"Will you permit a man to dress first?" Bonn asked calmly, reaching for his linen breeches.

"Go ahead," sneered Hyperia. "We'll watch."

"I'm sure you will," he rejoined.

Hyperia's eyebrows arched sharply.

"Sister!" Starlex cried. "You can't do this to my husband!"

"Husband, my ass! This man defiled a member of the royal family, and Oran will have his head for it. To the dungeon with him."

"No!" shouted Starlex. Holding onto Bonn, she was dragged to the door. A guard landed his boot in her side and she curled into a ball on the floor, weeping and naked, as Bonn was taken away.

Hyperia looked down at her with contempt. "You shame the Illymiums with your ridiculous hysterics. You could have married any Davadas man in Oran, but you chose this hulking brute."

"You--you won't get away with this," Starlex sobbed. "The Skaards will fight for his return."

Hyperia's high peal of laughter bounced off the walls and high ceiling. "The Skaards are in no shape to fight Oran. We both know that. I hope the Thrades eat every one of them alive. I hope they grind their bones with their jaws until there is nothing left of those heathens but dust."

Starlex looked up at Hyperia with violet eyes flashing and said, "Then I will fight you tooth and nail."

"Your teeth and nails are all you got, and unfortunately for you, that's not enough." Hyperia whirled the remaining guard and said, "Take the princess to her chamber and lock her up good and tight."

She glanced back at Starlex with eyes like ice. "I'll decide what to do with you later."

* * *

Starlex lay on her bed in the room she had lived in since she was a girl, surrounded by wealth and luxury, but still trapped like a bird in a golden cage. A palace guard brought her dinner tray then took it away untouched.

"Please Illym," she prayed, her face pressed into the damp pillowcase. "Please make my sister see reason."

From outside her balcony, the sound of flapping wings rushed through the humid air. The great purple Lila bird landed on the balcony railing with a resounding squawk.

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"Raki!" Starlex flew from her bed to the balcony. "What's wrong, girl?" She stepped back to avoid the violent flapping wings and snapping beak.

She felt a tremor along the balcony railing. A violent jolt knocked her to the floor, followed by a cloud of purple smoke that made her retreat, coughing, into her chamber. When the air cleared, Rigel was sitting on the marble floor and Raki was flying away, happy to be rid of the mad human who had taken over her body.

Starlex rushed to her cousin's side. "Heavens! How did you do that?"

Rigel groaned and said, "Give me some wine for my head, and I'll tell you all about it."

* * *

Bonn Skaard stood in his dungeon cell, the damp walls dripping with the aroma of human misery.

As moonlight spilled in through the tiny barred window, he thought alternately about the Skaard people and his princess wife. It kept him from thinking too much about his imminent meeting with the sharp edge of the executioner's blade.

It wasn't the pain he feared. He'd experienced too much of it on the battlefield, had felt sharp blades dig into his flesh, had heard his Skaard brothers' agonized cries in battle, begging for death's swift release. But he wasn't ready to lay down his sword. Not yet.

For one thing, his people needed him. He should never have returned to Oran. The queen had shown him her true intentions during his brief meeting with her. The truth was there from the start, revealing itself in the she-devil's flashing violet eyes, the lustful curl of her lips, and the swell of her breasts. His love for her silver-haired sister had blinded him to that grim reality.

The clank of approaching guard's footsteps broke his reverie.

Has the time come to me to meet my doom?

His thoughts flew back to Kadaar and how his life had changed on that fated day when he returned from battle to Yarhtah. He had ridden into his village in a blinding snowstorm to find his home completely engulfed in flames. He jumped from his mount and rushed into the fire, screaming for his wife and son. It took four Skaard men to drag him outside. Someone had found his wife, Siffa, lying facedown in the snow. Bonn ran to her and turned her over. Her ice-blue eyes were fixed on the sky, and clasped to her breast was Bonn's three-year-old son, Bolto. Both dead.

Not caring whether he lived or died, Bonn threw himself into battle with strength fortified by vengeance. Impervious to pain, he fought savagely, and woe to anyone who crossed his path.

Then he met a silver-haired princess with stars in her eyes and again he was changed. With a deep sigh, he recalled the sweet promise of her embrace.

Bowing his head in the moon, he prayed not to Illym, but to the land, the wind, and the sky he loved so much, and hoped to return one day, at least in spirit.

The prison door clanged open with a metallic wail.

"So be it," he whispered, girding his loins to face his death.

"Here's someone to keep you company, Skaard!" the guard called as he slammed Leiffen onto the floor of the cell. "We caught his ass before he could scale the wall."

"Can't blame a mate for trying, eh?" Leiffen said, brushing himself off. "Heavens! It stinks in here."

"You two can keep each other company until it's your turn on the gallows." The guard made crude kissing sounds as he slammed the door shut and retreated down the hall.

"I almost made it," Leiffen said to Bonn with a grim look. "I was going to return to Skaard and organize a full-on attack, but now..." he shrugged and looked around.

Bonn nodded. "Any word about my lady wife?"

"No, and those guards took my sack away with all my tricks inside. But the fools forgot to check my pockets." With a sly glint in his eye, he reached into his britches and pulled out the last of his shiny silver orbs.