New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author and master of romance Bertrice Small continues her magical, sensual story of the World of Hetar.

Lara, Domina of Terah, has mysteriously disappeared, and Magnus Hauk is frantic to find his beloved wife. When no trace of her can be discovered, he turns to two strong allies—Prince Kaliq of the Shadows and Ilona, the most powerful of the faerie queens.

Meanwhile, Kol—the Twilight Lord—revels in his victory. The exquisite Domina is now in his possession, and her powers will soon help him to conquer first Hetar and then Terah. But Lara will not stand for his treachery, even as she is seduced by his charisma. She calls on all of her strength—and the passion in her heart—to once again rise to the challenge of her destiny.

“The third in the World of Hetar series has plenty of political intrigue, some fantastical characters, and lots of Small’s unique brand of hot, boldly descriptive…romance.”

—Booklist on The Twilight Lord

Praise for the World of Hetar series and

New York Times bestselling author

Bertrice Small

“Readers who enjoyed the first in [this] new series

will devour Lara’s latest adventure.”

—Booklist on A Distant Tomorrow

“Small’s newest novel is a sexily fantastical romp.”

—Publishers Weekly on The Sorceress of Belmair

“Rich in colorful characters,

brimming over with Small’s unique sense of

erotic passion and a plot filled with mystery,

the fourth title in the series is another masterpiece.”

—RT Book Reviews on The Sorceress of Belmair, Top Pick

“Small is not only a queen of erotic/adventure historicals, with the fifth book in the World of Hetar series, she is a grand mistress of erotic fantasy.… With this newest story, the author demonstrates that we can ‘have it all.’”

—RT Book Reviews on The Shadow Queen, Top Pick

“The final volume in The World of Hetar

delivers a fantasy lover’s delight.”

—RT Book Reviews on Crown of Destiny

The Twilight Lord
Bertrice Small

To all those people who, like me,

know that the Light will forever prevail

Contents

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Prologue

HE had not thought it possible to be vanquished by a creature half-human, half-faerie. But as the stones concealing the tower window exploded outward with her incantation and the bright light poured into the chamber, Usi knew that he would not survive. He howled a moment in frustration and with his last vestige of strength tried to tempt Lara into the darkness, but her powers and her resolve were too strong for him now. The light scorched him cruelly with its fierce cleansing burn.

In that single instant before he was finally hurled into the realm of the Lord of Oblivion, he thought of how long ago he had prepared for just this moment, though he had not truly believed it would ever come. The faerie woman had defeated him. But his essence would survive in his descendants. His enemies never knew that he had deliberately fathered children on two of the women he had brought to his tower. He had sent the women away before their condition could be known, not just for their safety but for the safety of the progeny they would bear him.

Aye! His black blood ran in the veins of others to this day. And as he called out to that blood with his last dying breath he heard it answer him, and rejoiced. The final battle was yet to be fought.

Chapter One

THE great winged horse galloped across the skies above the Emerald Mountains, a single rider on his back. Strapped to the animal’s side was a woven basket in which a sleeping child lay. Lara glanced now and again at her daughter Zagiri to make certain she remained asleep. She was a beautiful little child with her father’s dark gold hair; her golden eyelashes fanned out over her pale pink cheeks. She looks like him, Lara thought. The only bit of me in her are her green eyes.

“We’re almost there,” Dasras said as they left the mountains behind them. “I can see the fields of the Blathma below us, and just beyond and to my left are the meadows of the Aghy. I wonder if Roan has any pretty new mares.”

Lara chuckled. “You are as lusty as a Shadow Prince,” she told him.

Dasras chortled. “Well, I was born and raised among them,” he said drolly. Then he asked, “Is the princess still sleeping?”

“Aye,” Lara responded. “She’ll be delighted to see Dillon again—and he her. I hope Anoush has gotten over her jealousy by now. She doesn’t even understand that I am her mother and her invidiousness toward Zagiri is hurtful.”

“She is too young to have developed that attitude without help,” Dasras remarked.

“Who can have planted the seed of envy in Anoush? Certainly not your good Noss. She has always been a fine foster mother to your children.”

“Vartan’s mother,” Lara said sadly and with certainty. “She grows madder with each passing day. I have asked Noss to limit my children’s visits to Bera but she is their grandmother. Of course there is Cam, as well. Adon’s son is Anoush’s cousin. And Bera is raising him. I have never found him to be a pleasant child.”

“You should investigate the situation and see that it is corrected,” Dasras advised. “It does not matter that your children are blood kin to Bera and Cam. If they pose a danger to Dillon and Anoush, you must do what you must to keep Vartan’s younglings safe. Bera’s feelings cannot matter to you, and Cam has no sensibilities at all to consider that I can see. The safety of your children must come first and foremost.”

“I am fortunate to have such wise advisers as you, Verica and Andraste,” Lara told the great stallion.

“And the Dominus?” Dasras teased her.

“Villain!” Lara laughed. “My husband is a good man and a wonderful lover, but he does not understand humanity as well as he thinks he does. However, we shall not tell him that, shall we, Dasras?”

The horse shook his head, then began his descent to the lands below him, which were possessed by the Fiacre Clan. He preferred galloping the last few miles into the main village, New Camdene, rather than just descending into its midst. The cattle in his path scattered as his hooves touched the ground. There was no one this bright summer morning to see their arrival until they drew close to the dwellings. To Lara’s delight it was her son, Dillon, who first saw them coming and ran toward Dasras to welcome his mother. The horse came to a stop.

“Mother! Welcome!” Dillon said. “Have you brought Zagiri?” Standing on his toes he peeped into the basket. “Ahh, Zigi, wake up now,” he cooed.

The little girl slowly opened her eyes and, seeing Dillon, smiled and held out her arms to him. “D,” she said excitedly. “Uppy, D!”

Dillon lifted her from the basket and set her on her feet. Zagiri slipped her hand into his and together they began to walk. Lara slid down from her saddle to join them as Dasras followed. Lara smiled as she watched Zagiri toddle along beside Dillon on her fat little legs. Her son carefully matched his steps to his younger sibling.

“Where is Anoush?” Lara asked the boy.

He stopped and turned a serious face to her. “We must speak on Anoush, Mother,” he said quietly.

“Did you know I would come today?” she asked, nodding.

He smiled at her now. “Aye, I awoke and felt you drawing near. That is why I came out to meet you. I know Dasras’s habit of landing several miles outside the village and then taking a leisurely gallop. My instincts are growing stronger.”

“You will go to your grandmother and Prince Kaliq one day for training,” Lara said. “Not yet, but one day, my son.”

“When?” he asked eagerly.

“When you are twelve,” she answered.

“I should go sooner,” he protested. “That is almost three years away.”

“The fact that you cannot accept my decision in the matter but proves to me that you are not yet mature enough,” Lara told him.

“Ah, you are too clever, Mother,” he said with a chuckle.

“Aye, I am clever but I am also wise, Dillon. Anoush has no magic in her I can yet see and I cannot yet tell if Zagiri will have magic. But you, my son, from the beginning I could see the magic in you, but I said nothing and let you discover it for yourself. With the proper training you will be a great sorcerer one day. But you also need time to be the little boy you are now. You need long summer days feeling the sun on your back, picking berries and eating them until your tongue is blue, swimming in the lake, riding your horse and lying on a hillside at night looking up at the stars. Your summers must feel as if they would go on forever and ever. For now, you must be taken unawares by the summer’s end and your return to lessons,” Lara told him. “When you feel the summers going quickly, then I will know you are growing up and we will begin to discover how much magic is in you. Then and only then will you go to study with Prince Kaliq and your grandmother. You will be old for far more years than you are young, Dillon. Enjoy these years.”

“Mother, you are wise and I know your words are truth,” he told her.

Lara smiled. “Tell me of your sister now,” she said. They began to walk again.

“Our grandmother infects her with discontent,” Dillon said.

“And your cousin?”

“Cam is cunning and sly,” Dillon replied. “He panders to Anoush’s every whim, and he does it, I believe, to bind her close to him.”

Lara nodded. “That is unlikely to change even if I forbid them contact,” she said. “I have left you and your sister with the Fiacre because you are Vartan’s children, as well as mine. Perhaps it is now time for you both to come and live with me. You could come this year after the Gathering, and then return each summer staying until after the Gathering. This would allow you to remain close to the Fiacre, too. Once, I thought you would follow in your father’s footsteps, Dillon, and lead the clan one day. But I see now that your fate will not be among your father’s people. You have a different path to follow.”

“I am glad that you finally see that, Mother,” he said.

“You are so old for one so young,” Lara remarked as her attention was drawn to her little daughter. “No, Zagiri, do not eat that.” She pulled the flower from her daughter’s mouth and picked her up. “Noss will have a treat for you, I am certain.”

And Noss, Lara’s old friend, did indeed have a nibble for little Zagiri. She sat the child at a wooden table outside of her kitchen, beneath a pergola thick with grape vines, and gave her a cup of fresh-squeezed juice and a slice of newly baked bread with butter and honey. Then she hugged Lara, and brought them two cups of frine. They sat beneath the pergola sipping the fruit and wine mixture while Noss told Lara what had transpired with the Fiacre over the past months since they had seen each other.

Lara listened and then she asked after her elder daughter.

“She has probably gone to Bera’s house,” Noss said. “Of late she has been spending too much time there. With three rambunctious boys and another child in my belly, I sometimes lose track of her these days. She has become most disobedient, Lara, and I do not know what to do about it. Of late she does not call me Mama.”

“What does she call you?” Lara asked, curious.

“She calls me lady,” Noss said sadly. “I do not understand it or even who might tell her such a thing.”

Lara nodded. “I would not hurt you, dearest Noss, but with three sons and another child on the way, perhaps it is time that Anoush and Dillon came home with me to the Dominus’s castle. You and Liam have been so good to my children, but now I have a home and husband once again. Even if I must leave Magnus for a time, the children will be safe with him. Would you mind if I took Dillon and Anoush with me when I return?”

Noss sighed. “No,” she said candidly. “Dillon is no trouble at all. He is always willing to help me even without my asking and he is a wonderful influence on Tearlach, Alroy and Val. But Anoush has become difficult. I love her dearly, as you know. I have always thought of her as a daughter and we were close with one another. But suddenly she is secretive and rude. I am afraid for her and I don’t even know why,” Noss said. Then she lowered her voice. “I never believed I should have a daughter of my own, but Dillon says this child I carry is a female. Given how Anoush has behaved toward Zagiri, I am afraid now for this child I carry, Lara. I think Bera has told Anoush who you are. She will not have spoken favorably of you, I fear. Anoush needs to be with you now. She needs to know her mother and not take the slanders Bera spews as truth.”

Lara sipped her frine thoughtfully as Noss spoke. “Aye,” she said. “Anoush is six now, and very impressionable like all little girls her age. The only way I can expunge Bera’s venom is to take her back to the castle with Dillon.”

“How long will you be with us? Your rooms are ready, for Dillon told us this morning that you were coming,” Noss said with a smile.

“A few weeks,” Lara replied. “Magnus is now more concerned with the trading season than anything else. The emperor’s representative, Jonah, has gone home to Hetar—he does not like to leave Gaius Prospero alone too long, for he prefers to be the emperor’s only influence. I convinced Kaliq to allow Jonah the use of magical transport instead of having to sail across the Sea of Sagitta each time he needed to confer with his master. I send him when he desires to return to The City and one of the princes returns him to us.”

