The Temple of Ardyn

by Tameri Etherton

  Much of that had come from him.

  He stormed into his study and poured a glass of dreem. The honey-colored liquid burned the back of his throat. A warmth suffused his rattled nerves, loosened his tense muscles. Usually, he allowed himself only one small cup, but that evening he contemplated drinking the entire bottle. He’d just stretched out on a chair when Alasdair entered with an apology.

  Marissa stood in his doorway with her hands clasped before her, eyes downcast. She looked younger than he remembered, with a frailty that shifted his heart a fraction.

  “I’m sorry to disturb you, Rhoane, but I had to speak with you.” She looked demurely at Alasdair. “Alone.”

  The last thing he wanted was to entertain Marissa. But between his exhaustion and the dreem, he didn’t have the will to fight her. “Certainly, Princess.” He beckoned his valet to close the door and leave them. When they were alone, Rhoane said in a neutral tone, “What do you want?”

  She motioned to a wine goblet. “Would you mind? I find myself nervous all of a sudden.” Her voice was small and unsure. Rhoane poured her a glass of wine and then sat on a chair, waiting for her to speak. “What happened at Gaarendahl,” she began, a blush staining her cheeks, “was wrong of me. I’m sorry, Rhoane. I never should have done that to you.”

  “Or Taryn,” he added.

  Her eyes flashed toward him, then down again. “Of course. Or to my sister. It was Zakael’s idea. I went along with it because I thought I loved him. I know now he was just using me to get what he wanted.”

  “I do not believe you, Marissa. Why would Zakael ask you to do that?”

  Tears shimmered in her eyes. “He knew if I shared my body with you that you’d be tainted. He thought Taryn would leave you and become his lover if that happened.”

  “But she did not,” Rhoane said quietly and Marissa flinched.

  “No, she rejected Zakael to stay with you. He is not used to rejection. His anger when you left was frightening.” Her hand fluttered toward her face.

  “It is in the past, Marissa.”

  “You must know I’ve loved you since childhood. When Zakael told me what he needed me to do, I won’t claim I didn’t want that for myself as well. To lay with you, to make love to you—it’s something I’ve long desired.”

  “You knew I was destined for another.” His hands shook with suppressed anger as he downed another cup of dreem. He didn’t want to hear what she had to say, didn’t want to relive that terrible day.

  “I knew it would hurt Taryn. I admit, a part of me wanted that, too. She had everything I ever desired. This was my one chance to experience just a moment of what she’ll have for the rest of her life. I couldn’t say no.”

  “Yes, you could have. You were selfish and cruel.”

  “I know what I did was wrong, but the gods have seen fit to bless me with your child, Rhoane.” She put a hand on her abdomen, smiling at him with a sick grin that made him want to vomit.

  The alcohol churned in his stomach, threatening. “I do not believe you, Marissa. How do you know this is not Zakael’s child?” His vision darkened and his hands went numb.

  “I haven’t bedded Zakael in ages. Once he got it into his head he wanted Taryn, he wouldn’t have anything to do with me.” Elegant tears rolled down her cheeks. “I had hoped when she left with you that he would return to me, but he cast me out. I came here alone.”

  “You must be mistaken.”

  “It’s true, my darling. We’re going to have a child. From my despair comes my greatest happiness.” She sank to the floor and kneeled before him. “I am yours, dearest. I’ve told no one of this child for fear they’d tell you before I had a chance.”

  “What will you tell your mother?” His voice was hollow. His thoughts drifted to Taryn and how her heart would break even further when she learned of Marissa’s continued betrayal. No, his betrayal. He’d allowed Marissa to rape him. Instead of stopping himself when he had the chance, he gave her a child.

  “I wanted to speak with you first. I know you are a man of honor and you must understand I would do nothing to besmirch your reputation. My only wish is that someday you will come to love our child as much as I do and will be a part of our life.” She grasped his hand, pleading. “Rhoane, you must believe it is the will of the gods. When you decide the time is right, I will tell Mother. Until then, do you think we should keep this between the two of us?” She beamed at him and his stomach tightened with disgust. He withdrew his hand, never wanting to touch the vileness of her again.

