Unfortunately, as Futhark had feared, they had failed to find a portal that would lead them to Boeruine. Instead, they had emerged on the high slopes of the Seamist Mountains, where they had fought a battle with a savage tribe of ogres into whose territory they had blundered.
The hulking, brutish demihumans had been greatly outnumbered, but they had fought hard to protect their domain against what they had thought was an invasion. Reasoning with ogres was impossible. They were only slightly above the level of beasts. The army had been forced to kill them all in order to defend themselves, and despite being outnumbered, the ogres had inflicted heavy casualties. When it was over, there was no question of continuing the campaign. Michael had been forced to give it up and retreat.
So they had trudged back through the misty Shadow World, having -failed in their objective. On the way back, several men were lost to poisonous snakes and the voracious albino spiders, and three of the advance guard had blundered into a sinkhole as they crossed a marsh and disappeared in an instant.
The morale of the troops was low, and Michael felt responsible. He had fallen into a sullen silence and not said a word for days. Aedan had tried to lift his spirits, but it was no use. He had known the emperor all his life, and he had seen his sullen moods before.
At times like these, it was best to leave him be.
Talking with Sylvanna as they rode before their troops helped Aedan keep up his own spirits, for which he was very grateful. In the past eight years, they had grown close, and with his heavy responsibilities as the lord high chamberlain, it was a great help to have someone he could talk to without having to weigh every word he said.
Aedan was not sure when he first realized he had fallen in love with her. He had guarded himself carefully against such feelings ever since his ill-considered affair with Princess Laera. However, with Sylvanna, there had never been a time when passion simply struck and overwhelmed him. His feelings for her had grown gradually, almost unnoticeably, until one day he realized she meant more to him than anyone else in the entire world, except perhaps Michael.
Michael was his liege lord and his friend, and he had a duty toward him, a duty to which he had been born. He loved him as a friend and as his sovereign, but he loved Sylvanna with all his heart and soul. He had never told her outright, but he was sure she knew. And he was sure she felt the same way, too. It was something that neither of them had ever acknowledged openly, for there were many reasons it als would be unwise.
They served different sovereigns, allied for the present, but still with a long history of enmity. Aside from that, Sylvanna was immortal, and though she looked younger than he did, she was many years his senior. By elvish standards, she was still quite young, but in human terms, she was old enough to be his mother. And then, of course, there was Gylvain, who had become both a friend and mentor to Aedan and the emperor. And Aedan felt sure he would not approve a match between them.
So he kept his peace. He had learned his lesson with the Princess Laera.
She was still at court, for with Arwyn in rebellion, the marriage had never taken place. And though she was still unwed, her beauty had only increased with the passing years. However, things between them were extremely awkward. Aedan had made an enemy for life, and he knew that if she were given the slightest opportunity, Laera would not hesitate to take revenge for his having spurned her. Her eyes seemed to burn with hatred whenever she saw him, and Michael took pains to keep the two of them apart as much as possible. Marrying her off to a noble in a distant province might have solved the problem, but Laera’s disposition had driven off a number of likely suitors. Nor were the whisperings about her at court likely to attract a husband desirous of a faithful wife.
Laera had been a mistake, thought Aedan, and he could live with it.
But he did not wish to make a similar mistake with Sylvanna. The two women were as different as night and day, thought Aedan, and Sylvanna was easily ten times the woman Laera could ever hope to be, but that was no reason to CIO his
thinking with his heart and not his mind.
“what?” asked Sylvanna.
“I said not rep
“No, but you were looking at me very strangely just now,” she said.
“Is something wrong?”
“No, nothing,” he replied, shaking his head. “I only wish we were back home already. I have had about as much of this dreary place as I can stand.”
“It will not be long now,” she replied. “We should reach Anuire tomorrow.”
“I wish it were today,” said Aedan uneasily. “We have had nothing but misfortune on this journey, and I have never seen the emperor’s spirits so low.”
He glanced back at the marching lines trudging wearily behind them on foot. “It cannot help but affect the troops.”
“They have experienced setbacks before,” Sylvanna said. “They are veteran campaigners. They can handle it. A few weeks of unwinding in the taverns and brothels of Anuire, and they’ll be ready to go out again.”
Aedan glanced at her curiously “And what about you? How do you
