Chapter 83
Since Keilana had come, Quynn left her room even less. Staefyn came to her room whenever he heard any news that he had from the imperial palace, and when he did, he spent many hours in her company and she suspected he was seeking refuge from the unpleasant situation he had created in his own home. He seemed to be amused by Keilana's efforts to usurp Xuxa's place in his house, that she did not even realize what the older woman was to him, but she sensed from what he did not tell her and his reluctance to leave her that Xuxa was not happy with Staefyn's young bride. Vaedra reported that Staefyn's women had gone from politely ignoring each other to arguing frequently, and sensing that the trouble between the two would explode, she warned Staefyn to stop pitting them against each other.
"Who do you suggest I speak to?" he asked her with annoyance "Shall I speak to Keilana and risk angering the males of her house? Or shall I tell Xuxa that she oversteps herself with my wife? She will deny her body to me. "
Quynn made a sound of disgust. "You partake far too often anyway."
"She is willing more often of late and I have a great need." Staefyn laughed and reclined on Quynn's bed. "Come lay with me. I need rest."
He often slept with her and Quynn could not bring herself to send him away when she was comforted by his arms around her, his hand on her belly. She suspected that he was communicating with her unborn daughter because the child moved against his hand and Quynn was flooded with joyful pleasure when she did. She did not want to give it up even though it felt like a betrayal to Amyr.
Now she set aside what she was eating, and after washing her hands, she readied herself for bed before covering the crystal lights to leave the room bathed in the light from the moons.
She went to lay down with Staefyn who pulled her against him in the circle of his arms. "Amyr would not like this," she remarked under her breath. He was warm and she was comfortable, so she did not spare too many thoughts for Amyr. She wasn't intimate with his brother and her feelings for Staefyn were not any stronger than her feelings for Stryfe or Taeron. If Staefyn had any stronger affection for her, he could not act on it, and since the day he had exchanged vows with Keilana, Quynn suspected he would rather be in her bed.
"Does Keilana think you are with her?" asked Quynn curiously. "Did you tuck her into bed with a sweet dream?"
Staefyn laughed softly. "The dream I left her with is far from sweet."
She turned on her side to face him. "Do you feel no guilt for what you are doing to her?"
"Guilt for that house Caron female? Her father violated my mother and her brothers will lead their men to break their oaths against my father when his retribution was just. I hate the lot of them."
"What has Keilana done?" Quynn hated to be his wife's advocate, but she sensed his vehement rejection of the female masked his futile attraction to her. "Vaedra tells me that she is trying to take on the responsibilities that should be hers as your wife and Xuxa is preventing her."
She felt him shrug. "I don't care what they do, and you should stay away from both of them."
Quynn doubted there was anything she could say that would make Staefyn act on his interest in the beautiful young woman he had taken as his wife. Keilana was far preferrable to Xuxa, but he needed Xuxa, so he would probably never be free of her.
He turned her away from him and he began to massage her back, having sensed her discomfort even before she felt it. "I am leaving tomorrow," he told her. "When I return, I will have a gift for you."
"The only gift I want is my freedom." She sighed when he did not respond. "When will you return?"
"In two days." She began to feel drowsy so she suspected he was putting her to sleep, and as she drifted away, she felt his hand on her belly, her daughter stirring to greet him.
The following day she left her room after taking her breakfast alone, and she wandered the empty corridors. In her condition she could not escape, so the guard had been relaxed although the palace had never been this empty. She suspected that Staefyn took the men with him where ever he had gone, leaving behind just enough to prevent her from leaving if she tried.
She heard voices from one of the salons, and thinking she might find Vaedra, she entered the salon and regretted it immediately because Keilana and Xuxa were inside along with Vaedra who stood in the shadows wringing her hands as she watched the two women. Now that Staefyn had taken a wife, she was conflicted in her loyalties also Quynn could see she looked more anxiously at Keilana.
"I prefer pale colors," Keilana told Xuxa. She swept out her hand to indicate the bright red fabric covering the sofa and hanging at the windows. "I dislike such tawdry décor and intend to make significant changes."
Xuxa rose from her chair. "Change what you wish. You will be living here for a very long time." She went to the window and Quynn would have left, but Keilana noticed her at the doorway.
