Forbidden Journey

by Willa Hart

  He squints at me and perhaps Uncle hasn’t quite surrendered; there is a flash of fire in his eyes. A bit of fight in the old man yet.

  “You may think you know what you want and how you’ll go about getting it,” Uncle says, his voice quiet and soft. “But you have no idea what you ask for, Leo. To be crowned King, now?” He shakes his head. “You’ll rip the Kingdom apart with this decision. You think I caused blood to run in the streets? Watch what happens when one Roya brother instead of three ascends to the throne.”

  “I’ll take that chance,” I say. There is little else I can do…is there? Should Sarkany return home now his fated-mate would be slain and he would be hung as a traitor? I must become King and get control of the army and The Counsel so that I might get Sarkany home safely; it is the only way.

  Sarkany! Taraz! I call out with my mind, needing and wanting the help of my brothers. Why will they not answer me?

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Taraz

  A Ninaku Dreg will be Queen of the Roya Kingdom. Meela’s place in my future is obvious to me now. She sleeps beside me. The moonlight skims her body, and she glows in the light. Her leg is healed and her placement in my heart is complete. That she is of Wolveskin blood means nothing to me. How is it possible that this perfectly human creature lying beside me, drenched in moonlight, has the blood of the beast within her? There are many secrets and unknown facts about Meela that we’re just discovering…that she is discovering, but each fact as it’s uncovered leads me to the belief that the prophesy is true and that Meela is the Unifier.

  Brother?

  Sarkany? Where are you? Are you free? Are you safe?

  I am both. Where is my Meela?

  Heat enters my chest—a feeling akin to anger. Identical to when King Rex let his gaze and his words imply that Meela was meant to be his. My logical mind understands that this heat is caused by Sarkany placing the word “my” in front of Meela’s name. How strange. I shake my head. This emotion of jealousy—twisted heat that contains a deep wanting entwined with an internal sense of not being enough for Meela.

  She sleeps, I think. Her wound—

  She is wounded?! Goddess! You allowed her to be wounded? My love, my Meela, how? When? I shall slay the man that has harmed my mate!

  As far as “allowed” that’s not exactly what happened—

  I gave you my most precious gift to protect, and you failed.

  Rage bubbles in my belly. Again, completely unfamiliar and unprepared for this feeling. Listen, brother, I am doing the best I can at protecting Meela. Her safety is just as important to me as it is to you!

  Silence. A pause.

  Taraz? Sarkany thinks, Are you…angry?

  I close my eyes and press my lips into a grim line. Emotion. The overwhelming ocean in which I never swam, before Meela. As my triplet and my mind-mate, Sarkany realizes, as I do, this feeling is an uncharted experience for me. Sarkany’s anger drains away.

  She was wounded when we escaped, I continue, and you were imprisoned. You did slay that man that gashed her leg.

  Is she…will she…

  Sarkany’s thoughts are so thick with love and fear he can’t form words. Understanding of how one is swept away by emotion creeps into my mind. Emotion and passion can consume a person’s intellect. Meela sleeps peacefully with her head on a pillow. My heart fills with warmth, a comfort in her presence and in knowing that she is well and will survive. I love Meela. I love her enough to become her fated-mate.

  Answer me, brother, will she recover?

  Sarkany’s passion pulls me back to our mind-conversation.

  Yes, yes, she will recover. I utilized a Medaris on her wound.

  A Medaris! That technology is unproven—how could you take such a risk with my fated-mate?

  If you saw the wound and understood how close to death she was, you’d agree with my decision. The knife utilized to harm Meela was treated with poison. I’ve concluded that Vlissimal intentionally sent the guards with poisoned weapons to kill all of us.

  You speak the truth, Sarkany thinks. I have much to tell you. I ride the black wolf, though he does not enjoy me on his back.

  Human, you press your luck with me.

  Is that? Is that King Rex? I ask. How does he participate in our mind-link?

  King Rex, the Wolveskin, Sarkany thinks. It would seem, the bastard-wolf is somehow linked.

  Call me a bastard again, Sarkany, and I shall send you straight to the Demon, Rex thinks.

