By Chance Met

Prologue
Imposition
Ylandre, in the 2986th year of the Common Age
“I’m sorry you must pay so high a price, brother.”
The newly named heir apparent of Ilmaren half turned from the window and the view of the spacious courtyard fronting the great Arthanna manse. Reijir looked at Keiran questioningly, raven eyebrows rising.
“Why apologize for a deed you didn’t commit?” he asked.
Keiran shrugged. “Because Aba never will.”
Reijir snorted and shook his head. He looked out the window again, his studied indifference belying the welter of confused emotions Keiran could sense underlying his calm. The older Arthanna son stifled a sigh.
Veres almighty, Reijir had just attained the age of consent and was still five years short of his majority. He’d only started to live—really live—and all of a sudden their sire had yanked the figurative rug from under him and ensured a lifetime of unrelenting duty and service to their fief and its people.
Keiran waited several heartbeats before continuing. “You’ll suffer more for this than I,” he said.
Rejjir glanced back at him, frowning. “Will I? You know Aba intends to contract you before summer’s end. Is being forced into an unwanted union no hardship for you, Kei?”
“It’s a hardship for anyone, but I’ve expected it all my life,” Keiran pointed out. “You haven’t. And even less are you ready to be stripped of what you do want.”
“What do you mean?”
Keiran took a deep breath before speaking. “Aba never approved of Darion. He’s barely tolerated your affair with him as it is. Think you he’ll stay his hand now that you’ll succeed him?”
That made Reijir turn around to face him, his eyes widening with consternation. “What could he possibly do to take Darion away from me?”
“That I can’t say,” Keiran said. “But he spoke with Darion yestereve after he informed me that he intended to name you heir.”
Reijir stared at him. “How do you know?”
“Right after we talked, he ordered his steed readied. I wondered why—he rarely goes riding nowadays. So I told Ruomi to go after him. He followed Aba to Balas, Rei. To Darion’s house.”
“And only this morn did he bother to tell me of his decision.” Reijir’s eyes suddenly flashed with angry fire. “Deity’s blood! How I long for the day when we shall both be truly free of Aba and his tiresome interference in our lives!”
Keiran bit his lip then murmured, “I’ll be free of him. But I fear you won’t. Not completely. He made sure of that when he bypassed me in your favor.” He smiled sadly at his brother. “You’ll always have to choose between duty and happiness for the one will not always come with the other.”
Reijir’s mouth tightened. “Perhaps. But at least I shall be the one to make those choices, not he.” He looked out the window, gazing in the direction of Balas, one of the villages that nestled among the low hills to the north of Ilmaren’s capital of Althia. “But now I think I had best pay Darion a visit.” He turned eyes darkened with apprehension on Keiran. “What did Aba do, I wonder?”
“Likely he attempted to persuade Darion to end your affair. What other reason could there be for that visit?”
“Likely you’re right. And if he succeeded…” Reijir drew a deep breath. “What then will I do?”
At times like this, Keiran was reminded of just how innocent his brother still was despite the yearlong liaison that had introduced him to love and only lately initiated him into the word of carnal pleasure. He reached for Reijir’s shoulder and gripped it.
“You’ll do what you’ve always done, Rei. Pick yourself up and move on.”
“If I can.”
Grim-faced, Reijir turned away and strode out of the study. Keiran gazed after him with a heavy heart. Many minutes later, he looked out the window and saw his brother walk out to the courtyard below where a groom had a steed ready for him. Reijir looked composed as he almost always did, but Keiran was not deceived by that calm façade. He watched Reijir mount the sleek beast and ride out of the keep.
Keiran murmured a silent prayer, hoping against faint hope that fate had not conspired against Reijir and a chance at true happiness.