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of the Gare, as well as the Aremian population in general never fully accepted, but for the first time in modern history, Mathiah and his mad father were the only living far speakers. And after the death of the deposed and dangerous former emperor, the people had silently sighed their relief and came close to deifying her husband.
    Mathiah had been revered and she had been tolerated. He had hoped to protect her by naming her regent. Instead his own mother had taken over her position and assumed control of the empire.
    Now, she thought with wicked glee, her daughters’ grandmere had the empire in her slender hands, but she might find the whole too hot to handle.
    And Mathiah, who had been less than trusting of his dear Mere where his little family was concerned, had arranged several bolt holds for them.
    Capron was only one of those.
    Now she watched her daughters forgetting some of their usual dainty manners as they ate hungrily of the delicacies provided for their first meal in a good many hours.
    They had never before gone short of anything they needed or wanted, raised as the most privileged children in the empire. They had always been carefully guarded, but never been truly aware of danger to themselves. Trained in the military arts, they had yet never worked hard at anything other than in practice exercises.
    They had been educated to command, to lead society and government.
    And here she was, taking them to the most barbaric of the Aremian worlds. Capron was so insignificant in the scheme of the imperium that nobody knew much about it or its people.
    For over three hundred years, the prison planet had been allowed to go its own way. The situation had some similarity to a system in the distant past in England when offenders were sent off to Australia or America, a fate considered comparable to death.
    Those sent to Capron were dismissed from society, never expected to be heard from again.
    And it was to that harsh world that Mathiah had planned  for Claire and his daughters to seek refuge if worse came to worst.
    Nibbling at food which seemed tasteless, she finally came right out loud and said it. “I’m proud of my girls. The two of you could have chosen to stay with your grandmother in the lap of luxury and I wouldn’t have blamed you. And yet, here you are marching off to the hellhole of the empire with me.”
    “Capron,” Lillianne said dreamily. “I would prefer to go to Blood.”
    “Not much to choose between,” Adaeze told her, then took a sip of a bubbling drink.
    “But we could have met mom’s friends.” From early childhood, they’d heard the stories and now her younger daughter listed the names: “Jamie, Mack and Isaiah.”
    “Can’t bring danger to them,” Claire responded practically.
    Adaeze took another sip as though for courage, a quality she didn’t normally lack. Like her mother, Ada eze was not overly possessed with tact. She blurted things right out. “Looks like it’s already found them.”
    Claire frowned fiercely, feeling her forehead crease in the way that made wrinkles. “What do you mean? Do you know something I don’t?”
    The two girls exchanged a guilty gaze. “It’s only something Grandmere said,” Lillianne finally admitted.
    Claire waited, staring at the two of them in the way they found hard to resist. She might be several inches shorter than them and not able to communicate telepathically, but she was still mom!
    She saw their exchange of thoughts. Then Adaeze spoke aloud, “Grandmere was really excited when she came to see us. It was because Michel was beginning to develop far speaker abilities.”
    “Little Michel?” Claire asked stupidly. This was the last thing she’d expected. The boy, sensitive and frail, seemed the least likely in the family to develop the gift. He didn’t remind her at all of Mathiah with his strength and inborn poise. In fact he was more like her husband’s brother.
    The thought sickened her. Her husband’s older brother had been