"look!" tory hissed in ry's ear, bringing his brother around quickly. ry drew in a sharp breath. wlodek, adam and merrill had come. neither tory nor ry could sufficiently describe the race to which those three belonged. their mother often said that knowledge of their race protected itself and none could speak of it unless they had permission.

ry had firsthand experience with that-he'd tried and failed. his mother also said that this particular race was the smallest race-in numbers, anyway-that existed. uncles drake, drew, winkler, gavin, tony and karzac all had ties to that race. that still didn't give ry or tory permission to speak of it. not even a little. they could discuss it with each other, but not with outsiders. their words would be held back by some sort of invisible shield. they'd learned to live with it.

"why do you think they've come?" ry whispered. tory just shook his head. they sat and watched as the council gathered and took their seats. their mother came in, flanked by tory's father and uncle rigo. aurelius and uncle aryn, who served as the queen's personal advisors, were already there and waiting for the queen to be seated.

erland slipped in and sat next to the boys before the sentencing began. his father's face looked grim, ry thought. the prisoners were brought in next and then the palace guards led in the prisoners' parents. both young offenders looked pale.

"we are here to pass sentence upon haldis and sark of the green fae village," aurelius made the announcement after the prisoners came to stand before the queen and the others who stood with her. aurelius shook his shoulder-length, dark-gold hair back as he read the charges off the comp-vid in his hand. those charges included attempted murder, assault and conspiracy. "you have been sentenced to the prison planet of evensun. you may make a short statement, if you wish." aurelius stepped back after announcing their punishment.

"the stupid little eunuch should have died," the one called haldis snapped. he sounded close to tears. ry exchanged a glance with tory.

"he is not a eunuch." their mother spoke for the first time. "that is how his race is. if you'd bothered to do any research, you could have found this out for yourself." the queen was upset and angry, ry and tory could tell, as were their fathers and uncles. the queen's voice was even, though, so only those close to her might be able to tell how upset she really was. "is that why you did this? you didn't think he was whole?"

neither of the boys spoke, now. "if there are no other statements?" aurelius spoke again. "the parents of the accused wish to accompany their children to evensun. they have signed waivers to this effect, and those are on file for public perusal," aurelius went on. "this business of the high council upon le-ath veronis is now concluded. the prisoners will be transported to the space station and taken from there to evensun. the queen and the council's word is law."

aurelius nodded to the guards, who came forward to take the prisoners from the council chambers. ry and tory watched them go. as soon as they were gone, the council members rose and began filing out. it took a while for all of them to leave-some spoke to others, holding things up. erland's arm stole around ry's shoulders.

"that should not have been, son," erland hugged ry tightly before letting him go.

"yeah. dad?" ry looked up at his father's face.

"what, son?"

"i love you."

"i know." erland stood and waited for ry and tory to rise. "you should know how much i love you, too. come on, i think your mother is about to have a meltdown."

"flavio, i don't care whether you think this is justice or not." queen lissa was arguing with the only council member left inside the chamber. he was an old friend of their mother's, ry knew. lissa was comfortable telling him exactly what she thought.

"i know you didn't want to send them there because of their age. if you recall, all of us saw the larentii's images of that child after he was beaten. he would have died without outside help. even you admit that. this surprises me." flavio's mouth was set in a grim line, marring his handsome features.

"flavio, i have a headache and i really don't want to argue about this anymore. i just want to crawl out of my skin and be somebody else for a while. somebody who doesn't care about any of this." lissa rubbed her forehead.

"cara, come." gavin was at the queen's side immediately, trying to convince her to come with him. everybody else was backing away-although drake and drew seemed disappointed that gavin got there first. gavin had his arm around lissa as they walked out of the council chamber. "cara, do you feel like eating now?" gavin asked softly. ry knew his mother had been too upset to have breakfast earlier.

"no, honey." lissa's words were barely a whisper, and if gavin hadn't been holding her up, she would have fallen to the floor when she fainted. as it was, erland, drake, drew and the others were rushing to the queen's side when she almost went down, and gavin was shouting for karzac and the larentii the moment he lifted her in his arms.

