Coulta did not sleep at all that night, even with Wildas's repeated reassurances. Wildas hated how miserable he looked, how obviously frightened and defeated he was. It wasn't a look Wildas was used to seeing on Coulta, not even during or after one of his nightmares. Wildas did his best to soothe him, but nothing seemed to help.

He was determined not to let any harm come to Coulta. All would be well.

"I don't want her attending," Myri told them as they prepared to meet the court. "It will be too much stress too soon and I don't want her taking ill."

Wildas nodded. "I understand. I don't want her there, either. Honestly, I don't want Coulta there. I just want my family safe."

Myri kissed each of them. "We will be."

Neither Wildas nor Coulta ate any of the food brought to them for breakfast, both too worried to have any desire for it. Even Shelton looked concerned when he slipped into the room from Wildas's office.

"Rohan has lined the office with Guardsmen," he explained. "The court members have started to arrive. Some have been holding siege to the royal wing all night and morning. I will warn you that they are threatening violence."

"Then I will speak to them first," Wildas declared. "I'll make sure they are thoroughly warned of the line they are walking."

Shelton nodded. "I'll have magic prepared, if need be."

Wildas could hear the people milling about his office through the door. There were too many voices to know exactly what was being said, but he caught enough to know that he was going to have a battle ahead of him.

One he was determined to win.

He pulled Coulta into a fierce embrace and kissed him firmly. "It's time for me to protect you."

A ghost of a smile came to Coulta's lips. "Thank you."

Wildas released him and followed Shelton into his office.

The room went silent for a moment, then burst into chaos. The office was packed full of people, and not many were typical court members. All were demanding answers, except for the silent and watchful Guardsmen.

"Silence!" Wildas yelled.

The room grew mostly quiet, very slowly, then one person demanded, "Where is he?"

The question was echoed by several others before they grew quiet again.

Trying with great difficulty to control his anger, Wildas stated, "He's waiting for you to be civilized before he joins us."

"Why are you protecting him?" someone questioned. "He's broken all trust by ruining the family line!"

"I called for silence!" Wildas bellowed. "I will speak and you will listen. Do not interrupt me again." He took a moment to glare meaningfully around the crowded room before continuing. "Coulta is not the father of Kylar and Kyla. The magic he possesses, which he has granted to us as his spouses, has also appeared in the children. His magic is very powerful and this is not something that could have been prevented. It is unknown if the magic will remain in the children through life, but if it does, that does not mean the line is tainted. This magic is a powerful gift that can only strengthen the family. That is all you need to know."

"How can you know it's only the magic?" someone called. "Perhaps it's his magic and his seed that was shared!"

"No," Wildas replied, raising his voice over the mutters of agreement. "That is not possible."

"I heard a servant claim he doesn't take the tea as he's expected to!"

"He doesn't take it because it makes him ill," Wildas explained, frustrated that something so personal to Coulta had to be made public. "And it makes him ill because he completely lacks the life-giving force that exists in almost all of us. He is irreversibly infertile."

"And I have confirmed this," Shelton added. "Many other healers and sorcerers can also test this very easily."

Not everyone in the room seemed willing to accept this explanation, but there were no more loud objections. The very atmosphere felt much more calm than it had when Wildas had entered the room.

"I'm going to bring him in now," he announced. "Then we will continue this conversation. If anyone moves to harm him, I will have you arrested immediately and charged with treason. Am I clear?"

A grumble of assent passed through the room and he took it as all he was going to get. He went to the door and motioned Coulta inside, wishing he'd told Coulta to wear his swords. But that would have tempted Wildas to let him act in self defense instead of giving that duty to the Guardsmen.

Coulta stood silently beside him, concealing his fear by giving the room full of skeptics a defiant look. Wildas suppressed a smile. Intimidation might help.

"Are we simply to believe you?" came a demand that broke the silence. "Where is the proof?"

"Perhaps we should make him prove himself by taking a hundred women to bed," someone suggested.

Several others called out in agreement.

Wildas felt a new surge of rage at the mere thought of that, but before he could speak Coulta took the matter into his own hands.

"I will allow you to have other sorcerers test me," he told them, "but I will not allow you to live out your perverseness through me."

"You are the one accused! You have no right to set your own methods of trial!"

