Ynyr (Tornians Book 3) (22 page)

“He did.” The Goddess said, her eyes returning to Ynyr. “He does not consider himself as beautiful, he just is and it seems to be something else the two of you have in common.”

“Yes.” Ynyr agreed.

“So what was a young Goddess to do when the stars continued to whisper about him?” Her eyes filled with mischief. “I went to see for myself.”

“And fell into my arms.” Raiden said smugly.

“I
tripped
! On a
rock
!” She fired back.

“And
fell
into my arms,” Raiden repeated, “and you have been there ever since.”

“I have.” The Goddess looked back to Ynyr. “But the time came when I was to leave, for you see Ynyr, while there was only one race within the universes, they were mortal and the Gods and Goddesses are immortal. And while it is considered acceptable for us to Join with a mortal it is not acceptable to take one as a mate… but I was young and impetuous…” The Goddess smile suddenly grew radiant. “Thank you Ynyr I haven’t had a compliment like that in many a millennia.”

Ynyr stared for a moment, then realized she had caught his thought of how she barely looked older than his Abby. Raiden glared at him angrily before turning to the Goddess.

“I compliment you all the time!” He declared angrily.

“Yes, you do, but occasionally a female likes to hear it from another.” Leaning over she patted the muscle that was bulging on his arm. “You know you are the only male I want.” With a grunt Raiden relaxed.

“Now where was I?” She asked.

“Leaving.” Both males said at once and it was the Goddess who tensed.

“Yes. I had received word that I must return. I refused to go, not without Raiden. It caused a bit of a stir in the heavens since there are very few unmated Goddesses remaining and the Gods weren’t going to lose one, not to a mortal.”

“Yet here he is.” Ynyr couldn’t help but say.

“Yes, because I made him a God.”

“What?” Ynyr couldn’t hide his shock.

“It is something that can be done, but the others rarely find the mortal fit and worthy,” The Goddess looked at Ynyr, “every mortal presented has died before they ever reached a decision, intentionally I believe for your life spans are so short… I was not going to allow that to happen… not unless it was what Raiden wished for. In the end the decision was his and his alone.
He
was the one that would have to leave his people, would have to leave the empire he had spent his life creating. He would be the one that would sacrifice, not me.”

“There was no sacrifice my love. To rule an empire until the day I died or to live forever at your side. The decision was simple.”

“But you have been forgotten… no one even remembers your name…”

“Because I am not a God.” Raiden put a gentle finger over her lips. “But I am the mate of the most beautiful Goddess ever created and the envy of every male, mortal or God. A more than fair exchange I think.”

“You should be remembered for more than that Raiden and if not for Daco you would be.”

Ynyr watched Raiden surge out of his chair. “Don’t mention that fracken God’s name in my presence!” He roared and the room trembled with his rage.

“Raiden…” she rose and moved towards him.

“He took you from me Goddess. HE. TOOK. YOU.”

“Through treachery and trickery.” She moved in front of him, wrapping her arms around his waist. “It was not your fault my love. He struck when he knew you were engaged in another challenge. It went against all the laws and he was punished for it.”

“Not enough! He
lives
!” And while Raiden’s rage still rolled off him the arms he wrapped around her were gentle.

“Only in the dark,” she reminded him, “he will never get close to me again.”

“Yet he can still harm you as he did with Lucan.”

“What?” Ynyr could not stop the question and realized he had been forgotten when they looked at him in shock.

“Since Daco can no longer touch my Goddess directly, he attacks her through family.”

“I don’t understand?” Ynyr frowned at him.

“Come,” the Goddess stepped out of Raiden’s arms leading him back to their seats, “there is much more to this story.” Once they were all settled again, she continued.

“Raiden’s presence in the heavens was not well received by the other Gods.” Raiden’s snort told Ynyr that was an understatement. “There were challenges for his right to be here… many challenges… which he always won.” The Goddess’ eyes glowed with pride as she looked at her mate. “The most vocal, although he never challenged Raiden directly, came from Daco who was insulted that I had chosen a mortal over
him
. Because Daco was a coward, he attacked what Raiden had to leave behind, his people and the empire he had built. His goal was to wipe Raiden from his people’s memory, and it seems he has succeeded.” Her eyes darkened with sadness. “You have no concept of how much Daco has destroyed Ynyr. Raiden’s empire was more than twice the size of the Tornian and Kaliszian combined. It even included what you have only recently discovered… Earth and at its center was the planet Kaltor, the ruling planet and home of the Emperor. People traveled easily between the planets, there was only one language, only one set of laws.”

“Where is this Kaltor now?” Ynyr asked.

Both looked at him in surprise. “You call it Tornian.”

“It was once your world?” Ynyr looked at him in shock.

“Yes, but Daco leveled all that I built there and on every other planet. My people became unable to travel between the planets. They could no longer communicate. They changed and began to develop differently.”

Ynyr’s eyes traveled over Raiden with new eyes, realizing that he had seen every Tornian color in Raiden’s skin. “That is why we were able to have offspring together. Why you resemble both Tornians and a Kaliszians.”

“Yes, there was a time when you were one.”

“It’s also why when Daco took me, he took me back to Kaltor. Where it all began.”

“And why King Varick was the first to respond.” Ynyr finished for her.

“Yes. Daco thought he had wiped Raiden’s people out on Kaltor and that by bringing me there it would destroy Raiden. He did not realize how resilient Raiden’s people could be. While they had suffered greatly they had still rebuilt. King Varick had nearly single handedly changed the face of his world. He had united the people and it was a time of great prosperity. He risked all that by coming to my aid.”

“To do anything else would have been unworthy of him.” Ynyr told her.

“Perhaps…” the Goddess said.

