Crown of Destiny

CHAPTER TWO

DASRAS FLEW OVER the Emerald Mountains, and as Lara looked down, she could see that the marble quarries gouged from the steep land were beginning to fill in again with new green growth. That was something to the good, she thought, and her spirits lifted. Clearing the mountains where the Jewel and Ore gnomes still worked their mines, they crossed the great plains of the New Outlands. Nothing had changed here. The clan families lived as they had always lived, tending their herds, their flocks and their fields. Each Autumn the clan families would all attend the Gathering, reuniting with one another briefly before returning to their own lands. There were a few more villages than before, but little else had changed. They lived by the same laws as ever.

On the edge of their lands an ocean stretched. It was called the Obscura. Until a hundred or more years ago, few had known of its existence. Now the Taubyl Traders crossed this sea to trade with the clan families. On the far side of the Obscura, the desert realm of the Shadow Princes lay. Only from the skies above were their palaces and great green valley visible. Beyond them lay Lara’s destination, the oasis of Zeroun, with its graceful palms, beautiful waterfall and crystal clear pool. Dasras’s delicate hooves touched down upon the warm golden sands, and he slowly came to a halt, his wings folding themselves away as he danced to a stop. Lara slid easily from his back.

“Send Cadi to lift the saddle from my back, mistress,” Dasras said. “I see my shelter is already waiting for me.” A striped awning was set near the water, a stall and feed boxes beneath it. The stall had fresh sweet hay within it. One of the boxes was filled with oats, the other with the mixture of green vegetables, carrots and apples that Dasras favored.

“I brought the combs and brushes,” Lara told him, pulling them from her pocket. “I will ask her to groom you, as I saw you had not been attended to in many days before we departed the castle. I will speak with the head groom about that when we return.”

“Then we are returning,” Dasras said. He did not sound pleased.

“This time, aye. Something of import is about to happen, my old friend, and instinct tells me that I need to be in Terah when it does.”

The stallion nodded his head, and then turning, trotted off to his shelter.

Cadi came forth from Lara’s beautiful turquoise-blue silk tent, standing beneath the blue-and-coral-striped awning. “You did not dally, mistress,” she said with a smile.

“Nay, I did not.” She sighed. “I needed to come to Zeroun quickly.” Turning so she might see the entire oasis, she cast a protective spell about it, making her refuge invisible to the human eye. Few ever came this way, but it was foolish to take chances. “I will swim before the prince comes,” she told Cadi, shedding her cloak and her robe. Then, walking to the clear pool, she stepped into it, smiling as the cool water rose up about her. There was something cleansing about this particular pool. Swimming to the little waterfall, she let the flowing waters pour over her head. Swimming back into the pool itself, she was amused to find Kaliq was suddenly there.

He was grinning, obviously pleased with himself, and swam to her.

Lara laughed, filled with happiness. “You always know,” she said.

“I always do,” he agreed, and taking her into his arms, kissed her a long deep kiss.

“Ahh, Kaliq, my love,” Lara said as she broke off their embrace, “the very sight of you makes me joyful, my lord.” She brushed a lock of his dark hair from his forehead.

Catching the hand she used, he brought it to his lips, and kissed the palm softly. “If I make you so happy, Lara, my love, then come and live with me in Shunnar.”

“Soon,” she promised. “I will soon, Kaliq,” Lara told him.

He was surprised by her answer, for she had always insisted her place was in Terah. “What has happened?” he asked, and taking her hand, led her from the water across the soft sand into the tent.

Cadi immediately came forward with soft white robes. She tossed the first one in Lara’s direction, and it immediately enfolded itself about her beautiful mistress. She did the same with the garment she held for Kaliq. “There are refreshments on the table, mistress, master,” she said to them. “Dasras needs my attention if you do not require my services any further.” Then with a smile she hurried from their presence.

Lara flung herself among the multicolored pillows surrounding the low ebony table. Reaching for the decanter of frine she poured them each a goblet, handing her companion one. The brass bowl that always sat upon the table was filled with fresh fruits, and Cadi had added a small plate of tiny, crisp honey cakes. Lara reached for one.

“What is the matter?” Kaliq repeated the question.

“I don’t know,” Lara told him. “But I am filled with a sudden awareness that something of great portent is about to happen. I have not felt like this at all in the last century. I suppose I have grown complacent like an ordinary mortal.”

“Have you sought for an answer?” he asked her. He, too, had been afflicted the same way as she had. Something was changing, and not necessarily for the better.

Lara shook her golden head. “Nay, my thoughts have been too confused, Kaliq. I very much needed to come here to Zeroun to clear my head and contemplate what I must do. Even Ethne has been strangely silent, my lord.” She touched the crystal star pendant that hung about her neck, and it glowed but briefly as her fingers caressed it.