  Sarkany’s laugh comes to my mind over our link. As I said, Taraz, we have much to discuss. We shall return to you and my mate soon enough, he thinks. Take care of my Meela while I’m away. And then both he and the Wolveskin are gone.

  A fire pops in the hearth. Above me the light of a soon-to-be sunrise shines into the room. Is Meela the link that allows Rex to communicate with us? If she fulfills the prophesy, then yes, she is the guardian of peace and the one that brings unity to all the realms.

  Yearning pulls my heart, and I press my hand to my forehead. Goddess! This feeling…these feelings…they seek to swamp me and my ability to think rationally. A need to protect Meela and love her pound through my body. If the prophesy is about Meela, then she has many trials to face and much to go through. This wound is but the first of many harms that may befall her. This battle is merely a small trial for what she’ll face both alone and together.

  Do I have the strength to let my heart feel? Emotion courses through me, and my thoughts…my logic…my intellect is grey, and doubt over my own abilities circles my brain. I can no longer sleep. I slip from our bed and leave the room.

  “How is she?” Jix stands in the hallway just outside the door. “She was very upset earlier today.”

  “You’re awake,” I say. Jealousy courses through me, because Jix fails to protect his thoughts. He is a Dreg. He does not have The Gift, or for him The Curse, nor has he spent his life with Eliterrati, so he’s not aware of how transparent his thoughts and emotions are.

  Love. Desire. Fear. Need.

  The emotions course through Jix, all while he fights to keep his face from showing his feelings for Meela. Why did I not feel this before? Notice his feelings for Meela? Jix’s love for our Meela is as deep and unwavering as Sarkany’s and now my love for her. The only difference is Jix’s love and desire for Meela has never been quenched. My jealousy wanes, replaced by sympathy. Meela is to be a Queen, and therefore, Jix’s love and desire for Meela will forever go unsatisfied.

  Then it hits me. The reason I have not noticed Jix’s emotions toward Meela before now…is because I’ve not felt any of these emotions before now. Meela is the catalyst for me to feel! Meela is the reason I can now feel emotion so very deeply. Meela is my emotional connection to the world.

  I swallow. I blink. I breathe. Meela is my heart that walks around the world outside my body, and wherever she goes and whatever she shall feel, so will I.

  A horrible conundrum indeed.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Leo

  “Prince Roya, you are safe,” Lady Alana says. I enter The Counsel Chamber and she wraps me in her arms. “Be very careful, my Prince,” she whispers in my ear. “There are many on The Counsel that still believe in the old ways.” She squeezes my upper arm and then pulls away from the embrace. Her eyes hold a serious and thoughtful gaze.

  “Thank you,” I say. “I understand.”

  I sit at the head of The Counsel behind the well. Uncle enters with a Palace guard by his side. He looks much more like himself. He wears the Regent’s robe with the Royal and Regent insignia. He’s clean-shaven, and his shoulders don’t slouch as they did in our meeting yesterday. I shift in my chair. He is not nearly as beaten as I might have believed. I send a tendril toward his mind and am…blocked? That cannot be! Uncle has no mind abilities and therefore no integral capability to block me. My eyes dart around the room resting on each Eliterrati and Dreg. Someone here is assisting Uncle; he has created another para-succubus.

  He
turns to me and lifts an eyebrow. Almost as though he is tempting me, daring me to do something or to speak. Does the old beast have a card hidden in his sleeve? I fear that perhaps he thinks he has a hand to be played. I sit back in my chair opposite The Counsel and the well where Uncle shall stand and declare that I must be crowned for the good of the Kingdom.

  Again I press a tendril toward Uncle and again it is rebuffed. Hmmm… Concern grows in my belly. Shall I expose his illegal activity? Tell The Counsel what Uncle has done? How he has broken our rules and mindslayed Dregs that were similar to his lover? Not unless I have to. I need him to transfer power to me peacefully by making his recommendation to The Counsel; if I undermine his authority by exposing him now, then I shall not get The Counsel’s recommendation. I also fear that by telling them of the mind-merge with Wagu, I open Uncle up to mind-attacks. Attacks that without the presence of my brothers, I cannot fend off without them here too, as strong as my mind is.

