Free Griffin's Shadow by Leslie Ann Moore

thought Taya the most beautiful of all women.
    The object of his wife’s fury—their eldest child, Raidu—stood before her, radiating defiance. She turned away from Raidan to face their son. “Go ahead… Tell your father, if you dare!” The young man’s chin lifted in obstinate refusal.
    Raidu had always been rebellious by nature—even more so, now that he had officially reached adulthood. Raidan knew he ought to deal with his son’s perceived misdeed immediately, but he could not afford any distractions now.
    “Not now, Wife,” Raidan responded.
    Taya’s eyes widened in surprise. She opened her mouth to object but Raidan cut her off. “Whatever Raidu has done this time, we will deal with it later. I have serious news.” He turned toward Raidu. “It’s late, Son,” he said quietly. “Go to bed.” Raidu regarded his father speculatively for a few moments.
    There’s so much of his mother in him, the prince thought. Same green eyes and auburn hair, same nose and chin.
    Raidu departed with a final backward glance, leaving Raidan alone with Taya. He reached out and grabbed her hands, and before she could speak, he opened his mind to her.
    Taya entered easily through the mental link they had forged years ago, a link that had grown stronger and more secure with the intimacy of their long marriage. She soon knew everything he did about the girl claiming to be Keizo’s daughter.
    Taya withdrew, then lifted her right index finger and traced a glowing symbol in the air. As it flashed, then dissolved, Raidan felt the tingling caress of magical energy against the bare skin of his face and hands.
    The two of them stood in silence for several heartbeats, then Taya said, “The room wards are up. We can speak freely.” Raidan nodded in understanding. “This girl is undoubtedly an Onjara, and dangerous, Husband, but not in the way you think,” Taya continued.
    “What do you mean?” Raidan replied. “How do you know for sure?”
    Taya drifted over to the room’s single, large window, open to the cool evening breezes. “What I am going to tell you now must not leave this room, Husband. Only two others know the entire truth, and it is vital that it remain so, for now.”
    Raidan felt a chill finger stroke his backbone.
    “I and my fellows in the Society have known about this girl for some time, and we believe…”
    “What?” Raidan exclaimed, shock roughening his voice. “You’ve known about her… and you didn’t tell me…or my brother? How can this be?”
    “Please, Husband, just listen to me, now!”
    “You knew about this girl all along…and, yet you said nothing,” Raidan whispered. His nostrils flared, the only outward sign of his growing anger. For the first time in all the years he’d been married, he felt the bitter sting of …
    No. Betrayal is too strong a word. Never that, not from her.
    Unconsciously stroking the gold wedding bracelet on his right wrist, he chose his next words with care. “There is nothing you do that has no sound reason behind it, Wife, so…because I trust you above all others…I will listen and…hold…my…temper!”
    Taya sat down on the padded bench beneath the window and after an instant’s hesitation, Raidan joined her.
    “The Society believes that this girl is the vessel chosen by our predecessors to harbor that which they sought to safeguard from their…no, from our greatest enemy,” Taya explained in a soft, steady voice. “The Key has returned.”
    “Is this…this key some kind of magic?” Raidan asked.
    “Yes,” Taya replied. “A very powerful and dangerous magic.”
    In addition to her high office as Crown Princess of Alasiri, Taya served as Mistress of the Kirian Society—the secretive collective of mages whose members were drawn from the most Talented of all of the land’s trained practitioners. Most of the time, Raidan stayed out of Taya’s way whenever she and her fellow mages met and conducted their business within the royal apartments,