"Enough!" Wildas yelled. "If you wish for confirmation, call upon your personal sorcerers and healers. You have one hour to return here. We will wait."

He nodded to Rohan, who motioned to his Guardsmen and ordered, "Clear the room!"

The crowd went grudgingly, muttering among themselves yet again. Wildas couldn't make out any direct threats now, but he was tense until the last person filed out the door.

"Will they lie to accuse him?" Wildas finally asked, turning to Shelton.

Shelton shook his head. "They will know that I've already tested him. They will speak the truth."

"Good."

An hour later, Coulta stood at the front of the room and allowed person after person to take his hand and search inside his body with magic for any sign that he could father a child. Each one confirmed Shelton's diagnosis of infertility, to the obvious annoyance of some members of the court. They demanded he be examined by every sorcerer they had brought, no matter how many agreed, until nearly thirty people had tested him. Even then, only the boredom of many of those watching led to the end of the examination.

Once assured he had not, in fact, fathered Kylar and Kyla, the accusation moved on to him having tainted the royal line with foul magic.

"This magic is a gift," Wildas argued. "It has saved my life and that of other members of my family many times. It would not have passed on if not for good."

"He himself admitted to being cursed!" someone cried.

"And he is no longer," Shelton interrupted. "When curses are broken, the magic becomes a force of good, a gift to the one who had suffered for so long. I know more about magic than any other in this room. My words should be trusted."

"Yet you have taken him under your wing and made him your fellow court sorcerer. Perhaps you speak with friendship and not with honor."

"How dare you question him?"

Everyone looked to the door as Brother Pelles pushed his way through the crowd. His normally calm expression was now one of anger.

"This magic is a gift from the gods themselves," he declared, making his way to the front of the room. "The gods have brought new strength to the family through this. Raiofsi himself, he who chose the first king of our great nation, spoke to me in a dream last night. He told me that this magic would bring great prosperity to us, and only good. This is for you to accept, not deny."

"And what is he to you?" a voice from the back demanded. "What do you stand to gain by defending his evil?"

"I will save the good and innocent souls you are trying to corrupt," Brother Pelles replied. "You are blind and ignorant fools if you seek to deny the will of the gods."

"He's correct," someone called out. "Let's be done with this foolish meeting. You have proof that he is not the father and our great priest speaks for the gods."

"No," another voice argued. "This is clearly a conspiracy to corrupt the family."

"There has been magic in the royal line before," Shelton reminded them. "Queens have been sorceresses and gave birth to princes and princesses of power."

"But none were Grand Kings! The ruling line was spared."

"Oh yes, I've forgotten that the statues in the entrance hall aren't painted," Shelton replied. "How could you have remembered Grand King Jasper? Clearly, you don't know much about the ruling family that you so thoroughly want to protect. Jasper, son of Grand King Caolan and Queen Dyna, was a red sorcerer with red eyes. Perhaps we should have an artist apply some paint to his statue."

"It's still not the same magic!"

"All magic is inherently good," Shelton explained. "Even if it is used for ill purpose, the magic itself is still good. To claim that good magic is a taint to the family, shows you are a fool."

Coulta's frustration was overcome by curiosity as he watched the form of Grand King Deandre appear before him. He was dressed as regally for court as he had been in life, and the room grew dim as his form took on a very solid appearance. Unlike when his mother had visited, Coulta couldn't see through the ghost at all. It was as if he were truly there in the flesh.

All arguments and mutterings died away as the crowd stared at him with open wonder, awe, and fear.

"I am appalled by the way you have treated my son," Deandre's ghost declared. "You have not given him the same respect given to me. You treat him as a child unworthy of your fealty, and this is greatly offensive. Have you no honor? No respect for your leader? You dare to question his authority by calling him dishonest? You question the honesty of both of your court sorcerers? You argue the statements of your former Second King, a man I so trusted during my reign that I would not make a decision without consulting him?

"You are all quite lucky that I have no true authority here now. If I did, I would arrest every one of you who have uttered threats against your Second King and publicly hanged you for plots of treason. Those of you who desired to break into the royal suite and do harm to him in the night would not be alive now. I know who each of you are, and I am appalled. How dare you think you have more power than your own rulers? How dare you question the proof you have heard? How dare you defy the very gods who have granted us health so far, when a war is coming? Why would you bring the wrath of the gods upon us now, of all times?

