Chapter 6

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Dynan saw Loren standing near the doorway, facing inward so she didn’t see him coming.

“I need to talk to you,” he said, sliding by her as he approached Alexia. She started, eyes widening at seeing him up. She quickly schooled her expression as he turned to face the Queen. Dynan forgot to bow to Alexia and she noticed. He didn’t care, trying hard to subdue his smile. Loren was safe. He was home, had survived yet another attempt on his life, and his family was whole again. That was as far as he wanted to think, though the glint in Alexia’s eyes made it difficult. He knew what he still had to face ahead, but he refused to think about it. He wasn’t going to let anyone, or all the future difficulties ahead to darken his mood. He’d won. For a change. The battle would go on. He still had to be crowned. That thought alone almost made him shiver and he stopped himself.

“Hello, Your Majesty.”

“So good of you to join us, Your Highness,” she said, smiling with her best ‘I’m going to make your life miserable’ expression. Her teeth never parted.

A tray appeared at their side, steered by a vigilant servant. Dynan saw that the drinks were Corrigan, and took two of the delicate fluted glasses in hand, one at a time, offering one to Alexia before getting one for himself. “I’m fairly happy to be out of bed myself.”

Alexia was about to comment when the level of conversation dropped. She turned slightly to see what had caused the disruption. Marc entered and she quickly masked her surprise. He was wearing the Lord Chancellor’s seal, and as more guests realized it, murmuring comments began anew.

“An interesting choice,” Alexia said, sipping her drink. She glanced at Dain.

“I think so too,” Dain said easily. “Leaves me free to do just about anything I want.”

“Don’t do it,” Dynan said silently.

“Why not? She’s such an—”

“I’m in enough trouble with her right now as it is. I don’t need you to make more.”

Alexia was cut off again when Drake entered. Everyone turned to him, and with the exception of Alexia and Creal, they all bowed in near perfect unison. Drake smiled broadly, nodding back to them with a laugh.

“Well, thank you,” he said. As attention left him, he turned to Marc. “It’s good to see you up and congratulations. You’ll do a good job.”

Conversations picked up again, so Dynan couldn’t hear Marc’s response. He didn’t look so enthusiastic. Dynan suspected that the more Marc found out about what he’d gotten himself into, the less he would like it. Just punishment, he thought with a brief smile, not feeling at all charitable because of the position he was about to be handed.

Drake moved on to greet Gemern Taldic, drawn into the room by each new face he saw. He was less reticent about showing his pleasure with the events that they’d so narrowly emerged alive and victorious from, openly embracing Shalis, before moving to Loren with the same greeting. Dynan smiled at some of the expressions his behavior prompted, then found Alexia watching him.

“I believe dinner will be announced soon, Your Majesty,” he said, turning to watch Drake again. “If you’ll excuse me, I should go greet my guest of honor.”

Alexia nodded, still looking like she’d swallowed sour milk. Lady Neithia Bairing immediately attended her and Dynan was thankful it wasn’t Loren. She would have to attend Alexia at least a few times while the Queen remained, but the less often that happened, the happier Dynan would be. He noticed and was sure the others noticed too, how smoothly the evening’s festivities were progressing. While he slept the past few days, Loren had been busy. The progress she’d made in making the Palace more presentable and organized showed.

Dynan bowed to Drake again, but the King quickly stopped him. “Quite an ambitious gathering you’ve undertaken.”

“I’m in over my head already,” Dynan said, laughing because that was better than worrying about it. “You want to help me keep an eye on my brother?”

Drake shook his head, glancing at Dain. “No, and you shouldn’t try either. Not tonight anyway. We all deserve an evening of freedom, especially Dain, and especially you.”

“There are a few others on that list,” he said and glanced at Loren.

“I’ll keep an eye on her too. She’s much more pleasant to look at than your brother.” He grinned and Dynan got his meaning. He nodded agreeably though. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Alse approaching. Beside him, he felt Dain tense. “I’ll take the Corrigan, thank you,” Drake went on and removed the glass from his hand. “Geneal told me you weren’t allowed to drink anything but water. You see, I have a list of people to keep watch over tonight. You’re one of them.”

“That’s ... comforting, Drake, really.”

He frowned for a second. “And she told me to tell you that she knows.”

Dynan cringed a little. Geneal had told him not to deactivate his brace. The pain was nearly intolerable with it on, especially after being broken again, and somehow she knew he’d turned it off. “Where’s Trevan?”

Drake laughed at him, turning to Gemern Taldic, who left his conversation with Shalis. Allie shadowed Drake but stood close enough to intervene should it be necessary, and Ralion stood just behind Alse.