“Why does Gaius Prospero insist on keeping him in Terah?” Noss wondered. “It should be obvious to him that the Dominus is not interested in furthering ties with Hetar.”

“The emperor thinks that in time Magnus will change his mind. What he really wants is to conquer Terah so he may add it to his little empire,” Lara replied. “I understand he is attempting to duplicate some of the goods we make for Hetar in an effort to get our attention through economics. Unfortunately, Hetar has not the proper materials, and we will not trade with them for those materials. Their efforts so far have produced an array of shoddy goods that despite their cheap prices sit in the market stalls unsold. It is an interesting standoff between us.”

“But what do you think of all of this?” Noss probed, curious.

Lara laughed. “Terah and Hetar must eventually come to an understanding,” she said. “I think we may have a more dangerous enemy in the Dark Lands.”

“Well, whoever they are they have caused no troubles so far,” Noss noted.

“I would be happier if I knew who they were and what they want,” Lara responded. “I do not like mystery, as you know. My destiny has been calling to me for some months now, but for the first time I do not know exactly what it wants or where I am to go. Nor has my spirit protector Ethne had anything to say on the matter though I have asked her. All she will say is ‘you will know in time.’ ’Tis most annoying. Kaliq says I must wait for my path to be made clearer to me before I act.”

“Well,” Noss said in her practical way, “I suppose you must wait then. Now let me send Dillon to fetch Anoush for you.”

“Thank you,” Lara replied. “I am not in the mood to face Bera right now. She grows no better, Noss? Can no one help her? Vartan and Adon have been dead now for over five years.”

“Sholeh and her sister, my own mother-in-law, have tried. After you left, Sholeh would come from her village every few weeks to be with Bera, but when we moved from the Outlands to the New Outlands she stopped because the distance from New Rivalen to New Camdene is greater. And it did no good anyway. It is as if something evil has gotten a hold of Bera’s heart and spirit,” Noss said.

“And Cam?” Lara wanted to know.

“He makes my skin crawl,” Noss admitted frankly. “He is as beautiful as his parents and is all kindness where his grandmother is concerned. At least publicly. But even I can sense the wickedness in him, Lara. And of late he has devoted himself to Anoush. Whatever she wants, he gives her. If she is angry at Dillon or me, he encourages her anger. He is working very hard to draw her away from us and he is close to succeeding. Such deviousness in so young a boy is frightening.”

Lara nodded. “Dillon,” she called to her son who was amusing Zagiri. “Go and fetch your sister to me, please.”

Dillon arose, kissing Zagiri’s little fingers as he did to make her giggle. “At once, Mother,” he said and hurried off. Reaching his grandmother’s house he entered and greeted Bera who sat at her loom weaving. “Good morning, Grandmother. I have come to fetch my sister. She is needed at home.”

“This should be her home,” Bera said. “And yours. You are my grandchildren. You do not belong to Liam and Noss and their ilk. You are the children of my beloved son Vartan. Tell them you would come and be with your old grandmother.”

“You are kind to want us, Grandmother,” Dillon said quietly, “but we are where our mother would have us be. And we are content there.”

“The faerie witch! She who murdered in cold blood the son of my heart,” Bera muttered darkly. “She will regret it! She will regret it! Send her back to Hetar where she belongs. She should be among her own kind, not here among us.”

Dillon ignored the old woman’s outburst. He had heard it all before. He left Bera and went out to the garden where he found his sister with their cousin. They were seated in the grass, and Cam had his hand on Anoush’s own. He quickly pulled it away when he saw Dillon. Dillon’s eyes narrowed speculatively, then he spoke quietly to his little sister. “You are needed at home.”

“No,” Anoush said. “I don’t want to go. Cam and I are having fun. He is teaching me a new game.” She did not look directly at her brother.

Dillon did not argue. He reached down and pulled his sister up roughly. “I am sure it is not a game that a maid of six should learn,” he told her harshly. “Now come, Anoush, we are needed at home.” He began to pull her away.

“I should rather live with Grandmother and Cam than with the usurper and his alien wife,” Anoush said rudely.

“Say farewell to our cousin,” Dillon told her through gritted teeth. His dark, threatening look met Cam’s, but their cousin merely smiled at him. Dillon did not wait any longer. He dragged his sister from their grandmother’s garden, back through her house and out into the town’s square as he made their way home. “You ought to be ashamed of yourself,” he scolded Anoush as they went. “What has come over you, Little Sister? You have always loved Noss and your recent coldness has hurt her greatly.”

“She is Hetarian like the bitch who bore us,” Anoush said coldly.

Dillon stopped dead in his tracks. “Look at me!” he said fiercely. His tone was so dire that Anoush turned startled eyes up to him. “So you understand that Noss is our foster mother, do you? It is true. The mother who gave us life and who loves us beyond measure is Lara, the Domina of Terah. She was born in Hetar of a mortal father and a faerie mother. She was our father’s wife. She is a great lady and she has a destiny to follow. She did not choose to have a destiny. She would have been content to remain our father’s widow and our mother, but such is not her fate, Anoush. Our mother knows she has no choice but to follow until she meets and claims her destiny. She saw to our comfort and our safety before she left us. She saved the clan families from Hetar when she and the Shadow Princes transported us from the Outlands here to the New Outlands. You will speak of her with respect, Sister.” Then, taking Anoush’s hand again, Dillon half dragged her to the lord’s hall where their mother was awaiting them.

Noss saw them first. “Anoush, come! We have a visitor,” she said.

Seeing Lara, Anoush stopped. Then she said, “Good morrow, Mother.”

Noss paled.

“Good morrow, Anoush,” Lara replied quietly.

Tread carefully. She heard Ethne murmur silently.

“You grow prettier each time I see you,” Lara said.

“And how often is that, Mother?” Anoush asked sarcastically.

Lara was surprised, although she did not show it, at the bitterness in the little girl’s question. Noss was right. Someone—Bera? Cam?—was working hard to separate Anoush from her family and her heritage. And it was going to stop as of today, she decided. “I have not seen you often enough in the past few years,” Lara answered, “but that is all going to change now, my daughter.”

“What?” Anoush responded. “Has your latest lover thrown you out, and you are returning to the Outlands once again to cause trouble?”

“Anoush!” Noss gasped, almost faint with shock at the girl’s words.

But Lara remained calm with the child. “Did your grandmother tell you that? Or was it your cousin, Cam?” she asked pleasantly. “No matter. Nothing they have told you is true, I suspect. And Anoush, you are no longer in the Outlands. These are the New Outlands. The clan families were brought here several years ago.”

“That is a lie!” Anoush said. “Grandmother says you told us that to confuse us and make us vulnerable to Hetar’s conquest. Nothing has changed. Nothing!”

“Oh, dear,” Lara sighed patiently. “I can see there is much you must learn and unlearn before I take you and your brother home with me.” She smiled at Anoush and then said, “Come and greet your baby sister, Zagiri.”

“Your bastard, you mean,” Anoush answered her mother.

Noss clutched at the table’s edge, her fingers digging into the wood.

“Zagiri is a princess of Terah as you are a noblewoman of the Fiacre Clan, although I must say your language is more that of a peasant child than the daughter of Vartan,” Lara remarked. “Come here to me, Anoush.”

Reluctantly Anoush moved to stand before Lara. “What?” she said.

“Noss, would you take Zagiri and Dillon? I think I must speak with Anoush alone.”

“I think I should stay,” Dillon said.

“Thank you, my son, but no. Anoush and I must speak alone. If she becomes too difficult I shall simply turn her into a warty toad until she learns reason.” Lara could not conceal the twinkle in her eye for she saw Anoush’s eyes dart about nervously at her words.

Dillon grinned at his mother, picked up Zagiri and followed after Noss.

“Sit down, Anoush,” Lara said.

“I wish to stand,” Anoush replied.

“But I prefer that you sit,” Lara answered quietly, pointing a finger at the little girl who suddenly sat down, a surprised look on her face. “There,” Lara said, “that’s much better, isn’t it? Now, you will ask your questions and I will answer them. What is it you wish to know of me, Anoush?”

Anoush looked defiantly at her mother and then burst out, “Why did you kill our father? Grandmother says you wanted his power and that you killed Cam’s father and mother when they came to my father’s defense.”

The shock on Lara’s face was evident. Then drawing a long deep breath she said, “I did not kill your father, Anoush. His brother, Adon, Cam’s father, killed Vartan with a poisoned dagger that Cam’s mother had obtained from Hetar. Adon’s wife, Elin, had been suborned by the Hetarians and was convinced that if your father were dead, her husband would be made lord of the Fiacre. Even if Vartan had died of natural causes, Adon would have never been selected to lead the Fiacre. He was a weak, foolish and vain man who wasted his life and his energies in envy of your father. Whoever told you that I killed your father lied to you, Anoush, and a wicked lie it is.”

Anoush looked confused. She was a child, and the only people who ever spoke of her father were her grandmother and her cousin, Cam. Liam and Noss did not speak of him. And until recently she hadn’t even known that the beautiful woman who appeared now and again in the hall was her mother. Her brother had known and he had confirmed what Cam had told her of their parentage. Why had she not been told? But then recovering somewhat, she said, “Do you deny killing Cam’s parents?”

“No,” Lara said, “I do not. When your uncle murdered your father before our eyes, I had no choice but to revenge him. Fiacre law gave me that right. Adon murdered Vartan in front of their own mother and me. And Elin stood smiling at his side as he did the deed. I silently called to my sword, Andraste, who hung over the hearth, and slew them immediately before either of them might even enjoy the fruits of their treachery, Anoush. You were in the hall that day. You slept in your cradle as Vartan was slain. Now what else have you been told by that sad old woman? You know that she is totally mad, don’t you?”

Anoush said nothing.

“Surely you have more questions for me?” Lara demanded.

Finally Anoush spoke. “Grandmother says you are a faerie witch,” she said.

“I was born in Hetar of a mortal father and a faerie mother. You have met your grandmother, Ilona, queen of the Forest Faeries. Your grandfather is John Swiftsword, a Crusader Knight commander. My instincts are more faerie than mortal, Anoush, and my powers have grown stronger in the last few years. I was born to a destiny I have yet to find or fulfill, but I grow closer to it with each change in my life and I will meet that destiny one day. It is my fate to do so. I cannot escape it.

“I remained in the Outlands the summer your father died and I saw to his cremation and did him honor. I saw that much honor was done to him by the others who had admired and loved Vartan. Dillon will tell you of that time. You have only to ask him. But my destiny called and I had no choice but to follow.”

“Would you have done so if my father were alive?” Anoush asked.

“Aye, I would have and your father understood that. We both knew that one day I would go, but he would be there for you and Dillon. And then he wasn’t. Liam is your father’s blood kin. He is yours and Dillon’s, too. Noss is my best friend. I asked them to take you and your brother—for where I go you cannot always follow. My destiny is not yours. They have been good foster parents to you, Anoush. I journeyed to Terah, where I met Magnus Hauk. We fell in love and married. Much else has happened in the years since your father’s death, but I suspect I have already told you more than enough. You need only know that I love you and your brother. When I return to the castle in a few weeks, you both will return with me. It is time now for you to know your mother and your little sister. Magnus will be a good stepfather to you.”

“Is this place really the New Outlands?” Anoush asked. “Cam says it is not and that you have told us it is so when the Hetarians want us they can enslave us easily, for you are lulling us into a false sense of security.”