"Lady Quynn?" Keilana smiled at her, but the smile faded as her gaze was drawn to her belly. "I have not seen you since the day I came here."
She was probably wondering if she was carrying Staefyn's child and Quynn debated letting her think it was and decided not to add dry kindling to the fire brewing in the room. "Sorry, but I don't feel like socializing with my jailors."
"Jailors?" Her delicate brows arched and she glanced at Xuxa. "Is Lord Duo's daughter a prisoner?
Xuxa looked at Keilana as if she were an ignorant fool and her tone punctuated her dislike of the younger woman. "Lady Quynn is Prince Amyr's bonded mate. Prince Staefyn wanted her for himself, so he took her."
Keilana's shocked pale gaze flew to Quynn. "Are you my husband's lover?"
Quynn opened her mouth to deny it, but Xuxa laughed. "What do you think, Keilana of house Caron? She is a beautiful woman. Did you really believe Prince Staefyn cannot bond? He did not bond with you because he does not wish to give up his whore."
Aghast, Quynn did not even know how to respond to the vitriol of Xuxa's lies. Should she tell Keilana the truth? Xuxa was looking at her with a smug smile, so Quynn guessed that Xuxa knew where Staefyn slept and while Xuxa enjoyed the attention of other males, she clearly preferred that Staefyn suffer without her.
Keilana did not seem to know how to respond either, and after a moment she frowned and turned her attention completely on Xuxa. "I have been here for several days, and I have asked my brothers but they do not know how to answer, so now I will ask you, my lady. What, exactly, is your position in my husband's - now my household?"
The smile Xuxa gave her was patronizing. "If you have to ask, my dear, then you don't need to know." She rose from her chair and headed to the door, but Keilana leapt from her own place and hurried to cut off her exit. Vaedra shifted, looked at Quynn as if she expected her to do something to stop the confrontation, but neither women moved. She wasn't going to get in the middle of a catfight and she would stop Vaedra from doing so because she did not want the older woman hurt.
Keilana seized Xuxa's arm. "You have not answered my question! I demand that you tell me who exactly you are and what you are doing here!"
The younger woman's fingers were digging into Xuxa's bony arm and Xuxa's lips were curled back in a snarl. Unfortunately, the women were blocking the only way out of the room, so Quynn was forced to witness this exchange. She wondered if Staefyn would be angry at her when he returned to the demanding women. She had not started this quarrel but he might blame her because her presence had been the catalyst.
"Let go of my arm." Xuxa's voice was little more than a growl, her threat implied. Vaedra took a step towards them but stopped when Quynn gave her a warning look.
Proving herself not to be as foolish as Quynn first thought, Keilana released Xuxa and Quynn winced to see the dark marks she had left on the older woman's arm. "I don't care what your position was in this household." Keilana raked Xuxa's face and form with contempt. "Whatever it was, it shall come to an end when my husband" she emphasized those words, "returns from whatever mission he has gone on."
"We shall see whose position in the household comes to an end when he returns." Xuxa encompassed Quynn in her malevolent gaze. "A great many things are going to change."
Turning on her heel, she walked out, Vaedra following after a reluctant glance at Keilana, and Quynn stared at the door, feeling more fear now than at any time since she had come to Guerani Palace. She saw that Keilana was more perplexed than frightened, and then she looked at Quynn.
"You know what she is hiding," she accused, her voice remarkably calm for someone who had just been threatened by what Quynn considered evil incarnate.
Quynn was only Staefyn's friend and even that was tenuous at best, so she was not going to get involved in the fight between his bonded mate and his wife. Keilana glanced briefly at Vaedra who remained quiet. She did not question her so Quynn guessed she had already done so and Vaedra had wisely chosen to keep Staefyn's secrets. Staefyn should be the one to tell his wife that he was bonded to another woman.
Keilana looked back at Quynn. "You are the sister of Prince Taeron."
Quynn threw up her hands. "You are not planning to blame me for the choices he has made? I have nothing to do with his love life." That was not exactly true, but Keilana would never know how Quynn had pushed Taeron towards the woman he loved and had helped them keep their affair secret on Norvana. "I don't understand Calabrian males." That much was true. She especially did not understand Guerani males.
"I did not wish to marry him anyway." Keilana moved away and walked to the window where she fingered the garrish fabric, her lips pursed together in disgust. At least they agreed that Xuxa had poor taste.