“And you rewarded him greatly.” Ynyr continued.

“I did?” The Goddess gave him a questioning look. “Is that what you have been led to believe? That what the Tornians have been able to achieve is because of me?”

“I… well, yes… It is because he saved you from being abused that you blessed House Bertos and because of that we are now able to travel to the stars.”

“There are so many things wrong with what you have just said that I do not know where to start.” The Goddess looked to her mate helplessly.

“Start with Rawnie.” Raiden told her, gently cupping her cheek and Ynyr saw a great sadness in his eyes.

“Yes… she deserves that.”

“She does,” Raiden agreed, “and more.”

The Goddess’ eyes turned sharply to Ynyr hearing his unspoken question. “You do not know who Rawnie is?!!” While the Goddess remained sitting the room began to shake with her anger. “What she gave up for you?!!”

“I said nothing.” Ynyr denied.

“You thought it.”

“My thoughts should be my own… Goddess.” Ynyr wondered if he had gone too far, as the room began to tilt… until Raiden started to chuckle.

“He has a point my love and enough Rawnie in him to tell you so.”

The room immediately stilled “He does doesn’t he.”

“Yes.” Raiden sat back in his chair and waited for her to continue.

“You know that King Varick had a Queen do you not?”

“Of course he did.” Ynyr frown as he spoke. “He had to or he would not have been unable to have offspring, but…” The Goddess watched and listened as he searched all his memory and found no glimmer of her name and that saddened her. “I have never heard her name.”

“I see. Well her name, at least her mortal name, was Rawnie Jacoby. She was King Varick’s Queen and she was my sister.”

“What?” Ynyr’s eyes flew from Raiden to the Goddess. “How is that possible?”

“Because it is.” She simply said. “When I was…” her eye flew to Raiden, “taken, Raiden immediately gave pursuit. My sister followed concerned for my well-being. She had always been like that, concerned and caring for the welfare of others. When she arrived…”

“She fell into King Varick’s arms.” Raiden injected trying to get his Goddess to smile.

“She
tripped
!” But the tension was broken and the Goddess gave Raiden a grateful smile. “It matters not, she was in his arms and she refused to leave.”

“As you refused.” Ynyr said understandingly.

“Yes, but that is where the similarities end. I never once considered doing what my sister did, it never even crossed my mind… if it had the universes would be a very different place.”

“Not even you can go back and change the past my love. It is what it is. We have to go forward and fix what we can.” Raiden told her gently.

“Yes… you are right.” Her eyes returned to Ynyr. “So my sister found her life mate in a mortal and instead of being forced to leave him she chose to Join her life force with his. In doing so, she became more than a mortal, but less than a Goddess.”

“What do you mean?” Ynyr frowned at her.

“Her life was now tied to his. If he died. She died. Yet while she lived she was able to help him. To help his people. She is the reason you reached the stars. The stones you hold so important… the reason they are this way is because of her. When she became mortal the energy that made her immortal had to go somewhere and she directed it into the stones, a gift for the future. She knew that her new people would be able to use them. They glowed with her energy and with the love and caring she had for her male. In return King Varick changed the name of his House from Berto to Jacoby an outward statement that the House was forever changed… into something better.”

“House Jacoby? But…”

“But you have been taught that it was always House Berto.”

“Yes.”

“You were taught wrong. Many generations later, after you began to travel to the stars and the memory of Rawnie’s sacrifice had faded it was decided that the original name should be returned. It is what began the decline of that bloodline of the House while the other eleven remained strong.”

“Eleven!”

“Yes, during their time together Rawnie presented Varick with twelve offspring, six males six female.”

“Twelve?!!” Ynyr’s widened in shock, he had never heard this before! His mind was spinning.

“Yes.” The Goddess watched him for several moments wondering if he would figure it out on his own or if she would have to guide him.

“There are twelve Houses in the Tornian Empire.” Ynyr said quietly.

“Very good Lord Ynyr. What does that tell you?” The Goddess asked, staring at him.

Ynyr silently returned her gaze for several minutes, his mind furiously calculating. There were twelve original offspring that were half god/half mortal. There were now twelve Houses in the Empire… could it be…”

“Keep going...” The Goddess encouraged.

“Every Lord somehow descends from King Varick and Queen Rawnie.”

“They do now.” She nodded.

“But how? House Luanda and House Torino are of the same blood line. My manno is a Lord. That is short one offspring.”

The Goddess smiled at how quickly he had figured that out. “It might seem that way, but what you don’t know is that House Bertos never had a pure bloodline back to my sister.”

“What?!!”

“The records were altered to make it appear that he did, but it was not the truth. The male that should have ruled, who would have prevented much was cast out, never knowing his true heritage.”

“But…” Ynyr was now totally confused and the Goddess took pity on him.

“Your manno has a pure blood line that he can trace back to my sister’s first female, Princess Ori and your mother descends directly from their second male Prince Rada.”

“But that means….”

“Two millennium of time no longer makes them from the same House Ynyr. So you and your manno now represent two Houses, yours being from Varick’s second male, Rada. His bloodline would have ruled the House had his older brother, Varick’s first male, had not. Now with Ori’s bloodline on Betelgeuse and Rada’s in Etruria the Tornian Empire is once again whole and strong. It also means that Daco will now attack you and those you love even more viciously.”

“What do you mean?” Ynyr demanded tensing in his seat.

“Daco will search for a weakness, like the one he found in Lucan.” The Goddess’ eyes filled with sorrow and regret as she looked at him. “I should have responded differently, had I but taken a moment I would have realized that what I was doing was exactly what Daco had hoped.
I
was condemning my mate’s people to death, a long, slow, painful death that in the end would cost them their honor and that would finally destroy them.”