"i know you want to go to your mother, but right now we all have to stay out of the way." garde was holding ry and tory back. they stood against a wall in the queen's suite of rooms while karzac and both larentii checked on the queen.

"what's wrong with her, dad?" tory sounded scared.

"we think she just fainted, but karzac and the larentii are checking to make sure. this has been a harder blow than we thought. she didn't want any part of sending those boys to evensun, although the crime they committed was one of the worst."

karzac turned and glared at the gathered crowd. "we need everybody out of here. now." tory's father jerked around and stared at uncle karzac. even he knew not to argue with the curmudgeonly physician, however.

"let's see if cheedas can get us a snack," garde gripped ry and tory's arms and hauled them out of the queen's suite.

cheedas ordered his assistants to find food and then sat next to tory's high demon father. "do not think that i won't hear," he grumbled. "what is wrong with my little girl?"

at any other time, ry might have found that amusing. cheedas considered the queen his adopted child, and she called him papa cheedas. she often went to him for advice or consolation, if all the uncles and his father were on the outs with her. she'd offered cheedas other positions-more important positions-in the palace. cheedas liked to cook and run the kitchens. he stayed right where he was.

cheedas was comesula. nearly five hundred fifty years of age, he was slender of build, stood around five feet six inches tall, his dark hair had silver in it and he ruled the palace kitchen with an iron fist wrapped in an oven mitt.

"they didn't tell us anything, either." garde was close to blowing smoke, ry knew. he was holding back for tory's sake-tory still looked scared. ry didn't feel good about it, either. erland had insisted on staying in the queen's suite, as did several others. garde had been the one to get the boys out of the queen's bedroom. this shouldn't be-their mother wasn't susceptible to illness as a rule.

"there are sixteen larentii inside the queen's suite," a comesula servant skidded into the kitchen. he was ready to add to that statement when he caught sight of garde and the two young princes. "i'll just go wash the vegetables and cut them up," he recovered quickly and walked swiftly toward the pantry.

"stay here," garde ordered and ry and tory were left to wonder as garde skipped away right in front of them.

"young ones, you should not worry. the larentii will take care of things." cheedas sounded worried, too, as he attempted to reassure the princes. "tell me about your schoolwork."

tory hesitated for a few seconds. "we're working on a report," he admitted. "on the economic impact that trell's destruction had on the alliance."

"hmmph. many things happened at that time. that mess upon cloudsong was the worst. upset my little girl, it did." cheedas slid off his stool and went to supervise the cooking. one of ry's eyebrows lifted as he stared at his brother.

"how is this possible? it should not be possible." those were karzac's words as tory and ry were led inside the library by grant, one of their mother's assistants. grant had been sent to find them in the kitchen. karzac was pacing, too, and raking hands through his light-brown hair, which now looked wild. ry and tory stopped dead just inside the wide door into the library.

"is mom sick?" tory almost whispered the words.

"young ones, come and sit." karzac pointed to the sofa they'd sat on the night before.

"it is not bad news." uncle reemagar came up behind them and herded both boys toward the sofa. ry and tory sat as instructed. even ry felt cold and shivery-something not normal for him.

"your mother has managed to get herself pregnant, when we all thought that was impossible. even she thought it impossible." karzac sighed and sat across from ry and tory. "you had surrogate mothers, as you know-the larentii manipulated donor eggs with your mother's genetic material, making them her eggs in every way. your sister was conceived using the same method. and now this."

"the wise ones say that since your mother is what she is, that the eggs will only be released in her body after great lengths of time," reemagar knelt next to ry's side of the sofa. "they also say they know who the father is, but they will not announce that information at this time. they tell us that it will come later."

"you mean one of us could have a full brother or sister, and not a half?" tory asked, his eyes wide.

"yes, that is a possibility," reemagar smiled, causing the blue skin around his eyes to crinkle just a little. ry remembered that his mother always said that when a larentii smiled, it was like watching the sky smile on a sunny day.

"so, when?" tory didn't finish his question.

"in about seven months," reemagar was still smiling.