"He is pleasing to look upon," remarked the other woman after a moment. "Very pleasing. And I was honored to be chosen to be his wife." She did not speak as she looked out the window now. Quynn glanced towards the door and wondered if Keilana would notice if she left.
Quynn took a hesitant step towards an escape, but Keilana spoke again. "I knew he wanted another, but I thought he would forget about her. I had heard that he values duty above all else and his duty was to marry me as mine was to marry him."
With a sigh, Quynn gave up all hope of escaping Keilana's presence. "Taeron does value duty above all else - at least he did until he met Dijana of Teralon. I have come to realize that we do not choose who we love because if we could, I would not have chosen Prince Amyr and Taeron would not have chosen Princess Dijana. The gods know my mother certainly would not have chosen the young man that my father had once been."
Keilana turned to look at her, her brows furrowed. "I have heard much of Lord Duo. He killed my grandfather."
"That was before my time," Quynn said. "I did not even know about him then."
"My grandfather probably deserved to die," Keilana told her with a mutinous raising of her chin. "My father certainly did."
Quynn was surprised by her statement, but then she did not know anything about Keilana and her house. Her own father was an imperial warrior, honored guard of the emperor, so she guessed he had killed a lot of men in the years he had helped Amyr's father gain control of his throne. Taeron had once said that his father's sword had drank the blood of many. It couldn't be any more or less than he had killed in service to the Cinq Kingdom as a young man.
Heading to the sofa, Keilana sat and she indicated with a wave of her hand to the empty place beside her that she wanted Quynn to join her. Although she would rather return to her room, Quynn reluctantly sat beside the pale female. She should have listened to Staefyn and stayed away. Xuxa would not like hearing that she had befriended Keilana, but she did not think any harm could come of giving Keilana an ear if she needed to talk.
"If you have been a prisoner, you may not have heard what happened at the imperial palace the night Prince Taeron and I were to have exchanged oaths." Keilana clasped her hands in her lap.
Quynn could not decide if this female that had boldly taken charge of the negotiations between her father's house and Staefyn was playing a role now to garner her sympathy or whether she had stepped up that day to save herself. Either way, Quynn was not going to tell Keilana that Staefyn had already sifted through her memories and those of her brothers to discover what they had not told him. Quynn was curious about Keilana's point of view.
"I hated my father," Keilana admitted as she stared down at her hands. "When I was a child, I often saw him beat my mother. One night after a particularly horrific beating that he forced us all to watch, she came to my room in the darkest moments of the night, and with the help of several of my father's warriors, we fled his palace, intending to go west to her brother. House Wattan's lands were several days away, and I remember my mother telling the men that we had crossed into his territories. She had been so relieved, and she assured me that her brother would take us in regardless of the repercussions. Wattan was a strong supporter of the emperor, so between the two of them, we could be safe from my father's wrath. But my father and his men caught up to us, and he did not respect the boundaries of house Wattan lands."
Hearing what Renaeld had done to Lady Arora and how he had boasted of it, Quynn could imagine what the bastard had done to the females fleeing his home. She knew very little of the houses of Calabria, but she knew that house Wattan was a respected house, that its patriarch had been instrumental in bringing the emperor back to Calabria.
"I will never forget what he did to my mother before he killed her, and he forced the warriors to watch him and my brothers abuse her before he cut off their heads." She was trembling as she spoke, so Quynn was sure that what she told her had really happened and that she had been traumatized by it.
"I was frightened when Prince Taeron spoke his oath to another female at my oath ceremony, because my father had made it clear that I had only one use to him and I knew he would kill me."
After what Keilana had witnessed as a child, Quynn could understand how terrified she had been of what her father would do to her.
"I could not believe that my father had the audacity to threaten gracious Lady Arora, and when he boasted of what he had done to her, I remember what he had done to my mother." She was trembling with emotion. "I prayed to the gods to give him what he had well and truly earned."
Wondering if she was going to regret it, Quynn reached put a comforting hand over Keilana's. "I understand." Quynn had felt the same when she learned what Camridaeus had done to her mother. Despite knowing that he could not be blamed, Quynn could not forgive Quatre Winner, no matter how much money he threw at charities to atone for his agregious behavior when being controlled by the parasitic entity. She would rather see him punished even though she rationally knew he could not control Camridaeus.