“This is a new place,” Lara reassured her daughter. “You are very, very far from Hetar now. Across a wide sea, in fact. The lords of the clan families know it is truth. They will tell you that the land, while similar, is not the same. The Fiacre never had a nearby lake in the Outlands, but you have one here in the New Outlands. When we go to the Dominus’s castle, you will see that Terah sits between two great oceans.”

“How can I see such a thing?” Anoush wanted to know.

“You will sit before me on my saddle as Dasras gallops across the sky,” Lara told her older daughter.

“I don’t want to leave here,” Anoush said. “I want to stay with Cam and Grandmother. Cam says Noss and Liam don’t want Dillon and me any longer because Noss is fat with another baby. Cam says they don’t want to be bothered with your children when they will have four of their own.”

“Noss loves you, and would keep you forever if I would let her, but I will not,” Lara replied. “You are Fiacre, but you are also my children.”

“If Zagiri is a princess why can I not be a princess?” Anoush wanted to know.

“Zagiri is the daughter of the Dominus of Terah,” Lara said. “She was born royal. You and Dillon are of noble birth, but not royal. You will have to wed a prince one day, Anoush, if you desire to be a princess.”

“Could you really turn me into a warty toad?” Anoush asked her mother.

“I could. My magic is very strong, my daughter.”

“I don’t have any magic, do I?”

“It would seem not. You are like your father. The only magic he possessed was his ability to shape-shift. Perhaps when you grow up a bit more we shall see if you, too, have his talents,” Lara told her daughter. “Or perhaps even some of your own.”

“Dillon has magic,” Anoush remarked. “Grandmother says he is a wicked boy.”

“Aye, your brother does indeed have magic, but he is not wicked,” Lara said.

“Does Zagiri have magic?” Anoush wanted to know.

“She is too little for me to know if she does,” Lara replied.

“Mother?”

“Yes, Anoush?”

“Why did Grandmother lie to me about you?”

“Your grandmother went mad when your father was killed and I was forced to slay her younger son in retaliation. She has never recovered but instead rewove the event so she would not have to face the truth of Adon’s treachery. It cannot be easy to accept that your youngest son has brutally murdered your eldest. And then I took my revenge on Adon and Elin so poor Bera has made me her villain. Before your father’s death, she and I were great friends and I loved her like a mother.”

“Do you still love her?” Anoush asked.

Lara shook her head. “Nay, but I feel no animosity toward her. I feel pity.”

Then Lara reached out and took her daughter’s little hand. “Have you understood all I have told you? Is there more you would ask me or tell me?”

“I understand, I think,” Anoush replied. “My faerie grandmother frightens me, Mother. When she comes to visit she is more interested in Dillon than she is in me, and she shoos me away. Dillon says it is her way and I must not be offended.”

“How typical of Ilona,” Lara murmured, almost to herself. Then she said, “Faeries can have cold hearts, my daughter. She means you no ill, but Dillon’s talents intrigue her. Did you know that I did not know her until I was grown? But that is a story for another time, I think. You will be relieved to know that your stepfather is all mortal. He will love you because he loves me, Anoush. Be kind to him, please.”

“What will I do at the castle?” Anoush was clearly fascinated now.

“You will have lessons as you do here. You will ride your own horse by the sea, and I will teach you to care for your very own garden. At night I will tell you stories before you sleep and then I will kiss you so you may have sweet dreams,” Lara said.

“I am still angry at you, and I have many more questions,” Anoush said frankly.

“I do not expect to win your heart back in an afternoon,” Lara told her child. “Just know that I love you and that all I have done is for you and Dillon and for your safety.”

Anoush nodded. “May I go back to Grandmother’s now?” she said.

“Nay,” Lara told her daughter. “I will not allow you to ever enter Bera’s house again, Anoush. You must be freed from her poisonous ravings.”

Anoush’s eyes grew dark with her annoyance, but then she said, “What am I to do if I must remain here?”

“Perhaps you might go to Noss, and give her your apologies for being so unkind to her these past weeks. She really does love you and she has taken such great care of you and your brother when I could not,” Lara said.

“Will I get to play with Cam again?” she asked.

“I don’t think so,” Lara responded. “He is not a good influence on you, Anoush. He has embroidered on his grandmother’s fantasies, I suspect, which was very cruel. Do you understand what they were doing? Bera and Cam were trying to lure you from those who love you. Why would they do that?”

Anoush swung her legs back and forth as she thought. “I don’t know,” she finally said.

“Nor do I,” Lara replied. “But it was wicked nonetheless, Anoush.” Of course she knew, Lara thought. While Adon had killed his brother and somewhere deep in her mind Bera knew it, she could nevertheless forgive him. But she could never forgive Lara for slaying her surviving son. Elin had meant naught to her, but Adon had been her baby and Lara had killed him. Deep within, Bera sought to have her revenge—what better way than to destroy Lara’s daughter who was young and impressionable? Dillon was safe from his grandmother for Bera could not reach into his heart and soul and twist them as she had twisted Anoush’s trusting little heart. If she knew the power I have gained these past years, the old woman would be truly afraid, Lara thought.

“May I go now and tell Noss that I am sorry, Mother?” Anoush said.

“Give me a kiss first, my daughter,” Lara said, wrapping her arms about the child and hugging her. “I will try not to leave you again, Anoush, but know wherever I am that I love you with all of my heart.” She kissed her daughter’s cheek as Anoush rose from her seat and then, giving her a little push, sent her off to find Noss.

Dillon appeared from out of the afternoon shadows and came to sit at Lara’s feet.

“How much did you hear?” Lara asked her son.

“Only the end,” he said. “Do not be lulled by her acquiescence, Mother. Anoush is a very willful girl. It is not Grandmother you need worry about—it is Cam. He will not like it that she is no longer available to him. When I found them today, they were in the grass and my cousin had his hand on my sister’s in a most proprietary manner.”

“I think Cam must be sent to our Sholeh in New Rivalen,” Lara answered her son calmly. “He is old enough to work in the fields until it is time for the Gathering. I had intended to remain in the New Outlands until after it concluded, but I think now I must take you both home sooner. Bera may protest the loss of Cam at first but then she will be silent. I shall ask this of Liam when he comes home today. You will tell him what you saw and he will do this for me. Where is Zagiri?”

“She fell asleep and so Noss laid her down for a nap,” the boy answered.

“Have you released Dasras into the meadows?”

“Aye, and he immediately found Sakiri and their latest foal,” Dillon said.

“After he has sated himself with her company he will fly off to the Aghy,” Lara chuckled. “He is of a mind to visit Roan’s new young mares.”

“His offspring have increased the stamina and beauty of the Horse Lord’s herds,” Dillon remarked. “Will I like Terah, Mother?”

“It will be different for you,” Lara said, “but aye, I believe you will like it. And there is so much that you can learn. You will need to know everything that you can absorb, Dillon, before you go to Prince Kaliq to study the magical arts. I am frankly surprised by your talents, my son, for you are but a quarter faerie.”

“I don’t know if what I possess is so much magic as it is intuitiveness. I see things that others do not, Mother. And I sense things, too—like I knew you were coming today. You had sent no faerie post, but I knew.”

“This is a great gift, Dillon,” his mother said. “And Kaliq will help you to refine your gift and use it for the good.”

“Anoush has a gift, too, Mother,” Dillon told her.

“Does she?” Lara was surprised. “And what is it, my son?”

“She is clever with plants and herbs. It is not magic of course, but I believe if her interest continues she might become an excellent healer,” the boy said.

“I offered her a garden,” Lara replied thoughtfully. “She seemed pleased by the notion she might have one of her own. Thank you, Dillon. This will be the means by which I win her back and bind her to the light.”

“I am so glad that you have come, Mother,” he told her.

Liam, lord of the Fiacre, came now from the kitchen. “Welcome, Domina,” he greeted her with a smile. He was holding a pitcher in one hand and refilled her cup with frine as he sat down to join her, sipping from his own cup. “Noss tells me you would take your children with you when you return home. We will miss them.”

“I will return them to the Fiacre each summer, and if they choose they may remain through the Gathering time,” Lara responded. “But it is now time for them to be with Magnus and me. They both know their parentage and their history.”

He nodded in understanding. “The children of Vartan will always be welcome here among their Fiacre kinsmen and women.”

Reaching down, Lara drew her son to his feet. “Go and stay with your sisters, for I must speak with Liam privately,” she told him and Dillon immediately left them.

“What is it?” Liam asked her. “Is there trouble coming of some sort?”

Lara laughed. “Nay, not any of which I am aware. I need a favor from you, lord of the Fiacre. I want to send Cam away while I am here with my children. Both he and Bera have been filling Anoush’s little head with all manner of lies. Had I not come when I did today they might very well have stolen my daughter and dragged her into their dark world. Once the children are in Terah, neither Bera nor Cam can harm them. We will not be able to keep Anoush from running off to find Cam if he is here. We cannot watch her constantly. As for Bera we must find a good woman to live with her and care for her.”

“Where will you send the lad?” Liam asked. “I can certainly think of a few places,” he added with a chuckle.

“To Sholeh in New Rivalen. She is kin to you both and as headwoman of her village, she has both authority and strength. Cam could be put to work in the fields until the harvest. That should keep him busy and out of trouble,” Lara said.

“Aye, he is old enough,” Liam agreed. “We will have to send a faerie post to Sholeh and request her aid in this matter.”

“Nay, I will go myself, for we are asking a great favor of her and it is in my interests that we need her help,” Lara said. She stood up from the table. “Would you mind if I went now, Liam?”

“Shall I have Dasras caught and saddled?” the lord of the Fiacre asked her.

“Nay,” Lara told him, and with a delicate wave of her hand she disappeared in a faint cloud of mauve smoke.

Liam stared and then he laughed weakly. How long had he known her, and still Lara’s growing magic always surprised him.

But he was no more surprised than Sholeh, the headwoman of New Rivalen, who jumped back as Lara suddenly appeared before her in her chamber. “Gracious!” She jumped to her feet, dropping the brush in her hand for she had been in the middle of brushing her long auburn hair. “Lara! Is it really you?” She immediately embraced her visitor.

“Aye, ’tis me, Sholeh,” Lara said.

“How can I serve you, Domina?” Sholeh was suddenly very formal for she was more than aware Lara’s visit was hardly a casual one.

“I have come to ask a great favor of you,” Lara began.

“Anything!” Sholeh responded.

Lara laughed. “Wait until I have told you what it is I want,” she said. Then she explained what Bera and Cam had been doing to her little daughter. “I came to the New Outlands with the express purpose of visiting and then returning with both of Vartan’s children to Terah. It is time they were with me again.”

Sholeh nodded her agreement and then listened as Lara continued.

“It would be too difficult and cause great dissension between my daughter and me if I had to keep her from Cam. I can only keep them apart if Cam is not there. I would have you take the boy until the Gathering. He is young, but he can be put to work in the fields, and herding cattle. Keep him busy. Hopefully that will keep him from getting into trouble. He will be so charming and polite with you that you will wonder to yourself why I sent him away. But believe me when I say that Cam, son of Adon, is filled to overflowing with wickedness,” Lara said.

“I know he is,” Sholeh responded. “I saw him with his grandmother as he twisted poor Bera’s words and thoughts. I am not fooled by his soft-spoken demeanor, Lara. Aye, I will take him and keep him tightly reined. You will want him gone quickly, I assume. What will you do with Bera?”

