Realm of Light by Deborah Chester Read Free Book Online

his heart swelled with the words he could not utter. No matter what
they had shared in a moment of magic, that had been another world. Reality was
this world, the here and now. Elandra still belonged to the emperor.
    Frustration sawed
through him. Hadn’t he fought in her behalf? Hadn’t he saved her when her
husband abandoned her? At this very moment, where was Kostimon? Was he here, by
his wife’s side? No, there was only Caelan, faithful Caelan, to watch over her
and protect her. Did that not make his claim on her more valid than Kostimon’s?
    Caelan gritted his
teeth to hold back the temptations that suddenly swept over him. Perspiration
popped out across his forehead. He was flooded with heat, with the conviction
that he was going mad. His warrior’s blood pumped with a fury that urged him toward
the madness. For years his only passions had been hatred and the joy of
combat—savage, destructive forces that burned his heart. He had never imagined
that he could also burn with love for a woman.
    Had she not
pleaded with him to come with her? Had she not shown her preference?
    She was his. She
had always been his.
    A stumble tilted
Caelan off balance, and his shoulder crashed into the wall. The jolt snapped
him back from the edge.
    Blinking, he
rubbed his face and drew in several quick breaths, amazed at himself.
    Was he losing his
mind? To be feeling like this, to be thinking like this ... it was treason. It
was forbidden. She was not his woman. She was the empress, not some village
maiden he could throw over his shoulder and carry off like booty.
    She trusted him,
and he could not violate that by abducting her. She depended on him, and he
could not respond to that with dishonor. Never mind what he wanted. Never mind
if he burned as though he had been torched. Never mind that all the forces of a
storm whirled and raged inside him, threatening to shatter honor, rules, and
what was right.
    To love her meant
he could not harm her. He could not tempt her into dishonor. He could not even
ask her to choose.
    Besides, he had
shared also with the emperor, becoming one with him. Even now he could still
taste the darkness within Kostimon, as well as the incredible force of will
that drove the man. Kostimon’s thirst for power, the vigor of his ambition, his
lust for life and all that it offered still hummed in Caelan with a resonance
that could not be entirely silenced. Caelan realized that he too possessed his
own dark side: the failures in his past, his joy of combat and killing, the
hatred for old enemies, and an unrequited desire for revenge. Even before his
life had changed, before the Thyzarene raiders had destroyed his home and
killed his father, before he abandoned Lea to die ... back when life was still
good and still full of all possibility, he had craved weapons, had longed to be
a soldier simply because he wanted to fight. It had always been a thread of
darkness in his blood, calling him. And had the Thyzarenes not come and
enslaved him, he would have still used a sword to carve his path of life.
    The empire itself
had been built by swordpoint and strife. Now the empire was falling. Although
tonight the emperor and empress had escaped the traps laid for them, the palace
had been sacked and burned by the enemy. Prince Tirhin had seized the throne
for himself. Whether he could keep it, with his power base built on treachery
and betrayal, remained to be seen.
    Only a fool would
discount Kostimon. Even old and failing, the emperor was not yet defeated. He
could still call on other parts of his empire to rally. He had men who would
hold to their oaths of allegiance. He had resources beyond those of his
enemies.
    But if he had been
broken?
    Caelan thought of
the confused old man arguing over scroll cases instead of plotting strategy. He
thought of the coward who had believed a general’s lies to abandon helpless
women and servants in the palace. He thought of the fool who had refused to pay
heed to warnings.
    Now, driven