Duty or Desire (Chronicles of Ylandre 8) MM

Some are governed by rules while others are ruled by need. When the twain do meet the balance between them can be nigh impossible to maintain.

Zykriel and Gilmael Calanthe are identical in form and features yet they are as different in nature as day and night. Outgoing Gilmael is not hesitant to use whatever means he has at his disposal to gain what he wants. Small wonder his king and cousin deemed him perfectly suited to head Ylandre's Intelligence Ministry. Heir apparent of the great northern fief of Losshen, Zykriel is self-effacing and almost indifferent to the attention paid to a high-born blueblood. He does not relish employing either power or influence to achieve his means.

Even in the handling of affairs of the heart, they differ. Romantic and possessed of a more traditionalist view of wedlock, Zykriel would sooner forgo intimacy than indulge in empty liaisons or attempt to circumvent the rules that bind his social class. In...