chance?”
“Yes,” answered Liam, his voice trailing off defensively.
“I just received an urgent message from palace in Hejing.”
Liam pointed his computer at Cara, enabling Ailín to speak to her. “What is the message?” asked Cara warily.
“King Gareth is greatly vexed at your,” Ailín paused to find a more diplomatic word for the king’s fury, “disobedience to his will.”
“I am abbess of Ten-Ar, healer in chief and a member of the Great Council. My loyalty is first and foremost to my house and to the liberties our people hold most precious,” affirmed Cara.
“I know that, Your Grace! There is not one healer from any house who will disagree with you. Your vows to heal and help outweigh the whims of a king abusing his power and operating well outside his constitutional limits. The people stand with you,” agreed Ailín.
“But?”
“But the king has made it quite clear what will happen if he does not see you in his private apartment within the beinor.”
Cara met Liam’s eyes resolutely, an anger welling deep inside her, “I know what he will do; no doubt the messenger did everything to bully you into communicating now with me.”
“Yes,” confessed Ailín indirectly.
Liam looked at her protectively, “What will you do?”
“Ailín, I want you to ignore the message. Tell the healing center that absolutely no one is to communicate with the palace until or unless I authorize it in person and only in person. If he sends an in person messenger, you will tell the palace you had technical difficulties. We are house Ten-Ar, not slaves to a tyrant. It is time we all stopped quivering and asserted ourselves as such. For what is a king or queen of Beinan except an elected ruler of the Great Council? As house Ten-Ar we shall use our power as one of the oldest houses to unite our people and end his reign of terror!” commanded Lady Abbess Cara resolutely.
“What if we cannot get the other houses to impeach him?” asked Ailín fearfully.
“Then we get what we deserve. All tyrants fall when the people unite. If we fail to unite, then we become conspirators with the tyrant. No bully can withstand a united opposition. We will stand together or we will perish separately.”
“So be it,” agreed Ailín, disconnecting the transmission on his end.
Liam put away his computer, “Now what do you want to do?”
Cara entwined the fingers of her left hand playfully in his right hand, “Rebel!”
The next morning Cara woke up in Liam’s strong, powerful arms in his bed, smiling for the first time in a very long time. Liam kissed her forehead, “You know this is treason, Your Highness.”
Cara turned and faced him, “You were the one who taught me that rape is rape; that force or blackmail of sort – political, emotional, physical – is still force. I never consented to him. Last night was my first real time.”
“And what do you think of your decision?”
“I could not be happier in my life. Except for the legal part I would – “
“Say no more, Cara. I do not care at all about that. Politics are irrelevant to me. I am just a simple healer who has learned how to protect himself – and those he cares about.”
“You are not worried about complications to family life my legal status creates?”
“I am much more concerned about the danger you are still in and how we can best get you to total and complete safety.”
“We are on the other side of the planet; I feel pretty safe here, especially in this chamber!”
“I am glad. You deserve whatever happens life can bring you. If I may play a small role in helping you find that for yourself – I am forever at your service!”
“Thank you!” Suddenly a fierce stabbing pain filled her. Instinctively she cried out.
Liam jumped out of bed and reached for a medical scanner, “Oh no! No!”
“What’s happening to me?”
Liam handed the scanner to her, allowing her to see the data for herself, “We have to get you to surgery!”
“Cannot we handle this here? If we head down to the emergency ward, the palace is certain to find out!”
“I will not risk your health or your life over what King Gareth may or may not do!” cried Liam, dressing himself quickly and handing Cara her kirtle.
“I suppose you consider yourself healer in chief in this room?”
“The patient does not get a vote; let’s go!”
Fifteen xiao-shirs later and fully sterilized, Lord Healer Liam finished his treatment of Lady Abbess Cara from a medical bed in the surgical ward, “Computer. Let the record show that the pregnancy of Lady Abbess Cara of house Ten-Ar has self-terminated. Analysis shows miscarriage caused by a combination of primary and secondary bilast toxicity.” Liam tried to control his mixture of tenderness with his professional frustration, “Why did you consume wine and mead after you knew you were pregnant? I have absolutely no doubt you knew what would happen if you did that!”