“Your thoughts, I suspect, have been deliberately confounded, and until you realized it, you remained in Terah. Fortunately, you are a strong being, and came to understand that something was not right. Lara, you must not dwell among the mortals any longer. I say this not just for my sake, for our sake, but for yours,” Kaliq said. “You must be clearheaded and strong for what is coming.”

“What is coming?” she asked him.

He shook his dark head, and his blue eyes were concerned. “Even I cannot answer that, my love, but it is past time we began to look again more closely at Hetar’s world. Their inability to learn from their mistakes has been discouraging. Both you and I have avoided looking too closely in recent decades because if these mortals cannot learn from their own errors, what is to become of them? But now I suspect the time is coming for us to involve ourselves with them once more.”

“I seem to have no more influence with either the Terahns or the Hetarians,” Lara told him regretfully. “As the years have passed my appearance has disconcerted them more and more, for they grow old, and I do not. They seem to have lost their belief in magical beings and our world. They have rewritten the history of Hetar to suit themselves. And the New Outlands is no better. Vartan and his faerie wife have been relegated to fiction. And once Noss and my daughter were gone, there was no one who remembered me among them. They think they have always lived in Terah, and as their way of life has changed little over the centuries, who is to nay-say them? It is as if everything we have done was for naught, Kaliq. I have made a grave error in remaining among the mortals. I should have disappeared years ago, appearing only when I was needed. Now I have become little more to them than an oddity. They attempt to ignore me as much as they can for my very presence disturbs them. But, Kaliq, my love, I could not leave while Magnus’s son lived. That small part of me that is mortal would have felt it a betrayal.”

“Yet Taj has been dead lo these four years,” Kaliq said. “You had no real affinity with your grandson, Amren, and even less with your great-grandson, Dominus Cadarn. Yet you remain in Terah. You do not belong in Terah. You belong with me in Shunnar.”

“In Shunnar I do not hear the voices on the wind that I need to hear to know that all is right with our world,” Lara told him. She sipped at her goblet thoughtfully.

“And what have those voices told you of late?” he asked her.

“They are suddenly silent, Kaliq,” Lara answered him. “That is why I have come to Zeroun. To regain my equilibrium, to sharpen my senses. They have grown dull with boredom, and complacent with the unchanging pattern of my life.”

“Something is amiss in the magical worlds,” Kaliq replied. “The winds blow in Shunnar as they have never blown before. There is a chill to them, and my fellow Shadow Princes grow restless of late, for none of us can find answers to all the questions that are whispering about us.”

“It is the darkness,” Lara said suddenly and with perfect clarity, and she shivered.

“Then certainly your son is preparing an assault against the light once more,” Kaliq said, nodding.

Lara no longer denied her maternity where Kolgrim, the Twilight Lord, was concerned. Her mortal children had never known, of course, nor did Marzina. But the son she and Kaliq shared knew of his half brother. Lara was glad that Dillon ruled the kingdom of Belmair, that bright distant star that shone down on the world of Hetar.

She need only worry about her youngest child, her daughter Marzina.

Kolgrim’s father had forced his seed upon Lara while she was visiting the Dream Plain. For this outrage he had been imprisoned for all eternity in a windowless dungeon deep within his own castle. No one knew he was there now except his successor—who had entrapped his twin brother with their father—Lara, Kaliq and several other members of the magical community. Lara had been pregnant at the time with Magnus Hauk’s son.

When Lara birthed twins, a son and a daughter, her mother had remarked how like a faerie ancestress the infant girl looked. Marzina was pale of skin, with black hair and eyes that eventually became the color of violets, while her brother was a golden child like their father, and his older sister, Zagiri. Everyone had accepted the word of the Queen of the Forest Faeries, and nothing was ever thought of how different Marzina looked from all of her other siblings. And Lara had never told her daughter the truth of her birth.

“What wickedness is he now up to,” Lara wondered aloud. “Has he not enough to do ruling his own turbulent kingdom? Certainly Ciarda gave him his son, and he is kept busy teaching the little devil all manner of wickedness.”

“Ciarda failed. She was not the chosen bride,” Kaliq said. “He killed her.”

“What? Why did you not tell me, Kaliq?” Lara wanted to know.

“I did not consider it important,” he replied.

“Oh, but it is! It is very important,” Lara exclaimed. “Kolgrim is preparing to take his chosen bride, my love. That is the change I have felt. He has consulted the Book of Rule and learned where to find the girl. If we can find her first, prevent him from mating with her, there will be no new Twilight Lord. We can defeat the darkness for good! If I had known that Ciarda was dead, I should have thought of this sooner.”