"My brothers looked away when the emperor beat my father," Keilana told her. "He was so brutal, and there was so much blood, but I watched it all. I thanked the gods for every blow he gave him, and for me, it ended too soon."
Quynn was not shocked that Keilana reveled in the manner of her father's death. "I think I would have felt the same," she admitted. No female deserved what Renaeld of house Caron had done to them.
"I wanted to throw myself on the mercy of the emperor that night." She twisted her hands on her lap. "But my brothers forced me to go with them, and they told me that the only way they would allow me to live after my failure to wed the crown prince was to exchange vows with Prince Staefyn."
Her boldness was not so surprising anymore. What did surprise Quynn was Staefyn's lack of sympathy for her, but given her own feelings towards Quatre Winner, she understood how he could judge her as guilty as the rest of her family.
"Now I am married to a male that ignores me in the day and comes to me in the dark of night after I have fallen asleep. I have no power in his house, not when everyone defers to that disgusting female. Even you do not challenge her."
She may feel sorry for Keilana, but Quynn would not betray Staefyn. "I am not Staefyn's lover and this is not his child. His warlord brought me here because Staefyn wanted to keep me from his brother. I am Amyr's wife and this is his child. I do not challenge Xuxa because I am what I told you and nothing more. I am a prisoner." She did not tell her that Xuxa had promised her child to Staefyn, that Xuxa probably intended to throw Quynn off the terrace into the deep canyon over which the palace perched once she had given birth. Keilana's fate was probably not so far removed from her own when Staefyn secured his rule and no longer had a need for the house Caron female.
"You do not deny that he cares for you," Keilana persisted. "I do not want to return to my brothers, to live in that house. Until I came to the imperial city, I did not believe the stories the warriors told of the emperor's household, of his city and the lands that he rules. The males of my house entertain themselves by purchasing females and using them until they grow bored and then I never see them again. But the females of house Trey are treated with respect, even those that serve in his palace. The only males that I saw mistreating them were from my own house."
From what Quynn had learned of Calabria, she described the typical life of a female under the rulers that had come before Trey. Her mother hypothesized that there were far fewer males in the evolution of the plains people of Calabria that the females had evolved to tie the males to them with their blood to protect them and provide for their children. She theorized that at some point in the past when males had become more numerous, they balked against the females controlling them, and so they had begun to persecute them, using them only for breeding before discarding them and their female offspring. Whatever the reason, Zeno had begun the change by keeping first Xuxa and then Virinea, but his son had caused an upheaval by refusing to leave Shamara in the sands and openly showing his love for his wife. But there were still places on the planet where males resisted the emperor's decrees concerning the practice of slavery and treatment of females.
"I believed everything the males of my house told me about the females, that Lady Arora had been publically shamed by her own father, that Lady Larya had been a slave whose only purpose was to give pleasure to males and that she had done it many times. That Lady Trynity …."
"I would rather you not repeat what you heard about my mother." Quynn withdrew her hand from Keilana's. "My mother is a learned woman who has earned respect with her healing skills. The males of your house are rotten bastards to say anything against her. I know that she was raped by Lord Dax, that Camridaeus kept her as a slave. She did not deserve any of that. No woman would."
Keilana was quiet for a moment as she considered what Quynn said, and Quynn decided she had enough of the morose female's company. What she had told her made her feel uneasy about her future on Calabria when a battle would soon be fought to determine what path its future would take. If the emperor did not prevail, Quynn would know that the males of her house would be dead and her mother as well because she would put aside her healing potions to take up a weapon. Staefyn would take Yori as his son and when her daughter was born, he would have no more use for her either despite his kindness to her. She was naught but the female that bore the children he would claim as his own.
"I am sorry, Lady Quynn, if I upset you," said Keilana as she turned her pale blue eyes to look at Quynn's face. "I meant to tell you that the females were courteous to me even though I now realize none of them expected me to marry Prince Taeron. They could have rejected me, and while I realize they may only have been acting, it was the most kindness I have felt since I was torn from my mother's arms."
Although Quynn planned to leave, it was Keilana that rose and headed to the door. For the first few paces, her shoulders were slumped, but before she had reached the door, she stiffened her spine, squared her shoulders and walked out as if she were preparing for battle.
