Demon's Dream (High Demon Series #6) by Connie Suttle Page A

us that will."
    "Father, that petty revenge could have killed Reah. What should we do? Shall I go after them? Haul them back here and lock them away?"
    "You are Prince-Heir, Lendill. What would you do if they weren't your brothers?"
    "Go after them and press charges. Likely remove Reldill's power so he can't do harm in the future. Send them to Evensun, perhaps."
    "Then you must do what you must, according to Alliance law. Perhaps it is time that our people realize that they are citizens of the Alliance, just as all the other inhabitants are. We were here first, before Ildevar Wyyld ever thought to set foot on the planet and create the Alliance with twenty others of his kind. And since we allowed him to settle here and then watched while he and the others built the Alliance from nothing, we have an obligation now to join with it and uphold its laws. They are generally just, those laws. And I am proud that my son has helped keep those laws in place and weeded out corruption over the years. I am most proud of you, child."
    "I didn't think you felt that way for the longest time, Father. I thought you only tolerated me because you loved my mother."
    "I did love your mother. Still do, although she is gone from me. But she left you with me, son. The one who always looked for justice. The one who sought the truth, always. Naldill always looked to his comforts, depending upon Reldill to act as his army at times; punishing those he thought offended him. If he had changed his ways at any time, or looked upon the people here as his kin and not his subjects, I might have considered him as my replacement. I waited a very long time for that to happen. I tired of it, as you know. I picked the best of my four sons to take my place. Never doubt my love for you, child. I know I put you through the fire and I apologize for that."
    "Father, you don't know how hard it was to deal with that from my end. I can't tell you how many times I thought about cutting myself off from you and Gaelar N'Seith. Whenever Naldill would taunt me about this or that, usually about my lack of power, I considered it."
    "I'm glad you stayed the course, child. Perhaps you will forgive me someday for allowing those things to happen."
    "It made me more determined that Alliance citizens should be protected, father. There was a benefit, I think, although I suffered through it."
    "You have a generous heart, child."
    "Father, Reah has the generous heart. She could have skipped away from Kifirin at any time during the past twenty-five years, leaving them to struggle. She paid off a crushing debt to get them on their feet, and they rewarded her by taking her children and dumping more work on her shoulders. I don't even want to talk about my part in all of that. And I begged her, Father, to allow that bastard to attack her so we'd get the information we needed. And then, when all the power went down, we couldn't even get troops in there to help her. She was on her own until the very last, and took them down by herself. They kept attacking her, even when they knew it was useless to do so. Fired rockets at her. Bombarded her. She was pregnant, and they did that."
    Lendill surprised himself with the wetness on his cheeks. "She kept all those girls safe, fighting to keep the army Nedrizif controlled from killing all of them. We haven't even paid her for that. How can we compensate for that, Dad? How? What we planned to pay her is paltry and an insult. Ildevar has promised half the confiscated funds from the pirates, but we're still working on getting all that put together."
    "I understand that Torevik has promised half of the Schuul's holdings as well. Has he handed that over to her yet?"
    "No. She's getting treatment by a doctor since she tried to kill herself. I'm not sure she's cooperating with him at all."
    "Son, his nurses betrayed her. What can you expect? I watched that vid and wept. Imagine if you'd been in a session, claiming to be Vice-Director of the ASD and Prince-Heir of