“We cannot defeat the darkness entirely,” Kaliq said. “There must always be a balance between the light and the dark, Lara.”

“Why?” she asked.

“Because there has always been a balance,” he replied.

“That is not an answer, my lord. Would not a world without avarice and cruelty be good? A world whose inhabitants actually cared for each other rather than were jealous of one another, and sought to do harm to each other.”

“Mortals have not yet reached that strata, nor have those of us in the magic kingdoms, though we are much further along,” Kaliq said. “If there were no temptations, no reasons for striving or improvement, what would be the point of it all, Lara? Even the magical kingdoms must have a balance of dark and light.”

“Are you saying we shouldn’t prevent Kolgrim from siring a son?” she asked him.

“Your son has kept the peace for more than a century, Lara, and yet do you see an improvement in either Hetar or Terah?” Kaliq queried cleverly. “Have the mortals inhabiting those kingdoms grown kinder or more thoughtful of each other?”

Lara shook her head in the negative. “I despair,” she said.

He laughed, wrapping an arm about her. “You are too serious, my love,” Kaliq told her, and then he pulled her close, his mouth taking hers in a soft and sensuous kiss. He smiled against her lips as his kiss drew the tension from her body, and with a sigh she relaxed against him. Pressing her back against the colorful pillows the Shadow Prince undid the row of tiny pearl buttons that held her caftan closed. His lips wandered down her slender pale throat to bury themselves in the valley between her breasts. His tongue plunged between the twin orbs, licking slowly as he inhaled the fragrance of freesia, which she now favored. He adored her. He always had.

Lara actually purred with delight as he began to make love to her. She had not been with him in several months, and she could not now remember why that was. Reaching out, she caressed his neck with her fingers, encouraging his rising passions. She had loved other men in her lifetime both physically and emotionally, but none was like the great Shadow Prince. Kaliq’s love for her was pure, and burned with an unquenchable fire as did her love for him.

He lifted his head, and his clear, bright blue eyes stared into her green ones. “I could be with you like this forever and a day,” Kaliq told her.

Lara smiled. “I wish it also, but it seems we have mortals to look after, and the darkness is seeking to escape the bounds of Kol’s kingdom.”

“There is time,” he told her, smiling back.

“No, there isn’t,” she said. Then adding, “Well, perhaps a little time. Cadi?”

“Is quite busy grooming Dasras, and afterward will fall asleep by the waterfall, my love,” Kaliq murmured as his dark head bent to find the tempting nipple he wished to nuzzle and savor. He began to suckle upon her, and as he did Lara realized that they were both quite naked for he had divested them of their garments. She stretched herself to her full length beneath him. The tug of his lips on her nipple was translating itself into a ripple of excitement that spread down her torso, culminating in a tingling deep between her nether lips. His teeth nipped at the very sensitive tip of the nipple, and Lara shuddered with relish, anticipating more delights to come.

A hand kneaded her other breast strongly, pinching its nipple hard, and she squirmed slightly beneath him as the action sent a jolt of enjoyment through her. Her fingers insinuated themselves into the thick dark thatch of his black hair, digging into his scalp. His mouth found hers again, kissing her deeply, their tongues fencing with one another until she sucked hard on the fleshy organ. Pulling away, he began to trail a path of kisses down her torso while her fingers traced a delicate pattern across the warm flesh of his smooth back with gentle nails.

He shivered when her finger sensuously stroked the dimple that lay above the crease separating his buttocks. His tongue encircled her navel, dipping into it briefly. Then Kaliq’s dark head moved lower, positioning itself between her milky-white thighs. His tongue ran slowly again and again along the shadowed slash between her plump nether lips. She hissed softly when it poked between the soft flesh, now glistening with new moisture, to find the tempting nucleus of her sex. Slowly he encircled it, then his tongue flicked it back and forth until she was squirming with her excitement. He held her hips in an iron grip until she was whimpering with her need for him.

Raising his head he knelt between her legs. Taking his massive love rod in his hand he ran up and down her wet slit, pushing it between the flesh to touch her already-quivering and swollen love bud. He pressed the tip of his cock against it hard, watching the fierce desire filling her beautiful face. Beg! he commanded her in the silent magic language. You have kept me waiting for months, my faerie witch. I have a need to punish you for it, Lara, my love.

You might have eased your lust on another, she told him.

Never! he swore to her. From the moment I pledged myself to you, I have not given any part of myself to another. There is no pleasure without you, my darling faerie wife, he declared passionately.

She was surprised. Nay, she was astounded by his use of the word wife. Aye, they had pledged themselves to each other a century ago, but Shadow Princes rarely gave the title of wife to a lover. “Oh, Kaliq!” she exclaimed aloud to him. “Yes! Yes! Love me, my dearest lord, my magical husband and mate! Love me!”