“We will find a good woman to live with her for she really is no longer capable of caring for herself. The woman will remain when Cam returns home after the Gathering,” Lara told Sholeh. “Will you return with me now to New Camdene?”

“I suppose we will be transported by means of your magic,” Sholeh said nervously. “Well, no matter. Come into the hall with me, and we will tell the servants so they do not worry when I am suddenly gone.”

The two women left the chamber and went into the hall where, seeing Lara, the servants greeted her with smiles.

“I am going to take your mistress with me to New Camdene,” she said. “I will return her on the morrow.” Then with a wave of her hand they were gone from before the servants’ startled eyes.

As they rematerialized beneath the pergola in Liam’s hall, Lara said, “There now, Sholeh, that didn’t hurt at all, did it?” And she laughed.

Sholeh laughed, too. “It is a convenient mode of transport, I will admit, but it still makes me nervous and you know I fear nothing.”

“It is getting cool out here and the sun is setting,” Lara remarked. “Let us go into the hall. I smell food and if there is one thing about me that is solely mortal it is my appetite. I am ravenous, Sholeh, and could eat an entire side of one of Liam’s cows.”

Warned by her husband, Noss showed no surprise when the two women entered her hall. She greeted Sholeh respectfully as an elder of the clan family and as headwoman of New Rivalen. Then she beckoned the two to be seated at her high board. There were only the four adults, Noss’s children and Lara’s having been fed earlier. They had already gone back outside to play in the long summer twilight.

“Sholeh has agreed to take Cam until the Gathering time,” Lara told Liam and Noss. “I will transport them back to New Rivalen in the morning.”

“And I know just the woman to care for Bera,” said Noss. “She is newly widowed, and her son would like to wed but what woman will come into a house with another woman in it? This will solve both of their problems and when Bera has departed this life we will give the woman her own cottage.”

“Make certain she you have chosen is not easily deluded by Bera—and later, Cam. I do not want the history of Vartan’s life destroyed by their lies,” Lara said.

“You can speak with the woman yourself and make the decision tomorrow,” Liam suggested. “It was bad enough when they poisoned little Anoush’s mind, but we cannot have their prevarications harming our people. There are always those who are quick to believe the worst or who enjoy blackening the reputations of heroes. It is five years since Vartan’s death. His legend remains but his influence has faded from the Fiacre. And there are those, too, who never trusted you, Lara, because of your Hetarian birth, although they have certainly profited by your faerie nature. Any rumor begun among us will eventually spread to the other clan families. We cannot allow divisions to separate us now that we are relatively safe once again.”

“Thank you, Liam,” Lara said to him. “Your friendship is precious to me. You are as safe as any peoples here, but I am concerned not just with Hetar but with the Dark Lands to our north. Hetar is an ocean away. But the other…” She sighed. “Does anyone know of the people who inhabit that place? It seems to be all mountains.”

“None of our folk have ventured north,” Liam said. “Those mountains, unlike the Emerald Range that separates us from Terah proper, seem threatening. All the clan families have enough lands where we are. Our territories are at least twice as large as those we held previously. Why do the Dark Lands concern you, Lara?”

“I am not certain, but I sense a threat from them,” she answered. “The first time I saw them, I was on Dasras’s back and observing the sea creatures frolicking in the sea we call Obscura. Those mountains drew my eye, and I was almost overwhelmed by the aura of darkness that emanated from them.”

“We have never seen any signs of life from them,” Liam told her. “I wonder if they are even inhabited. They certainly appear to be inhospitable.”

“Aye,” Lara replied slowly. Then she shook off the feeling of gloom that had come over her when she spoke of the Dark Lands.

Dillon came into the hall and went to his mother. “Anoush has gone to our grandmother’s house,” he told her.

“I will fetch her,” Sholeh said standing up. “I want to see how Bera is faring.”

She hurried from the hall with Dillon by her side.

“You see how it is?” Lara said to Liam.

“Cam will be gone on the morrow,” Noss soothed, “and you will not have to see him again. Frankly I’ll be glad to have him out of the village. Whenever he ventures out he always manages to cause trouble among the other children. There are several who are fascinated by him, but then there are always those who cannot help being drawn by the darkness and then into it.”

“You are such a tattletale,” Anoush complained to her brother as they returned together to the hall.

“You were told not to go back there,” he countered.

“You are not my master, Brother. I do what pleases me,” Anoush snapped.

“You are not old enough to do as you please,” he replied.

“I am six,” Anoush answered, “and that is old enough.”

“Ah, children, here you are,” Lara came toward them smiling. “I believe it is time for you to go to bed, Anoush.” She took her daughter by her hand and led her away.

Dillon grinned after them. “My mother is surely the cleverest woman alive,” he said with a chuckle.

“And you are much too wise for a boy so young,” Noss told him, ruffling his hair.

“My soul, I think, is as old as time itself, dearest Noss,” he answered.

“You will do well one day with the Shadow Princes,” Noss said.

“My mother says I am not yet ready,” he replied sadly.

“Do not stop trusting your mother now, Dillon,” Noss advised. “She has never failed any of us. If she says you must wait, then accept her decision and be patient.”

“I will,” he told her but his tone was reluctant.

“Go and fetch the boys for me,” she said. “It is time they went to bed, too.”

With a quick smile he ran off to do her bidding.

Noss looked out over the darkening landscape. A warm summer breeze touched her cheek and pushed at a loose strand of her hair. It sometimes seemed only yesterday she was a frightened girl from The City sold into slavery by her parents. So much had happened in the years that had passed. She often wondered if her parents still lived, and considered what they would think of the good fortune that had given her a wonderful noble husband, three healthy sons and a respected place in her community.

And Lara. Without Lara she might have ended up a concubine to a Forest Lord, only to be killed when she had delivered a healthy son for her master. She shivered and shook off the black thought. She was the lady Noss, wife to the lord of the Fiacre. She was loved, and she was safe. There was peace and they were far from Hetar. It was enough, she thought as she rubbed her distended belly and felt the child within move lustily. “I am going to call you Mildri,” she whispered softly to herself, smiling. And then her three sons came running toward her and Noss laughed with her happiness.

Chapter Two

THE chamber was a square one. Its walls were black marble veined with silver. Tall silver censers burning fragrant oils lined the room, their flickering flames casting shadows upon the walls. The floors were wide boards of ebony edged in strips of pure silver. At one end of the room, a square throne of gray and silver marble had been placed upon a matching marble dais beneath a silk canopy of purple and silver stripes. To the right of the throne, a colonnade of shining, veined black marble offered a view of the surrounding mountains between its pillars. The sky beyond was reddish-dun colored. On the wall opposite the throne were great double doors of silver. And directly in the center of the chamber had been set a footed silver tripod holding a wide black onyx bowl filled with crystal clear water.

Kol, Twilight Lord of the Dark Lands, waved a languid hand over the vessel. The water roiled for a moment, grew dark and then cleared once again. “Ahh,” Kol said, staring down at the beautiful woman revealed to him in the water. “Soon, Lara. Soon you will belong to me and I shall have your magic combined with mine. I shall take both Hetar and Terah, and our worlds will be one.” He smiled a dazzling smile.

He was a very tall man, his skin very pale, his hair midnight-black, his eyes a dark gray that sometimes seemed almost black. His face was a very masculine one, yet he could almost be called beautiful rather than handsome. His cheekbones were high, his nose long and straight, his mouth wide and sensual. He had thick, bushy dark eyebrows and long, dark eyelashes that were tipped with silver. He wore a simple dark robe with a round neck and long sleeves embroidered with silver at his wrists.

“Will it be soon, my lord?” asked the man who stood by Kol. He was a dwarf with the wrinkled brown visage of an old man. His back was slightly crooked, his fingers gnarled with age, but his brown eyes were sharp with curiosity.

“Aye, Alfrigg, soon, for I feel the mating lust beginning to rise within me,” Kol answered his chancellor’s question. “The Book of Rule says when that happenstance occurs, I must take the faerie woman for my mate. She is destined to give me my son.”

“She will not come willingly, for she has a mate whom she loves,” Alfrigg said. “And faerie women will not give children to those they do not love.”

“I have summoned the Munin,” Kol replied.

“The Munin? My lord, that is dangerous. What do you want of them?” Alfrigg looked concerned by his master’s news. “The Munin are not easy creatures and can be treacherous if provoked.”

“If I steal the faerie woman from her world she will resist me. But what if I have the Munin steal her memories before I take her?”

“What good is she without her knowledge of magic, my lord?” the chancellor asked. “No matter that she is the woman fated to birth the next Twilight Lord, you need her magic, as well. If she has no memory of her magic then she is of little use to you other than as a life bearer.”

“The Munin will place her memories in an alabaster jar and restore them to her as I require, but first I must convince her to trust me so completely that when I return her knowledge of magic to her she will be only too glad to aid me in my conquests. Her recollections of her husband and her children, I will not restore to her. She will have no need of them. For Lara her life will begin with me and me alone, Alfrigg.”

“She is light, my lord,” Alfrigg reminded him. “You are dark.”

“She will have no memory of the light,” he said with a smile. “And when her fears have been calmed, she will believe everything that I tell her. I will not show myself to be a threat to her in any manner. Indeed, I will be her savior.” He gazed down into the bowl. “Is she not beautiful, Alfrigg? Is she not perfection?”

The dwarf stood on his tiptoes and gazed down into the water. “Aye, my lord, she is an excellent specimen of female loveliness,” he agreed. “But once you restore her magic to her she may not be as easy to manage as previously. Women should not be allowed to have magic. They are emotional and unstable beings!”

The Twilight Lord laughed at this. “Women do have a certain intelligence, Alfrigg. In Hetar and in Terah they manage commerce and even speak their minds,” he told his chancellor who looked properly shocked.

“It is obvious there is no order in Hetar and Terah,” Alfrigg replied sourly. “Women of high caste are for breeding purposes only. Women of low caste are meant to be servants but can also be bred if the serving class is to be perpetuated. Only men of high caste can be considered fit to serve the Twilight Lord. As for the others, they serve as they are told to serve. The appropriate order must be kept, and those who would defy it must be punished so others not be encouraged to disobedience.”

“You are a hard man, Alfrigg,” his master told him with a small smile.

“Thank you, my lord,” the chancellor said with a short bow to his master.

The Twilight Lord returned his gaze to the surface of the water. Krell, Lord of Darkness, he thought to himself, I can hardly wait to have her! He felt his rod twitch beneath his robes, and fought back down the feelings of desire that threatened to overwhelm him. Just a little while longer, he reminded himself.

“My lord.” A serving man was bowing before him. “They have come.”

The Twilight Lord nodded. “Let them enter,” he said and then turned to Alfrigg. “Secrete yourself behind my throne and listen, but do not reveal yourself.”

Alfrigg nodded and did as he had been bid.

The doors to the chamber opened again; suddenly the room was cold. Kol sat motionless watching the Munin as they drifted to the foot of his throne. He had never before seen them and he was amazed by their appearance. They were spectral creatures, almost like shadows. They seemed to have no legs, but he was able to distinguish the arms, hands and faces of the Munin, who ranged in color from the palest to the darkest gray. They traveled toward him in a cluster.

The largest of them now detached from the assemblage, bowed politely and asked in a high, wispy voice, “How may my brethren and I serve you, great Twilight Lord? Your kind has never before called upon us.”

“Thank you for coming, and welcome,” Kol greeted them politely. “I would ask a great favor of you, lords of the Munin.”

“And what will you give us in return for this favor, Twilight Lord?” the Munin murmured.

