Allegiance by Stargate

Author:Stargate
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: Fandemonium Books
Published: 2011-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

While Leif slept the next morning after being up all night hunting Shadow Fae, I sat with Atara on her balcony. Together we painted the mountains and got to know each other. After telling her about my first meeting with Leif, the conversation turned to how she’d met the king. She’d been out on the plains gathering the feathery tufts called shefa that are used to make fabric when King Telophy spied her as he flew overhead. He alighted and, after greeting the others with her, singled her out.

‘What did he say?’

‘That he knew my beauty from the sky. And that he was aware I was young because he could sense I had not yet sworn allegiance to him—but that he would like to know how young.’ She chuckled. ‘When I found my voice, I told him I would soon be seventeen. He smiled and offered me his hand. The sensation brought me to my knees. I did not know anything could feel so wonderful.’

Intrigued, I lay my paintbrush down. ‘Then what happened?’

Atara placed her brush on the palette beside mine. ‘He began to woo me—showed me a life I could not have imagined… We wed on my eighteenth birthday.’

‘What about your betrothed?’

Atara frowned. ‘I wish Telophy had not mentioned him to you.’

‘It’s okay, you don’t have to tell me.’

She sighed. ‘I will confide in you, Marla, but you must not mention anything to Leif. As I’ve told you before, he thinks my betrothed no longer lives and I will not add to the problems between father and son.’

I agreed—it seemed like everyone wanted me to keep secrets these days.

‘The day I met my king he asked me if I knew my betrothed. I told him I did not—that he had not yet called to me. Telophy requested I tell him the moment he did. I obeyed and it is the one thing I truly regret, because soon after, Bryn’s voice vanished from my mind. When I asked Telophy the reason, he told me that all I needed to know was that he is well.’

‘Oh Atara… you must miss him!’

‘How can I? I don’t know him—our connection is incomplete.’

‘But you would have made it complete if you’d had the choice.’

Atara sighed. ‘Of course the desire was there, Marla. But even if Telophy had offered me a choice, I would have forsaken Bryn. The trouble is my husband will not believe it. He says he gave Finelle a choice and she betrayed him in the end.’

I scowled. ‘How could he expect her to even consider marrying him?’

‘Why would she not?’ Atara said, her eyes widening. ‘Telophy was her king. Have you not seen with your own eyes the way females behave around your own betrothed? And Leif does not even have their allegiance! All females desire my husband.’

I screwed my nose up. ‘Not me!’

‘Tell me that when you are allegiant to him,’ she said with a knowing smile.

I knew in my case she’d be proven wrong. I despised her revolting husband. ‘You must at least resent him for forcing you to marry him?’

‘I do not, Marla.

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