He withdrew his cock from her flesh replacing it with his lips, sucking hard on the swollen bud until she cried out. When she did, he mounted her and drove himself deep into the wet heat of her tight sheath. He groaned with delight, and her cries told him all he needed to know. He thrust deep and hard until Lara was screaming softly, the tears slipping down her face as he gave her the intense pleasure that only Kaliq could offer.

They clung to each other, their fierce need rising, rising with each wild thrust of his mighty cock. Neither of them, it seemed, could quite get enough of the other. But slowly, slowly, their passions came to a sharp peak. Lara cried out as she reached the culmination of her desire. The world erupted before her eyes. She shuddered so hard she wondered that she did not explode. And Kaliq cried her name aloud as his juices burst forth to flood her hidden garden. “Lara! Lara, my love!” Then the pleasures receded slowly, leaving them both weak, their skin damp with their exertions, but content beyond all measure.

They slept for an hour, and when they awakened, stretching lazily, the ebony table which they had somehow in their hungry lust managed not to tip over, filled itself with a beautiful meal. Upon it were icy-cold raw oysters, a juicy capon that sliced itself at their command, fresh green asparagus with a tart sauce, a warm round loaf of bread and a dish of butter. Kaliq gobbled most of the oysters, although Lara did manage to eat a few. They ate thin slices of capon. She teased him with the asparagus, dipping the vegetable in the piquant sauce, then licking the tip of the stem suggestively, sucking the stem slowly until, seeing his manhood begin to burgeon, Lara giggled wickedly. Then she fed him some asparagus, too, lapping the sauce when it drizzled from the corners of his mouth.

The food disappeared when they were finished, replaced with a bowl of strawberries and a pitcher of thick cream. Kaliq amused himself putting a berry upon each breast, and lining several down her torso. Next he poured the cream on her breasts, plucked each berry off with his teeth and licked up the cream, sucking her breasts. Then he drizzled the cream down the line of berries upon her torso, and one by one nibbled the strawberries off her quivering flesh, licking the cream away, as well.

When he had finished, Lara made him stand up. Then, kneeling before him she dipped his swelling cock into the pitcher, which had magically refilled itself. The cream was quite thick and clung to his dense length. Like a cat, Lara slowly, daintily, licked the manhood before her. Pushing his legs farther apart, she pushed the pitcher up between them to cover his jewels in the cream. Setting the pitcher aside, now she positioned her head so she might lick the cream from his sac.

When she had finished, sitting back upon her heels, he fell to his knees and turned her about so that she knelt before him, her buttocks raised and facing him. Kaliq took Lara’s hips between his hands, guiding his throbbing cock into her female channel. Her submissive position allowed him to delve deep. He pumped her hard until she was yearning with her need, pleading with him to give her pleasures. As filled with lust as she herself was, he complied. Lara screamed with her delight, and he howled like a beast as this time they met with perfect timing upon passion’s plain. Finally exhausted with their mutual satisfaction, they fell into a deep sleep amid the colorful pillows, wrapped within each other’s arms.

Lara woke to find Kaliq staring down at her. His blue eyes shone with such love she felt humbled by him. Outside the sky was light, but they instinctively knew it was not quite yet dawn. Without a word they arose and walked from the tent into the warm waters of the pool. The pale gray sky morphed slowly into a light blue, and then a richer blue. On the horizon, tendrils of color began to reach out. Pink, rose, peach and gold oozed out, staining the blue background. Kaliq and Lara watched as a ruby-red sun burst forth briefly, staining the rippling sand dunes of the desert bloodred.

“I have never seen the sand crimson before,” Lara said softly to him.

“It is a recent, and not particularly welcome phenomenon,” he replied. “We do not know what it means.”

She was surprised. “But the Shadow Princes know everything,” Lara said.

Kaliq laughed. “I misspoke, my love. We know it portends some evil, but we do not know what evil.”

“The evil is my son Kolgrim,” Lara answered him. “Of that I am certain, my lord. I must return to Terah and learn what my grandson Amren knows. If something is amiss, or of import within Hetar, Amren will know.”

“Unless he heard of it before he departed The City, he will not,” Kaliq said. “And we have learned from our own sources that Cadarn means to replace his uncle with his own brother, Cadoc.”

“Why? Amren has served Terah well,” Lara said.

“He has, but of late, at the urging of his Hetarian wife, he has begun accepting bribes in order to feather his own nest. Cadarn has not been particularly respectful of his aging uncle. He mistrusts him, and rightly so. But Amren is intelligent, for a mortal, and senses that something is amiss with the Dominus. He would remain in Hetar given the opportunity,” Kaliq told her. “He has become friends over the years with Prince Nasim, and confides in him. Your grandson trusts few, but he trusts Nasim, who keeps nothing from his Shadow Prince brothers.”

