Chapter 70
"I don't know where Apolo has taken my mother, but he has her so deeply in a trance that when he carried her to his chamber, she did not return."
Amyr had come to the door to the emperor's apartments where Duo was sitting on the floor in the corridor, his sword in his hand, his back against the wall. Amyr had just left Apolo settled on the bed holding his mother after watching them with Shamara and Chaela. Shamara had wanted to find out where Apolo had taken their mother, but Apolo had warded them for privacy, and unlike the time at Edgeland Fortress when they had been able to sneak into their trance, this one was impenetrable.
Trynity and Larya had come to the chamber from directing what was left of the staff and the few guards that were not from house Caron to clear out the receiving hall. Roehan and his men were searching the palace for any house Caron men who might attack when they were vulnerable. So Amyr had gone to find Lord Duo.
The second sun had risen hours ago and after leaving his mother's side, Amyr had first gone by Taeron's room only long enough to hear that his presence would not be welcome. Given Dijana's penchant for throwing things at him, he did not like his odds when he knew that Taeron kept his daggers close at hand. So he came here to see if his father had opened his door to his imperial guard, and he was heartsick to see that Trey had not let anybody inside to comfort him, not even Duo. Amyr knew that Duo had spent the entire night waiting for him. He looked exhausted and dejected, probably after spending all that time replaying the night of the house Caron attack in his mind, castigating himself for whatever slip he imagined he had made that allowed Renaeld to torture the woman he had been sworn to protect.
With a sound of disgust, Duo suddenly straightened and rose. "He has had enough time and this floor is gods' damned uncomfortable." Without another word, he lifted his booted foot and slammed it against the thick, double doors, forcing them to crash inward and hang open uselessly.
He strode into the emperor's living area. "Trey! Where are you?" he bellowed.
There was a bloody trail, so they followed it through the residence to the balcony outside Trey's bedchamber where they found him sitting cross-legged on an old mat, his head hanging forward, the sword he had used on his lap. Amyr knew that his father had given his own sword to his mother after receiving it, that he had given it to her as a sign of his love. The sword of the crown prince had drank the blood of many, but none so deserving as the last life it had taken.
His father had not made any attempt to clean himself and the blood of Renaeld of house Caron had dried on his skin and clothing and begun to flake under the rays from the suns. Trey did not move, did not even acknowledge Duo's less than subtle entrance. He stared at the sword in his hands and Amyr saw that he had cut his fingers on the blade. Even those wounds had crusted over.
Duo exchanged a look with Amyr and then shook his head. "I will get a basin of water. Talk to him. He might respond to you."
Amyr sat facing his father and he reached out for his hands, but Trey jerked his own back, and fresh blood oozed onto the blade of the sword. Although momentarily hurt by his rejection, Amyr realized that his father did not want him disturbing his thoughts with his intrusive touch, so Amyr clasped his hands in his own lap.
He wished he would allow him to ease his pain, that he knew the words that would console him. Instead, he said, "There is much to do, father. They have all left the palace." Amyr smiled at his father's bowed head. "You have always wanted the palace cleared of those imperial sycophants. Well, they are all gone today."
He did not respond.
"Mother is with Apolo in his room in a trance. The women are watching over them."
He still had not spoken when Duo returned with a basin of water and a cloth. "Keep talking to him and clean him up a bit while I prepare a bath."
Since the servants ran fresh water through the bathing pools in the morning, Amyr suspected they had fled the palace with the men and women of the imperial court, probably fearing immediate reprisal by house Caron. The reports from the city all indicated that the southern warriors had headed in the direction of the Wastelands, just as Duo had predicted. They would march for several days and wait several more for the men in the south to join them. That would give his father some time to call for his own allies. Amyr knew this would be a test of their loyalty, the first after so many years of peace. Would they engage the powerful house Caron army or would they not consider what happened to a female many years ago justifiable cause?
After Duo left, Amyr soaked the cloth in the water and reached out to wipe the dried blood from his father's face, and he did not even move during his ministrations. Sighing, he rinsed the cloth in the basin and watched as the blood turned the water pink.