“You know, he’s not going to try anything with all these people around,” Dynan said silently to Marc, glancing his way for a moment while he remained by the doorway.

“I’m glad you’re so certain of that. I’m not,” Marc said.

“Governor.”

“Your Highness,” Alse said, hardly nodding his head. He ignored Dain completely. “I’m surprised to see you up. I was told, before I was locked in a room, that you wouldn’t be up until tomorrow.”

Dynan glanced to Marc, again speaking silently. “You locked him up?”

“We were under a priority alert at the time, as was explained to him. Standard procedures, not to mention the fact that he and his friends were here before anyone even knew you’d been attacked.”

Dynan repeated what Marc had told him, leaving off the latter dissertation.

“Then you must be very used to these alerts, Your Highness. I am not.”

“Well if you plan to stay here long, you’ll get used to them too,” Dynan said. “We haven’t quite flushed out all our enemies, but I’m certain we will. If you’ll excuse me, I have other guests to attend to.”

Dynan turned from him, aware of his outraged expression. “Why did you let him stay?” he asked Marc.

“I want him where I can keep an eye on him,” he said.

“Are you coming in or not?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“In case I need to leave in a hurry.”

Dynan didn’t think that was entirely the truth. Marc glanced up briefly, hardly looking around the room before setting his gaze on the distant floor. Dynan knew then that he was trying to block. Without much success, he could tell. Marc wasn’t trying to block him out at all, or Dain, but the other people in the room. Dynan frowned at that, looking around the room again and trying to sort through the myriad of emotions from Marc.

Creal joined him, nodding pleasantly, though the look he gave Dain was anything but friendly. “Congratulations, Your Highness. I’m still not so sure I understand what happened the night of our arrival, but I’ll take your word that Maralt is really dead.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty. I’d only just woken up the night you arrived, so my explanations might not have been so well informed. Maralt is dead though. Of that, I’m certain.”

“Your new Lord Chancellor seems to have recovered from the ordeal. A wise choice there.”

Dain hardly acknowledged the comment, but Dynan could tell he was getting tired of the not so covert attacks on his character. “Don’t do it,” Dain said to him.

“Why not? He’s an ass. You know he wouldn’t help me after you were taken.”

“You never should have gone to him. You’re in trouble with him too, Dynan. You don’t need more because of me.”

Dynan forced a smile. “Yes, Creal. I think so too.”

Creal nodded to Loren, who was talking to Elise Taldic. “She seems to have recovered as well. It was a foolish thing you did, coming here to save her, but brave.”

Creal smiled easily and moved off, joining Elise Taldic and Loren. Dain leaned close. “Was that a compliment?”

“It’s hard to tell with him. I don’t know. Probably not.”

“They all know, don’t they? About where she’s from.”

Dynan nodded tightly, not wanting to think about it. “Yes. So now, if I don’t do what they want, all they have to do is take it to High Council.” Dynan looked at him. “You’ll end up being King if that happens.”

Dain shook his head. “Not with my having Garan. They’d skip us both for Shalis. Not such a bad idea when you think about it. Think she’d forgive us?”

“No.”

“She’d make a great Queen,” Dain said, watching their sister as she moved to talk to Marc. He seemed suddenly tense, as though he didn’t want to be around her.

“Yes, she would, but then she wouldn’t be able to marry Marc for the same reasons,” Dynan said.

“Marry him? I mean, I know he likes her, but—”

“She’s not a little girl any more.” Dynan smiled at his brother’s attitude for a moment, but kept watching Marc. “It doesn’t seem as though he’s too thrilled with the prospect right now either.”

“That’s because of what he sees whenever he’s around her, or any other non-telepath.” Dain explained slowly what Maralt had shown him when Shalis first landed. “I can’t see it and he can’t avoid it. Makes it hard to be around people. I don’t think it really hurts anyone. Marc thinks it’s wrong because of Maralt.”

“How many of us did he control?” Dynan asked, watching Shalis trying to get Marc to come with her. He refused and she was confused by his attitude.

“Other than you and I?”

“You? I didn’t think—”

“He shut me up a few times. You would have too. Made me come with him more often than I appreciated, but if he hadn’t, I wouldn’t be here right now. It’s probably easier to list who he didn’t control.”

“Who, Dain?”

“Loren, Geneal, Ralion, Allie. I think that’s everyone. No, Eldelar, and a few guards that Maralt forced to attack him. He almost killed Alexia.”

“What?”

“I don’t think she knew what was happening. He was over the edge by then.”

“She might figure it out after what she’s been told. That’s just great. Like she needs anything else to hold over my head.”