Lara nodded. “He was at the castle when I left. If he is still there I will speak with him, my lord. Though he was kept from me as a child, he has sought my advice over the years in dealing with Hetar in Terah’s best interests.”

Kaliq nodded. “He respects you, or so Nasim says. But he also fears you and your magic, my love. Nasim has allowed that fear to remain, believing it best that it did.”

Lara chuckled. “Aye, he was right to do so, my lord.” The sand beneath her feet was soft. Pushing off, she swam to the waterfall and let the cooler water flow over her. Joining her, Kaliq was unable to resist taking her into his arms and kissing her. Briefly she melted into his embrace, her lips welcoming him, but then she drew away and swam back into shallower water, walking from it up onto the beach and letting the morning sun dry her off.

Kaliq followed her. “You are going back,” he said.

She nodded. “Aye, I am. But I promise you that when I have learned what I must, I will come to Shunnar. It will be my home as it should have been all these years past.”

“Shall I raise you up a palace of your own, my love?” he asked her.

“You love me, my lord, and if you think you can live with me, I shall be content to have the bedchamber that is mine, and nothing more. But if you would prefer we live together but apart then do what you will,” Lara told him. “I will bow to your will in this one matter.”

“But no other.” Kaliq chuckled. “I am satisfied to have you in your old chamber, Lara, my love,” he told her. “And Cadi has her own quarters, as well.”

“Take Dasras with you to Shunnar,” Lara said. “Since his longtime groom died, he has been neglected by the Dominus’s servants. I return to Terah to gain what knowledge I can, but then I am gone. There is nothing left for me there now. I was foolish not to realize it years ago. My mortal children are gone. Kemina outlived Arik, but now both of these religious houses have been corrupted. There is nothing for me at the Temple of the Daughters of the Great Creator. Oh, Kaliq!” Lara turned to look at him. “Why did I not realize sooner that my time in Terah was finished? I behaved like a mortal who cannot accept change, and clung to a past long gone.”

“But you needed to let go by yourself, Lara,” he said.

“But now I fear I may have given Kolgrim an advantage,” she answered.

The Shadow Prince shook his dark head. “Nay, my love. Everything is as it should be. With this decision you have finally shed that last bit of your mortal skin. Once you make the magic world your home you will become entirely magic. But that is a decision that was yours alone to decide. I am pleased that you have finally made it.”

They walked back to the pavilion where Cadi awaited them, smiling. “I have your breakfast, mistress, master,” she said. Then she magicked white silk robes with necklines and cuffs trimmed in delicate gold threads and miniature transmutes, smiling when the little jewels glowed crystal clear with a faint golden cast. Transmutes, mined by the Jewel gnomes in the Emerald Mountains, were gemstones that changed color according to the wearer’s mood. Their color showed Cadi that both her mistress and the Shadow Prince were happy.

Lara and Kaliq sat down again among the pillows to eat. Their meal consisted of creamy yogurt, apricots, melon and green grapes, warm new bread, butter and a sweet hot tea, pale purple in color, brewed from the tiny new leaves of the Umbra trees that grew at Shunnar. Only the Shadow Princes had access to this tea for the Umbra trees were rare. Their fruits made a purple dye used for painting the nipples. The sweet flesh was coveted, for it also possessed an aphrodisiac quality.

“I am returning to the castle today,” Lara told Cadi. “When I have done what I must, I will leave Terah behind. We shall live in Shunnar. You may come with me or go with Prince Kaliq now. I am sending Dasras with my lord and will travel by magic.”

“I’ll come with you,” Cadi said. “I don’t even want to think what your mother would do to me if I left your side.”

Lara didn’t bother to argue the point. She was glad her serving woman would be with her. Terah was lonely enough now as it was. “We will not linger, Cadi. I promise.” When she had finished her meal, Lara left the pavilion and went to where Dasras stood shaded by the palms beneath his own silk awning.

The great white stallion looked up at her from his bin of oats. “Good morning,” he greeted her. “Less than a day, and you already look relaxed once again.”

“The time has come for me to depart Terah for good,” Lara began.

“All praise to the Great Creator!” Dasras said with a nod of his head.

Lara laughed. “But first I must return there to conclude one final bit of business. Then I shall collect Andraste and Verica and make Shunnar my home. I want you to go with the prince. Cadi and I shall travel by simple magic this day.”

“As you will, mistress,” Dasras responded. “As always, you have made a wise decision. There is, however, a boon I would ask of you.”

“Whatever you desire,” Lara told him.

