The king raised an eyebrow. "And they told you all this did they? When they didn't know it?"
What, did his father think he was stupid? "Of course not. But in an attempt to find whether the mages had been here, I asked Brianna more about the troll attacks … "
"Troll attacks?" his father interrupted. He stared at Lyall in disbelief for a moment, then to Lyall's chagrin, he laughed! "My goodness. I should have listened to Urster when he said you weren't up to this task. Surely you didn't believe superstitious nonsense about trolls?"
Lyall didn't bother to try to argue his defence, it was plain his father thought little of him, despite choosing to send him on this mission. Instead, he walked across to the table he had been using as a desk, and picked up the troll skull they had unearthed. He held it up without a word.
He felt little satisfaction at the abrupt change in his father's expression. His eyes widened, and he stared at the skull, then at Lyall. There was no disbelief in his voice as he asked, "What is going on here?"
"It was a magical spell, a curse of sorts," Lyall explained, only slightly mollified. "Our ancestors put it on the other mages during the Great War and turned them into trolls somehow."
"How did you find out about this?"
Lyall explained about the crypt, the pictures and the gem. "I sent for more troops when I realised the potential threat these trolls were. Since they have a gem as well, defending against them if they attack again is going to be difficult."
"Nonsense. They might have a gem, but they can't possibly have grown in power as much as we have. And we will have a set of twins on our side. They won't be any match for you."
Lyall frowned. "About that … "
"Don't tell me you haven't bonded her twin yet?"
"Mianna is already married."
His father's eyebrows shot up. "So, they sympathised with the twin who refused to obey the law then? The twin law is unbreakable, they have no option but to honour it."
"It's not that simple," Lyall said. "Mianna's marriage was arranged before Brianna left. In fact, she faked her own death so that her sister could marry as she chose."
"And now?" his father demanded.
"Now Brianna lives with them as though both of them were married." His heart twisted at the words, but it couldn't change the truth of them.
"And you are just going to sit and accept this? I knew you lacked courage, but I would have expected you to be prepared to at least fight for the woman you claim to love! If the husband is dead, the law will default to you."
"What you are suggesting is murder," Lyall said. "What right do I have to kill another man and steal his wife? Just because I'm more powerful than he is?"
"Who was first?" his father asked.
Lyall sighed. "I was," he admitted.
"Then if you won't enforce your rights, I will," King Balen said flatly. "Call Urster and we'll arrange it now."
"No!"
His father stared at him as though he'd turned green and sprouted horns. "What?"
"I will not let an innocent man be killed just so that I can become more powerful."
"Are you intending to disobey the law as well?"
"They tried to enforce the law here, centuries ago, and it led directly to the Great War. Don't you get it? You can't make a person love someone."
"And what sort of a message do you think it will send, if the king's son is exempt from the law?"
"Brianna threatened to tell the village about the barrier if I told them about our relationship."
His father stared at him. "That's what this is about? You're letting that little bitch threaten you into complying with her duplicity? Do you really think that a pitiful little village can stand up to our army?" His father's voice was scornful, his message plain.
He'd always been like this. Perhaps it was due to being born a prince and always having things his way, or perhaps it was simply his personality. Lyall no longer cared. His mother wasn't here to be upset, and either way, he couldn't let a man die just to appease his father's whims.
He thrust the skull he was still holding into his father's hands. "That pitiful village has stood up to these trolls and fought them off for centuries. They stand within a magical barrier, within which the only one who can use magic is Brianna. I know which side I'm choosing. I'm going to Brianna and will stand beside her if you try to attack the village."
His father stood there, staring at him. Before he could object, or attempt to stop him, Lyall slipped out of the tent and into the darkness.
*****
The short walk back to their house was heavy with silence. Brianna tried to take deep breaths to calm herself, but whether it was because the remnants of the magic still tingled through her veins, or because she had no idea how she could even begin to explain the story to Mianna, she just couldn't find a place of calm at all.
"What was he talking about?" Mianna demanded as soon as the door closed behind them. "What's bonding? And how does he know you?"
Her twin stared at her as though begging her to have a reasonable explanation.
She didn't have one. Not one bit of her story with Lyall was reasonable. She should never have let him close to her in the first place, much less followed him to his home and slept with him.
Part of her wanted to explain it away, say the king was talking nonsense, and he must be mad. But she was tired of lying. Every lie she told made it harder to eventually tell the truth.
"I slept with Lyall on Isla de Magi. He's Lylis's father."
The silence in the room was so complete she thought Mianna had forgotten to breathe. Certainly, her twin's face was turning an unhealthy shade of white. "You … slept with him … ? Lylis's father … ?" She shook her head. "Why didn't you say something?"
Terion stayed quiet, and Brianna was glad. This wasn't really his fight. It was between her and Mianna.
"I didn't know how. I didn't think I'd ever see him again so there seemed no point in telling you who he was. Then when he turned up here, well, he wasn't exactly being the sort of person you want to introduce to your family," she joked.
It fell flat.
Mianna's brow was creased. She frowned. "Do you love him?"
Brianna took a deep breath to deny the possibility, then let it out in a sigh. "Yes."
Mianna's eyes widened. "How could you fall in love with someone else? I knew you didn't love Terion, but I thought … " She broke off and turned away, burying her head in Terion's chest.
"It doesn't matter," Brianna said softly. "Nothing can come of it. I've told him that. I'm staying here with you and Terion. No one else ever needs to know."
Mianna raised her face and stared at her, uncertain. "Can you really do that? Will he accept that?" Her eyes narrowed then. "What did that man mean by bonded?"
Brianna winced. "Apparently … when two mages sleep together, a bond is formed somehow, making both of them stronger. The twin marriage law is because of that. Twins have the same bond at birth, so marrying both of them … makes a mage twice as strong."
"So he slept with you to become more powerful?"
She had to admit, it did sound damning. Mianna didn't know Lyall, couldn't possibly understand that it wasn't like that. Half the time she found it hard enough to believe. "It wasn't like that," she protested. "If he just wanted to be more powerful, he would have picked the highest powered mage and married her long ago. I'm sure there are plenty who are more powerful than I am."
"But you're a twin, that's better. That's what you said and what the king said."
"Lyall didn't know I was a twin at the time," she insisted.
Mianna stepped away from Terion and reached for Brianna's hands. "So he said." She shook her head. "He's using you, Bri. Surely you can see that?" Her voice was soft, compassionate. She glanced over at Terion, then back to Brianna. "And if you're right about twins giving him more power, then he wants both of us."
Lyall wasn't like that. After the first time, he hadn't even mentioned Mianna. But she could see that her twin wasn't going to believe anything she said in Lyall's defence. So she fell back on the lie. "He won't. He can't do anything to us while we're inside the village."
"That's probably why he's sent for more mages. They outnumber us now, we can't possibly hope to defend against them. Our best option might be to run, while we still can. They're distracted right now with the king arriving. If we go out the side gate … "
"No!"
Mianna stared at her.
"I won't leave our home. We haven't let the trolls scare us away in all these centuries, I'm not going to let those mages do it either."