Chapter One
Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea;
And love is a thing that can never go wrong;
And I am Marie of Rumania.
~ Dorothy Parker
Taran
It took us a little over a week, and the use of three, separate wormholes in space to make the long journey to Moravia.
It was an unbelievably long way away, over a week’s journey beyond Tygeria, which we gave a wide berth.
Janos hated space travel with approximately the same level of passion as Larz loved it, which is to say, a lot.
But then it had been a long time since he left Laltana, and he was very much a homebody.
He’d never sought fortune or fame, and I didn’t think he’d ever really enjoyed being king.
Circumstances and the war had thrust that upon him.
As for me, this was my first trip, and I guess I fell somewhere in the middle in regard to space travel.
I liked being in space, and the speed of travel thrilled me, but occasionally the thought of just where I actually was—in a hunk of metal hurtling through the endless vastness of space—scared the hell out of me.
I would have died before admitting it, however.
We finally arrived in Moravian airspace early one morning a few weeks later, and the captain of the ship took us into orbit around the planet.
We used a shuttle to go down to the surface.
Most of the Guard would follow us down later, and only a small contingent came with us or directly after us, and those were mostly our most trusted men.
We were met on the docks by a large group of soldiers led by the king himself, accompanied by his consort, Prince Vannos, another of Larz’s handsome Tygerian brothers.
I’d never met them before, but they seemed nice—especially for royals—and gave us a warm welcome.
Prince Vannos, who appeared to be good natured and strongly resembled his younger brother Larz, greeted his brother in what I’d come to think of as the Tygerian family way, touching foreheads and then gripping each other’s upper arms. It was reserved for really close family members though, and Larz merely bowed formally to King Stefan, while Janos inclined his head.
The Moravians and notably their king, Stefan, closely resembled the Tygerian people, and his race was more or less distant cousins of them.
He was a regal king, almost as tall as Larz, with bulky muscles and long brown hair, but the Moravians didn’t have the markings under the skin, like the Tygerians did.
I really liked the fact that Prince Vannos had greeted Janos warmly after first saying hello to his brother, giving Janos a courteous bow, even though all of Janos’s royal titles had been stripped away from him by the Tygerians. I could see that Janos was touched by the gesture too.
After talking for a while on the docks, the king and Prince Larz rode the large animals the Moravians called arrizes to go up to the castle, while the rest of us left to get in the shuttles that would take us up to the king’s mountaintop fortress.
Apparently, from what I overheard, the Tygerians weren’t coming for a couple of days yet, at the earliest. Vannos told me that he’d decided to wait a day or so after talking with his brother Larz, to message them about the meeting, afraid that King Davos would try to intercept us on the way if he told them too soon.
He said he thought this meeting was long overdue, and Larz just smiled at him and gave him a real hug.
Like he usually reserved for me and Janos.
“You just want us all to get along, don’t you? You’ve always been the nicest one of us. Don’t worry so much, brother. It will all work out. And if it doesn’t, then you and I will never lose touch. I promise.”
Larz told me that Vannos normally would have ridden to the shuttles on an arriz too, but to be polite, he stayed with us.
Riding arrizes was an ancient custom on Moravia, and everyone seemed to love the magnificent, but scary looking beasts.
Those of us not riding to the top on an arriz traveled over to the hangar where the shuttles were kept in what was just a glorified cart, really, though it was sturdy and well built, even a little luxurious, filled as it was with cushions and furs.
I badly wanted to be on the back of one of those arrizes, like Larz, but he told me he’d learned to ride them as a child, and that it would be better for now if I accompanied Janos, as they could be wild and unpredictable animals.
That just made me want to ride them even more, but he promised to give me lessons soon, and I contented myself with that.
As we traveled to the hangar to get on a shuttle, I saw the old trail leading up to the fortress, high atop the mountain on a steep, narrow trail, with a huge drop on the side down to the green valley far below.
I was secretly glad I’d decided to stay with Janos to ride the shuttle once I’d seen that drop, while Larz and the king and his men rode up the treacherous looking trail.
Janos held my hand all the way up to the palace in the shuttle, but outwardly, he looked pretty calm.
Larz had told us that Moravia was an odd mixture of old and new technology, so we’d been more or less prepared for all of this.
The mountain fortress was a formidable sight.
It sat high atop a ridge over a large chasm that Vannos told us was called Mithran Deep.
The fortress had gray, stone walls that rose up out of a sheer cliff, like it had been carved from the mountain itself.
A wide bridge led across Mithran Deep right up to the palace gates.
Vannos leaned forward to point it out to Janos as we passed over it.
“When I first came here, that bridge was much narrower, only wide enough for three arrizes to ride abreast, and the sides of the cart literally scraped the rails. It was terrifying, so I made Stefan build a new bridge as soon as I could. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been as open to many more of my suggestions about renovations on the palace.
I’m afraid it’s not going to be as beautiful and modern as what you’re used to at home.
My omak told me how nice your palace is. ”
Janos looked a little sad at the mention of his home, but he recovered quickly and smiled at Larz’s brother.
“Home is wherever my family is. And I think your mountain fortress is beautiful. Thank you so much for hosting us. I’ve hardly ever seen Larz be so upset as when he received that message calling him a traitor. ”
“Who sent the message to Larz? Was it Father or Mikos?”
“It came directly from Mikos, but—and I don’t know this for sure—I think they might agree on this matter.
They’ve wanted Larz to denounce me and leave me for a very long time, and though they know all about bonding, and have bonded themselves, they can’t understand why he won’t just come back home and leave me behind.
They believe I’ve brainwashed him in some way. ”
Vannos shook his head. “I love all my brothers, but Mikos can be stubborn, and he can hold onto a grudge. He greatly influences my father too. I know Omak is really upset about the differences between Mikos and Larz, though. This all should have been settled long ago. Please be assured the rest of the family fully support Larz and his choices.”
He offered his arm to Janos, once we had climbed down and headed inside.
The Tygerians often did such things, walking closely together like that, and it wasn’t because he considered Janos to be effeminate.
Janos was small but not weak or frail, in any kind of way.
I think Vannos was just trying to be nice and show solidarity. I liked him right away.
The interior was about what I expected—huge rooms with stone walls and lofty ceilings.
Colorful tapestries hung on most of the walls, and thick rugs covered the floors.
Massive chandeliers hung from above, and the doors and the woodwork were all made of dark and intricately carved wood.
It all looked to be ancient, and I thought it was beautiful.
Vannos led us to the second floor and down a long hallway to our rooms. They had put me across the hall from Janos and Larz.
Once we said our goodbyes to Prince Vannos and promised to come down for a meal as soon as we got settled, we went to our separate rooms. But I decided to explore a little before eating anything, and I had very little from my bags to put away.
It could all stay in my bags for that matter and save me the trouble of putting it away.
We wore very little on Laltana because of the hot weather.
Mostly I wore a leather harness on my chest and a short, apron like covering that was all the soldiers wore in the blisteringly hot Herkon climate.
Because of the weather and leaving in a hurry, I hadn’t considered how much cooler it would be on Moravia.
Vannos noticed though and said I could borrow some of his boys’ clothes if I needed to.
But because Larz had warned me that it would be cold here on this mountain, I’d at least come prepared with a coat.
Before we left, I had dug through Luc Dimitri’s wardrobe to find the overcoat I wanted to borrow and take with me.
It was an old Alliance red coat like the soldiers used to wear during the war.
It came almost to the floor and was made of something called “wool blend,” according to the tag inside. It would keep me really warm.