“You have no home,” Kol replied. “You wander the worlds with no place to call your own. Help me and I will give you the valley we call Penumbras for your own. It is set between two of our tallest mountains where the sun’s rays never reach. It is a cold, dark and secret place. It will be yours for all time.”

“Will you build us a castle there?” the Munin lord demanded.

“A castle and a place beneath the earth where you may store your treasures,” Kol promised them.

“The favor you seek from us must be great. Tell me what you desire of us that you would be willing to part with some of your own lands?” the Munin lord said.

“Do you know of the faerie woman, Lara of Hetar, who was first wed to Vartan of the Fiacre and is now the wife of Magnus Hauk, the Dominus of Terah?”

“The daughter of Ilona of the Forest Faeries and the mortal man John Swiftsword? She who undid the curse of Usi upon the men of Terah?”

“The same,” Kol replied. “I want you to steal her memories and store them here in this jar that sits by my throne.”

A humming sound erupted from among the Munin and then the Munin lord said but one word. “Why?”

“You are aware that the Twilight Lords possess the Book of Rule, brought to us centuries ago by our common ancestress, Jorunn. With each new Twilight Lord, the words and instructions within the book change. It has been predicted since the days of Jorunn that the twelfth generation after Khalfani would take for his mate a woman, half-human, half-faerie, with great powers. Her powers combined with his would allow him to rule over all the lands. Lara is that woman,” Kol said.

“Lara of Hetar is wife to Magnus Hauk and Domina over Terah,” the Munin lord said. “She is allied with and almost worshiped by the eight Outland clan families. Her mother is the most powerful of all the faerie queens. Kaliq of the Shadow Princes is her mentor. Even Hetar’s emperor fears her. Do you mean to steal her, Twilight Lord? She will not come willingly to you. You had best examine your Book of Rule again.”

“The book is clear. Lara is to be the mother of the next Twilight Lord. And I know she will not come willingly. That is why I need you to steal her memories and store them in my jar. I will ask you to restore certain of those memories as she comes to trust me. But one memory I would bid you leave her—her memory of how much she enjoys pleasures, for it is not my intent to frighten her when we mate.”

“Then, when we have taken her memories, you will steal her and bring her here to your castle of Kolbyr,” the Munin lord said slowly. “Her disappearance will cause an uproar throughout both Terah and Hetar, though for different reasons. A search will be mounted and the Shadow Princes will become involved. And Ilona will not sit by quietly with her daughter missing. There must be no chance of them discovering that we have been involved in your treachery, Twilight Lord. Our powers are small compared to yours and those whom you will go up against. Sooner or later it will be discovered that you have stolen the faerie woman. Magnus Hauk will not restrain himself if you mate with his beloved wife to gain a son. If we agree to help you, Twilight Lord, you must first build us our refuge, for when we have done your bidding we will hide ourselves away there until the matter is finally settled between the Dark Lands, Terah and Hetar. If.”

“My powers can build you your castle in seven days’ time,” Kol told them.

An excited murmur arose again from the cluster of Munin as the Munin lord turned back to them to discuss the matter. Some were eager to accept the Twilight Lord’s offer. Others considered his plan too dangerous and worried about being blamed publicly for their involvement in Kol’s perfidy. But the offer of a castle built for them in a secret valley far from all, with their own vault in which to hoard the memories they stole, was too tempting for them to resist. Even if their participation in Kol’s plan was finally discovered, no one would be able to find them. Those belonging to Hetar and Terah did not venture into the Dark Lands. Not even the magic folk.

“Then we are agreed,” the Munin lord said to his companions in their own tongue.

“We are,” they murmured back.

The Munin lord turned to Kol. “Very well, Twilight Lord. Build us our home. We will give you the specifications as to what will suit us. When it is done you will tell us where to find Lara and then we will do your bidding. But not before.”

“I shall start tomorrow,” Kol told them. “When it is finished and you have approved it, we will speak again and I will tell you how and when.” He stood up and bowed from his waist.

“You have but to call us when you are ready,” the Munin lord said, and then the Munin faded away before the Twilight Lord’s dark eyes. “You may come out now,” he said to his chancellor and Alfrigg crept from behind the throne. “You heard it all?”

“It is a bold plan, my lord,” Alfrigg answered him. “How clever of you to know what it was that the Munin wanted. And the Penumbras is a perfect spot for them.”

“Aye,” Kol said, a small smile touching his lips. “And as they have said, Alfrigg, my power is greater than theirs. Once they have done my bidding, once they have settled in my kingdom, the Munin are mine forever. No longer will they be able to wander at will. I will cast a spell on the valley of Penumbras, so they will not be able to leave it without my authority.” He chuckled darkly. “How simple they are. Their weakness is their desire for their own home. That is the trick, Alfrigg, when dealing with others. You learn their deepest desire, and then you use it against them.”

The old dwarf looked up admiringly at his master. “Your wisdom is great, my lord,” he said. “You will surely be the greatest of the Twilight Lords.”

Kol smiled at his chancellor’s words and walked across the chamber to stand between the black marble pillars so he might look out over his kingdom. The reddish sky was now turning purple and black. Bolts of silver lightning leapt from cloud to cloud; his ears caught the distant growl of thunder. Kolbyr, his castle, was built into the highest mountain of the Dark Lands. From its turrets and colonnaded porches you could see nothing but mountains and sky. But beyond those mountains lay Terah and Hetar. Rich kingdoms ripe for the taking. And he would master them all.

Hetar would be first, for its emperor, Gaius Prospero, had already been caught by the lure of the dark and the power it could offer him. But he was a fat simpleton who thought himself more clever than anyone else and who sought only more power, more pleasures and more wealth. I will replace him, Kol decided. He cannot be trusted. But the man known as the emperor’s right hand, Jonah, was a different thing altogether. His heart was already dark, but he was very intelligent. Though he, too, sought power, he knew well how to serve a strong master. He could be content as my governor, Kol thought. And he is clever. Clever enough to have made Gaius Prospero’s number one wife, Vilia, his mistress without that pompous little man knowing. Kol chuckled. Aye, Jonah would be his governor in Hetar. The Forest Lords, the Coastal Kings and the Midlands would fall into line. Only the Shadow Princes could not be conquered, but the Shadow Princes were not known to be aggressive. Left to themselves they were unlikely to thwart his plans for conquest, for they did not involve themselves willingly with others.

Kol watched as the rain began to pour down in thick gray sheets of water. His thoughts turned back to the faerie woman and he drew a deep breath to calm his beating heart. He had already built a luxurious and large apartment to house her and a wardrobe filled with silks and gauzes and furs. She would have views of the mountains from three sides of her rooms. Lara would lack for nothing while in his care. And he would care for her as no man ever had. His chancellor might have little use for women but Kol appreciated their beauty and their charm.

I am already in love with her, he thought. Ever since the Book of Rule had revealed her to him, no day passed that he did not use the reflecting bowl to observe her. She fascinated him with her beauty and manner. He particularly enjoyed watching her with the children she had already borne. It was obvious that she was a good mother. He felt no guilt or shame at robbing those children of their mother. She did not belong to them. She belonged to him. He turned and walked back to the bowl, then waved a graceful hand over it so he might see her once more.

* * *

LARA SHIVERED suddenly.

“What is it?” Noss asked her. “Are you all right? You have suddenly gone quite pale, Lara. Are you cold?”

“Nay, but I just had the oddest feeling—as if someone was secretly looking at me. I have had it now and again over this last year. It only lasts a moment or two.” She shrugged her shoulders as if to shake off the sensation. “My faerie senses grow stronger. It is, I suspect, nothing more than that,” she told Noss with a chuckle.

“The summer is almost over,” Noss remarked, “and soon it will be time for the Gathering. I usually look forward to it, but this year I am not. You will leave us after the Gathering concludes. And traveling with a new infant won’t be easy for me.”

“No, it won’t be,” Lara agreed. “I keeping forgetting that your daughter will be born shortly. If my son is right and it is a daughter.”

“Dillon is correct,” Noss said quietly. “When he makes a pronouncement like that he is never wrong, though he is yet a child himself.”

“I will be glad to have the opportunity to observe him more,” Lara said. “I had not planned to send him to Kaliq until he was twelve but if his powers are strengthening I may have to change my mind. Don’t tell him I said so,” Lara finished with a small laugh. “He is so anxious to go.”

“I suspect he wants to be someplace where his talents are not looked upon with suspicion,” Noss remarked. “There are always those who will be frightened of magic, and often he is thought of as more your son than Vartan’s.”

Lara sighed. “If Vartan were still alive that would not be so.”

“I know,” Noss concurred. “It is sad, but there it is and we cannot change it.”

“I suppose not,” Lara agreed. “Has Bera said anything since we sent Cam away with Sholeh? And how is the woman we chose doing?”

“I don’t think Bera realizes how many days have passed since the boy left,” Noss said. “Pakwa does well with her. Bera enjoys her company and she is a marvelous cook. I actually think Bera is putting on a bit of weight. She seems less intense with Cam gone.”

“What a pity we cannot keep Cam from her entirely,” Lara murmured. “I hope Pakwa will remain when he returns. If Cam decides he doesn’t want her in Bera’s house he will make it difficult for her to stay.”

“Pakwa has been warned. She will concentrate all her efforts upon Bera and ignore the boy. He will have his lessons to concentrate upon in the Icy Season,” Noss remarked. “And he will go to Sholeh again next year. Or perhaps to Rendor or Roan.”

“Don’t allow him to become close friends with anyone,” Lara advised. “He must make no allies among the clan families.”

“Lara, he is just a child,” Noss said softly.

“He will not always be a child and Bera has put it in his head, you may be certain, that he should one day be lord of the Fiacre. Liam will live long, Noss. I know it. But you do not want Cam causing trouble among the Fiacre as your husband grows older.”

Noss nodded reluctantly. “I cannot help but feel if we had been raising Cam it would have been different,” she said.

Lara shook her head. “Nay, there is wickedness in him,” she replied. “He will need to be kept under control all his life.”

* * *

NOSS GAVE BIRTH to her daughter in very late summer. Mildri was a pretty baby and gentle of temperament. The time of the Gathering was drawing near. Magnus Hauk would join Lara and the clan families as he had done every year since they had come to the New Outlands. It was at the Gathering that they rendered him their tribute as their overlord. Lara had sent a faerie post to her husband telling him that Dillon and Anoush would be coming home with them. The Dominus wrote back that his sister, Sirvat, had come to help. She was already preparing rooms for the children despite the fact she was great with a second child to be born in late autumn.

Anoush had grown closer to her mother now that she was not in Cam’s or Bera’s company. Having learned from Dillon of Anoush’s proclivities for plants, Lara had started a small herb garden with her daughter. They would transplant Anoush’s plants to a new garden in Terah, Lara promised. She also taught the little girl small facts such as lavender being an excellent agent for those troubled by sleeplessness and chamomile tea being good for the nerves. One day she took the child up on Dasras with her. They traveled to the Obscura, where they watched the sea creatures playing in the waves. Anoush was fascinated by it all. The angry look had left her eyes, to Lara’s relief.

Then, on a perfect late-summer’s night, Lara and her two children lay upon a gentle hillock almost all of the evening and watched the flying stars streaking across the black skies before the moonrise. The earth beneath them smelled green and fresh with the early dew. Then with Dillon by her side Lara walked home carrying Anoush, who had fallen asleep.