"Taeron is with Dijana." He smiled to himself and then chuckled. "He was completely surprised to see Dijana, but I knew that she had arrived. His mother told me to stay by his side and keep him from discovering her presence. I think he will probably be angry with me for keeping such a secret from him."
"An imperial guard should not keep secrets," he heard his father mutter although he had not raised his head.
Amyr heard a sound of dismay and he looked up to see that Duo had returned. He could see that his father's imperial guard looked regretful, but then he straightened and frowned at Trey. Without responding to the comment that was more about him than Amyr, Duo strode to where Trey sat and he seized the sword from his hand and wrenched it away, cutting him even more before he tossed it aside. He seized handfuls of his blood-stained clothing and jerked him up, and when Trey tried to shove him away, Duo caught him in a hug from which he could not struggle free. He used his considerable strength to wrestle him inside from the balcony and through to the bathing chamber. Amyr followed, waiting for a chance to help, but Duo was more than capable and Trey soon ceased his struggles, his limp body becoming more of an obstacle than his struggles had been.
Stepping into the pool, Duo dragged the emperor in with him, and Trey gasped and arched his body to escape. The water in the pool quickly became befouled with Renaeld's blood and Amyr could tell by the chill in the usually humid bathing chamber that Duo had filled the pool with cold water. Chattering himself, Duo shoved Trey's head beneath the water and held it there for several seconds, then pulled Trey up to let him take a breath before shoving him back beneath the frigid water. After doing so another time most of the blood had been cleaned from him.
They stood in the pool then, their sodden clothing stuck to them, shivering from the cold and Duo put his hands on Trey's shoulders.
"I gave Arora my word that I would not tell you how close Caron came to cutting off her head."
Trey raised his head and his eyes met Duo's.
"If I had known what Renaeld did to her,"continued Duo. "I would have hunted that bastard down and cut him in half. I swear to the gods, I never would have agreed to keep that from you. I never would have let you pardon that worthless dung."
Tears spilled over Trey's lashes and ran freely down his cheeks as he raised his head to meet Duo's gaze, but Amyr could feel that he was too overwhelmed to speak.
"Renaeld lied to you, Trey. Her men were slaughtered trying to defend her, not leading them to you, and she fought to save them as they fought to protect her. But Caron had too many men and he butchered them all. I was almost too late."
"I should have been there!" Trey swayed and Duo brought him close to hold in his arms. "Gods, Duo! How she must have felt when I publically pardoned that bastard! How could she have lived with this for so many years?" He turned his head to look at Amyr and he closed his eyes as if the sight were too painful before he turned back to look at Duo. "I am not worthy of her!"
"Arora loves you, Trey. She did what she thought she must to protect you and her children, and every one that she has grown to love."
Trey reached up to wipe at the tears still sliding down his cheeks. "They call her a whore and she has more honor than any of us."
"She is with Apolo now. They will return when she is ready."
His father did not respond, so Amyr found a drying cloth. "You should get out of the cold water, father."
He shivered violently and he let Duo help him out of the pool. "By the gods, Duo, you almost killed me giving me a bath!"
Duo slapped him on the back, propelling him towards Amyr. "Your son can heal you."
Trey moved away from him and after he peeled off his clothing he allowed Amyr to wrap him in the drying cloth. Amyr dried him as if he were Yori, rubbing the cloth vigorously and when he finished, he found his father staring at him with a frown.
"Are you going to tuck me in now?"
Duo snorted. "If you don't go to your bed on your own, I will tuck you in and you will like it even less than the bath."
Trey took the cloth from Amyr and after wrapping it around his waist, he headed to his bedchamber. He stopped just inside and stared at the bed and Amyr knew that he would not be able to keep himself from imagining what had happened to his mate when her scent was everywhere.
After a moment, he let out his breath. "I would like some tea," he announced and then he walked to the bed.
