained to watch the macabre spectacle, either wanting to hear of the Guerani whore's shame or to see the emperor destroy the arrogant head of house Caron. Taeron saw that Apolo was holding his now docile sister, and he suspected that even he did not know what had happened at the palace that night.
Renaeld spit blood at the emperor. "You can kill me, Trey, but that won't change anything." Renaeld's voice sounded strange through his broken nose. "Every time you touch that whore, you will remember what I have done."
Trey stared down at him silently for a moment and then he said, "Oh, I am going to kill you, make no mistake about that." When he drove his booted foot between Renald's legs which was still tender from Duo's blow, the other man howled piteously and his sons botled from their places. Aevan, tried to go to his father, but Amyr was suddenly before him, Renaeld's sword in hand, blade against his throat. Keilana backed away in terror, probably never having witnessed violence in her life, and yet she did not take her eyes off her father.
Trey dragged the other man up by his hair although he was squirming with agony and pulled him so that they were face to face. "And you are wrong, Rendael. It will change something. You will be dead."
"You cannot kill me either," Renaeld said with a crazed laugh that became a cough that spewed blood on the man holding him. "You need my warriors to fight that traitorous whelp hiding in the hills."
Trey's answer was to smash his fist in the other man's face, and the sound of cracking bones was audible as Renaeld's face caved in and blood sprayed out again. Letting him fall to the floor, Trey kicked him in the soft region of his belly, then stomped hard on his chest, and as he took out his rage for what had been done to his mate, viciously kicking and stomping him again and again, no one moved to stop him. When Renaeld ceased to resemble a man, the frenzy eased and Trey stood over him with bloodied clothing, the splatter making him nearly as unrecognizable as the pile of flesh that had once been Renaeld of house Caron.
Trey dropped down to straddle the other man. "I am going to be the last thing you see before I send you to the netherworld," he said, his voice so cold and deadly that Taeron did not even recognize it.
Renaeld's lips moved, to ask for mercy or to mock him one last time, no one would know because Trey squeezed his hands around his neck so that no sound came out. The body jerked beneath him as he squeezed tighter and tighter, but he released him suddenly and Taeron was shocked that Renaeld still drew in ragged breaths.
Without taking his eyes from the man beneath him, Trey held out his hand and Duo moved forward to hand him the sword of the crown prince.
Placing the blade against his neck, Trey leaned down until they were nose to nose, eye to eye. "This is what I will remember, Renaeld." He leaned on the blade, slowly pushing it through the other man's flesh and Taeron was disgusted to hear the gurgling sounds Renaeld made until Trey slammed the blade through his spine, severing the head from his body.
There was complete silence in the hall as Trey grasped a handful of Renaeld's hair to raise the dismembered head, and he rose to walk to Duo to whom he handed it off.
"Mount this refuse in the plaza and let it be known that any male that violates a female will be beheaded." Clutching the sword in his hand, he turned on his heel and walked out, headed in the direction of his residence without even glancing at his mate.
Taeron turned to see that Arora was sitting on Apolo's lap, and by the blank stares on their faces, he knew Apolo had taken her far away from the horror of what had happened.
Stunned by the events, Taeron was surprised when he felt his hand grasped and he turned to see that his mother had come to him. "I doubt you envisioned this for your oath ceremony." She glanced at the bloody mass on the floor that the males of house Caron now stood over.
Taeron wondered what they would do. Given the circumstances, Trey had a right to take his life, but he doubted the Caron males would forgive the brutality, and from all he had learned about their lack of respect for females, they probably did not feel that the emperor was justified.
"Go to Dijana," Larya said. "She is your wife now."
Taeron turned to see that Dijana was sitting with her parents, her face pale, her eyes straying to the mess on the floor over which Aevan now tossed a table covering as Caerl grasped his sister's arm and dragged her away. Several house Caron warriors helped Aevan roll what remained of the body into the fine cloth to carry away, leaving a bloody stain that might never wash out of the stone.
When Taeron went to the Teralonians, Dijana moved away from her father and threw herself into his arms. Holding her close eased some of the horror Taeron felt at what he had learned, what he had witnessed.
For once Neria did not make a remark about Calabrian brutality although it could not get any worse than what they had just seen. "Lady Arora wanted to make you happy, my lord prince, even if it meant defying her husband," remarked Neria with a glance towards Arora and Apolo, "but I do not think she anticipated this."
Because Lord Renaeld had arrived at the palace after Arora left, she must not have known that he was there. Given what he had done to her, the secret she kept that meant the difference between his life and death, the bastard was either a colossal fool or arrogant beyond reason. If his presence had unnerved her, Arora hid it well, perhaps mistakenly believing Renaeld would not dare reveal the mutual secret that had been the cement of an empire.
"I think the emperor showed marked restraint," said Roehan. "Had a man boasted of doing such to you, Neria, I would have torn off his limbs before ripping out his heart."
