The man looked struck.

Moira tugged on his hand. “Good. Then let us go.”

He turned to her.

Saturn was correct.

She had lovely skin.

And her voice was beautiful.

He curled his fingers around hers and allowed her to guide him to his horse.

Faunus was already mounted.

Teddy didn’t hesitate to swing up in the saddle.

Saturn assisted Moira then he swung up in his own.

Faunus was the first to put his heels to his steed and the horse raced down the lane with Teddy following him, Moira following Teddy, and Saturn taking the rear.

They made the road and headed toward Trevor’s Gorge.

Not a one of them looked back.

147

The Reckoning

Jellan

Sky Citadel, Sky Bay

AIREN

Jellan was taken aback.

He thought it would be much more difficult, especially in a time of war, to gain access to the Citadel and an audience with the Regent.

But he had given his name at the guardhouse at the bottom of the lane, the guard had looked at him, allowed him into the structure to sit by their small fire (for which he was thankful, northern Airen by the sea was shockingly chill), and asked him to wait.

Another guard had cantered up the lane on his horse, only to canter back down in what could be naught but half an hour.

To which he had spoken quietly with the man who was in the guardhouse with Jellan.

That guard came to him, and he said, “His Grace awaits you at the Citadel. Please remount your horse. The corporal will guide you there.”

And now, there he was.

The guard who had guided him to the Regent’s palace was sweeping open the grand doors to the Citadel, and Jellan was walking through.

Easy as that.

He nearly smiled to himself, and would have, if he did not have to assume an air of urgency in heroically escaping the Beast and sharing with them the creature walked amongst them.

But it was difficult to force it down.

He had sat a number of diplomatic tables, and he was a well-known Go’En of the Go’Doan.

But truly, he did not expect this quick of reception.

The door barely closed behind him, and he was blinking in some shock at the massive spray of colorful gladiolus atop a handsome table that adorned the always severe, and even grim (to Jellan’s opinion on the décor) entryway of the Sky Citadel, when he heard the quick staccato clip of boots hitting stone.

He looked in that direction to see Macrinus, Cassius’s closest lieutenant, approaching, alongside him Hera, Elena’s captain.

Dismissing Hera and watching Macrinus, Jellan thought, Ah, but it is good to again be amongst the Airenzian.

His dead lover Rupert had been Airenzian, with his tall, muscular body and his thick cock.