  “Of course. Whatever you wish, Marissa.” The darkness threatened to overtake him. He gripped the chair to keep upright.

  “I know I’ve given you quite a shock, my darling, but soon you’ll realize how wonderful this is.” When he didn’t answer, she stood and smoothed her skirts. “I’ll leave you now. If you ever wish to spend time with me, my door is always open for you.” She gave a little cry and put a hand over her heart.

  “What is it?” Rhoane asked.

  “Nothing to concern you.” She pulled her shawl tightly around her shoulders, clutching it against her chest.

  He led her to the door and bade her farewell as if in a fog. Yet again, he had failed Taryn.

  Chapter 30

  SPRING had come to Aelinae while Taryn lay in-between. The meadows were alive with vibrant hues in every shade of the spectrum. Taryn noted every wildflower, every town, every stream or lake they passed as a way to keep her mind from Rhoane. With grim determination, she’d closed the connection between hercynfar and her beloved. His emotions were too complicated and overwhelming to her still-fragile state of mind.

  With each step closer to Valterys, Taryn’s dreams became increasingly disturbed with images of Rykoto. He didn’t try to harm her again, but his power pressed upon her and she shuddered at his growing strength. A little more than a fortnight after leaving the vier, Taryn rode Nikosana up the cobblestoned causeway leading to Caer Idris. Her throat constricted against the bile that rose from her churning stomach. A lone figure sat on horseback near the castle gates.

  “Sister,” Zakael drawled when she moved closer, “welcome home.” He gestured imperially and the gates opened.

  Taryn slowed her horse. She’d not expected to find him there. “It seems I have many homes, but I will thank you for your kind greeting.” She inclined her head to him as she passed through the large stone and wood structure into the courtyard proper. Multiple strands of ShantiMari tickled her skin and she fought the urge to shake them away. Zakael rode beside her in silence, a smile on his face. “Does something amuse you?”

  “Yes, you.” At her extended silence, he explained, “I was certain when I saw you leave Gaarendahl, it would be your last foray into the West. Yet here you are.”

  “I am here to see my father. Perhaps he can give me the training you so desperately avoided.” She leveled a look at him. “Without the added drama.”

  A huge wooden door opened and Valterys stepped out to greet them. He looked older since she’d last seen him. Taryn sighed; they were all older, it seemed. Except Zakael. He still had a youthful glow about him.

  “Princess Taryn, this is a surprise indeed,” Valterys said. “I was unaware you would be coming.” He aimed a pointed look at Zakael.

  Taryn dismounted and Kaida sat beside her, ears perked forward, muzzle raised. “Father.” She inclined her head in greeting. “It is my wish to learn the ways of my inheritance.”

  “Is that so?” Again he scowled at Zakael. “This day keeps getting more and more surprising.” Zakael started to explain, but Valterys held up his hand. “We will discuss this matter later. Right now, I’m sure my daughter would like to freshen up and perhaps get a warm meal in her before we talk business.”

  He eyed her critically. “You’ve wasted to nothing since last I saw you. Do they not feed you at the Crystal Palace?”

  “I’ve been traveling of late. I assure you, my health is good enough for the purpose I seek here.”

  Va
lterys’s face softened. “Well, come inside and we’ll see if we can’t improve your situation all the same.”

  Conflicting emotions fought within her, and she struggled to keep her face blank. She hadn’t expected him to be kind or to appear so—she tried to think of the word and all she came up with was—ordinary. Not imposing or frightening, but old and resigned to his life. When she passed through the doorway, her bonds stung deep in her skin. Carved into the wood was an elaborate design of scrollwork with runes interlaced throughout. Zakael pressed into her back, compelling her to hurry after her father.

  Valterys led them through several corridors before finally stopping at a set of double doors. “I was not expecting you, so please forgive me if I do not have appropriate rooms for you, Your Highness.” He opened the doors to a vast expanse of rooms that took up half the wing. “These would be the queen’s apartments if there were one in residence. Alas, as there is not, I hope you will find them suitable.”

