Chapter 84

The suns were shining brightly when Taeron opened his eyes. At first he was disoriented because he remembered that the suns had set, but now they were high in the sky, almost at equal distance. He remembered bringing Lady Arora back to the healer's camp, but nothing after placing her in the emperor's arms. Turning his head now he saw other warriors lying on pallets around him, most unconscious, others sitting up, but Taeron did not remember how he had gotten here. There were young men and women moving amongst them, stopping to check bandages, giving cups of water or medicine to others. A few men noticed him and their weary faces brightened when he acknowledged them with a nod or a wave.

He noticed then that a canopy had been erected nearby where he saw the emperor half-lying, half sitting among a pile of pillows, his wife lying against him with her head resting on his chest. They had changed from their bloody clothing, but both still looked pale and weak from their injuries. Trey was speaking so quietly to the commanders that were sitting around him in a semi-circle that Taeron could not hear him. His father had been sitting cross-legged near Trey, but his head turned in Taeron's direction when his wife leaned down to say something in his ear. When Taeron struggled to sit, thinking that he should be attending the emperor's meeting, he did not have the strength to do any more than raise his head and that caused him more pain than the effort was worth.

Lord Duo leaned in to speak to the emperor who waved him away and the other men turned to look in Taeron's direction as his father rose to head towards him after Lady Trynity.

"By the gods, Taeron, can't we sleep a little longer?"

He hadn't realized that Amyr was beside him and when he turned his head now to watch him drag his body to a sitting position, Taeron winced from the pain that shot through his skull. He did not remember receiving any blows to the head during the battle, so this pain was puzzling as well as debilitating.

"How did I get here?" he asked Amyr.

"You swooned," said Amyr with a shrug.

"I swooned?"Taeron would not believe that he fainted.

"Like a female in the first months of her breeding cycle," said Amyr with a nod.

"He's not quite telling the truth." Lady Trynity said with a frown at Amyr as she knelt beside Taeron and took his wrist to check the beats of his heart. Satisfied, she reached up to touch his head and he caught his breath from the pain her probing caused him. "You were weak from loss of blood and when you heard what had happened to Dijana, you tried to leave to rescue her immediately."

"Then I fainted?" He now remembered hearing of Guillem's arrival in camp and Dijana's parents telling him that Staefyn had attacked Edgeland Fortress and taken her away, but he had no memory of the rest.

His father came upon them then and squatted beside him. "How are you feeling? You hit your head when I knocked you down a couple of nights ago."

"A couple of nights?" His heart began to beat erratically and he had a hard time breathing. "Dijana has been at Guerani Palace for a couple of nights? They have Quynn's transport! What if Kai has taken her away?" Kai could have taken her anywhere beyond the frontier! His communication with Norvana proved that he had contacts beyond the emperor's control.

Amyr put his hand over Taeron's to calm him as his father spoke to reassure him. "The hills are filled with imperial warriors and there are warbirds patrolling the sky and space above Calabria. Bayman has sent its space fleet with orders to intercept any craft leaving Calabria."

"My mate would be able to outrun them," said Amyr, "But Kai will not escape if he tries."

"What if he forces Quynn to pilot the ship?" Taeron could not help imagining the worst possible scenarios.

Duo snorted. "She would be sure to get them captured by Bayman."

"Why did you let me sleep so long?" he demanded furiously. He started to get up, but he felt dizzy and weak.

"You were not sleeping," said Trynity. "You have a concussion. The Guerani healers were overwhelmed, so I have been treating you. You also lost a lot of blood in the battle, particularly from the wound on your arm."

"I am awake now. I need to get Dijana out of Guerani Palace!" Taeron was finding it hard to breathe as he imagined Dijana in Kai's hands.

"You need to rest, Taeron," scolded Lady Trynity in a tone that would brook no defiance. "If it weren't for your magic and Amyr's protection spell, you would have been dead ten times over, and now your body needs to recover."

"I don't have magic," he insisted. If he had magic, why did he feel so drained?

His father grunted. "Stop denying it, Taeron. We all saw it when you were fighting, and seeing that golden light emboldened many men. While you were unconscious, Amyr and Shamara exhausted themselves healing all your wounds."

"You were not injured, father?"

Lord Duo pulled up his tunic to display many red welts. "Apolo healed me."