  “You have convened The Counsel, Vlissimal,” Lord Saranshov says. “And you have provided us with one safe Roya Prince. Now tell us, where are the other two?”

  “They are lost to us, as of now.” Vlissimal says. “Sarkany, we still believe is under the sway of a Ninaku Dreg, and Taraz, I fear has been killed. Although I have sent Roya forces to find both brothers and return them to the Kingdom.”

  I shift in my seat. I’ve given no such order to the Royal guards and Uncle has been locked in his room. Hasn’t he?

  “There is no confirmation of either.” Lady Alana asks. “Is there? That Sarkany has chosen a Dreg for his mate and that Taraz is dead?” She catches my eye and I nod to her. They are both alive, I think, and send the thought to Lady Alana. Her face relaxes with the words.

  “No,” Uncle says, “but I anticipate confirmation of one or both before end of day.”

  “So, what is it you wish from us with this emergency Counsel meeting?” Lord Saranshov asks.

  “It’s come to my attention over the last several days that we have been infiltrated and attached,” Uncle says.

  The Counsel murmurs, and they all look around to each other. Uncle continues, “This infiltration has been long-standing and on-going, and I fear that it was due to my lack of diligence in routing out those around me, those who were close to me.”

  My belly sickens with Uncle’s words, with what he is now about to do.

  “I discovered that the traitor was, in fact, my Valet, Wagu, who had infiltrated the Palace. He was working on behalf of the same individuals who killed our Queen and our beloved Kings and have provided the Dreg to take Sarkany’s mind. They may have perhaps even killed Taraz.”

  “Wagu? Your Valet?” Lady Alanna says. “But how could this happen? This is a tremendous breach of security.”

  “Yes, I fear that my trust of Wagu and the fact that he’d worked for me for so long caused me to fail to see the signs of his activity and what was happening. I was allowing him access to my thoughts, my papers, my…my things.”

  “So the entire palace…is compromised?” Lady Alana asks. Fear inhabits her voice.

  “That is my belief,” Uncle says. “Therefore, it’s my recommendation that in order to preserve safety and to secure the Kingdom, we must mindscrub the Palace and all in it. Until such time as we can confirm our safety. Because of what’s happened and my failure as a Regent, I also recommend that Princess Katya be named Regent Temporare.”

  “What?”

  “That is unheard of.”

  “Absolutely not,” I say.

  “Wouldn’t we be better served by making Prince Roya the King?” Lady Alana asks. “If we proceed to coronate him—”

  “If we proceed to coronation,” Uncle interrupts, “we risk destabilizing the Kingdom even further. Prince Sarkany is under the sway of a Dreg, Prince Taraz may or may not be dead, and Prince Leo has just been let out of a prison cell where he was believed to be under Dreg power until I discovered the corruption of Wagu.”

  “That is exactly why we should put a Roya on the throne,” Lord Saranshov says.

  “We will have a Roya on the throne as a Regent Temporare, which also goes in line with our Kingdom’s respect for the Trinity of Fated-Mates. Installing Prince Leo now without his brothers and a fated-mate goes against a millennia of tradition, and I fear would send the wrong message to our people and our enemies.”

  “And who exactly are our enemies?” I ask. My voice is loud enough to break Uncle’s sway over The Counsel.

  He turns to me, and there is heat in his eyes. He hasn’t surrendered, but instead is ready to fight once again. Knowing Uncle, this fight shall not be fair.

  “Well, until recently,” Uncle says, “I assumed one of the Kingdom’s enemies was you, dear nephew.” He turns back toward The Counsel. “And I was completely wrong. So, you understand my fears do you not?” He walks in front of each Counsel member and pauses with his words. Such a deceptive and convincing bastard. “My fear is that Wagu, a Dreg and my Valet, has infiltrated each of our minds with his Curse. Just as we feared had happened with Prince Sarkany. And if we are indeed infected, without a mindscrub, everything—everything that each of us believes at this moment, about each other, about ourselves, about our dearest friends and family is suspect.”

  A ripple of panic spreads through The Counsel as the impact of Uncle’s words takes hold.