  The decor reminded her of Lliandra’s suite in Talaith. Cream and blue fabric covered the furniture and long drapes of silk pooled on the floor in front of floor-to-ceiling windows. Beyond the glass, Taryn glimpsed the Western Sea. “They are lovely, thank you. Were these rooms meant for my mother?” She hadn’t meant to ask the question, but there it was.

  Valterys cleared his throat. “If you need anything, there is a bell by the window. Do you know how long you will be staying?”

  “I hadn’t really thought about it.”

  “You are welcome here for as long as you like. I’ll send up some maids for your care and let the servants know you are my guest here. If you’d like to redo the rooms, I can arrange for someone to come in the morning.”

  His kindness unbalanced her and she faltered in her response. “They’re perfect just as they are. Father,” she started, choking on the word. “Thank you.”

  “It is I who am grateful to have you here. I have long wanted to know you. Your Highness.” He bowed before he left her alone.

  She drifted around the rooms, looking out the windows at the sea far below and the gardens on the other side. Valterys kept a tidy castle, which surprised her. She’d expected to find barren wastelands for miles around. Instead, she found something completely the opposite. Birds sang outside her window, warning of the dark storm clouds that threatened on the horizon. Taryn breathed the salty air of the sea. It reminded her of Talaith. Suddenly, she was homesick for her friends.

  They dined in Valterys’s private dining room, an intimate meal of just the three of them, with Kaida sleeping nearby on a cushion. Their conversation included idle gossip and little of why she was there. By the end of the evening, she could recite every dish they’d eaten, which wine they drank, and several charming anecdotes about her brother’s childhood. It was a grim repeat of what Zakael had done at Gaarendahl, but Taryn held onto her hope that with the sunrise would come an opportunity to meet with her father alone.

  When Zakael offered to escort her to her rooms, Taryn declined. When Valterys insisted, she relented. If she wanted his help, she couldn’t start by upsetting him. Once they reached her suite, Zakael let himself in and poured another glass of wine. After a moment, he poured one for her as well, which she declined. The last thing she needed was to become befuddled with Zakael so near. Instead, she went to the balcony for some fresh air.

  Zakael stepped behind her, pressing his body into hers. She froze, afraid that any movement might encourage him. “Tell me why you are really here, Your Highness,” he whispered in her ear. “And don’t try to tell me it is to learn Dark Shanti. I saw enough of your skill at Gaarendahl to know you possess everything you need to command the trinity. You are here for one reason and we both know what it is.”

  With more control than she thought possible, she maneuvered her body until she faced him. They were close enough she could see the pores of his skin. “Please, enlighten me.”

  Grinning as if he’d won first prize at a fair, he pressed his hardness into her, pinning her against the balcony wall. “Oh, I intend to.”

  He bent to kiss her but she pushed against his chest to stop him.

  “Don’t fight me, Taryn. When we last spoke at Gaarendahl, you were hesitant to join with me, but now that you are here, we can be as one.” He ground his hips against hers, a suggestive leer marring his handsome features. “In all ways. I have thought of nothing else but you since you left so abruptly. We have an attraction you cannot deny.” He traced her breast with a fingertip before pinching it hard.

  Panicked rage surged through her. She gripped his wrists and held his hands away from her body. “You’re drunk, Zakael. Don’t do something you might regret.”

  He breathed acrid fumes into her ear. “I already regret not bedding you sooner. I want you, Taryn, and you want me—that is why you are here.” With lightning speed, he reversed their grip, pinning her hands behind her back, holding her captive against the wall.

  A low growl came from Kaida’s throat as she crouched behind Zakael. Taryn cautioned her to stay, a dangerous plan forming in her mind. Sickened by his close proximity, it was difficult to swallow her disgust.

  Her heart thudded in her throat as she relaxed her body, sagging against him. Zakael released his grip, a warning in his cloudy eyes. With an inviting smile, she raked her nails over the soft velvet of his doublet, teasing him with little pinches that made him moan. When she reached the drawstring of his breeches, Zakael arched toward her with anticipation.

  “You know why I’m really here?” Taryn whispered.