Duo marched out in his soaking clothing, so Amyr followed his father to the bed and when he sat, Amyr knelt before him and ignoring his father's protest, he seized his hands where he had cut them on the blade of the sword. As he healed him, he used his senses to determine if he was hurt elsewhere, and his father's thoughts came to him unbidden, sorrowful thoughts for his wife who had lived so many years in the very rooms where a monster had violated her, where she had almost lost her life.
When he finished healing his hands, Amyr put his hands on his father's shoulders and peered up at his face. "Father, you surely realize that my mother experienced so many happy moments in these rooms."
"You have intruded on my private thoughts," he accused him resentfully. "You are worse than Shamara."
Amyr would not let his father's words hurt him. "You sent your feelings to me; I did not probe for them."
"And I did not ask for you to speak of them aloud."
He ignored him because he needed for his father to listen to what he would say. "Does it matter where that bastard hurt her? Even if it was in this very room, she has known pleasure with you here and the joy of bringing your children into the world. I was born in this bed, father, the same night he tried to destroy her. Don't let your knowledge of those few moments of horror undo all the years of happiness."
His father reached up to put his hand on Amyr's cheek. "You were a spoiled rotten bastard of a son. Now you are so wise."
Amyr put his hand up to cover his father's. "When Taeron sang of your love and your pain, father, the gods spoke to me and for once, I listened. Did you listen to Dijana as she sang mother's words? As your love for her grew, so did hers for you. You have always known that she would give her life for you and I know that she still would."
Trey sighed deeply and for a moment he did not speak and Amyr did not pry into his thoughts. Then he said, "I am so ashamed for what I was forcing Taeron to do when I knew that he loved another." He raised his gaze to Amyr. "Your mother saved me from making that mistake."
Duo returned then with a pot of steaming liquid and two delicate cups that seemed more suited for females. He must have changed clothing while the tea brewed. "You can thank Larya for these ridiculous cups which she warned me she wants back, and I warn you, Trey, that Trynity prepared the tea. She said it was a special brew just for you."
Amyr saw his father purse his lips before he said, "Are you allowed to drink it as well, Maxwell? Because if you are not, I can only assume that she has finally decided to poison me." He held out his hand. "Give me a cup of her witch's brew anyway."
Chucking Duo filled the two cups he brought and handed one to Trey. "Sorry, Amyr, but Trynity assured me that it will knock out a canyon beast and after last night, I need the rest. Somebody has to have a clear head, even if it is you."
"I am gratified by your faith in me, my lord." muttered Amyr, but he was amused as he watched the two men.
"A canyon beast?" Trey touched his cup to Duo's. "Here's to Trynity Stryfe. We would both be a mess without her, you because she is the only female that would put up with you and me because I need her pharmaceuticals."
They drained their cups and then laughed as they tossed the fine china over their shoulders to break on the floor before they fell on their backs on the bed.
"Sometimes I miss the other guys," Amyr's father commented after a moment. "Life was so much easier then."
"Yeah, smoking a little of that greenery you were growing in the garden …."
"... annoying the teachers and cutting classes ..." Amyr's father sighed. "Did you see how beautiful Arora was last night? For once I could have had the belle of the Stardust Ball dancing in my arms."
Lord Duo grunted. "She can't dance, and neither can you."
Trey laughed. "By the gods, Duo! That woman planned and pulled off Taeron's wedding to Princess Dijana right under my nose!"
"You were too busy ogling her to notice." Duo laughed with him. "It's too bad she took notes from Relena on how to throw a party."
When they stopped laughing, Trey said, "I think Miss Stryfe has dropped a few of her special herbs in the tea."
"I am feeling it too."
"I cannot remember the last time I was this high. Gods' damn, I am starting to feel sleepy."
Lord Duo opened his mouth to speak, but his eyes rolled up and managed only an incomprehensible mumble.
Amyr was smiling as he left the two men unconscious, and he went to Apolo's room. Upon entering, he saw Trynity holding his mother's wrist, so Amyr knew she was making medical observations. If anyone deserved to be a Guerani healer, it was Lady Trynity, but the gods had another plan for her. Without her remedies, many people would suffer.
