The night was cool under the dark sky.

"You're late," Princess Lyla chastised her husband from her place on the wall of the Lower Ring. She stood at an eager attention, with annoyance surrounding her.

The torches blazed, not providing any gap for the Black Rohs to find their way inside the city. The only hint of the spiders existence was the reflecting light off their distant black eyes as they wandered on distant desert dunes.

"Sorry, your highness." Kaden kneeled in the silence of the desert night in an offer to beg her forgiveness. "The prince and I were discussing things. And he would not let me leave until he decided we were finished."

"And by 'things', you mean he was prying you for information about your secrets?" She turned out towards the desert and squinted. But only slightly, and only enough to see the shadowy forms mulling around in the darkness beyond the light.

"He's curious how to use what I've done to grow the numbers of his army. He believes he can turn street rats into warriors."

"Ison would fall if he dared something so stupid." The princess offered her assessment of the news.

"I tried to convince him it wasn't a good idea to cut people open and try to recreate what luck blessed me with." Kaden considered how the conversation had gone. "I don't think he'll go through with the plan."

"Oh, he will," the princess replied, still keeping her sights set on the darkness. "Do not doubt it. My brother's ambition clouds his judgement on this. All the more reason he must be deposed from his throne."

Kaden rose, seeing how she wasn't interested in recognizing him. He approached her, putting his arm around her narrow waist.

She flinched, but allowed the hand to remain. "I did not give you permission to touch me," she said.

Kaden pulled her close to him and whispered in her ear. "A man does not need permission to touch his wife."

"Oh, so you're a man now?" she said jokingly, but in a way that told the Karo Shar what his place was. Then she reciprocated his touch. "I remember the day I first laid eyes upon you."

"As do I," Kaden said. "I remember every curve of your body when my eyes first beheld them. Even if they were hidden by your silks, I could still envision them."

"And I remember how scrawny you were." A grin tugged at the corners of Lyla's mouth. "You've come a long way, Kaden. Not just in your ability in battle, but also in the bedroom. You are a fine Karo Shar and mate."

Kaden pecked his wife on the neck. She squirmed slightly, as he worked to subtly arouse her. "Yeah, was thinking about that. I thought maybe we could try number seventy-eight tonight."

"Seventy-eight?" Continuing her slight squirming, Lyla firmly told him, "You're not ready for that yet."

"Maybe I'll prove you wrong."

"No." Lyla pushed away. She stared at him harder than Kaden's cock beneath his urk. "I said you're not ready. And that's the end of it."

Kaden willed down his urges, seeing that his wife had other ideas as to how this night would unfold. "So why did you call me down here then?"

"To tell you that the time is nearing when you will have to stand by my side against my brother," she said. "And to warn you to be ready away from the prying eyes lurking in the palace."

"I am ready," Kaden said proudly. "I pledged myself to you, and I will hold to that pledge. I want my revenge as much as you want the throne."

"Have you relieved yourself of your doubts that I can do it? You know believe that I can defeat my brother?"

"I do not have doubts," Kaden protested, even though he did. And his mind continue to calculate how to survive if she couldn't.

"Don't lie to me." It was as though the princess could see straight through him. "I know what is in your heart. And to some extent, I can't blame you for having doubt. But you must cease doubting me. Your skepticism is a weakness. And weakness cannot be afforded in the coming moments. If you falter in your loyalty, I will not succeed."

"I don't think you need me as much as you claim to."

"Oh, but I do, Kaden. I do. Victory comes from unity. It comes from trusting that your leader is capable. You've learned these things in the two years since you've come to be Karo Shar, have you not?"

"I have. I've learned that portraying confidence is almost as key to winning as being a great warrior."

The princess nodded. "We cannot stop the world, Kaden. We can only go along with it. Or it will continue to go on without us. Soon, the rotation of our world will change. What once was will be again. People will resist the change. But it is change that many others feel is needed."

"Is it though? Is it needed?"

The princess pursed her lips. "There's your doubt again."

"No," Kaden protested her assertion. "Only observing there is a distinct difference between want and need."

The princess smiled a little and nodded again at his assessment. "Perhaps 'need', is the wrong word. I prefer to think of it as inevitable. And things that are inevitable cannot be stopped. It is best to embrace them."

"I just want you to be safe," Kaden said to his wife. "If something were to happen to you—"

"Don't get all sentimental on me, Kaden. I'm flattered, though."

The rebuff of his concern was bitter in Kaden's mouth. "Through it all, you still doubt that I love you? My sweet Shardard Rose?"

"You've still never seen one of those things that you eagerly and often compare me to, have you?"

"No, I haven't. Why?"

"Someday, you will. And you will realize that beauty is found in strength. I do not doubt that you love me, Kaden. For I have taken great pains to make you love me."

"And what about your feelings for me?" Kaden prodded.

"If I need to tell you how I feel about you, then I haven't done a good enough job at making you understand my feelings. You should know what they are, even if I do not utter the word you so desperately crave to hear from my lips."

"Is it so hard to just say it?" Kaden pressed her, yearn to hear what he wanted to hear. "You used to say it. You used to call me your love."

"I did. Yes. But I learned something. In so doing, I was losing my focus. To acknowledge such was weakness on my part." The princess gazed downward to hide the emotion dancing in her eyes and yearning to be set free. "And I cannot afford weakness. We cannot afford weakness."

"It is not weakness to love," Kaden said. He cupped his hand under her chin and drew the princess's eyes to his. "The Tan Kaul Scrolls say so. In fact, what is taught within the scrolls is that what is written within should only be shared between two people who love one another."

"Then you have your answer." Lyla stared back at him. "Please, do not press me on this. If I utter the word even once more, I would not be able to let you go if I had to."

"Why would you have to let me go? I do not understand."

"If your death stood in my way of me taking my brother's place, I would have to let you go to fulfill my destiny. Don't think that I wish for such an untenable predicament. For I do not. But would have to let you go. And I would fail in that moment if I allowed myself to ever admit my deepest feelings for you."

The princess pulled away and resumed looking down.

Kaden tried again to approach his wife.

Still looking down, she held up a hand to stop him. "This is the way it must be, Kaden. You must understand. You must know without being told. Like we know the Black Rohs exist in the darkness only by the glint of distant torchlight off their empty eyes. I know it might seem stubborn to you. But I don't want either of us to die. And thus I must protect myself in order to secure that which is our future."

Kaden backed up, realizing he would not be welcome to go any further. "If what it takes to hear you say the word I desire, is the prince's death, then it will be done by my blade."

"No."

"What would you have me do then?" he asked of his wife, his demon scarred heart breaking a little. But wanting to please her.

"I would have you return to our chambers and prepare for me. I will come soon and lie with you as a wife should with her husband. And I will try to make you understand this night how I feel without saying the word you want me to."

Kaden gave a curt nod at her request, realizing that such was the best he could hope for right now. He bowed to her and left.

Alone, at least for the moment, Princess Lyla remained on the wall. She returned to looking out over the desert; the air seeming colder than in just the moments before.