Neria raised her brows, "You like these brutish Calabrians now, Roehan? Don't get any ideas or else ….."
He waved his hand to cut her off. "You need not threaten me, Neria. I much prefer females to do all the thinking."
"Where did you find this intelligent man?" Trynity had come to the table. She looked at Taeron. "I do not think it would be wise to perform the bonding ceremony in the plaza. The warriors of house Caron are leaving the palace and they will probably evacuate the city by morning, but some may remain to cause trouble for you."
By the time Lord Duo returned, wiping his bloody hands on a cloth after doing the gruesome chore of mounting Renaeld's head, the hall had cleared of all but the imperial family. Once the blood-letting had ended, the men and women of the court fled and Duo had ordered the doors closed behind him. The palace would remain empty for days if not weeks as the emperor prepared for the inevitable war.
"You will need to gather your warriors, Taeron. House Caron won't head south. The march is at least two weeks to Caron's holdings, I am sure Aevan will send a messenger south and take the warriors that were serving the imperial house and those training at Edgeland Fortress to the plains to set up camp and raid the villages for supplies as they wait for reinforcements to swell their ranks."
"We cannot muster enough men to fight them," predicted Taeron. "Most of my forces were of house Caron." He did not want to fight the men that had accompanied him to Teralon and Varoonya. They were not just warriors under his command, but friends who had shared much with him in the last five years.
His father swore violently, then he said, "We will contact Darlac and I am sure that Meridon will raise the clans and send men to the surface. He likes the status quo and won't want house Caron telling him what to do, not after the last time he made the mistake of listening to them, certainly not when he learns what Renaeld did. That may take a few days, but I doubt Aevan will act before then. He may run into trouble with Warlord Kai's men on the plains."
"You cannot ignore the very real possibility of Prince Staefyn allying with house Caron," remarked Trynity. "The warlord will see that they have a common enemy."
"If Staefyn allies with that house after what that bastard did to Arora, I will tear his head off myself," snarled Duo, shaking off his wife's hand when she tried to calm him.
"I can't believe Staefyn would do that," exclaimed Taeron. "I won't believe it!"
"He tried to kill his own mother," Duo reminded him. The hand he ran nervously through his hair was shaky, and Taeron realized that his father had probably relived that awful night in the palace with every word that Renaeld spoke. He might even be blaming himself for not returning in time to save Arora from the bastard even though he had saved her life this night.
He took a deep breath, and when he blew it out, he looked past Taeron to Dijana who was waiting quietly. "I have yet to meet your lovely wife."
Despite the circumstances, she managed a charming smile. "I am pleased to meet you, my lord. I have spent several days with Lady Trynity, so I have heard much about you."
Taeron's brows shot up in surprise. "Several days?"
Duo laughed and clamped his hand on his shoulder. "I think you and Trey were the only ones who did not know that Dijana was on Calabria."
"But you told Trey that she did not come with her parents."
"I did not lie, boy." He winked at Dijana. "She came with the Varoonyans now imprisoned at Edgeland Fortress."
"What!" Taeron spun to look at Dijana who was flushing guiltily. "You came to Calabria with Varoonyans?"
"I had no reason not to trust Princess Cydeara."
"Cydeara?!" Taeron could not believe she had spent any time with Rangyor's sister. "Do you not know who she is?"
"She told me that you were her special friend."
Did she sound jealous? Taeron would laugh if he wasn't so furious with her over her reckless behavior. "Cydeara is Warlord Kai's wife! I had her incarcerated at the Varoonyan royal palace under heavy guard, but Staefyn must have released her during his short stay on Varoonya. That female is completely devoted to Kai and would to anything for him, including bringing you to Calabria for him."
Dijana straightened her shoulders and raised her chin. "She failed, and whether she meant to or not, she helped me to return to you otherwise I would still be on Teralon."
"You would be safer there. Perhaps you should return." Taeron did not want her to leave, but Calabria was on the brink of war and if the imperial palace were overrun, he did not want to think about what the men of house Caron would do to the woman that had supplanted their female.
"I will not leave you," she said furiously.
Taeron looked at her father. "You must see that this is no place for her now."
He threw up his hands. "I have no intention of getting between my daughter and her mate. I already tried that unsuccessfully. She belongs to you now."
Duo was chuckling as he stood back to watch him and Taeron noticed that Stryfe and Amyr stood by as well with amused smiles for the problem he was having with his wife. He had not even been married for an hour and they were already arguing! And yet he was so happy!
"I will stay by your side no matter where it takes me or what happens," stated Dijana stubbornly. "And there is something else you will not make me do."
Taeron did not have time to be haggling over the terms of their marriage when he had to prepare for war. "You might as well tell me now because making me wait is probably not going to make me like it any better."
"I do not wish for you to bond with me."
He felt as if he had been hit in the chest. "But … but why?"