“It was a perfect magical moment,” Dillon told his mother. “Why do the stars fly, Mother? But for this night they seem to be still in the heavens.”

“I don’t know,” Lara admitted. “That is a question we must ask Kaliq when we see him again, my son.”

“And when will that be?” Dillon wanted to know.

Lara laughed. “Oh, how you long to go to the Shadow Princes!” she teased. “But this will be the first time you have lived with me in several years. Let me have a little time with you, Dillon. I am certain Kaliq would agree with that.”

“You grown folk, magical or mortal, all stick together,” Dillon complained.

“’Tis the only way we can survive our young long enough to teach them,” Lara told him with a chuckle.

They entered the lord’s house, then the servant who had waited up for them barred the doors. Reaching the chamber she shared with her children each time she visited, Lara lay Anoush down in her bed with Zagiri, who was already sleeping, and drew the coverlet over them. She kissed her daughters and then she kissed her son who had already climbed into his own bed.

“Good night, Dillon. Sleep well.”

“I don’t know if I can,” Dillon replied. “It was such a wonderful evening, Mother.”

Lara ruffled his hair. “You will sleep,” she told him. Then she lay down in her own bed to rest. It had been a perfect summer. In another two weeks, Magnus would join them and they would all go to the Gathering together. She was anxious to see the other clan lords and learn how they were now faring after several years in the New Outlands. Liam said that everyone was content, but she needed to hear it from their own lips. When she had arrived two months ago, the fields below her had certainly looked fertile and green. And the horses belonging to the Aghy had looked fat. But what of the others? Were Rendor’s sheep thriving? Were the dwarfs in the Emerald Mountains still getting along with the Piaras and the Tormod? Having brought them all here she would always worry about them, Lara thought. But then her eyes began to droop and she fell into a contented sleep.

In the morning when Dillon awoke, he lay quietly considering the odd dream he had had in the night. It had seemed so very real, yet he was certain he had been sleeping. Yawning and stretching, he saw that his mother was already up. He knew she enjoyed viewing the sunrise and was usually awake before her children. Turning his head, Dillon noted his sisters were still sleeping. He smiled at them. They were both his mother’s daughters, and yet they were so very different. Zagiri was adventurous and absolutely sure of herself, which probably came from having a father in her life. Anoush, on the other hand was cautious and defensive, having lost her father before she ever knew him.

Dillon remembered Vartan well and he made it a point to tell Anoush often of how the great Outland lord had taken her up on his saddle and ridden about his meadows with her. He told his sister of how their father had adored his little girl, that he loved both his children with all of his heart. But unfortunately Cam and Bera had told Anoush a different tale of Vartan and confused her. Dillon had to admit that he was glad Cam had been sent away this summer. He was glad that they were returning with Lara to her castle on the Terahn coast. Sadly, without her father, the New Outlands were not good for Anoush. She needed to begin anew. She needed both a mother and a father. Dillon knew that Magnus would love them because they were Lara’s children. The Dominus would treat them well.

Dillon arose from his bed and dressed himself. His sisters would awaken soon. He filled the chamber ewer with water and quickly washed his face and hands. He scrubbed his teeth with a small brush dipped in fine pumice stone that his mother had taught him to use. After rinsing his mouth, he ran his fingers through his dark locks, then emptied the little basin and refilled it for his sisters. The sun was just edging over the horizon. If he was quick he could join his mother.

But he could not find Lara outside and while he pushed back thoughts of his dream he began to wonder if it had been real after all. He had been awakened by what sounded like whispering, yet he could not make out the words. Turning over, he saw a cluster of filmy, almost transparent beings, gray-white in color, hovering over his mother. They drew gauzy golden strands from her head, which one of them wrapped carefully about a large spool. Then the creatures, whatever they were, disappeared into the air itself. Dillon blinked with surprise and when he looked again, his mother was no longer in her bed. I am dreaming, he thought, and fell back asleep. But had he been dreaming? It was so very, very odd. It would have had to be magic. He was aware there were magical beings in their world other than his mother, but Dillon knew instinctively that none of her associates would have been involved with what he had seen in the night. Perhaps Lara left because some emergency had called her. But she would not have done so without telling someone. Dillon made his way back to Liam’s hall from the hillock where he had gone to watch the sunrise with Lara.

Entering through the kitchen door he bid the servants a good morning, and smiling took the thick slice of freshly baked bread the cook offered him. After a time, Noss came into the kitchens, Mildri in a woven sling about her mother’s body.

Noss sat down wearily. “Good morning,” she said.

Dillon smiled at his foster mother. “Has Mildri not yet fathomed the difference between night and day, dear Noss?” He touched the baby’s reddish head with a gentle finger. “She is such a pretty thing. She will be a great beauty one day and will bring a good bride price to you and Liam.”

Noss smiled weakly. “She is also very stubborn,” she said. “The boys were so easy compared to this longed-for daughter of mine.”

“I cannot find my mother,” Dillon replied casually. Please, he thought silently, let Noss say she knows where my mother is. Please let it have been only a strange dream.

“Did she not go out to watch the sunrise as always?” Noss responded.

“She was gone when I awoke and she was not on the hill when I got there. I have not seen her since we went to bed last night.” Well, that wasn’t entirely true, but he couldn’t believe what he had seen was real.

“Oh, she is about somewhere,” Noss answered him. “Perhaps she took Dasras and went to visit Rendor.”

“But she never said anything,” Dillon persisted. “She would have told us if she was going off somewhere.”

“Then she hasn’t gone off,” Noss told him, then turned her attention to Mildri who was now whimpering and demanding to nurse.

Dillon got up and left the kitchens. He headed out into the meadow where he knew Dasras would be with his mate, Sakiri, and their foal, Feroz. Reaching the greensward he immediately saw his mother’s stallion and went to him. Politely, for manners were most important to horses, he bid Dasras and his family a good morning. Then he told the great stallion that his mother was gone and he could not find her.

“Climb on my back, young Dillon,” Dasras told him. “We will search together.”

Dillon grabbed a handful of the golden horse’s cream-colored mane and swung himself up on the animal’s back. Together the two set off to explore the surrounding land. There was no need for Dasras to spread his great white wings, for on foot Lara could not have gotten very far. But when after a time no trace of her could be found, Dasras did indeed take wing. Yet even from above they could not find her. They searched for hours.

I should tell Liam and Noss what I saw, Dillon thought. But despite their long association with my mother they will be inclined not to believe me. They will say again that I am a fanciful boy. I need to speak with Prince Kaliq. Dillon sighed.

“What is it?” Dasras asked.

“Nothing,” Dillon replied. “I am just disturbed that we cannot find Mother.”

“Something is amiss,” Dasras said. “Last night in the meadows the other horses were all unnaturally restless for a brief while.”

“I think we should go for the Dominus,” Dillon answered him.

“Perhaps,” Dasras agreed. “But we are guests of the Fiacre and must let them make that decision. Let us return and see if your mother has appeared from wherever she had been.”

Back in the meadow, Dasras let Dillon climb down from his back and watched as the boy hurried back toward Liam’s hall.

Dillon sought out his foster father and asked if Lara had been found.

“I was not aware she was missing,” Liam said, looking startled.

“Did Noss not tell you?” Dillon exclaimed. “I spoke with her early this morning.”

“I have only seen Noss in passing today,” Liam admitted. “We are getting ready for the Gathering and there is much to do before we make the trek. I could have used your help today, Dillon.”

“Dasras and I have been searching all day for Mother,” Dillon defended himself.

Noss came into the hall and Liam called to her, “Where is Lara?”

Seeing Dillon with her husband, Noss flushed. Then she said, “I have not seen her today. I have been so busy with Mildri. Did you not find her, Dillon?”

“Dasras and I rode for miles around. We even went skyward but we can find no trace of her. I think I should take Dasras and ride to the Dominus’s castle to inform him that Mother is missing, Liam. The night sky will be bright enough, and if I go now I can be halfway there before sunset,” Dillon said.

“There is no need to worry your stepfather,” Noss said sharply. “She might even have gone to the castle on some mission or another. I am certain there is a reasonable explanation for your mother’s disappearance. She doesn’t need Dasras to travel. She may have gone to your grandmother in the forest or to the Shadow Princes. Your mother does not answer to anyone, Dillon.”

“If she had planned to go anywhere she would have told someone,” Dillon said stubbornly. He had to tell them. “I had an odd dream last night and now I fear it may not have been a dream.”

“This is no time for one of your magical tales, Dillon,” Noss said impatiently.

“But what if it wasn’t a dream?” Dillon persisted.

Both Noss and Liam glared at him and Liam said, “Enough, lad!”

Dillon swallowed back his anger. Mortals! he thought furiously. “What about my mother?” he demanded of them. “I have not seen her since last night and neither has anyone else. You have to admit it is strange for her to go off and not tell anyone.”

“It is odd,” Noss admitted. “But she could have.”

“If she has not returned by tomorrow,” Liam said, “we will mount a search for her, Dillon, but I am certain this is just a misunderstanding. Besides, Lara has always been protected by her magic and by Ethne.”

Something is wrong, Dillon thought to himself. I feel it. I sense it. Something is not right about this. My mother is nowhere near. I would know it if she were. Do I not always know when she is approaching? But they will not listen to me. They do not understand. In blood I am more mortal than faerie, but my senses are all magical. “Very well,” Dillon agreed reluctantly.

But by the following day, Lara was nowhere to be found, nor had anyone in the village seen her. Over Dillon’s objections that he and Dasras had searched thoroughly the previous day, Liam nonetheless mounted a great search that spread out for miles about the village yet at day’s end no trace of Lara could be found at all.

The men of Camdene met in their lord’s hall that night to discuss the matter. Now even they were becoming worried. It was not like Lara to disappear and not let someone know. Noss, the serving women and Anoush served the men seated at the trestle tables below the high board. Even little Zagiri toddled about offering the men fresh fruit. And then Dillon saw something glitter from beneath the high neckline of his older sister’s gown. He caught Anoush by the arm.

“What are you wearing about your neck?” he asked her sharply.

“Just an amulet,” she replied.

“Show me!” he demanded.

“It is just an amulet,” she protested.

Dillon’s hand moved swiftly to his sister’s neck and he tore the gold chain from it. “Where in the name of the Great Creator did you get this?” he shouted. “It is Mother’s star! The one that holds Ethne. Where did you get this?”

Anoush began to cry. “When I woke up yesterday I found it in Mother’s bed,” she sobbed. “I have always wanted one like it and she was not wearing it. Give it back!”

Dillon held the chain with its perfect crystal star high for all to see. “Have any of you ever known my mother not to have this about her neck?” he shouted. “I told you yesterday that something was wrong but you would not listen to me! My mother has surely been stolen away! I must fetch Magnus Hauk!” And still carrying Lara’s chain and star, Dillon ran from Liam’s hall out into the evening.

He ran through the village and into the meadow where he called to Dasras. Quickly he explained all that had happened. Then swinging himself onto the great stallion’s back, he said, “Please, Dasras, take me to the Dominus!”

Dasras galloped across the field, his great wings suddenly unfurling and flapping as he rose up into the night sky. The miles beneath dissolved as they flew. The moons of Hetar began to rise one by one as they traveled. After several hours they reached the castle of the Dominus of Terah. Dasras put them down in the middle of the stable yard. It was almost dawn in Terah and Jason, Dasras’s personal groom, came stumbling sleepily from the stables.

“My lord Dasras, I was not expecting you,” he told the stallion.

