Shadows of the Night (Kingdom Key Book 2)

by TylerRose.

  “You are my wife and I do love you, Tyler. When you leave me tomorrow, you will take my heart with you. I will not give it to anyone else. If you are ever ready and want to be my permanent wife, you can bring my heart back to me. I will never refuse you.”

  He continued, hard and strong, as deep as she liked it best, until his testicles clenched and shot out several jets of semen. Five grunts and he retracted. He moved to lie between her and the back of the sofa to catch his breath. Remembering her, he found an edge of the tape and pulled it off.

  “I don’t want you to say anything about what I told you. It doesn’t need to be discussed.”

  She turned to face him, kissed him, rested her head against his neck and chest. She let him hold her until the sex-high was gone and she felt a need to sit up. He pulled her to lean back against his torso while he remained on his side.

  “I’m curious. I understand why the mother will be investigated. To be sure she didn’t enact some plot to kill him. But why will all of the male children be investigated?”

  “To be sure they are Father’s children. If the one who is to be heir turns out not to be his, he will be disinherited and the one named Regent at the time of Father’s death will become Emperor instead. All male children found not to be Encito’s will be disinherited and the wives and fathers banished in shame. Better to do it after Father dies. If he did a dna test on the birth of the children, he would have to execute the wife and the man who did the deed for treason. Then the child would be an orphan. This way, the child is raised in a loving family and can still have a future within the court. The child is not blamed for its paternity.”

  “How can they be pregnant by another man?” she asked. “They’re so closely watched.”

  “Nonfamily guards usually. Only takes a minute. They are around each other all the time. Attachments form. Then she makes sure to catch Father’s eye and get her night in his bed. That’s why Pisod is chief of their guards. He personally oversees the security detail and can see what affections are forming and stop it before it goes too far. Still, it happens.”

  “He would rather raise a child that is not his, name that child heir for a time, and let the next Emperor deal with the fallout?” she asked.

  “Yes. It wasn’t this way until Encito’s reign. His own father caught several wives with sons not his and executed them all for treason. Some of Father’s brothers were killed for fathering those children. It was a terrible purging of the palace. When he came to the throne, he declared that there would be no dna testing of his children until after his demise. Any wife could remove her son from consideration as heir if she so chose and there would be no questions asked. Father does not want to be seen as a murderer, before or after his death.”

  “Ah. Who is Regent now? Dorn?”

  “I am.”

  “You? So you are the default heir and one of your sons would then inherit on your death.”

  “Yes. Voranian politics is very complicated,” he admitted.

  “Maybe, but now I see why he both indulges you and brings you up short. Regardless who the young heir is, you will be chief advisor. At least in the early years.”

  “Yes. Dorn and I both will be. I am the one who understands our interplanetary politics and Dorn is the one who upholds all of our traditions. I could request you be assigned as our Congressional Liaison.”

  “I don’t want that job. I’m going to do courier work for a while,” she said. “Right now, I’m hungry. What’s for lunch?”

  They put together a platter of a variety of things and took it out into the yard. Sitting nude on a blanket they ate and talked.

  “I do need to ask you to promise one more thing,” he said.

  “What?”

  “The Rovan Dens. Please do not ever go to one.”

  “I don’t see what the big deal is. I can take care of myself.”

  “It can happen just as easily as you were given a Psala flower, Tyler. If the initial dose did not kill you, the addiction afterward would. The pain is excruciating beyond anything you have ever endured. Remember, I know what you have already endured, Femina.”

  He sat up, turning her to lean against his legs, creating an intimacy as his eyes implored her.

  “Please hear me. You have no idea how horrifying it is for Offworlders. Don’t go near it. Do not tempt Fate. You never know when she will take you up on your offer,” he said, impressing on her the urgency and importance of not going to a Rovan den.

  “Okay. If it means that much to you. I won’t.”

  “Thank you.”

  A Neverseen appeared, standing on the other side of the blanket.

  “Master, the Mezularia is here to see the First Daughter.”

  “Very well. Send him out.”

  “The who?” Tyler asked.

  “Father’s official messenger. I think I know why he’s come and you won’t like it.”

  “What?”

  “Probably some enticement to remain my wife permanently,” Shestna said, flat and blunt. “The post is filled by one of my brothers at the moment. You can shout and curse at the messenger all you want. Just don’t hit him. Or kill him. Please don’t kill him. He’s a brother I rather like and his is a most thankless job most of the time.”

  She snerked a half-laugh. “Shouldn’t we at least cover up?”

  “No. Nudity is nothing on Voran, especially within one’s own property,” he said as the messenger was coming out through the open kitchen wall. “He is intruding on our privacy and is well-aware of that fact.”

  He stopped walking some five feet back from the blanket and bowed to Shestna first and then to Tyler separately, addressing them both as Your Highness.

  “For the First Daughter, I bring a message from our Emperor Father.”

  “Yes?” she replied.

  “Our Emperor Father sends you this message in his own hand,” he said, stepping forward to the edge of the blanket and bowing.