  He nodded and she slid a hand beneath the fabric, running her fingers over the silky smoothness of his hardened cock. She pinched the tip and Zakael gasped, his eyes closed. Her fingers flinched when they met metal and then traced their way along the ring he wore around his balls and cock. Intrigued, she tickled her way under the ring, cupping his balls in her hand, massaging them until he swayed against her.

  “I’m here to learn how to control my power.” She gave his balls a sharp squeeze. Zakael’s eyelids flew open. “Whatever other reason you think is a fabrication of your own imagination.”

  “You fucking bitch,” he spat at her and tried to step back, but she tightened her grip.

  “That’s what you want me to be. I’m your sister, Zakael, which makes this all the more disgusting.” She held her face a finger’s span from his. “I came here to learn Dark Shanti, same as my reasons for going to Gaarendahl. If you aren’t going to help me, then I have no use for you.”

  He sputtered curses at her until she placed a finger over his lips, silencing him.

  “I’m only going to say this once, so please listen well. You are to leave my rooms and never, ever enter them again. I will not now, nor will I ever, join with you. I do not want you.”

  She sent a small amount of her ShantiMari into his genitals with the subtle idea that if Zakael should ever think of her while having sex, he would immediately go limp and not get hard again.

  He glared at her, his eyes hard bits of concrete. “I could kill you for this.”

  She shrugged. “You probably could, but you won’t. You see, I still have your balls in my hand.” As a reminder, she massaged them, gagging at the lust that lit beneath the steel.

  Zakael was too easily controlled by his lusts. Something her sister probably knew all too well. Taryn gripped harder and he yelped, the lust turning to a kind of tempered mania.

  “And even when I don’t, you still won’t kill me.” She ran her tongue over his lips, pressing her breasts into his chest, rubbing her pelvis against his thigh.

  His cock jerked in response.

  “Will you?” She breathed the words into him.

  She quashed his balls and he sagged against her, defeated. “No.”

  “That’s more like it.” She released his testicles, pushing him off her. “I told you before—we need each other, Zakael. We should not be enemies.” She resisted the urge to wipe her hands and spit the taste of him from her tongue.

 
For a moment, he stood like a man who’d lost everything. He slowly tied his breeches, making adjustments as he did. “I need no one.” Steel flecks of his ShantiMari sparked around him, and Taryn tensed. “Least of all, you.”

  “So be it, Zakael, but if you ever harm someone I love again, I will not show you mercy a second time.” It was a macabre echo of what she’d said to Marissa, and Taryn pitied her siblings.

  “Is that what you call this? Mercy?”

  His lightning quick movement surprised her as he covered her mouth with his. Without thinking, she brought her knee to his groin. Zakael doubled over and she slammed her elbow into his face. She stepped back, ignoring his desperate grabs, and swung her leg around, landing a roundhouse kick squarely on the side of his head. He crashed against the balcony, eyes wide with fear and awe. Taryn bounced on the balls of her feet, ready for more.

  Zakael staggered upright, blood oozing down his face. “You’ll regret this.” He spun on his heels, transforming into a great black bird and then flew off the balcony.

  Taryn and Kaida stared, dumbfounded, as he rose into the air and banked left before disappearing from view. “Damn, I wish I could do that. Don’t you?” she asked the grierbas.

  Kaida sat on her haunches.What do I know about the ways of flying things?

  Taryn scratched Kaida’s head and bent to kiss her nose. “I need to wash my hands and rinse my mouth. That was revolting.”

  Chapter 31

  EARLY the next morning, Taryn awoke to the scent of fresh rain and damp earth. Kaida stretched beside her and lazily thumped her tail. After Zakael had left the previous night, Taryn placed wards around all her rooms, deterring any curious courtiers from entering, as well as blocking her brother’s access, allowing only servants. None could enter her bedchamber, however, and she paid special attention to the balcony, setting alarms if Zakael should so much as set a talon on the stone banister.

  She lay on her back, tracing a design on the painted ceiling. Words wound their way around the garden scene and a familiar prickling slithered up her neck. Taryn stood on the bed to better see the painting. Runes, like the ones carved into the massive wooden door, dotted the landscape. Hidden in the detail of a red rose petal was the rune for death; on a leaf of a white rose, life. All throughout, the same runes were repeated. Life. Death. Life. Death.