“He didn’t know what he was doing, Dynan. He hasn’t ever had much control, and at the time, he saw her as an enemy to you. I’m kind of sorry he didn’t finish her off.”

Dynan looked at him, rolling his eyes. “That would have gone over real well with Council.”

“We could have blamed it on Maralt, which would have been true had Marc not managed to stop himself.”

“And you had nothing to do with that.”

“Only a little. He’s got a lot to deal with. He’s probably afraid he’ll slip and terrified what your reaction will be if he does.”

“Justifiably.”

“Give him a break. It’s hard to understand, not knowing what was going on here, and I know I’m supposed to be telling you—”

Dynan shook his head quickly. “Not tonight. I’ll keep an open mind, all right? I just don’t want him to hurt anyone.”

“He won’t. You need to talk to him though. He needs all the reassurance he can get that you aren’t going to kill him if he makes a mistake. And he’s going to.”

“I suppose he told you about Carryn’s threat. Not that I approved what she told him, since...”

“Since you reached into a few minds she thought you shouldn’t have? I know. She didn’t understand half of it. You either, apparently since you’re the reason Marc can’t block anything. What ever gave you the idea you could teach him anyway?”

“I didn’t have a choice.”

He grunted in response. “Well, it’s like he doesn’t have the normal restraints that we have. Maybe that’s due to what Maralt did to him. Maybe that’s just because he’s a strong adept. You didn’t help him out any. Carryn either.”

“I’ll try to keep that in mind,” Dynan said, frowning at him.

“I’m going to try to fix as much as I can. He’s got to learn how to block or he’ll never make it.”

“Let me know how it goes.”

“Count on it. I’m going to go find out when the food is coming out. I’m starving.”

Dain didn’t have to wait long. Loren made the announcement for dinner a few minutes later. The gathering made their slow way into the dining hall. All the formalities were soon forgotten as they settled to a delicious meal. Dain hardly stopped eating, while Marc barely ate at all.

Dynan sat and watched everyone around him, trying to remember the last time he’d seen his friends so happy. A weight had been lifted from them, a palpable fear now consigned to nightmares alone. One day, he thought, Maralt Adaeryn would be a distant memory.

Not soon enough. There were too many people here who’d experienced his particular brand of invasion. Geneal, who was conspicuously absent, mourning the death of her father. Allie, who seemed quieter than was normal for him. Ralion was the same, though Dynan wasn’t sure his reticence was about Maralt or what happened in the Throne Room. There was something more going on with him that he wouldn’t discuss and neither would Dain.

It was quicker to think of who hadn’t been tortured. A small list of lucky individuals, he thought. Dr. Riesch might have his hands full. From what Dynan remembered of the man, it didn’t seem he would mind. Dain would never go to him again.

Dynan smiled when he saw Loren watching him. He raised his glass to her and she returned the gesture along with a slight smile of her own. She had protested his insistence that she sit near him, fearing the repercussions, but Alexia and Creal’s presence didn’t dissuade him. Right then, he wanted to reach for her hand, but managed to refrain, keeping his smile intact while resenting the restrictions placed on them. At the moment, he had to be satisfied with just looking at her.

After the final course, the group returned to the parlor, but their number soon dwindled as the hour grew late. Alexia managed to corner him twice, but he was always rescued. Drake came himself the second time, skillfully drawing Alexia off into another conversation with what seemed genuine enthusiasm. She finally left and Creal soon followed, though he didn’t seem nearly so put out as she.

Dain waited an appropriate length of time, checked the room once more to make sure all the enemies had cleared out, grabbed Shalis and did a little dance around the room with her. Marc slipped out about the same time and again, Dynan saw his sister’s confusion. He didn’t know what to do about it, not completely understanding the energy field Dain had described. He thought to ask Marc to show him what it looked like, but later. He saw Drake approaching with Loren on his arm, smiling because he knew how much the King was enjoying the role reversal of the game they played. “When is Marella planning to join us?” he asked, pulling Loren to his side.

“Soon enough,” Drake said.

He looked behind the King as Geneal came in, groaning inwardly. As unobtrusively as he could, he repositioned his arm and activated his brace. She saw it anyway, greeting him with a frown, before quickly administering his next dose of cordalin. “Thank you, Geneal.”

“Your welcome. Time for bed, Your Highness.”

“I just got up.”

“Now, Dynan.”

Without another word, she turned and left the parlor. Ralion looked after her, and after a brief hesitation, he moved to follow her. Dain watched after her as well and his reaction to Ralion going after her puzzled Dynan for a moment. Then he knew it, sensing in his brother an emotion he was familiar with, but one Dain had never experienced before.