"What we need now is the strength gifted to us by the gods at this pivotal time. The royal line will be made even stronger thanks to this great and powerful gift. How dare you deny it? You are all fools. Do not demand such an audience of your Grand King again unless it is for a real and true concern. You are simply hungry for power, and you do not deserve power. Are any of you truly loyal to the crown?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he was gone, leaving a room full of stunned court members.

Wildas was rigid with anger beside him. "Whoever planned to enter my rooms should come forward now and ask my forgiveness. If you don't, I will find out who you are and you will be arrested."

Coulta was surprised to see five people come forward with only minor hesitation. They all knelt before Wildas, heads bowed and arms spread. The room was utterly silent.

It took several moments for Wildas to speak, and his words were clearly not what most in the room had expected.

"I do not take this lightly. You threatened the life and safety of my family, and therefore myself. If you ever even hint at such a thing again, I will not be lenient. Do you apologize?"

"Yes," the eldest man declared. His voice was strong despite the slight tremble Coulta could easily see in him. "The idea was mine. The others followed me, but it was my decision. I have put many people in danger, I realize now. For that, I am deeply sorry."

Wildas gazed at him for a long moment, then nodded. "Very well. This time, you are forgiven. Return to your seat."

The man looked up, clearly surprised. Then he bowed his head again before rising to return to where he had been sitting. The other people who had come forward followed his example and apologized for their actions. Wildas offered them the same forgiveness.

"Now that that business has finally concluded," Wildas said to the crowd, "may we present the royal children?"

Despite the agony of having been in labor for a full day, Anil was happy. She was tired and weak, and Myri had confined her to bed rest for the next several days. But she was happy.

Myri and the midwife hadn't been surprised when her labor continued after Kyla was born. She couldn't say that she was that surprised herself. Deep down, she had always known she was carrying twins.

There had been quite a bit of muttering among the healers and servants as soon as Kyla was born, but through the haze of herbal potions she had been given, Anil wasn't concerned. Vaguely, she remembered hearing Myri order no one to leave.

Thankfully, Kylar had come relatively quickly after his sister and though Anil had wanted to see them immediately, Myri had urged her to rest for a moment to let the effects of the herbs fade. She found it impossible to rest until she held them, and finally Myri relented. Sitting beside her on the bed, Myri helped her hold each of her children.

Despite the medicine dulling her discomfort and her mind, she was aware of the marks both babies bore. Far from being worried, she was overjoyed that they could carry a part of Coulta with them. He was just as much a father to them as Wildas was.

It wasn't until later, after the herbs had worn off and she was resting as comfortably as possible in a fresh bed, longing for the presence of her family in the next room, that she became aware of what trouble those marks could cause. Would someone try to claim Coulta was the father and hurt him? Surely the court wouldn't stand for such a thing.

When she saw her husbands that night, they were clearly hiding their own concern even as they held the newest members of the royal family. But seeing their worry did not stop her from believing that everything would be worked out. They would prove Coulta wasn't the father, she knew.

Myri wouldn't allow her to attend the meeting the next day, claiming it would be too stressful. But it was also stressful to sit in bed and wait to hear what would happen. Myri sat with her, each of them holding one of the children. When they slept in their cradle, Anil worked on more embroidery, thinking of designs for her babies' clothes and blankets.

Once, when she glanced up to the cradle with a happy smile on her face, she saw her youngest brother's ghost standing beside it. He smiled at her, then looked into the cradle.

"Thank you for keeping your promise, Sissy," he whispered, then vanished.

She wiped a tear from her eye and nodded. "You're welcome, Kyler," she murmured.

Beside her, Myri gently grasped her hand.

The meeting took longer than she expected and it was almost evening by the time Wildas and Coulta came to take the babies to be presented. They both still looked rather stressed.

"Is everything well?" Myri asked.

Wildas nodded. "Everything has been sorted out. It will just take time for everyone to realize the magic isn't a terrible addition to the family."

"They will," Anil stated. "How could they not?"