“The great-grandson of my original groom, Jason, is called Leof. He is only a boy. He attempted to care for me when my former groom died. The older men were jealous and drove him away, yet none of them wanted to take responsibility for my care for they feared me because I am magic. Leof has managed to sneak into the stables now and again to bring me apples and carrots, but the last time the head groom caught him and beat him badly. I promised the boy that if I ever left Terah for good I would take him with me, mistress. Will you bring him with you when you return to Shunnar?”

“You have my word on it, Dasras. And he will take care of you. Og will teach him all he needs to know. His mortal kin are grown, and prefer the nomadic life of the desert dwellers. His wife is long dead. Leof will make a good companion for Og, as well. What of the boy’s family? Do they need him?”

“He was the youngest of his generation. Jason was quite old when he was born, but he lived until the boy turned five. I remember him bringing Leof to the stables with him. Of course he was no longer caring for me, but he oversaw those who did. And he began to teach the boy. But once Jason was gone it all changed. The boy was driven away. His family is large. They will not miss him.”

“Then I see no impediment to his coming. Has he learned, like all the others at the castle, to fear me?” Lara asked Dasras.

“Nay, his grandfather told him how kind you were, and I have reassured him the same,” the stallion said.

“I’ll have Cadi find him and bring him to me. The choice to come must be his, Dasras. You do understand that, don’t you?” Lara said.

“I do, but he will come,” Dasras responded in positive tones.

“Then I will leave you in Prince Kaliq’s hands, my faithful friend,” Lara said, patting the beast and giving his velvety nose a rub. She then hurried to find Cadi.

Her serving woman was clearing away the dishes. She looked up, smiling. “Are we ready?” she asked. Cadi waggled her fingers and the dirty dishes disappeared.

Lara nodded, then she called, “Kaliq, we are going now.”

He was immediately at her side, his arm about her supple waist, drawing her close. “Do not linger long, my love,” he said, brushing her lips softly with his own.

Reaching up, Lara caressed his strong jaw. “I won’t,” she promised.

Smiling into her faerie green eyes, the Shadow Prince released her.

With a wave of her hand Lara opened the Golden tunnel that magic folk often used to transport themselves from one place to another. Then she and Cadi hurried through into the swirl. It closed behind them as they moved along, shutting entirely as they exited into the small windowless room that Lara had always used for her magic. Lara looked about her then turned to Cadi. “Pack this room up and send it to Shunnar. Then join me in my apartments,” she instructed her serving woman.

As she departed the little chamber, she heard Cadi already murmuring the spells that would render the space empty as it had not been in over one hundred and twenty years. She realized that she felt no sadness in this at all and smiled a small smile. Encountering a guardsman on her way to her apartments, she asked him, “Is Prince Amren still in the castle?”

“He is, my lady.”

“Tell him his grandmother would see him in her apartments,” Lara told the man.

To his credit the man-at-arms bowed politely. “At once, my lady,” he replied.

Lara gave him a smile and moved quickly by him, finally reaching her apartments. They were empty, for only Cadi served Lara now. The faerie woman looked about her. Everything was in order, neat and clean, but the sensation of love, of life, was no longer there. She shook her head. Aye. ’Twas past time she left Terah. The memories here had long ago faded, leaving in their place a melancholy. Why hadn’t she noticed it until now?

Then she sensed an approach and turned quickly, even as the door to her apartments opened, and her grandson Prince Amren entered. “Come in, my lord,” she invited him pleasantly. “Sit down. We must speak on matters that concern you.” Going to a painted sideboard Lara poured a goblet of dark red wine for her grandson and another for herself. Handing it to him, she sat down opposite Amren.

“What matters?” he asked her, taking the goblet with a nod of thanks.

“The Dominus Cadarn plans to dismiss you, and replace you with his brother, Prince Cadoc,” Lara said bluntly.

“How can you know this?” Amren demanded, surprised.

Lara raised a delicate dark eyebrow. “Really, my lord, how can you even ask such a question of me?” she replied. “Do you think because you have been raised to fear me and ignore what I am that my powers are lessened to any degree? When something concerns me, I make it my business to know what I must.”

“You must be mistaken, Grandmother,” he said, but he did not sound very sure. “I have served Terah well since my youth.”

“Aye, Amren, you have. Both your father and your grandfather would be most proud of your devotion to your duty to Terah.” He was still a handsome man, Lara thought. How old was he now? Seventy? Aye, seventy.

Her words pleased him well, she could see, but then he asked her, “And are you proud of me, Grandmother?”

Lara laughed. “I suppose I am in my own way, Amren,” she told him.

“What do you want then of me?” he asked her candidly.

Lara laughed again. “How Hetarian you have become,” she said, “but of course you are right. A favor for a favor, eh, Amren?”