"Are they out?" she asked.
He nodded. "Is my mother well?"
"Her pulse is steady, so Apolo must have taken her some place soothing."
"I wish mama would come back so that we can help her," said Chaela anxiously.
"She needs time away," said Shamara. "Apolo is with her."
Larya was looking at her mate. "Even when I believed the scars of my past were too old for him to heal, he knew exactly how to ease the pain."
Amyr looked at her. "Did you know what happened to my mother?"
She nodded. "Arora told me many years ago after Taeron was born. She needed to tell someone because the secret was causing her distress, and I told her then that she should reveal it to her mate, but she was adamant that no one know, not even Apolo."
"My father's rule was not as stable then," commented Amyr. "He would have taken whatever houses he could rally to attack Caron and we probably would not be sitting here now."
"No, we would not," agreed Larya. "Over the years Arora has earned the respect of the warriors and the great houses. Trey will have many, if not all, behind him now."
Amyr reached out to touch his mother, and when he felt Apolo's wards, he sighed and went to sit on the floor beside Trynity who put her hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see the concern in her eyes.
"Have you heard anything more from Quynn?"
He glanced briefly at Shamara. They had tried without success to reach Staefyn. If he heard them, he ignored them. "If Staefyn has harmed her, he would have let me know by now."
"I supposed he would have. If he is keeping her safe, which we have no reason to believe that he is although Arora is certain he would not harm her when she is carrying a Guerani child, we cannot believe that Xuxa and Kai are under the same restriction." Trynity sighed. "I abhor war, but I will be glad when this one has come and gone even though I be kept busy with many, many injured."
"We will help you," spoke up Shamara. "Dagan insists that I stay out of the fighting, but he did not forbid me from helping the healers."
"I am surprised that he does not demand that you return to Bayman," remarked Trynity. "Taeron wanted Dijana to return to Teralon with her parents. I agree that she would be safer there."
"Her parents are not leaving either," Larya told them. "Neria intends to fight and her mate did not try to talk her out of it."
The queen of Teralon and her mate were every bit as bloodthirsty as any Calabrian although they preached otherwise. "You need not worry about your friend," Amyr told Larya. "I have seen her fight on several occasions. She is a formidable warrior." And more ruthless than any man.
The door opened and Yori poked his head in. "May I enter, papa?"
He nodded and when Yori came to him, Amyr pulled him onto his lap. "Why are you not at your lessons?"
"The master of letters did not come and Jeshed could not find him. Stryfe did not even look at us when we went to see him, so Jeshed went flying and he said I could not go with him because he was going to look at the army for Taeron and it might be dangerous. Will you give me my lessons today, papa?"
Shamara covered her laugh with a cough.
Chaela was not nearly as polite. "You can probably give your father lessons by now."
Amyr saw Trynity smile and he laughed at the absurdity of giving reading lessons to Yori. "I am sorry, Yori, but Chaela is right. I ignored my lessons, so I do not read well."
"Or at all," Chaela corrected him.
Yori frowned. "May I also ignore my lessons?"
Feeling like a hypocrite, Amyr was about to tell Yori he had no choice, but Lady Trynity answered for him. "Your father regrets the fine opportunities that he squandered." That statement was not altogether true. Amyr found reading an oppressive bore. "You do not want to do the same, do you?"
"I like to read." Yori was looking at him, so Amyr knew he had read his thoughts and disapproved. "I have read many exciting stories from the archives."
"I prefer to live them," Amyr admitted, drawing more snickers from his sisters.
Yori stood and went to the bed. "Where is grandmother? Can I go to her?" Before anyone could stop him, he climbed onto the bed to cuddle beside Arora and he reached out to take her hand. Amyr expected him to say something about the ward blocking him, but Yori's eyes became blank as he entered the trance with his grandmother.
Shamara and Chaela leaped to their feet and hurried to the bed, and Amyr joined them. Shamara reached out to touch them, then shook her head. "I cannot get through."