Wildas smiled. "Exactly. This is will only make us stronger." He looked to Coulta, who still appeared a little worried, and kissed his cheek. "Believe it."

"If only I was still cursed, then I would have no choice," Coulta muttered. When Wildas scowled at him he nodded. "I'll try. That's all I can do."

After all that had been dealt with that day, Wildas was not expecting Coulta to lash out at him that night.

"Why did you so easily forgive those people who wanted to gain entry to our rooms last night?" he demanded.

Wildas had noticed Coulta acting even more quiet than usual that night over dinner and while they sat with Anil, Myri, and the babies for a time. He'd assumed it was because of the long day, and hadn't been expecting the anger that Coulta threw at him as soon as they left Anil's room and closed the door.

"What else would I have done?" he asked in response.

Coulta began pacing Wildas's bedchamber, clearly more agitated than Wildas had thought. "Shelton was surprised you didn't force them to swear fealty in front of the crowd of witnesses to ensure it didn't happen again."

Wildas shrugged. "I won't force loyalty."

Coulta stopped and gestured angrily at him. "This is a time when you should have!"

Wildas considered making up some excuse, but he couldn't bring himself to be dishonest to the person he loved most deeply. "I would never force you to witness that."

Judging by Coulta's reaction, this was exactly what he angry about. He threw his hands in the air, then turned and kicked the wardrobe against the wall.

"Because I was forced to obey every order given to me by whoever I was sworn to for most of my life you think me incapable of understanding what's needed?" he demanded, whirling back to Wildas. "You think I can't cope with seeing others swear loyalty to you? People who aren't cursed and who act only out of honor and respect, things I never had the chance to know?"

Wildas took a deep breath. "Perhaps. None of those thoughts ever crossed my mind, I simply thought it wrong to do it."

"So you will risk so much because you think I'm too weak to know the difference between my life and what's needed for the country?"

"You are far from weak."

"Yet you treat me like I am!" Coulta practically yelled. "It's the same with everyone afraid to use the word 'curse' around me. I do not want to be treated as if everything may offend me! You should have made those people swear loyalty to you, and you chose a foolish way of not offending me instead of doing what you needed to do!"

"I'm sorry!" Wildas finally cut in. "What do you want from me?"

"Stop coddling me! I'm not a child. I can bear whatever needs to be done."

"You will not be able to bear me in a moment," Myri declared from behind them. She was standing in front of Anil's door and glaring at them. "Take it to another room if you're going to keep yelling. We just got the babies to sleep."

Coulta turned and stormed through the door to his own rooms, slamming it behind him.

"Whatever you did to him," Myri commented to Wildas, "you should probably try to fix it."

Wildas sighed and made his way across the room. He knocked first, then carefully opened the door, unsure what to expect.

Coulta was standing silently at the window, arms crossed over his chest, glaring out into the night.

"I'm sorry," Wildas told him again.

Coulta sighed heavily. "I don't want you to make a decision that will put anyone close to us or the country itself in danger, all because you don't want to risk offending me."

Wildas nodded. "I understand, and I am sorry. I won't let that hinder my decisions again. I can't go back and demand an oath from any of them now, but I won't let your past stop me from requiring it from others in the future."

"And what did you really want to say about them when you learned what they'd done?" Coulta asked softly.

Confused, Wildas thought back to that afternoon and realized what Coulta wanted to hear. "I thought, 'gods curse them'."

"And you never would have said that if not for me asking you to."

"No, I would not have."

"Stop holding back how you feel because you're worried about offending me."

"I will," Wildas promised.

"It's the past I have to live with. Nothing will change that, whether I watch people swear their loyalty to you or not. Whether I hear someone talk about curses or not. Whether anyone mentions assassination around me or not. Nothing will change for me."

"I understand," Wildas assured him. "I won't do that again."

Coulta nodded. "Thank you."

Wildas came closer and touched Coulta's cheek. "I just didn't want to hurt you. I love you."

"And I love you," Coulta replied, putting his arms around Wildas. "I know you want to protect me, but there's no need to go so far. I will always be hurting, regardless of what anyone says or does."

Wildas held him tightly. "If I could do anything to help, I would. Without another thought."

Coulta actually smiled slightly. "Staying with me tonight would help."

"Of course," Wildas replied with his own small smile.