Trynity frowned at them. "If you two males are done crowing about your war injuries, I want to remind both of you that you need rest." She looked at Taeron. "The Guerani can close your wounds and ease your pain, but you lost too much blood. You have no choice, Taeron, but to give your body time to recover. At least for today, you need to stay off your feet, eat and rest. I will arrange for food to be brought to you."

His father scowled at him. "If you try to leave this pallet, I will clobber you over the head again."

He did not believe his father would do as he threatened, but the knot on his head hurt enough, so Taeron decided not to test him. But he looked at Amyr, "What of Dijana and Yori? Are you content to sit here while Staefyn has Yori at Guerani Palace?"

"I am in no shape to head into the hills. What good would I do them by collapsing and falling into a canyon or one of the many crevasses? Your father and Darlac have already organized and sent warriors to secure the hills, so when we are ready to go, we won't be ambushed by thralls."

His head told Taeron that he must be patient, that Amyr was right, but his heart was frantic with worry for Dijana and their unborn child. He could not bear to think of Kai hurting her again. She might want to fight him, but she would not for the sake of the child and Kai was the kind of villain that would take advantage of her acquiesence.

His father put his hand on his shoulder. "I know this is difficult for you, son, but you cannot go into the hills like this. We are expecting scouts to return later today, so we will be able to plan an attack on Guerani Palace."

"It won't be easy," predicted Amyr as he sat beside Taeron. "My parents did not intend to house an army in the hills so the palace itself is all but impregnable with only one approach with high walls and one gate to pass through. The other sides of the palace are positioned on the edge of a canyon."

"The cliff face is impossible to climb even with the most experienced men attempting it," Lord Duo told Taeron. "Trey did not even want to build the palace because of the rebels hiding in the mountains, but Apolo and Arora wanted to be near the ancestors."

"We won't be able to starve them out until the cold months," continued Amyr. "The gardens on the terraces will provide them with plenty of food."

The cold season had only recently come and gone, so they would be waiting many months before they would attempt an assault. "I will not let Dijana suffer that long with Kai."

"And I will not allow my daughter to be born into Staefyn's hands," said Amyr adamantly.

Lord Duo hugged Taeron before rising. "I am glad that you have awakened, son, but you still need to rest. Come along, Amyr. Now that you are awake after a good long rest, your father and mother wish to speak to you and I am sure my wife has some work for you."

After Amyr had gone, Taeron fell onto his back and threw his arm over his eyes to block out the suns. He did not want to follow their advice, and if his body would cooperate, he would take up his sword and head to the hills on his own. But he had used up what little had remained of his strength in bringing Lady Arora to the healing camp, so he had no choice but to admit that Lady Trynity's counsel was wise, that he should recover. He would not be able to face Kai in his present condition. He had been at his peak the last time they crossed swords and that had been a difficult fight even without Dijana's interference. In the intervening months Taeron had worked hard to grow stronger to face him, but he could not imagine that Kai had been sitting idly by. The Varoonyan would be prepared for him this time, knowing what Taeron was capable of, and at the moment, he was not even capable of raising his sword.

He was consoled with the knowledge that Dijana would not be alone this time in facing the warlord as she had been on Teralon when her family had sacrificed her to the creature. Quynn was at Guerani Palace, and Amyr told him that Quynn had Staefyn to thank for her protecting her. She may have little power over Kai or Xuxa, but Staefyn's affection for her would keep them from hurting her. Taeron sensed Staefyn would include Dijana in his cloak of protection. He could not imagine otherwise, not from the Staefyn he knew, and he had to trust that there was a line over which he would not step, not for Kai, not even for Xuxa.

The warmth from the suns soon lulled him back to sleep, but a light touch awoke him a short time later. Opening his eyes, he found several females standing nearby with tentative smiles as their eyes raked over him as if he were a banquet table. Gods, he thought with annoyance as he realized one of them had touched him, Dijana should have allowed him to bond so he would not have to suffer their unsolicited attention. And then he saw that they carried bowls, so he concluded that Lady Trynity had sent them. He could see by their plain, blood-streaked tunics, that they were healers.

When he struggled to sit, two of them hurried to help him and as they did, Taeron noticed that the men around him were watching with amusement.

"My lord prince, we have come to take care of your needs," said a dark-haired female with a shy smile.

"You can take care of my needs," remarked one of the men watching, making the men nearby guffaw and the females giggle.

Taeron wanted to send them away, but he was hungry, and seeing one of the women with a basin of water, he realized that he was filthy, after someone, perhaps Amyr, had done a poor job of washing away the gore from the battle. Reaching for food from one of the bowls, he winced at the pain in his arm, so the female holding it, took some food and held it to his lips. He balked at first, then opened his mouth and allowed her to feed him.