Amyr tried as well and found the same wall he had felt earlier. "Did Apolo let him in?"
"I doubt he would want a child disturbing them," remarked Larya.
"Then Yori can breach Apolo's wards," said Chaela with awe. "How does he have so much power?"
"Do you think Jeshed knows something about it?" suggested Shamara. "Jeshed has been with him since his birth."
"There is nothing particularly magical about Jeshed," Trynity told him. "unless you consider his ability to transform into a dragon, something I understand even less than magic. The changes at the molecular level …" Shamara cleared her throat and Trynity seemed to realize that no one understood her. She mumbled something about becoming as bad as her father before speaking again. "Quynn had assumed that Jeshed initiated the trances, but Jeshed admitted that Yori did it, that as an infant, Yori unlocked the stones of the bracelet into which he had been imprisoned."
Before they could speculate any further, Yori stirred and sat up, releasing his hold on his grandmother's hand. "Grandmama told me to come back after I have told you all that she is well, and she wants me to bring grandpapa to her." Without any further explanation, Yori hopped off the bed and dashed from the room.
Amyr exchanged glances with his sisters and then they hurried after the boy who raced the deserted corridors before ducking through the doorway that Duo had destroyed. Yori did not stop until he had climbed on the bed with his grandfather and seized his hand. Since he was already unconscious, the only evidence that Trey had entered the trance was when his body jerked at Yori's touch.
The three older Guerani stared at Yori in incredulous silence for several moments. Amyr could not even imagine how his son came to be so powerful. A small child should not even be able to initiate a trance let alone tie it to another.
Chaela must have been reading his thoughts because she said, "Stryfe has studied the Guerani texts that were found in the hills. Do you think he can tell us something about Yori's abilities?"
Amyr remembered Stryfe boasting of his superior knowledge of Guerani development when they had been on Norvana, so he suggested consulting him. Chaela wanted to stay behind with Yori to watch over him and their father, but Shamara went with Amyr to Stryfe's workroom. They found the scribe busy writing on a parchment. As usual he did not acknowledge them or look up from his work.
"Why must we always perform this ritual?" asked Amyr with annoyance. "I know you are busy, but ..."
"And I know that you believe, as you always do, that what you want is more important than anything I have to do." Stryfe had not raised his head to speak to him.
Amyr glanced at Shamara. "Maybe he will listen to you."
Before she could speak, Stryfe did. "Why would I listen to her? She is every bit as spoiled and demanding as you."
"I am not spoiled!" declared Shamara hotly. "Nor am I demanding!"
"There are several scrolls worth of accounts from your childhood that beg to differ," said Stryfe with a chuckle.
Amyr grinned at his sister. "And you thought you got away with all your tantrums."
"I did not have tantrums." Shamara was flustered and Amyr wanted to laugh, but they had come to see the scribe for a purpose although hearing what his predecessors had written about Shamara would have been amusing. Perhaps another time he would return and have Yori read them to him. He noticed Shamara glaring at him.
"We want to hear what you discovered in the Guerani texts," said Amyr, looking back at the scribe.
Although he hadn't stopped writing, Stryfe frowned. "Can you imperials ask me to unroll scrolls that are not caked with centuries of dust? My sinuses are still recovering from the last time you were here."
Shamara crossed to him and put her hand on his head. "You are lying! You have no ill effects from our last visit."
"I was not lying, I was exaggerating." With a disgusted sigh, Stryfe set aside the feather with which he was writing. Amyr noted that it was gold tipped.
"Did you get that from Prince Roehan?"
"These Teralonian quills are excellent for writing." He picked up the long feather to turn in his hand. "He dropped a half a dozen last night in the hall, and I have some from Queen Neria as well. These quills are far sturdier than any from the birds on Calabria and I can sharpen them to a fine point. I may have to follow them about to harvest their feathers."
Amyr doubted Roehan would appreciate the scribe dogging his footsteps nor those of his mate.