And now he chuckled. “’Tis the Hetarian way,” he agreed, “and the truth is I have spent most of my life in Hetar. My wife is Hetarian, and our children.”

“Will you remain in Hetar when the Dominus dismisses you?” she wanted to know. “You have a home in The City, and one in the province of the Outlands. I doubt your wife would enjoy living in Terah.”

“I had not considered being cashiered from my position,” Amren said slowly. “You know how important one’s position is in Hetar. An ex-ambassador has not the status of an ambassador, but Clarinda would indeed be unhappy here in Terah. And we should not have the enjoyment of our grandchildren.”

“The Dominus does not want to hear anything I have to say,” Lara told her grandson, “but I shall put the thought into his head to create a new position for you. You shall be Terah’s Trade Commissioner. There will certainly be opportunity for you to extract some goodly bribes in such a position, Amren.”

His face grew red, and she saw him preparing to vehemently protest her words.

Lara smiled a wicked smile. “Do not bother to deny it, grandson,” she told him. “Have I not said that I learn what I choose to learn? Know what I wish to know? I am more than well versed in Hetar’s foibles and vices for I was born there, and lived my early years in The City. Did you know that your great-grandfather Swiftsword gained the regalia he needed to compete in the tournament that earned him his place in the Crusader Knights by selling me into slavery?

“Gaius Prospero, who later ruled as Hetar’s emperor, bought me. He planned a private auction with the owners of the Pleasure Houses for he expected to earn a great profit from me. But alas, I was considered too beautiful, and the Guilds feared I would cause more trouble than I was worth. So instead I was sent with a caravan of Taubyl Traders to be sold outside The City. It was from there I began to follow my destiny, and learned who and what I am, Amren. Oh yes, I know Hetar well. Very well.”

“I did not know any of this,” Amren said slowly. He was surprised by her revelations. “You did tell me of Swiftsword before I first went to Hetar. And his memory is still honored. He died in some battle, didn’t he?”

“Aye, it was a great battle,” Lara said. “I fought in it myself.”

Amren’s mouth fell open in shock. “But you are a woman,” he gasped.

Lara smiled a brief smile. Andraste! To my hand! She called to her sword in the silent language. The sword leapt from its place over her tall stone hearth, and into her grasp. It was a beautiful weapon. Its broad blade a smooth polished steel. The gold hilt of the broadsword had a woman’s head at its tip. The head possessed ruby eyes.

“I am Andraste, and I sing of victory,” the sword said. “Greetings, grandson of the Great Magnus Hauk.”

“It speaks!” Amren said. “What trickery is this?”

“Surely you knew my sword spoke, grandson,” Lara said, amused.

“It was but a child’s tale,” he said slowly.

“Most children’s tales such as this one come from fact, my lord,” Lara told him. “Certainly you believe I am magic. Can you deny the evidence of your own eyes?”

Amren shook his head. “Nay, I cannot. Is it all truth, Grandmother?”

“I do not know all you have heard, but probably it is,” Lara said. “But let me tell you about the Battle of The City before I reveal to you what I want. The Twilight Lord Kol, who ruled the Dark Lands in those days, brought together a great army made up mostly of Wolfyn, but other dark entities, as well. They sought to conquer Hetar and had already ravaged the Midlands. Now they stood before The City. Their battering rams could not even dent the great gates nor could their fire machines pierce the protection that the Shadow Princes had put about The City. Hetar’s soldiers stood upon The City’s walls and laughed the Wolfyn to scorn. And then, when we were ready, we opened the gates ourselves. As our army had marched forth to face the enemy’s, a platform moved to fill the gate. It was from there that the Emperor Gaius Prospero and Hetar’s dignitaries watched the ensuing battle. I personally killed the Wolfyn high commander of Kol’s armies, Hrolleif. And when the other Wolfyn saw it they howled their grief, but then the battle resumed. The ground before The City was awash with blood. And when our mutual enemies had all been slain the skies opened up and a heavy rain poured down, cleansing the earth. When it had ceased, all evidence of the battle was gone, for both blood and bodies had disappeared. As many, if not more, Terahns were killed that day, and so Hetar was considered to owe us a great debt. Remember that, Amren. Terah helped to save Hetar once long ago. I will wager such a thing is not taught to the youth of Hetar, but then neither is that same history taught in Terah any longer.

“And once again over a hundred years ago, soon after your grandfather, Magnus Hauk, was killed in an accident, the magic world saved Hetar once more from its own folly when one of Kol’s daughters attempted to subvert a mortal man to her own purposes, and bring both Hetar and Terah into the Darkness. Your father was but a child then, and I ruled as a shadow queen until he was old enough to take the reins of power himself. Both kingdoms have been involved with one another for decades.

