Till Stars Align and Hearts Return

Emperor Jonah Saul has ruled for seven years without an heir, which is the one thing his mother wants from him. At her birthday banquet she pushes him again about marrying and producing a son, and he walks out rather than sit through it. She follows him and collides with Byron, a boy who had smuggled himself into the palace inside one of the tribute chests. Byron looks exactly like Jonah did as a child, and Byron recognizes him as his father. Jonah does not believe it. He sends an envoy to look into the boy's background. Byron's mother, Wynn Scott, lies to the envoy to protect her son and daughter, having been misled by her own father into doing it. Jonah takes the lie for what it appears to be and has the three of them beaten and sent into exile. Later he recognizes Wynn Scott's embroidery on a piece of tribute in his mother's palace, and the court physician reports that Byron is his son after all. He rides out after them. Before he can reach them, someone else has already taken the three of them away.