“Nor was I expecting to be here today,” Dasras replied. “This is the Domina’s son. Show him the way to the Dominus’s apartments and then return to me.”

“At once, my lord,” Jason replied. “Come, young master, and I will take you to your stepfather. Is this your first visit to the castle?”

“It is,” Dillon replied as he followed the older boy into the castle, then down several corridors and up two flights of stairs.

As they passed each of the guardsmen in the hallways, Jason stopped a moment to say, “This is the Domina’s son come from the New Outlands with an important message for his stepfather,” and the guardsmen would pass them through.

Finally they reached the apartments of the Dominus and Jason repeated his message to the guardsmen, one of whom asked them to wait while the Dominus was awakened. But Magnus Hauk was already awake. He had not slept well for the past three nights.

“Dillon, what is it?” he asked as he came to the door and ushered his stepson into his dayroom. “Thank you, Jason,” he called as he shut the door behind them. “What has happened? Is your mother all right? I have been restless the past few nights.”

“My mother has gone missing, my lord,” Dillon said quietly. Seeing the look of concern in his stepfather’s eyes Dillon liked him better than he ever had.

“What do you mean gone missing?” he asked in a tight voice. He was suddenly terrified at the thought he might lose Lara, but he couldn’t let the boy know that. Dillon had obviously come to him for help and for reassurance.

“We had been out on the hillside—Mother, Anoush and me—watching the Night of the Flying Stars. Zagiri is too little to stay up so late,” he explained lest his stepfather think they were unfairly excluding his daughter. “We returned and went to bed, but when I awoke in the morning, Mother was gone. At first I was not concerned, for more often than not she arises early to watch the sunrise. But she was not outside and no one had seen her that morning. Dasras and I searched for several hours, but we could not find her. I wanted to come to you that night, but Liam insisted upon wasting another day searching with all the men of Camdene. Then last night in the hall I discovered Anoush wearing Mother’s star and chain. She said she found it in Mother’s bed. I have never known Mother not to wear that star, my lord, have you?” He drew it from his pocket and held it out to Magnus Hauk.

“Nay, I have not,” the Dominus said. His chest felt suddenly tight.

“My lord,” Dillon started to continue, but Magnus Hauk held up his hand.

“We have discussed this before,” he said quietly. “When we are in private you are to address me by my given name. I am your stepfather, but I know you cannot call me Father, for you knew Vartan. Still, ‘my lord’ seems so formal and your mother had written me that you and Anoush would be coming to live with us after the Gathering. Now, Dillon, my stepson, continue.” He put a comforting arm about the boy.

“My lord stepfather, there is magic here. I know there is. You must come to the New Outlands and you must call for Prince Kaliq to come, as well. My mother is gone, I know it. I feel it! Further searching will not find her there.”

Magnus Hauk knew that Dillon favored his mother for she had often enough marveled that he did. “What do you know?” he asked his stepson.

“I can only speak before Prince Kaliq,” Dillon replied. “I tried to tell Liam and the others but they would not listen to me. They do not understand!”

Magnus Hauk nodded. “No,” he said quietly. “They would not.” He did not argue with Dillon. Instead he called out in a firm voice, “Kaliq of the Shadows, I need your aid. Please come to me.”

And then suddenly Prince Kaliq stepped from a hazy corner of the chamber. He bowed to the Dominus; an eyebrow raised curiously as he saw Dillon. “How may I help you, Magnus Hauk?” he asked. “Good morning, Dillon.”

“Lara has disappeared from the New Outlands,” Magnus Hauk said without any preamble. He then quickly explained what Dillon had told him. “There is more, but Dillon will only speak of it to you.”

“Let us sit down,” the Shadow Prince said. “I can feel your fear, your concern and your exhaustion, Dillon. Sit by me and tell me what you could not tell the others.”

The three sat together upon a silken couch that had been placed before a large hearth. The prince raised a hand and snapped his fingers; a fire sprang up in the fireplace, crackling and snapping, its warmth spreading out to touch the boy’s thin, chilled frame. Almost immediately, a goblet appeared in the prince’s hand and he offered it to Dillon who sipped thirstily. “Now, tell me,” Kaliq said gently.

Dillon explained how they had watched the flying stars and then gone to bed. “I awoke because I thought I heard a noise,” he said. “I opened my eyes and saw filmy creatures hovering over Mother. They were almost silent but for the tiniest of murmurs. My hearing is very acute. I am able to hear the beetles in the grass and the rabbits in the field,” he explained shyly.

“Did they have faces or hands?” Kaliq asked the boy. A small smile played about the corners of Kaliq’s mouth. What powers Dillon exhibited and he was yet untrained. One day, the Shadow Prince thought, he will be a great sorcerer.

“I didn’t dare look too closely for I was very afraid,” Dillon admitted. “I thought I might be dreaming, although something within me knew I wasn’t. Aye, they did have faces. Long, somber visages. And thin hands with long slender fingers that they waved over Mother as they floated over her. And then, my lord Kaliq, they were gone. Evaporated into the air, it would appear.

“I stared hard, for I was not even sure I had seen what my eyes were so certain they had seen,” Dillon said. “And then as I watched over my mother lest they return—and had they, I would have tried to repel them—my mother seemed to disappear into the very darkness that encompassed our bedchamber. I got up immediately and went to her bed. It was yet warm with the heat of her body, but she was gone.” He sighed. “I went back to bed, sure I was in a dreamlike state, but when I awoke in the morning she truly was gone. Dasras and I searched for her the day long. We could not find her. The Fiacre searched for her the following day. That second night I saw Anoush wearing Mother’s crystal star! Mother is never without Ethne. Anoush said she found it in the tangled coverlet of Mother’s bed. I realized then my dream had not been a dream, but when I tried to explain to Liam and the others they would not listen to me. So Dasras and I came to Terah.”

“You were wise to call me,” Kaliq said to Magnus Hauk.

“It was Dillon who asked me to do so. My mind seems not to be functioning,” the Dominus replied. “Who has taken her, Kaliq? And why have they taken her?”

“This is a mystery even to me,” the Shadow Prince replied. “I must speak with my brothers. After we have conferred I will return to you.” But he knew the creatures Dillon had seen were the Munin, although he did not say it.

“I must go to the New Outlands and reassure the clan families that I do not hold them responsible for my wife’s disappearance. And then I will return with Dillon, Anoush and Zagiri. I suspect the children are safer here in my castle than anywhere else.”

The Shadow Prince nodded. “Aye. I know for a fact that Lara placed a spell I taught her about the castle to repel evil and the darkness. Her children will be very safe with you. Wherever she is, I know that would please her.”

“Thank you, Kaliq, for your reassurances,” the Dominus said.

“Farewell, my lord. I will find you in the New Outlands. Go to the Gathering, for it will comfort the clan families. Together we will get to the bottom of this mystery.” Then the Shadow Prince disappeared into the umbra as easily as he had come from it.

“I cannot wait to study with him,” Dillon said admiringly.

“And you will one day,” the Dominus assured his stepson. “Has your mother not promised you that you would?”

“Will we find her, Magnus?” the boy asked.

“We will find her,” the Dominus assured his companion. “Now I think you must get some rest. If Dasras is up to it we will travel to the New Outlands later today. Come and sleep in my bed, lad. You look fair worn with your worry of these past few days.”

“If only they had listened to me,” Dillon said sadly.

“Even had they believed you, they could have done nothing. This business is magic and we will need magic to undo it. The Fiacre have no magic, Dillon. You did the right thing. You came to me and we called the Shadow Prince. He and your faerie grandmother will help us.” He helped the boy into his big bed and tucked a coverlet about him. “I will call you in a few hours,” he promised and then left Dillon to sleep.

Sitting back before the fire that Kaliq had started, Magnus Hauk stared into it. Where are you, my love, my beloved? he cried silently. But silence was his only answer. That she had left Ethne behind—or whoever stolen her had—was not a good omen. There was something wicked brewing. He had lived long enough with Lara to sense it.

He needed to speak with his brother-in-law, Corrado, who commanded Terah’s fleet. His vessel had just returned last night from a trading voyage. Corrado would have to manage Terah while he was in the New Outlands because the Great Creator only knew how long he would be away. Corrado and his wife, Sirvat, would have to move into the castle to look after the children while he was gone.

And there was the ambassador from Hetar to consider. Jonah had returned to Hetar with Lara away. There was no one who would tell him where she was, for Hetar had no idea that Lara and the Shadow Princes had removed the clan families from the Outlands and brought them to safety in Terah. If he were here now he would be sniffing about for gossip and information as he always was.

The Dominus almost felt sorry for Jonah. He was an intelligent man but he was every bit as evil as his master, Gaius Prospero. And Magnus Hauk knew he was in Terah for the sole purpose of finding a weakness in Terah that he might exploit to his own benefit or Hetar’s. Now and again he returned to The City to report to his master on the nothing he had been able to learn. And Lara had laughed, knowing how frustrating that must be to Gaius Prospero. It was better he was gone now, the Dominus thought.

The day went quickly and was coming to a close when Magnus Hauk woke his stepson. They ate a hearty meal and then, as Dasras had agreed he was up to returning to the New Outlands, they departed the castle. They reached New Camdene while it was yet night there and Liam, who had been awaiting them, came from his hall to meet them.

Kneeling before the Dominus he begged his forgiveness for Lara’s disappearance.

“It is not the fault of the Fiacre that my wife is gone,” Magnus Hauk said loudly, for all of New Camdene’s population were gathered around them despite the early hour. “This is dark and wicked magic. You could not have prevented what happened. I have spoken with Prince Kaliq and he will join us shortly. In the meantime, keep to your preparations for the Gathering. I will travel there with you.”

Liam arose and kissed the Dominus’s hands. “Thank you, my lord. Your words of reassurance are soothing to us. Now come into my hall and refresh yourself after your long ride. The new day will soon begin.”

“See to Dasras,” the Dominus murmured to his stepson, ruffling his hair.

In the hall, Magnus Hauk greeted Noss and admired Mildri. He sat with them before their fire, and told them that before the trek for the Gathering began he would be sending the children back to his castle. “Lara has a spell about it to protect it and its inhabitants. My sister will be there to see the children’s lives continue on uninterrupted. I am waiting for Kaliq, for he can transport them quickly. I may need Dasras.”

“You said dark magic,” Noss half whispered.

“Naught else could have taken Lara. Kaliq will explain it all to you when he arrives. Until then we must carry on as usual.”

“Papa! Papa!” Zagiri came running and climbed into his lap. “Mama is gone.”

The Dominus kissed his little daughter and then, reaching out, drew Anoush, who had been standing nearby, into the curve of his arm. “And how are my two girls?” he asked them. “Zagiri, you are as brown as a little nut! And Anoush, oh my, how lovely you are growing. Come and give me a kiss, too.”

Anoush bent and kissed his cheek. “I am so afraid, stepfather,” she said, shivers racking her slender little body.

Magnus Hauk drew his stepdaughter into his lap with her sister. “I am, too, Anoush,” he told the girl. “But we will find your mother, I promise you. We will find her, and we will bring her home to us.”

Anoush lay her head on his shoulder. “May I call you Papa, too?” she asked him shyly and softly.

The Dominus of Terah could feel a prickle behind his eyelids and he blinked hard. “It would please me so much if you did,” he said as he placed a kiss on her brow. “But only if you want to, Anoush.”

“I have never had a father,” Anoush told him. “Vartan sired me but he was gone before I might remember him. I have always wanted a father.”