"We did not come here to discuss what you use to scribble with," snapped Shamara irritably.
Stryfe snorted. "The truth is rather painful, is it not, princess?"
"You are going to feel something painful if you do not cooperate." Shamara was glaring at him with her fists clenched at her sides. Amyr wondered if Dagan saw this side to his sister often. Since Amyr had grown up with her, he knew that Dagan saw this Shamara daily. He had probably been relieved that she had gone to visit her family.
"I can hear you thinking, brother," she said through gritted teeth.
"In the interest of keeping peace among the imperial siblings, I will fetch the Guerani scrolls."
When Stryfe set aside his precious quill and went to the backroom where they could hear him grumbling as he moved around the round leather cases into which the scrolls were stored, Shamara reached out and snatched up the quill he had been using and ground the point on the floor before quickly replacing it as Stryfe came out with an armful of scrolls. Amyr frowned at Shamara's childish behavior, and yet he wanted to pat her on the back for a job well done.
"Where do you want me to begin? What are you looking for this time?"
"We want to know why Yori is so powerful," Shamara told him.
Stryfe frowned at her. "Perhaps you should be asking yourselves why you are less powerful."
She made a sound of exasperation, but Amyr spoke before she could irritate Stryfe any further. "I know that you are busy recording the events of last night and that we are intruding ..."
"Do you know how impossible this work is? Your father wants to be amused when I read the accounts. I can hardly put a comical spin on what happened last night." Stryfe scratched at his head.
"Papa was there. I think he knows what happened well enough," said Shamara unsympathetically.
"My father does not need to be entertained with that episode," agreed Amyr.
"I still have to enter into the official record the marriage of the crown prince," Stryfe told him. "I have been eagerly looking forward to telling that story, but this business with house Caron has made it beyond impossible."
"You will figure it out later, you always do." Amyr sensed that Stryfe wanted to hear some approval and once he had given it, the scribe was less anxious. Amyr pointed to the scrolls that were old and brittle from age. "Have you read them all?"
"Most," he said. "What has Yori done now that has you speechlessly amazed? His development would not be cause for concern among the Guerani who left these texts behind. In fact, it was quite common."
"But Yori is not full-blooded Guerani," pointed out Amyr. "There is less in him than in me."
"Yori was conceived in a trance," Stryfe told him. "He is able to enter in and out of them with no effort because he is of that world, not this one."
Shamara gasped. "Is he in any danger by staying in this world?"
Stryfe shook his head. "No. In fact, to keep bloodlines pure when Guerani mated with plainsmen or Calabrian imperials, they did so in a trance. Yori has pure Guerani blood. If you want the rest of your children to be the same, you know what to do."
Amyr exchanged a look with Shamara, then he nodded to Stryfe. "Thank you for giving us your time."
Stryfe went back to his work. "If I have answered your question sufficiently, I have an epic tale to write." He picked up his quill, and as he studied the end, Shamara grasped Amyr's hand to hurry out and they were halfway down the corridor before they heard his bellow of anger.
"That was very childish," remarked Amyr with a laugh when they came to a stop.
"You know you wanted to do it," she said. "Now that we know why Yori is so strong, what do you want to do?"
He raised a brow. "Why do you ask?"
"Yori can slip past wards."
Amyr shook his head vehemently when he realized what she was about to suggest. "No! I won't use my son to get inside Guerani Palace."
"He may be able to give us a chance to speak to Staefyn. By the gods, Amyr, do you know what will happen if his warlord makes an alliance with house Caron?"
"Would you use your son to contact that madman?"
"He is our brother and Guerani like us! I should think that you, above all people, would understand what he is suffering in that female's power!"
"Because he did it to me!" Amyr was furious that she could think he was sympathetic to Staefyn's plight. At least Staefyn was with his mate when Amyr had to spend years dealing with the pain his separation from Quynn had caused.
"We have to try to help him," insisted Shamara.
"I will only agree if mother and Apolo think it is a good idea."
She rolled her eyes. "When have they ever thought us capable of a good idea?"