And perhaps to a few years of peace and quiet, he added mentally. For the first time, there was something else to occupy Michael’s attention besides plans for new campaigns. He did not delude himself into thinking Michael would settle down and give up on his goal of expanding the empire, but at least for a while he would no longer pursue it with such single-minded determination.
The wedding would take place in the spring and would be celebrated throughout the empire. For a change, thought Aedan, there would be no spring campaign. And he would welcome the respite from going on the march, especially since Ariel was pregnant once again. This time, the midwife assured them it would be a son.
A new heir for Michael to carry on the rule of the Roeles and a son for Aedan to carry on the tradition of the Dosieres as standardbearers and lords chamberlain to the empire. They had gone through much to reach this point. The empire was reunited and stronger now than ever since the glory days of the original Roele. There would be time for future con quests, but right now, the immediate future held a promise of peace. Aedan was looking forward to it with a great sense of relief.
Everything had fallen neatly into place. It seemed now as if nothing could go wrong.
**chapter Three**
Laera’s life had taken on a surreal quality, fascinating and simultaneously frightening. For the first time since her childhood, she did not feel in control.
Yet at the same time, there was a thrill to being balanced precariously on the abyss. It energized her and made her feel alive. In the past, she had looked to her sexual adventures to provide her with the stimulation of risk she craved, but nothing had ever provided her with the same dangerous edge of excitement she felt now.
When she had made her pact with Callador, the one thing she could never have anticipated was that the wizard would have chosen and been accepted by Raesene, the infamous Black Prince, known and feared throughout the empire as the Gorgon.
When Callador had revealed the name Of his patron, it had sent her mind reeling, and she had almost given way to panic. The wizard had tricked her. He had allowed her to believe the token of a lock of hair taken from her head was merely that, a token and nothing more, to seal the oath between them, similar in principle to a favor given by a lady to a knight. She had known almost nothing about magic, so there was no way she could have realized the true significance of the ritual.
When she and Callador had cut their palms and clasped hands with the lock of her hair between them, it had been a great deal more than merely a symbolic mingling of blood to seal the oath. That lock of hair alone could have served to give him power over her, but impregnated with both her blood and his, it had forged a link between them for as long as it remained in his possession, and by practical extension, that same power would also be granted to his master, Prince Raesene.
At first, the idea had so frightened her that she had nearly succumbed to panic and the temptation to reveal all to her husband. However, common sense prevailed, and she soon realized that if she told Derwyn the truth, nothing would be changed.
Callador would still hold power over her, and nothing short of killing him would cancel that. Such an act would incur the wrath of Prince Raesene. Even though she had Derwyn firmly under her control, Laera did not think he would be blind enough with love for her to risk taking on the Gorgon.
More likely, she thought, if she confessed the truth to Derwyn, she would lose her hold over him and he would banish her to Ice Haven, where she would be forced to spend the remainder of her life in constant prayer, solitude, and chastity as a temple priestess.
Aside from the utter misery of such an existence, all her plans, everything that she had worked so hard for, would have been for naught.
And there was no telling what sort of revenge the Gorgon might exact for her betrayal.
After several sleepless nights, she finally concluded there was nothing else to do but ride it out and hope for the best. The more she thought about it, the more clearly she saw that her situation, while precarious, was far from hopeless.
She reasoned that she was far too insignificant to attract the notice of the Gorgon. She was merely a means to an end. She was not certain precisely what that end was yet, but almost certainly it had to involve her brother, Michael. The Gorgon had some plan in mind, and she must have become a part of it at Callador’s suggestion. Either that, or Callador himself had hatched some plan to increase his standing with his awnsheghlien lord. Either way, she would only be an agent, not the object of that plan.
Raesene’s lust to control the empire was what had led him to betray his halfbrothers, Haelyn and Roele, and sell himself to Azrai all those years ago.
The illegitimacy of his birth had denied him a place in the royal line of succession, despite being his father’s firstborn son, and his resentment and jealousy of his halfbrothers had twisted him and eventually grown into a burning hatred.
After the Battle of Mount Deismaar and the defeat of the Dark Lord, Raesene had fled to the far northern territories and remained there ever since, doubt 399 less brooding on his failure while he slowly built up his powers. Over the centuries, he had carved out his domain and established a stronghold at KalSaitharak, the castle fortress he had raised in a
