Crystal Throne (Book 1) by D.W. Jackson Page A

brother.”
    “As good a place as any, though it will take more than a day to reach the council building,” Humanius replied. “But maybe the more distance between us and the palace will help us in the end. If they knew where we were headed then they might set a trap for us instead of hunting us down.”
    “Dear brother, I think you give these creatures too much credit. I saw the scion and heard him the same as you. They don’t have much thought left in them.”
    “They might not, but we have no clue what this voice might know or think of,” Humanius replied. “In the end, I don’t want to take a chance when we don’t have to.”
    “Then we have our next destination,” Bren said drawing everyone’s attention to him. “I would suggest we get moving before we have a host of scions bearing down on us.”
    “Good point lad,” Humanius said as the god turned around and started heading back the way they had come. “The council building is at the northeast corner of town. I don’t know why, but the people of the past never like to place government buildings too close together unless they belonged to the same group. If they had half a brain, they would have kept everything in the same area so that you didn’t have to spend most your day traveling just to speak with more than one of them.”
    “Then you must hate our world,” Thad said laughing. “We don’t even keep them in the same part of the country. If you need the queen’s justice, you have to go to the capital, everything else is in its own duchy or county. Honestly I think even my wife gets confused about who she needs to talk to about some of the country’s affairs.”
    “Mother would get a bit edgy when she had to work out who was responsible for what,” Bren said, laughing for the first time in days. “Most of the time, the lines were so cloudy she would just decide who it should have been, then she would tell them. Though until she decided, she was a bear to live with.”
    “At least that hasn’t changed about her,” Thad said with a smile.
    They walked until the sun set, then picked a nice spot to camp. It had been a long day, but Thad knew that many more were ahead of him, so he took no time to ponder and quickly lay down for what sleep could be afforded him.

CHAPTER IX

    As Thad dreamt, he found himself floating in the darkness he knew so well and for one of the few times in his life he welcomed it. Most of the time Maria had searched him out in his dreams, he had been on the wrong side of her anger, though in all honestly, he was sure that she was not that pleased with him.
    As the darkness began to clear, Thad found himself in the Farlan palace gardens among the moon lilies. The moon was high in the sky and the lilies were in full bloom and glowing lightly.
    “You always loved the moon lilies,” Thad said as he bent down and took a whiff of their fragrant bouquet.
    “I remember when we were younger and sat playing cards in the balcony overlooking this garden,” Maria said in a lighthearted voice.
    “Is that when you decided you would leash me for the rest of my life,” Thad said turning around to see his wife.
    Maria wrapped her arms around Thad. “Don’t be silly,” she said a smile creping across her face. “I decided the day I first saw you that you would be mine.”
    “I don’t think telling your husband that you decided to chain him to you when he was being sold as a slave is the best way to show your affection,” Thad said with a mock frown.
    “I had mother pay for you then, and while you tried to run, in the end you were still mine bought and paid for,” She said pulling him down into a deep kiss. “You might not always listen to my commands, but in the end your still mine and mine alone.”
    “I missed you,” Thad said after a few moments of silence.
    “As I have you,” Maria replied. “That is why you need to hurry home, and bring our foolish son along with you. He has been showing too many of your less than