Dijana stepped towards him and reached out to take his hands. "I love you and I never want to be parted from you ever again, Taeron. But there will be many times that your duties will take you from my side and I could not bear knowing that you are in pain."
Taeron wanted the bond with Dijana, but she seemed determined and he could not deny her. "You have thought this through? Do you know what it means for me to be an unbonded male?"
She grimaced. "Lady Larya told me that females will flock to you, that perhaps some day one might turn your head."
The thought was laughable. "That would never happen, Dijana. I love you." He had ample proof that the bonding was not necessary in the marriages of his mother and father. Some day she might relent, but her demand was so sensible that he had no argument.
"As I suspected," spoke up Trynity. "Common sense from the princess of a planet ruled by females."
"My common sense tells me now that Prince Taeron should take my daughter to his chamber," announced Queen Neria.
"By the gods," muttered Taeron, although the suggestion was not without merit. The gown Dijana was wearing was very beautiful, and yet he was considering how much better it would look lying in a heap on the floor at the foot of his bed.
He glanced towards Apolo and Arora and found that they had not yet returned from their trance, and then he looked at his father. "What of my duties?"
"I think your first duty is to begin your house," he told him. "Apolo will take care of Arora, and if he needs help, Shamara and Chaela are nearby. As for the emperor, Amyr and I will go to him. He will need some time to work through his rage."
There was little for him to do that his father or Amyr could not, and morning would be soon enough for him to begin gathering his army to take against house Caron. He felt guilty for the happiness he felt on this miserable night, and yet Taeron did what he had wanted to do on Teralon countless times. He reached out and grasping Dijana, he pulled her up in his arms to carry out. At first she squeaked in surprise, and then she curled her arms around his neck to hold onto him tightly. His mother hurried ahead to open doors for him and after she opened the door to his chamber, she stopped him with a hand on his arm.
"You shall always be gentle with your mate," she warned him.
"Of course, mother." He saw that Dijana was trying to hide her smile in his neck and he very much wanted to see that smile with her head against the pillows of his bed.
Larya pulled his head down to kiss his cheek, but she whispered in his ear, "Remember what I said about those times when females like their mates to be rough."
"Mother!" Taeron could not believe that she was instructing him in the doorway of his chamber on his wedding night with his mate in his arms listening.
"And follow her instruction."
By the gods!
"When she is breeding, you need not discontinue your bedsport."
Taeron managed to shove her out and close the door. "I don't think I need any advice from her when I am with you."
But he used her advice anyway, restraining his own need so that he could be gentle with Dijana, but soon enough gentleness wore away to urgency and his mother's second bit of advice came in handy.
Taeron was still awake when the rays of first sunrise crept into his room. Dijana was dozing with her head on his shoulder, her arm across his chest, and Taeron mused that this was the first morning with her that he did not need to worry about anyone finding them together. If he weren't already exhausted after all that had happened in the last two days, he would roll her on her back and find out about the magical time between first and second sunrise.
He felt her stir and he thought he might get the chance when she raised her head to look at him in the faint light trickling in from the open window. "Lady Larya told me that the time between first and second sunrise is special."
"Magical," he corrected her as he reached up to brush the mussed hair from her face. How much had those females discussed out at Edgeland Fortress? If she had spent several days with her mother and Larya, he hoped he could live up to the expectations they had probably made for him.
She reached up to take his hand to guide down her body. Taeron was eager to do anything she wanted, to follow her instruction as his mother had advised him, but she placed his hand on her belly. "Then now is when I will tell you, my lord prince, that we have made a child."
His shock was overcome with the joy he felt, but he did not dare believe her. "You told me that until you are no longer enthralled ..."
"I am not enthralled," she interrupted him as she put her hand over his. "Lady Trynity thinks your blood cleansed mine." He could see her smile in the faint light and his heart ached with the love he felt for her. "Your magical blood," she added with a soft laugh.
Taeron laughed with her and drew her to him, keeping his hand on her flat belly. "How do you know so soon? Are you Teralonian females like Calabrians?" They had complete control over all aspects of breeding.
"I did not know," she told him. "Lady Trynity told me that it must have happened when you were courting me, that night when you climbed into my chamber through the window."
That night was a very fond memory and he brought her head to his shoulder turned his own to kiss her temple. "You should rest for the sake of the babe." He could scarcely believe he was going to be a father! Did he dare ask if the child was a boy or a girl? Did he care for one over the other? He would like a son to teach to be a strong warriors, but a daughter ...
"Taeron?" She was moving her hand across his chest, then sliding it downwards. "Do you remember your mother's last advice?"
Now he understood why she had made that cryptic remark about breeding and bedsport. By the gods! He realized that everyone had known about the child but him and Trey. Taeron should have been angry, but he could not with Dijana in his arms, their child growing inside her beneath his hand.
"I don't think the magic she spoke of between sunrises is moon sprites appearing on the floor," she said as she turned in his arms and stretched up to kiss him.
There was magic between first and second sunrise. Taeron made sure of it.