Free Quest for the Sun Orb by Laura Jo Phillips

now but to go along with Marene’s plan to retrieve this mysterious artifact from Darkly Fen.  A small voice in the back of his mind whispered that there was another choice, but he refused to listen.  Defying Marene and spending the remainder of his life with her in his head meant giving up Kapia, and as far as he was concerned, that was not an option at all.
    His decision made, he got up and checked the diplo, scratching it behind the ears for a few moments as he thought about Kapia.  It had only been a few days since he’d seen her, but it felt like so much longer.
    When he returned to the fire he took off his boots, finished his tea, and crawled into his bed roll.  It was still another hour before full dark, but he was ready for sleep.  His mind didn’t remember anything, but his body was exhausted. 
     

 
     
    Chapter Five
     
    Tiari sat as still as she could in the saddle, afraid to move for fear that the animal beneath her would suddenly take off running.  She glanced down at the ground, which was much too far away for comfort, then quickly looked up again.  She was startled to see Tomas walking toward her from the far side of the clearing.
    The first time she’d looked at the Prince, she’d thought him beautiful, and he was.  Compared to Una, the only person she’d seen since her mother’s death, all of these people looked beautiful to her.  But there was something about Tomas that drew her, and it was more than his physical beauty, which he certainly had plenty of.  In many ways he was the opposite of the Prince. 
    Where Prince Zakiel had black hair, Tomas had blonde.  The Prince’s eyes were a cool blue, Tomas’s eyes were warm brown.  Tomas was not as broad shouldered as the Prince.  He had a longer, leaner build that she found interesting to watch as he moved toward her in his black leather pants, his black vest shifting with each step to give her a tantalizing view of his muscular chest. 
    Tiari felt her cheeks heat and dropped her eyes, shocked at herself.  Why had she been staring at him that way?  And why did she have such strange, quivery feelings inside of her whenever she looked at him?  Or thought of him?  There was so much she didn’t understand, so much she didn’t know. 
    “Are you ready to get down?” Tomas asked, stopping beside her diplo’s head.
    “I think so,” she replied, trying to pretend she was unaware that her face was bright red.  She turned to see both Karma and Kapia talking to their attendants, neither of them on their diplos.  “Is everyone stopping now?”
    “Yes,” Tomas replied.  “Prince Zakiel has decided we’ll camp here for the night, then get an early start in the morning.”
    “In that case, yes, I would like to get down now, please,” she said, hoping he didn’t notice the slight tremble in her voice. 
    Tomas moved so that he was beside the diplo.  “Swing your leg over and slide down,” he said.  “Don’t worry, I shall catch you.”
    In spite of Tomas’s calm words, Tiari was quaking with fear.  But it wasn’t Tomas, or the diplo, or even falling that frightened her, though she was a little nervous about that last one.  It was the fear of failing.  Failing to be what these people expected her to be.  Failing to be likable enough for them to want to keep her with them.  Failing to learn everything fast enough so that they did not see her as a burden or, worse, a helpless cripple.
    There was just so much!  The past two hours had taught her how little she knew about the world.  She’d gone from a cold, dark, lonely existence to an abundance of everything so quickly that it was more than a little overwhelming.  Nevertheless, she was determined to learn as much as she could, as quickly as she could, and she had chosen Karma and Kapia as her role models.  She’d realized at once that they were strong, brave, confident young women, and she wanted to be like them.
    The one thing she was not afraid of was returning to