  He remained in that position while Tyler stared at his hand. Using psychokinesis, she took it from him to float across the few feet to where she sat.

  Opening the thick envelope, she found a note imploring her to remain Shestna’s wife, as he knew Shestna loved her a great deal. If she did stay, she could take the enclosed note to the bank.

  “I’ve not paid much attention to Voranian money. How much is this in Ruds?” she asked, handing it over to Shestna.

  His eyes went narrow but brow went up as he read and reread the number on the bank draft.

  “That is about five million Ruds,” he replied, handing it back.

  “He’s trying to buy me for you.”

  “He’ll call it a wedding gift for choosing to remain my wife.”

  Tyler got up and ripped the draft in half. Turned the pieces together and ripped it again. And again and again and again until she had a pile of confetti in her hands. She held it out to the Mezularia, who held up his hands to receive the bits of paper.

  “Tell your Emperor that my sex cannot be bought. If I remain Shestna’s wife, it will be because I want to, not because I am paid to. Tell him that he should not insult me again. Ever.”

  He bowed and retreated as quickly as he could while maintaining the dignity expected of his position. Tyler sat down again, picked up her wine glass to sip.

  “I am sorry, Femina,” Shestna sighed. “I should have known Father would do something like this.”

  “It’s not your fault. I’m not going to spend the rest of our last day angry about it. I did half-expect something like that. His ego would love for his eldest to be married to a perceived goddess and have little demi-gods for grandchildren.”

  “That he would.”

  “Why do you have to return the rings?” she asked, remembering his conversation on the phone earlier.

  “That’s how it is done. They are all returned to their owners to be used again. Except for Father’s. His blessing is always permanent. That one you keep and should wear all the time, especially when you’re on
the Congressional station or traveling among Congressional planets. It is a visible reminder to Earnol and his cronies that you as, Father’s declared and decreed First Daughter, are untouchable unless he wants a war. Here, it will signify your position for those who do not already know, especially when we are in other places around the planet.”

  “Your father would really start a war with the entire Congress if Earnol touched me?” she had to question.

  “There would be no war. Earnol would simply be dead as soon as my father ordered it done.”

  “How would that not start a war?” she scoffed.

  “There are enough people, ambassadors and congressmen alike, who are fed up with his rule over the Congress that there would be no war. Some angry words perhaps, but just words. Without him, the planets under his thumb would no longer be under his thumb. They would be relieved of his tyranny and free to do as they want rather than what he tells them.”

  “He is the head of the snake,” she said, remembering something Chen had told her during one of their training sessions.

  “Yes. He is the only one that needs to be removed. Others will either rethink their positions or rally to support the change in leadership,” he said.

  “Why doesn’t someone just take him out then?”

  “Because he is a powerful telepath in his own right. Few can get near him to do it. Certainly anyone can send an assassin, but that isn’t ethical. There needs to be a clear crime committed by him.”

  “He is just enough removed from everything that there are no clear connections. There’s no actual proof he’s behind anything,” she guessed.

  “Correct. Enough talk of him. Let’s have a soak in the pond for a while.”

  A pond ten feet across and five feet deep with a ledge for sitting on. He intended to be romantic with touching and kissing. She decided to be a slippery eel, twisting this way and that in the water, slipping through his hands and between his legs. He grinned at her when she came up for air half the pond away from him.

  “You are a good swimmer.”

  “Very,” she smiled, treading water because she couldn’t touch and have her mouth and nose above water. “I just realized it hasn’t rained the entire time I’ve been here.”

  “We do not get much rain and that is fine with me.”

  “Don’t like rain?”

  “Not at all. That is why I do not have showers in my home. Bathing pool is fine. Rain is uncomfortable and annoying,” he said, sitting on the ledge.

  She swam over to him and straddled his thighs.

  “I do love you, Femina. I love how you give yourself so completely to me even though we are not going to be together for long.”

  She shrugged, lowering to sit on this thighs. “I decided if I was stuck doing this, then I’d go all the way and treat it as it is supposed to be treated. Like a real marriage. I can now call you my first husband.”

  “Expecting there will be another?” he asked.

  “One never knows. Everywhere I go, I get marriage proposals.”

  “Mine is the first you accepted?”

  She nodded.

  “Turn around on my lap.”

  She did, and angled herself so he could enter more easily when she felt his penis sliding up to find her. He did not penetrate her vagina, however. He drove slowly up into her anus while holding her tight in place against him, and did not hush her cries. While she enjoyed it immensely, the sensations were intense and overwhelming.

  She shared with him without prompting this time, opening herself in the same way she did for every man she loved. Whether she admitted that love or not. She did not need the words. Love, for her, was in the touch and the sharing, the closeness she allowed. She did not say I love you with her words but with her whole being in the acts of lovemaking.

  [I love you, my sweet Femina,] he said telepathically.

  [I love you,] she said back.

  He was at once undone by her unexpected reply, his orgasm uncontrolled. When it was done, he lifted her off him.

  “Wait for me on the blanket,” he said, and spent a moment gently cleaning his super sensitive penis in the pond water.