Cara averted his eyes, “Of course I did. The bilast in wine, meads, ales, and so forth is deadly to us – but rarely consumed to toxic levels. The drugging effect – different story.”
“No unborn child can survive bilast toxicity, especially in the first half of the pregnancy. You knew that before you took that first drink!” scolded Liam gently.
“You said so yourself; I never consented to be with him. What is the value of a life conceived out of rape?”
“Many people are born out of sadness and pain.”
“But is it fair to anyone to be born at all when the making is filled with violence or fear? Every child must be born of love. Every child must be wanted upon birth. There is no way I can want a child of his Liam – especially now I know what …” Cara wept, shaking at the memory of her time with Gareth. Shame crept inside her – and confusion. She knew now she was worth far more than Gareth said. She now wanted far more than what Gareth offered her. And she knew as a healer than intentionally exposing her child to secondary bilast toxins was against everything she believed in and was raised to believe in. Did she will her child to die – or was the miscarriage the goddesses’ way of freeing her from more slavery and cruelty from Gareth?
Sensing the battle waging inside Cara, Liam softened towards her, taking her hand and caressing it tenderly. “I am sorry I was so,” meeting her eyes, “insensitive towards you just now. I am both healer and your protector. Sometimes the Ten-Arian code of honour interferes with my better instincts as a man – a man who cares deeply for you.”
“Do not apologize for being a model Ten-Arian, Liam. In your place, I might have said the same thing to such a patient.”
“But I am not just a healer helping out; when I made love to you last night, I meant every bit of it.”
“As did I.”
Liam knelt before her, still holding her hand, “Well then there is a question I must ask you. Do you choose me with your heart? Will you be with me?”
“Mind, body, and soul!” smiled Cara. “Let our fates forever be entwined. You, my perfect knight and I, your princess!”
“Princess you are; there is a royalty to your soul, my dear! May I always honour you, all that you are!”
Cara and Liam defied King Gareth, staying in Nan-li and continuing to work at the healing center. Together they invented the eye drops and contact lenses used for generations after to prevent brown eye syndrome. Their inventions protected their eyes and prevented them from losing their sight to brown eye syndrome – in themselves and in their daughter Gwawr born on BE 5547, beinor 124. Though the king continued his cruel ways, the love between Cara and Liam offered the abbess the strength to endure and continue her work. In the yen-ars that followed, “Cara” became the most popular name given by Ten-Arian healers to their daughters in memory of her extraordinary life. Other abbesses of Ten-Ar would bear the name “Cara.” But few would ever achieve so muc
h under such tribulations as she who dared defy the tyrant king.
ABOUT THE SERIES
The Peers of Beinan Series began in November 2010 with the first drafts of what would become the Legacy of Princess Anlei Trilogy, the core novels at the heart of the book series. Originally imagined as fan fiction to the 1983 television series “Benji, Zax, and the Alien Prince,” the first draft originally told the back story to how and why Prince Yubi left Antars for exile on planet Earth. Some of this story remains in the unpolished draft chapters for “The Great Succession Crisis” and “Ghosts of the Past” that is found in the companion book “The Lost Tales.”
But the original idea was not meant to be. As the story outline expanded from one book to three, a universe wholly different from Joe Camp’s canon for BZAP emerged. The fan fiction idea was abandoned and the Peers of Beinan came into its own with tales of paranormal romance grounded in the author’s extensive background in medieval history along with tales of murder and terror that hallmark “The Ghosts of the Past.”
Original music, themes of hope in the darkest of situations, and the particularly vicious quality of Peers of Beinan villains all reflect the author’s formative years growing up in Lincoln, Nebraska USA. Those interested in the largely private details of the author’s biography should look to the second half of “The Poisoned Ground and the Healer Consort,” and the entirety of “The Ghosts of the Past,” and “Princess Anyu Returns” where those years are most intensely reflected in the plot and