“Oh no.” He let go of Loren.

“Dynan, what is it?” she asked.

“Nothing,” he said quickly and moved to join his brother. He finished a fairly large drink of corrigan he’d only just poured and reached for another. “That isn’t going to help.”

Dain looked at him sharply, but then shook his head. He set the glass back down with a sharp crack on the sideboard. “I think I’ve had enough of this party for one night. Isn’t it someone else’s turn to watch you?”

“Dain—”

“Gaden, get over here. It’s time for him to go to bed and it’s your turn to play guard. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Dain...”

He only shook his head and walked out, leaving quite a few people looking after him.

“Dynan, what’s wrong?” Loren joined him.

He watched after him then turned to her. “It would be easier to ask what isn’t wrong. The life that we had, that was taken away from us, won’t ever be given back. Ever. There’s nothing I can do. There’s nothing anyone can do to change it. That’s what’s wrong.”

Loren recoiled from his harsh tone and he regretted it immediately. She saw the deeper truth of his words and he couldn’t take them back, couldn’t change what was going to happen to them, any more than he could change what had happened to Dain and Geneal. Loren knew that as well as he, but it had been unexpressed by mutual agreement. She seemed suddenly stricken and he took her, holding her as tightly as he could, forgetting where they were. He kissed her, forgetting about all the others who saw them.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”

“Yes, you did.”

“Loren, I’m not giving up.” He looked down at her. “I won’t.”

“Dynan...”

“Don’t say it. Please. I’m sorry.”

Suddenly he was trembling, intensely aware that his brother sat, huddled somewhere in a dimly lit corner, weeping alone. Dynan couldn’t keep Dain’s grief from becoming his own, so similar in thought and feeling. Loren guided him to a nearby couch and down onto it, sat with him and held on.

After a time, the torrent of despair and grief eased, but left him shaking. That too lessened as Loren kissed him. He had to stop her this time, before desire overwhelmed good sense, remembering where they were. When he looked up though, he found that they were alone. Loren kissed him again, pulling him down with her. He had to stop her once more, amazed he could. He stood quickly, pulling her up with him. He kissed her, wishing he could take away the fear he saw in her eyes.

“I’m not going to give up. I can’t do this without you.” He smiled for a moment, tracing a line with his finger along the curve of her breast. “You keep that here, safe, where no one can make you doubt it. I love you and I’m not going to let anyone take you away from me.”

“How?”

“Can you believe that I’ll find a way to keep you here, keep you with me?” He smiled, kissing her again. “Make you my Queen. Can you believe that?”

“Dynan, I want to.”

He shook his head. “I will not give up. No matter what it may look like.”

He could see fear striving to quench her desire to believe him, but finally optimism won that battle, helped along by persistent caresses that shortened her breath. She kissed him, quickening his own and he felt them both start to gravitate toward the couch again. Instead, he nodded her toward the doorway, meaning to take her upstairs.

Dynan pulled up short though when he saw Drake standing with Gaden at the foot of the grand stair, obviously waiting for them. His hopes for an extended evening with her ended when Drake arched an eyebrow at him with a slight shake of his head. Loren glanced at him, the same conclusion dimming her smile. She met Drake’s amused smile with an angry frown that surprised the King, but didn’t dissuade him.

“May I escort you to your rooms, my Lady?” he asked, holding out his hand to her.

“If you feel you must.”

Drake laughed. “Of that, I’m certain.”

Loren mumbled something under her breath, but before she accepted Drake’s arm, Dynan stopped her. “Don’t forget what I told you.”

“I won’t.”

He couldn’t kiss her the way he wanted to and settled on kissing her hand instead, fearing it might be a long time before he was able to touch her again. “Goodnight.”

Drake took her from him, shaking his head slightly. “Gaden, I trust you’ll see that he’s escorted safely to his own bed?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Drake flashed him a look that conveyed volumes should Dynan not obey that order. Drake didn’t wait to see that his wishes were carried out though, and led Loren away.

“Your turn,” Gaden said, starting for the stair. He stopped when Dynan didn’t follow him. “Come on Dynan.”

He turned from him, sure that Drake saw that he wasn’t doing as he was told, and headed for the offices instead. Behind him, Gaden swore, but followed him.

From the shadows of the dining hall, Alvuen moved carefully to the door as Dynan and Loren left the room. She watched them encounter King Drake at the stair, their plans for an evening tryst vanquished, though they hardly attempted to disguise that intention. Their conversation repeated in her mind, each word dissected, inflection analyzed, and then stored in memory. She wouldn’t forget either.