“But now what is it I want from you, my lord? In return for what I have told you this day, I would have you be my eyes and ears to the court of the Lord High Ruler. The new position I will see you gain in order to keep your status in Hetar will still allow you entrée to that court. I would know all the gossip you hear even if you believe it to be inconsequential. I will make that decision, Amren.”

“Will not the fact that the Lord High Ruler of Hetar is my blood kin allow me entry to the court no matter my position,” Amren asked. Then he answered his own question. “Of course not. How foolish of me to think it. You ask little for what you give, Grandmother. Why is that?”

Lara laughed once more. “I am magic, Amren.”

“I do not understand magic,” he said candidly.

“Nay, I suppose you do not,” she sighed. “Can you not believe the evidence of your own eyes, grandson?” Lara asked him. “My sword speaks for there is a powerful battle spirit within it. Verica, to me,” she called aloud, and her staff flew to her outstretched hand. She turned it so her grandson might see the ancient bearded face carved within it. “Verica, please greet my grandson, Prince Amren of Terah.”

“I know who he is,” Verica said. “He is the only one among Dominus Taj’s children to speak at any length with you, and then only because he needs your knowledge.” Verica’s sharp eyes glared at Amren. “Is that not so, Terahn prince?”

Amren nodded, a little less startled now than when Andraste had spoken in her deep, forbidding voice. Then he looked to Lara. “The sword speaks, the staff speaks, but this magic was in them. It is not yours.”

“You must see to believe then.” Lara chuckled. “Aral change!” And suddenly a small bright bird was flying about the chamber. “Do you believe now?”

Amren ignored the bird. “Where are you?” he demanded of her. He swatted lightly at the quick avian who dived at his head.

“Aral change!” He heard her voice again, and suddenly a large golden cat sat before him. Amren jumped back, genuinely terrified, his eyes wide as the cat raised a massive paw and placed it on his shoulder. He could not move and considered himself already dead. He struggled to speak but could push no words forth from his tight throat. Then in his fear he saw that the cat had green eyes. Faerie green eyes! He gasped with a mixture of both surprise and shock.

“Lara change,” he heard his grandmother’s voice again, and she was suddenly before him, her hand still resting upon his shoulder. “Now do you believe, Amren?”

“You can shape-shift,” he said, his voice returning. “I had heard of it.”

“Come!” Lara said, taking his hand while with her other she opened a Golden tunnel for them and led him into it.

“Where are we going?” he asked her nervously. “What is this place?”

“It’s a passageway to wherever we magic beings choose to go,” she said as they exited the tunnel onto the oasis. “This is Zeroun. Within a day’s ride are the palaces of the Shadow Princes, Amren. Have you ever been to the desert kingdom.”

“Nay, just to The City, the Midlands and the New Outlands,” he said slowly. “How can I be certain this isn’t all a hoax you have designed?” Amren queried.

“Shall I return you home to The City, grandson? Are you ready to return?”

“You can’t. I have yet to see the Dominus.” Then a sly look came into his eye.

“But if I do not see him he cannot dismiss me, can he?”

“Of course he can,” Lara said. “He will simply send word to you with your replacement, Amren. But if I return you to The City now, you will have time to prepare your wife, Clarinda, for the changes to come. Tell her only what you need tell her. Trust no one but the Shadow Princes who are there to aid you, and me. But do not attempt to betray me, Amren. I can, and I will turn your life into a horrific disorder if you do.”

He nodded. “I understand, Grandmother. I will keep faith with you for you have always been more than fair with me despite my…” He hesitated.

“Your ignorance?” Lara suggested.

Amren chuckled. “Aye, my ignorance.”

“Then you shall go now,” Lara said.

“Wait! How will I contact you?” he asked her.

“Commit these words to memory, Amren. Grandmother, Grandmother, heed my plea. Cease all else and come to me. Say these words, and I will come to you.”

“I will remember them,” he said.

“Very well then. Farewell, my lord Amren,” Lara said. Then she magicked him away with these words. Amren, return to The City from whence you came. I’ll call when you must come again.

Terah’s ambassador suddenly found himself standing in his privy chamber within his own house in The City’s Golden District. He was astounded, and to be certain he was not dreaming he pinched himself hard. “Ouch!” he exclaimed. He was not dreaming! What an amazing thing had just happened to him. He had actually seen magic. He could no longer deny that it existed, but he would never admit such a thing aloud. He would be considered a fool, and his stature diminished if he did. But magic was real. Who knew what rewards it could bring him from his grandmother if he cooperated with her. And she asked little. Report on the gossip within the court and The City itself. And Ambassador Amren of Terah always heard the gossip first.