"My lord, we need to remove your tunic to care for your wounds. Lady Trynity asked us to put healing salve on them."

They did not give him a chance to tell them that the Guerani healers had sealed the wounds before they were ripping away his tunic and undershirt, not stopping until they had bared him to the waist. He fended off their attempts to divest him of his leggings although he was not able to keep them from removing his boots. The other men were watching now with open interest, struggling to sit up for a better view. Taeron disliked being their entertainment, but when he opened his mouth to reprimand the females, he had food thrust past his lips and he had little choice but to chew it.

As he ate, two of the women set about washing his upper body and he felt guilty for the pleasure they gave him from the warm cloth they applied to his chest. Another female pulled him back into her lap as two more poured water over his head to wash the dried blood from his stiff, matted hair. When she had his hair clean, she combed through the long strands with her fingers before massaging his scalp and he sighed with contentment. She did not arouse him; none of them did, but he relaxed to allow them to care for him. He did not really have the strength to fight off the attacking females anyway.

They fed him, washed him, massaged his aching muscles with a healing salve that made his flesh tingle pleasantly. Even the two that had taken it upon themselves to knead his feet with their expert touch nearly made him groan with unexpected pleasure. He felt so relaxed that he closed his eyes and decided that he preferred the softness of the females caring for him over the hard ground and if they did not mind, he was going to sleep a bit longer with his head in a soft lap.

"I had heard that you were awake."

Gods! Neria!

His eyes snapped open and he felt a moment of panic to find Neria standing over him, her wings blotting out the sun. Roehan stood nearby, his brows raised but a smirk playing about his lips.

"My lord prince needs rest," said the woman whose lap pillowed his head, her fingers in his hair where she had been massaging his scalp.

Neria's gaze swept over the females around him. "And how will he get rest with the lot of you groping him?"

"He looked like he was resting," remarked Roehan. "And quite comfortably, at that."

"Shut up," his wife snapped with an icy glare at him. Now the look she gave the women was frightening and they shifted nervously. "There are other men who need the services that you offer."

Each of them looked as though they were ready to argue, but they suddenly pushed away from Taeron who winced when he fell back on the hard ground as they scampered away. He wondered if they were afraid of Neria, but the reason for their departure soon became apparent. Lady Trynity was approaching with his mother followed by Jeshed, Stryfe and Chaela and several men.

Trynity had glanced briefly at Taeron before her gaze followed the females that had hurried away. "I think I have discovered a lack of discipline among my healers." She glanced at Taeron. "They did not disturb you, did they?"

"It did not appear so," Roehan told her before Taeron had a chance to speak. "He appeared to be quite cozy in their care."

"Why are you still here?" demanded Neria with annoyance. "Go train your men. Perhaps one of them will knock your skull so I won't have to." Roehan was chuckling as he walked away. "Males," grumbled Neria as she watched him leave before turning to fix Taeron with her censoring gaze.

Taeron looked at Trynity. "You did not send them to me?"

She nodded to his brothers and Chaela. "They arrived in camp, and so I thought to have them care for you to avoid just this situation."

"I have no intention of massaging your feet," remarked Stryfe with a chuckle.

"I will, if you wish," offered Chaela with an impish smile.

"I doubt my daughter wants any female massaging his feet," pointed out Neria. "And when she hears of what was happening here, I doubt she will be pleased."

"It didn't look like an orgy," commented Stryfe. "Although I was far enough away that I couldn't see before they left, so I may have to embellish the official account a bit."

Taeron glared at him. "I am still clothed." Not fully, but enough to prove he had not broken any oath to Dijana. He hoped she would not begrudge him the comfort the females had given him.

His mother pushed her way forward. "You look dreadful, Taeron, and these conditions are appalling." She snapped her fingers at the men carrying armfuls of cloth and poles. "Set up my son's tent. Jeshed, help the scribe bring your brother to the emperor's tent while they ready his."

Taeron put up his hand to stop them. "I won't sit in comfort while my men suffer."

Larya frowned at him. "I did not think that you would. Lady Trynity has assured me that I have brought enough supplies for the injured. They will all have acceptable accomodation as they recuperate."

Glancing around, Taeron saw that other tents were being erected to keep the men out of the suns, that blankets were being distributed to keep them warm during the night. He looked at his mother with gratitude and he saw that there were tears in her eyes. And then he noticed the color of her eyes.