  What a mindfuck.

  “The only person who has not been in the castle since the infection began is Princess Katya. She has been safely in the North, therefore, it’s my belief that she’s the only person who can serve as Regent Temporare.”

  I set my jaw. Uncle is so slick and sly that even I nearly believe what he’s saying. There’s no maneuver to prevent this. He’s convinced The Counsel that all their mind abilities are suspect and possibly flawed. It’s a brilliant play on his part. Now they’ll be afraid to make any decisions, make any changes, do anything at all until the mindscrub is complete. Plus, I can’t tell The Counsel what I know about Uncle and Wagu—to do so would mean that I mind-invaded the Roya Regent, which even for me, a Prince, would end in public execution. Plus, all Uncle would say is that I was infected and must be mindscrubbed, which would result in Uncle having access to every thought in my mind.

  No…I have misplayed my hand, and now I must wait. I must wait until I find another way to out-maneuver Uncle. I’m not even one step closer to helping my brothers with the appointment of Princess Katya, because Uncle will still rule through her. I doubt very much that she’ll stand up to Uncle and actually try to rule.

  “This is most unusual,” Lady Alana says, and yet there is surrender in her voice as well.

  “And yet, it is much more common than crowning one Prince or Princess without their fated-mates,” Uncle says. “We’ve had a Regent Temporare a multitude of times, and now we shall do so again.”

  Uncle smiles and glances over his shoulder at me. “Just until we make certain that this castle is uninfected and secure.” The five Counsel members, who always follow Uncle’s instructions, nod in agreement. “The positive benefit,” Uncle continues, “is that appointing a Regent Temporare provides security for the Kingdom. It will give us time to find Prince Sarkany and determine if his mind might be saved from the infection by the Dreg and, hopefully, to also find Prince Taraz. So that the Kingdom can be saved.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Taraz

  I rush out of Dr. Atta’s lab, where I’ve been conducting an experiment. Sarkany will arrive soon. I feel him nearing.

  Taraz?

  Leo? I press my hand to my forehead. Is it really you? Why have you been silent for so long? Where are you? Are you okay? Are you in the Pal—

  You’ve been with the Dreg.

  She has a name, I think.

  Your thoughts are similar to Sarkany’s. So unlike you…filled with passion and desire. She must be quite something to cause you to feel, Leo thinks.

  Heat swells within my chest. Not the heat of jealousy, but the heat of protective
anger.

  My, my, my, Leo chides in his thoughts to me, but she does have you under a spell, doesn’t she? I’ve never felt this kind of emotion raging through you before. I’m quite used to it from Sarkany, but not you. Makes me wonder what I’m missing.

  I don’t like the tenor of this, I think. She’s special to me, and your thoughts seem to be an attempt to cheapen who Meela is and what she means to me. Please do not do so, Leo. I do not wish to sever our connection.

  There is a pause between us and our thoughts. To sever our connection is the most extreme action that any one of us could possibly take with the other. To do so would end our brotherly connection, and once severed it can never be regained.

  You would do so? Sever our connection? Leo inquires.

  Not lightly, no.

  Over her? This Dreg?

  Do not call her that as though her origin is a pejorative, I think. Use her name.

  This Meela? You would sever our connection for Meela?

  In the main room of the Wolveskin lair, the room in which Meela arrived near death, she now stands holding a puppy in her arms and waiting for her other fated-mate, my brother Sarkany. She radiates love, warmth, strength, everything that I want in my fated-mate and my Queen. My eyes take in the most precious of gifts I’ve been given. Yes, I think, for Meela, for my love of her, yes, I would sever our connection.

  She is your fated-mate as well?

  My wish was to see Leo in person, to tell him of my decision to his face so that he might see my sincerity and fully understand the solemnity with which I’ve made this decision. Why are you free of the dungeon and not with Sarkany? I think. A crude attempt to change the subject, but a legitimate question to which I desire an answer.

  I have reasons, Leo thinks.

  This answer lacks the facts I seek, however I would be satisfied to know your reasons. Share them with me, so I might understand why you remain with Uncle who has attempted a coup and to kill us all.