Her brief foray from her room had taught Quynn a lesson, and that was to stay in her room. When she returned to it now, she found Xuxa waiting for her. She stood holding Staefyn's tunic in her hand and Quynn saw Vaedra cringing and covering her face as she squatted in the corner. Had she hit the woman again, somehow blaming her for Staefyn's actions? The stones at her neck grew warm before Quynn took several calming breaths to cool them.
"I see that you have been entertaining my mate," said the old woman tersely. She tossed the tunic at Quynn, but it fell short at her feet.
Quynn looked at the tunic, glanced at Vaedra who was trembling with fear, and then she looked at Xuxa. "I don't recall inviting you to my room. Vaedra, will you bring me something to eat and drink." She did not speak again until the serving woman had scurried from the room and Quynn had seen the swelling on her face so she knew that Xuxa had struck her. Gods, she wanted to break every bone in her body for hurting the harmless serving woman.
"I do not need your invitation." Xuxa came near Quynn and she resisted the urge to stumble back away from her. She wasn't afraid of her, but she wasn't alone anymore. She had to protect her child from this monster. "What do you think will come of seducing my mate? He will never turn away from me, and when that child is born, we will have no use for you. Very soon Prince Amyr will be dead along with the rest of those gods' cursed bastards of house Zeno and house Dax."
"Aren't you forgetting about Prince Staefyn?" asked Quynn with the raise of her brow.
Xuxa walked past her, but she paused when she was beside Quynn. "Like you, he has his use and one day I will no longer need him either." She then left and Quynn blew out her breath. Staefyn could not return soon enough.
She remained in her room and Keilana had come once to speak to her, but Quynn feigned illness, blaming it on her pregnancy and since Keilana had no experience at all with breeding women, she hurried away to find Vaedra to attend to her. Vaedra had rushed to her imagining something had happened to her or the child and when she arrived to find nothing wrong, she was exasperated. She told Quynn that she was now expected to serve Lady Keilana, that Keilana pestered her with questions for which Vaedra either had no answers or did not want to answer.
"I had a daughter," Vaedra confessed to Quynn who was surprised. "Her father was an imperial and after he took her to the Wastelands, he beat me and turned me out of his house. I was captured and sold in the market to a male that worked me nigh to death waiting on the males of his house, and the females that came and went with the frequency of the seasons."
Quynn had not known about Vaedra's past, only that Staefyn had helped her. "When Prince Trey returned, his house rebelled against his rule and they were all killed, and I fled to the hills with the other slaves. I found a place among one of the tribes, and I was happy among them for many years until I fell ill. I left them to die, and that is when Prince Staefyn found me."
There were tears in Vaedra's eyes. "Seeing Lady Keilana makes me wonder what my daughter would have been like even though I have always been glad that she had been spared by the death her sire had given her."
Quynn could not imagine feeling the same for her own daughter, so she realized that she was unable to fathom how awful life on Calabria had been for females if they thought death was preferable for their daughters. Her mother had told her that Lady Arora had accepted Shamara's fate long before she placed her infant in her father's hands to dispose of her.
"Lady Xuxa is worse than any male that I have ever encountered," Vaedra told her softly. "I don't want her to hurt Lady Keilana."
Quynn assured Vaedra that she would talk to Staefyn when he returned although she had resolved not to become involved in the discord of his house.
The following day, Vaedra hurried into her room to tell her that the transport shuttle had landed and that Prince Staefyn had returned with more guests. Not knowing what to expect from him, she was at least curious about his gift and an influx of newcomers meant she would not be trapped between the two females. She hurried to the entrance hall where she found Xuxa waiting with Keilana, the two women standing far apart. Deciding that she disliked Xuxa far more than she did Keilana, Quynn went to stand with the younger woman.
Keilana did not look at her as she stared at the entrance. "I have already heard that he has brought more women. He lied to me, didn't he? He can bond, but he chose not to bond with me." She turned to look at Quynn for confirmation and when Quynn did not respond, she sighed and looked back at the doorway. "If I must accept his concubines …."
She did not finish her thought because a woman walked through the door that struck her silent. At first Quynn did not know who the beautiful, golden-haired female was and wondered if Staefyn was collecting females to look upon even if he could not touch them, but when she looked directly at her, Quynn was shocked to recognize her.
"Princess Dijana," hissed Keilana. "I am to share my mate with her?!"