  “You were supposed to go back to your office on the station the day after I left,” she remembered as he was lowering to face her on the blanket.

  “I was also supposed to go to the station today for a time. I told them to give my appointments to the Junior Ambassador or cancel them.”

  “Another brother?”

  “Of course. There are many families within the Royal family. Many sons and grandsons to employ in jobs of importance. I suggest you move most of your belongings tonight to your new house. It’ll at least be a place to keep things where you know they won’t be disturbed.”

  Which wasn’t a bad idea. She didn’t need to be keeping things at Thomas’ apartment if she wasn’t going to go there again. She could stay at the warehouse in Toledo if she wanted to be on Earth.

  “Mind if I do that now?” she asked.

  “Not at all. I expect Dorn will be here fairly soon anyway.”

  “I am here now, Royal Brother,” Dorn said, having teleported into the yard.

  Tyler didn’t hurry. She didn’t rush. She got up in her own time and walked by him, hearing his thoughts as he looked over her naked form.

  “Look all you want. Touch and I’ll break your arm.”

  “Now that would be a fight I’d like to engage in,” he shot back.

  Shestna laughed. “No you wouldn’t. What does Father want?”

  Dorn sat on the corner of the blanket. “She ripped his bank note up that many times?”

  “She did. I watched her do it,” Shestna nodded.

  Dorn’s eyes creased and narrowed as he tried to figure her out. “She isn’t motivated by money. She doesn’t really want the house. Is there anything she wants?”

  “Respect,” Shestna said without emotion. “Not to be treated like a piece of meat. She’s a warrior in her own right, Dorn, and becomes more so with every passing moon. One million denari? That’s all he offered her?”

  “I tried to persuade him to offer a blue Psala. I did try to tell him that she would be offended by the note. He wanted to know her response.”

  “What did he expect?” Shestna asked.

  “To be cursed out in the worst of terms in at least three languages. She surprised him with the dignity of her reply. He put the pieces of the note into the glass dish he keeps candies in. To remind himself.”

  “Of what?”

  “He did not say. Just…to remind himself. He sent instructions for you.”

  Tyler gathered her suitcaseand teleported with it to the new house. She brought her clothes from the California apartment, the only things she had left behind. She really didn’t have anything else except the jewelry making supplies. She brought those to the floor beside her. Everything she’d left behind in Toledo had been destroyed in February. With a thought, she brought some things from her psionic vault. Her gold would stay there, however.

  “Be seen Neverseen. All of you.”

  There were three. Two women and one man.

  “Who pays the expenses of this house?” she asked.

  “Prince Shestna, Mistress.”

  “Continue giving him the bills for now. I don’t know how often I’ll be here. I don’t know how long I’ll stay when I’m here. Go about whatever duties need doing on a day to day basis. Don’t keep any perishable foods. Anything can be gotten from the market when I arrive. Make sure all water for cooking and drinking is distilled. I’m not going through that again.”

  “Mistress, a distillation unit was installed two days ago. All water on the premises is distilled,” one of the women said.

  “I see. What are your names?”

  “We are the First Daughter’s Neverseens,” the male replied.

  Sensing their loss for her meaning, she let it go.

  “I have no children, but will probably have a guest with me sometimes. Keep the last room as ready as y
ou keep mine.”

  “Yes, Mistress,” they said in unison.

  Returning to Shestna, she found him inside and Dorn already gone.

  “Does your father wish you to issue another punishment?” she asked.

  “No. Dorn said he wants me to give you this,” he replied, and held her very close to give her a gentle kiss.”

  Holding her in one arm, he flipped opened a single fold note and read aloud.

  “Dearest First Daughter. A genuine pleasure it is for me to receive my bank note in the condition to which you reduced it. I will cherish these small bits of paper as a reminder that not all females are greedy and out to get as much as they can from a senile old Emperor. That you are not blindly obedient and readily will stand up for yourself has reminded me of my younger years. You may come and go from Voran as pleases you for the rest of your life. Your progeny through the ages will be welcome to live in the same home already given you and those household expenses will be paid by the Emperor in perpetuity. Our protection is yours for the asking. Our love we give freely.”

  He looked at her over top of the note.

  “Apparently you have made quite the impression.”

  “Apparently,” she repeated. “Shall we go dancing this evening?”

  As they had the previous two nights.

  “No. I have other plans that involve tanning your hide but good in reward for inspiring this note. You have seen the few implements I have. Select your favorite for a whipping.”

  “That’s easy. The belt.”

  Off and on for the rest of the day. Back, buttocks, thighs, breasts, inner thighs, he chose a region for that moment and let her wallow in her high until her head leveled. Then he picked another section of her body and put her there again. By the time he took her to bed, she was the most calm and relaxed he’d ever known her to be.

  Exactly as he needed her to be.

  “There is one more tradition and I must admit I have been looking forward to it,” he said as he turned off the light and spooned up close behind her.

  Facing the open wall, the sounds of the night breeze in the trees, he wrapped his arm around her, kissed her cheek, and penetrated from behind. He remained, unmoving for so long that she asked if he was going to or what.