"Mother!" How had her eyes turned green?

Tears glistened in those murky green eyes as she fell to her knees and threw her arms around him. Did she look different? Taeron could see her obvious resemblence to Lady Virinea now.

"Staefyn did it," she told him with a tremulous smile.

He laid his hand on her cheek. "Mother, he did not hurt you, did he?"

She shook her head. "Xuxa ordered him to take me to her, but when he used his powers on me and removed Dax's magic block, he chose to leave me behind at Edgeland Fortress." She put her hand over Taeron's. "I am sorry, Taeron, that Staefyn took Dijana."

He lowered his hand but clasped hers. "There is nothing you could have done to stop him."

Now she touched his face. "I was so worried about you, Taeron." She looked him over for a moment before she threw her arms around him. He knew he was bruised and battered, and he certainly would be in far worse condition if Amyr had not been protecting him, but he had no idea how he must look until now. Taeron felt her hot tears against his flesh and he could only hold her to him and let her hear his heart beating to ease the horror she must feel to realize how close he had come to death. He was glad she had not seen the wound that Kai had given him when it was fresh and not the scar against which she pressed her cheek.

When she had finished weeping, Neria helped her to stand. "Your son is alive, Larya, for which we have the gods to thank." She raised a brow. "And his magic."

He parted his lips, the denial of his magic on his tongue, but he saw the light of amusement in Jeshed's violet gaze. Some day that cursed shapeshifting dragon would tell him what he had done to him to make others believe he had magic!

"I have never seen my son like this!" he heard his mother whimper as Neria led her to the emperor's tent where Apolo was waiting for her. "He is all manner of grotesque colors."

"Grotesque hardly begins to describe how awful you look," commented Stryfe. "And yet it is a fitting term. I can't believe those females did not run from the sight of you screaming."

Chaela knelt beside him. "I can," she cooed as she ran her hands over his back and around to his chest. Seeing the playful light in her eyes, Taeron snorted with amusement until he noticed Jeshed's frown. He reached up to take her hands and move them away from his flesh.

"I don't need any more healing today," he told her with a smile.

She leaned close to him. "I wasn't healing you, Taeron. I was pleasing myself."

Jeshed cleared his throat and Taeron noticed that Chaela seemed to be annoyed by the reminder of his presence. "I have some clothing from mother for you," he said.

"She is not your mother," Chaela pointed out with a disdainful glance at him.

Color rose to Jeshed's cheeks and Stryfe laughed to dispel the tension that had suddenly developed. "Speaking of mothers, I believe that yours might wish to see you."

"Oh!" Chaela seemed to remember the purpose for her visit to Taeron. "I wanted to tell you that Staefyn was gentle with Dijana. She went bravely with him. I don't think she is afraid anymore to face Kai."

"I am glad because I am terrified to know that she is facing Kai alone."

"He cannot enthrall her anymore and I am sure that Yori will protect her if Staefyn does not." Chaela's nose wrinkled and her brows furrowed. "He has convinced himself that Caelitha is his mate."

Taeron's brows rose. "How did he decide that?" He glanced at Jeshed who shrugged. Taeron noticed the collar around his neck. "What is that?"

Jeshed reached up to touch the collar. "Prince Staefyn put this on me. It is imbued with magic that prevents me from shifting to my dragon form."

Chaela's nose wrinkled. "Too bad, Jeshed. I think I saw a canyon beast in Lady Trynity's camp that you could have snacked on."

His brows drew together. "I am not hungry."

She rolled her eyes up and then walked away. Jeshed watched her, continuing to frown, and then he looked at Taeron. "I do not understand females."

Stryfe laughed. "They are a great mystery, Jeshed."

Jeshed looked at Taeron. "I cannot fly you to Guerani Palace, but I would do anything to help you, brother."

Taeron gave him a grateful smile but he would not ask Jeshed for help. The shapeshifter could not defend himself without his magic. He had much to learn about being a human. "I would feel more at ease knowing you are protecting mother."

Jeshed seemed pleased to be given such an important task.

Stryfe took Jeshed's arm. "My mother will be angry if we keep Taeron from his rest. The emperor might be interested in hearing from you what happened at the fortress."

As they walked away, Taeron realized he was weary although he had not been awake for long. They were all right. If he hoped to rescue Dijana, he needed to rest to recover his strength.