"I sense you're getting soft." Lyla's aloneness on the wall lasted only enough moments for Kaden to be well out of earshot before her sister's voice mocked her. "What is it about that boy that has corrupted you?"

The suddenness of the words did not surprise the princess. She'd known she was being watched and precisely by whom. She, after all, a Sava Warrioress, and trained to be perceptive of such things.

Even understanding that her and Kaden had not been entirely alone, Lyla knew her sister would not make an appearance until Kaden had left. He didn't need to know everything about everything.

There, in the black silks of an Imeronian Princess, covering her from head to toe, the older woman dominated the younger simply through her presence. For whatever intimidating posture Lyla could have easily mustered in response, her sister could do ten fold better.

Knowing this, the younger sister did not take her pondering gaze off the darkness beyond the wall. But she felt her sister's green eyes bore into her back.

"He's not a boy," Princess Lyla countered the claim. "He's more of a man than most."

"Just because he has the stamina to fuck you all night and bring you pleasure does not make him a man." There was a certain whip crack to the admonition from her older sister.

"It's not always about sex, dear sister."

The laugh Princess Lyla's sister gave was muted, but still clearly transmitted her amusement. "Sex is how we control men easiest. They are pathetic creatures of habit. Spread your legs for them once, and they'll hang around looking for more."

"Kaden is different," Lyla insisted, resisting the urge to turn and face the simmering storm of her sister's contempt. "He's smart. He thinks with things other than his cock."

"But he still thinks with his cock." It was at that time that Princess Lyla's sister sprang at her.

She was as if darkness moved upon darkness; shadow feeding upon shadow for its every and next moves. Grabbing her younger sister by wrists and whirling her around before Lyla could even think to respond, the two women were now eyeball to eyeball.

Ison's princess struggled, but her sister held firm. "You think you need a man to bring you pleasure?"

The older pressed the younger against the wall and released one of her hands, so that she might use her other. With fingers possessing the strength of a man and the gentleness of a woman, Lyla's sister grabbed what was between Lyla's thighs and beneath her silks through them.

Then the elder sister whispered, "You know such is not true."

The woman in black began to play Princess Lyla's womanhood like a skilled musician. Taking only a few seconds to draw a stifled squeal of pleasure from her and causing her body to gush uncontrollably.

Princess Lyla ripped away, her breath pounding. "What you just did is forbidden," she admonished.

"Forbidden by whom?" Princess Lyla's sister asked. "Men? They will not rule this world much longer. Then we will return to the ways of the past. Where what I just did was normal. Women of our strength only used men for one of two things. Their sword arm, and their seed. Your husband included."

Princess Lyla gathered herself and flattened her silks. Unable to avoid the wet spot staining the front of them below her waist. "You'd be surprised at the intricacies of his mind."

"To the Abyss with his mind. I couldn't care less about it. Or his dick. You can have both. I just want his blade and to know that he can be counted on. And you as well."

Lyla released a stifled growl at the insinuation of her lack of loyalty. "I am still with you, sister."

"Words are but fleeting things," the princess in black said. "Merely wind with tones that make them sound like something more meaningful."

"I have no other loyalty than to Ieron."

"Is that so?" Lyla's sister cocked herself defiantly. "And what about to Ieron's rightful heir?"

"I have no designs on challenging you to rule, sister, if that is what you imply." Frustrated at the sign of what her sister had done to her, the pleasure she had brought, Lyla simply stopped fussing with her silks and ignored their current state. As though such an act would blot the memory from her mind. "Ieron will be yours. My swords will assist you to that end. I will be content to rule Ison and protect your rule, even as you ascend to the High Throne of Imeron."

"While I am glad to hear that, those same words only reinforce to me that you are indeed getting soft. To not aspire to rule Ieron and then Imeron?" There was a tsk tsk look in the green eyes of the older princess in black. "That is weakness. And weakness has no place in the heart of a Sava Warrioress."

"What you see as weakness, Sister, I see as prudence. I am no match for you."

"So you claim."

"To challenge you would be my death," Lyla assured her. "And my death would leave Ison exposed to be taken by some not so willing to stand by you. Perhaps even another man."

"Your tongue is silver, Sister. Even as it speaks its fear."

"As you said, words are but fleeting things. Merely wind with tones that make them sound like something more meaningful." Then Princess Lyla's tone changed. "Now, I assume you're here for matters more important than we have already discussed?"

"Yes."

"And those matters would be?"

The older princess moved to the edge of the wall, climbed up with the grace of a slinking cat and resided there. "The time to test our brother is at hand. You need to be ready when the time for that test arrives. For you will be tested as well for your worthiness."

Princess Lyla crossed her arms at the news. "Do I get any more information than just vague innuendos, Sister?"

"No. That would make you a liability if our brother were to find out and question you."

"He couldn't break me," Princess Lyla defied the accusation.

"I'll not take that chance. Just be ready." And then the older princess in black was over the wall and gone into the night.