Quynn seized her wrist before she could move forward. "You are ridiculous! Can't you see that she is a prisoner?"
Dijana looked frightened and hesitated to move any further into the room, and behind her came another woman who was dark-haired and darker skinned like Warlord Kai. She shoved Dijana forward, and then Staefyn walked in and Quynn was both overjoyed and horrified to see that he carried Yori propped on his hip.
"Mama!" cried out Yori, and Staefyn released him to dash to her. She did not want to think about what his presence coupled with Dijana's meant as she hugged him close, blinking away tears for the happiness she felt at having her son in her arms.
Yori whispered in her ear, "Papa is alive. They have not yet reached the battlefield."
Quynn kissed him again and again, grateful that he could read her thoughts and feelings so that he could put her at ease. She rose, and keeping her hand on Yori's shoulder, she found Staefyn standing before her. "You did not harm anyone?" Glancing past him, she saw Keilana glaring at Dijana and Dijana stood holding her hands clasped over her belly.
"I met with little resistance at Edgeland Fortress, at least none that I could not handle with the thralls I took with me."
"You did not answer my question," she pointed out. "Who remained at the fortress to guard my son, to oversee Princess Dijana?" She squeezed Yori's shoulder. "Who was watching over you?"
"Jeshed," Yori told her. "My uncle stopped him with a spell and put a collar around his neck."
Her hand flew the collar around her own neck and Quynn met Staefyn's gaze. "What did you do to him?" After being trapped in the bracelet, she did not want to imagine how Jeshed felt about this new form of slavery.
"I did not kill him,"he pointed out. "He cannot use his magic, so we will not be bothered by any fire-breathing dragons."
"He did not harm Princess Chaela or Princess Larya," said Yori.
Princess Larya? Quynn had no chance to question Staefyn because Xuxa stalked to them, her face a mask of fury.
"That whore is no princess! She is my slave! Why did you not bring her back as I demanded? Could you not at least have brought me her head?"
Yori moved behind Quynn to hide from Xuxa and Quynn took steps away from her as she came to Staefyn. Xuxa seized a handful of his hair and jerked his head down to hers. "Answer me!"
Staefyn surprised Quynn by putting his hand around Xuxa's bony, thin neck and she released his hair to claw at his hand as he leaned down to look into her eyes, his own glowing dangerously. "You did not tell me that Larya was my father's sister."
Quynn gasped in surprise, and Xuxa could not respond, could not breathe. Yori trembled as he clung to Quynn, probably fearing that Staefyn would risk the wrath of the ancestors by killing his mate.
"Did you know when you treated her worse than the lowest dog that my grandfather saved her, that she was Zeno's blood?"
Quynn knew that he did not expect an answer, and even from a few steps away, she could see the golden glow of his eyes as he probed her mind. Xuxa had ceased to struggle and Quynn recognized the blank stare, the same blank stare that Taeron had when Staefyn had dug into his mind, rearranging his memories. When he finished, he released his hold on her neck and drew her gasping and writhing against him.
"You monstrous bitch!" he snarled, but he buried his face against her neck, and as he brushed the dark marks his fingers had made with his lips, they healed and she arched against him with a cry of pleasure. She sobbed his name and he pulled her up in his arms to carry her from the hall.
A gasp made Quynn turn to see Keilana's face, stricken with the horror of understanding Xuxa's place in her husband's house. She thought about going to her, to comfort her, but she went to Dijana instead and when she reached out for her, the Varoonyan woman hurried to block her.
"She is my prisoner!" She seized Dijana's arm and roughly pulled her back. Dijana did not struggle and Quynn guessed the reason by the protective arm she put before her belly. Quynn hoped she could find out what had happened on Teralon.
"Let her go," demanded Quynn, hoping she sounded like she had more authority than she actually did. She deduced that the Varoonyan was Princess Cydeara and that Staefyn had brought Dijana to Guerani Palace to hand over to Kai as a reward.
"I told you, she is my prisoner! I brought her to Calabria for my husband."
Quynn wondered if it was common practice on Varoonya for wives to procure females for their husbands. Since Cydeara did not feel compelled to follow Quynn's order, there was nothing more she could do and she felt sick to her stomach to know that her brother's wife would be in the Varoonyan female's power.
But Keilana had gathered her wits and she came to them. "Release Princess Dijana at once!"
Cydeara glared at her. "Who are you?"
"I am Prince Staefyn's wife," Keilana announced, stiffening her spine and squaring her shoulders. Quynn was impressed by the quick transition she had made from humiliated female to dictatorial wife.
Keilana motioned to two men standing guard in the hall, men of house Caron that did not hesitate to advance with their hands on the hilts of their swords. By the disgusted looks on their faces, Quynn guessed that they had served on Varoonya under Taeron during the occupation. She was sure that they had gone to Teralon as well because when Cydeara released Dijana, one of them quietly inquired if she had been harmed. He probably would have been happier with an affirmative answer so that he could use his blade on the Varoonyan princess, but Dijana shook her head.
"Escort Princess Cydeara to a room so that she may rest," ordered Keilana. "When her husband returns, she may leave her room."
"I am a prisoner?" cried Cyeara indignantly. The men seized her arms to force her to accompany them. "You will regret this!"
When they had gone, Dijana wavered and it was Keilana who hurried to her to prevent her from falling. "I do not feel well."
Quynn hurried to help Keilana steady the other woman. "Dijana, are you with child?" She expected the answer, and yet the nod surprised her.
"It happened on Teralon," she told Quynn. "When Taeron was bonded."
"Is he not bonded now?" asked Keilana with a frown. "Did you not bond after we left?"
Dijana shook her head. "My husband must be strong to fight." Tears filled her eyes and Quynn hoped she would not weep because she was afraid that she would as well.
Before she could, Yori reached out to grasp Dijana's hand. "Taeron will be safe, princess, for you and for Caelitha."
"Caelitha?" Quynn raised a brow at her son.
Yori grinned at her. "She has wings! She will be queen of Teralon one day." He seemed to have a vested interest in Dijana's baby, so she would ask him later about it.
She would be able to get answers from him later, but for now she helped Dijana to her own room because she dared not leave her unprotected. Keilana stayed with them as Dijana told her what had happened at Edgeland Fortress, and because she had been awake most of the night, Quynn urged her to sleep. Quynn was not surprised to see Yori crawl onto the bed to cuddle against Dijana, putting his small hand on her belly. He fell asleep with a contented smile on his lips and Quynn wondered if he was communicating with Caelitha.
Keilana walked out of the room to the garden which glowed with the twilight of the second sun. Although she had not said anything about what she had witnessed in the hall, Quynn knew the time had come for her to know the truth.
She followed her, and they did not speak until they had sat on the stone bench at the farthest end.
"He is her bonded mate, isn't he?" Keilana asked and Quynn could not lie now that she had guessed the truth.
"I am sorry, Keilana. She did it to him when he was a small child."
"By the gods, she is a more horrible woman than I had even imagined!" Keilana sucked in a breath and her hands curled into fists on her lap. "He has not come to me at night, has he? We have not …?" Her face blossomed with pink, the first hint of color Quynn had seen in the pale female. "He has used his cursed magic on me!"
Quynn wanted to tell her that Staefyn did so because he did not want to hurt her, but that would be a lie. Staefyn did not seem to care who he hurt anymore. "What will you do? Will you tell your brothers to end their alliance with him?"
"I would not be such a fool!" Keilana's breath was coming faster and Quynn could see that she was terrified. "I have already shamed the males of my house by not securing my marriage to the crown prince! The only reason they did not beat me was that they were afraid of what Prince Staefyn would do if I came to my marriage bed mottled with bruises and whimpering with broken bones. If they discover that my marriage exists only by the thread of his oath, they will blame me."
If Staefyn had the same belief in oaths as Taeron did, that thread was very strong.
"The warriors in the hall seem to respect you," Quynn pointed out. "You told me yourself that your mother had gained the loyalty of some of your father's men. They might protect you from the males of your house when you tell them that they must not fight for a man who has shamed them."
Quynn did not expect Keilana to begin the rallying cry that would stop house Caron from fighting with Warlord Kai's men, so she was not disappointed when she shook her head.
"I have made an oath." She raised her chin. "The males of my house may be dishonorable oath breakers, but I will not break mine. I have given myself to Prince Staefyn and I will see this marriage through to wherever it may take me."
If Xuxa had her way, and she always did, Keilana's oath would take her to her death.