“Then you shall have one in me, my daughter,” the Dominus told her. “And I know your mother would be happy with your decision.”

“I do not do it for my mother,” Anoush replied. “I do it for me.”

Magnus Hauk chuckled. “Has the Great Creator given me two headstrong daughters to raise?” he demanded to know in pained tones.

“I am much better at minding than Zagiri,” Anoush said primly.

“I am relieved to learn it,” the Dominus said.

“Will you find our mother, Papa?” Anoush asked him again.

“I will find her, I promise you, my daughters. And I have never broken a promise,” Magnus Hauk told them. “I will find Lara. And I will bring her safely home.”

Chapter Three

SHE awoke, her green eyes scanning her surroundings. She lay in a huge bed of furs in a dim chamber. There was a great hearth opposite which burned high.

She was naked, and as she turned her head, her gaze met the dark silvery one of a naked man next to her. Where was she? She wondered. And then a sudden terrible fear gripped her, almost paralyzing her. Who was she? She did not know who she was! she struggled desperately to think—to remember—but for the life of her she couldn’t. A small cry of panic escaped her and she sat up, clutching the furs to her breasts.

The man sat up, too. “Ah, my precious Lara,” he said to her in a deep, musical and very soothing voice. “What is it? Have the pains returned?” He caught her hand in his and kissed it lingeringly.

“I…I…I don’t know who I am or where I am,” she half sobbed.

“You are Lara, my mate. I am Kol, the Twilight Lord. You have been very ill for many weeks, my precious. You are only just now beginning to recover.”

“But why can I remember nothing of it?” she asked him.

“The physician said that your memory could be temporarily lost, for you burned with a deadly fever for many days. He has assured me that it will return. Slowly, my precious, but it will return.” Kol wrapped his arms about her, holding her close.

The warmth of his body pressed against hers was comforting. Lara let her head fall against his shoulder. “You will not leave me?” she asked him.

“Nay, my precious, I will not leave you,” he promised her. “I have not in all these weeks. I have remained by your side, and governed from this room. Alfrigg has not been pleased with me at all, I fear,” Kol told her.

“Alfrigg?”

“My chancellor, sweeting. But he has of course prayed to Krell for your recovery. Everyone in the Dark Lands has, Lara. You are my mate, and it has been foretold that you will be the mother of the next Twilight Lord.”

“Who is Krell?” she asked him.

“Why, our deity, my precious. Krell, Lord of Darkness,” he explained. Then he pressed her back upon her pillows and pulled down the furs covering her bosom. His eyes admired her breasts and leaning down, he kissed each nipple.

Lara shivered slightly.

“Ah,” Kol chuckled. “I think you may have a small memory of pleasures,” he teased and was rewarded by her blush. “I am relieved, for the mating lust has been upon me for several days now and I long to sink my rod into your sweetness.” Bending again, he now began to lick at her nipples, finally taking one into his mouth and sucking on it with strong tugs of his lips. Her little cries of obvious appreciation encouraged him onward. His rod began to throb and swell.

Lara felt a corresponding tingle in her nether regions, and made a small murmuring sound of satisfaction. “Oh yes, my lord! Oh yes, that is nice.” She wasn’t quite so frightened now. This was something she seemed to understand. Pleasures. Yes, she knew pleasures. She liked pleasures. Her fingers threaded themselves through his ebony hair, then slid down to caress the nape of his neck.

Kol fought back the mating lust that demanded he impale her immediately with his burgeoning rod. Instead, he began to explore the beautiful body he had desired for over a year now. The flesh of her breasts was firm despite her three children. Her belly was a soft delicate mound that he covered first with kisses and then tasted with his tongue. Her thighs fell open to him with the barest encouragement. He stroked the inside of the tender flesh.

She pulled her nether lips apart for him and he played with the tiny lust orb that swelled with his attentions. He rose and kissed her mouth, his tongue twining itself about hers as he pushed a single long finger into her. She moaned against his lips for more and he complied, adding a second finger and finally a third. She was tight and hot and her juices ran down his hand. Withdrawing his fingers he looked down into her glittering eyes and then sucked upon his wet digits.

Her tongue ran quickly about her lips and she smiled up at him. “I remember pleasures, my lord,” she admitted softly.

“Good,” he replied, his own eyes blazing. Then he mounted her and pressed his rod forward until he was totally sheathed within her body. He rested there a moment, letting her feel the throbbing as his rod increased its girth. He let her enjoy his as she had enjoyed other rods. But there were certain features of his rod only possessed by a Twilight Lord; he would later introduce her to them. Not tonight. Tonight would be about tenderness and sweet lust.

Lara wrapped her legs about Kol so he might delve deeper into her body. Had she ever enjoyed a rod so thick? She didn’t think so but her mind was still very hazy. And when he began to move upon her, his rod flashing back and forth within her, Lara lost herself in the fiery pleasures he engendered within her body. She let herself soar and reveled as the stars exploded behind her closed eyes. And then when she could climb no higher and his rod burst forth its juices, Lara screamed with her satisfaction, a sound overpowered by his leonine roar of exultation. She lost consciousness briefly. When she came to herself again her sex was being tenderly bathed by tiny winged elfinlike creatures, as was his.

“Have they been here all along?” she asked Kol.

He nodded. “They are Lustlings. It is their duty to refresh us in the afterwards,” he explained. “You have never minded before, my precious.”

“I do not recall them, my lord,” Lara answered him.

“You enjoyed pleasures? You always did previously,” he told her.

She smiled at him. “I think I am hungry for food and then I would take pleasures with you again, my lord, if you would take them with me. I feel safe then, and knowledgeable, which I do not otherwise as my memory is impaired.”

“Your memories will eventually return, my precious,” he promised her. Then drawing the furs back over her, he clapped his hands and servants began entering the room with bowls and platters of food. “I will feed you but a little, Lara,” he advised her. “You have not had solid food in many weeks. Open your mouth now for me,” and when she did he gave her two raw oysters before swallowing down a goodly dozen himself. He fed her a bit of poultry, allowed her a bite or two of buttered bread. He dangled asparagus over her open mouth; he groaned as she sucked the stalks. Finally he offered her several plump strawberries he first dipped in cream and then rolled in sugar. As he fed her he told her what each item was. Holding a goblet of something sweet to her lips for her to drink, he said that it was frine, a mixture of fruit juice and wine. What he did not tell her was that aphrodisiacs had been mixed into the frine to increase her own natural desires. He suspected she didn’t need it but still he gave it to her.

“Tell me a little about myself,” Lara said. “Where did I come from and how was I chosen to be your mate, my lord Kol?”

“You come from a faraway land called Hetar,” he explained to her. “When I visited it last year I went to a bride fair to see the maidens offered and you were among them. Because you were so beautiful your father was asking a very high price even though you are of peasant stock. It was prophesied that the mother of the next Twilight Lord would be a golden girl from a faraway land. The moment I saw you I knew you were she. So I paid your father’s price and brought you home. We were very happy, and then you were bitten by a rather nasty spider and fell into a swoon and have been ill ever since.”

“What is a spider?” Lara asked him.

“An insect, a lower species among the Dark Kingdom,” he said. He could tell she was trying to piece it all together. Spider. Insect. Low species. He would have to consider restoring some of her memory sooner than later, he suddenly realized. “But not to worry, my precious. I have banned all spiders from the castle.”

“Castle?”

“Here. Where we are now,” he replied. Yes, some of her memory had to be returned so her references to everyday things would again be intact. He would speak to the Munin in the morning—after he had sated himself with pleasures.

The remnants of their meal were now removed and they began to kiss again, tasting each other with eager lips. His hands wandered over her body, learning it, and her little hands followed suit slipping down his long back to fondle his tight buttocks. She bent her golden head and licked at his nipples. Her little fingers marched across the dark hair covering his chest as she bent lower to kiss his navel.

“You are very furred on your chest and legs,” she murmured.

“You are not,” he replied.

She giggled, her hands now reaching out to play with his rod and his male orbs. She was gentle but provocative, her fingers teasing, stroking. She bent her head and then her tongue licked about the head of his rod several times. He was afire with his new need for her. He wanted to give her all of him, but would she be ready this first time they were together?

“Careful, my precious,” he warned her. “If you suck upon my rod you will arouse its twin. We had not done that before your illness.”

“You have two rods?” she asked him, surprised.

“The larger one, the dominant it is called, has a lesser member. When I am at my most lustful it appears. And it must be used along with the dominant when I seed you. The dominant will then also sprout hard sharp little nodules that will but increase your pleasure and guarantee a child for us. The nodules only appear when it is time for me to impregnate you. But my precious, you must regain your strength first.”

“Have I ever been pierced by two rods belonging to the same man?” she said slowly. Her brow furrowed in thought. “Was I a virgin when you made me your mate?” she asked him.

“It was not necessary that you be,” he said.

Somewhere in the haziness of her lost memories Lara thought she recalled being probed by several male members at the same time, but where and with whom was not something she could remember. Surely she had never known a man who had two rods within one sheath. Her fingers absently stroked him and he thickened beneath her sensuous touch. “I want to see them both, my lord,” she whispered provocatively in his ear. Then she licked the curl of flesh. “Show me!”

“Suckle my rod, Lara, and your mouth will help to bring the lesser forth with the dominant,” he instructed her. Then he drew in a sharp, almost painful breath as her lips surrounded his flesh and she began to draw upon him. His eyes closed with the bliss she was beginning to engender in his sex. Never in his wildest imaginings had he suspected that Lara would be as adventurous and magnificent a lover as she was proving. It was her faerie blood, of course, but if she treated her mortal lovers with such skill it was no wonder they had all adored her.

Lara could scarcely contain her excitement as she tugged on the swelling flesh, and when he cried for her to stop she ceased immediately, sat back on her haunches and marveled at his size. Then—before her amazed eyes—the lesser rod began to come forward, sliding from beneath the dominant. It was much longer, and slender, with a pointed tip like an arrowhead. Reaching out to touch, she discovered it was as hard as the dominant rod. Her tongue licked quickly around her lips. “I want it inside of me,” she heard herself say. “I want them both!”

“You are yet fragile,” he pretended to protest. He, too, wanted both of his rods within her heated body.

“Nay! I must have them!” she cried out and meant the words.

“It will require you be put in a difficult position, but we can use the restraints if you will permit it, my precious,” Kol said softly.

“Yes!” Her cheeks were flushed and he could see the pulse in her throat beating wildly with anticipation. The lesser rod was iridescent in color with a silver sheen and its arrowhead glowed. She could hardly wait to have her first taste of it.

The Twilight Lord clapped his hands once and two thin silver chains dropped from the ceiling. At the end of each chain was a silver manacle lined in silk and lamb’s wool. He fastened the manacles about her delicate ankles and once she was secure her legs were drawn up, back toward her shoulders, and pulled wide revealing both her orifices. Kol clapped his hands a second time and two more restraints appeared. These he fastened to her outspread arms. Lara was now completely subdued and helpless before her lover. He kissed her mouth, smiling down at her as he did so. “Now, my precious, I will obey your directive and you will know what it is like to have two rods within your delicious body.”

She could barely breathe as he moved forward, and then she felt the lesser rod, much longer than the dominant, pierce her rose hole. She squeaked with surprise for the head of it was sharp but then it seemed to fold itself as it pushed into her rear channel. And when he had pushed it in as far as it would go he let her sense its power. “Oh, Krell!” she gasped and he was amused to hear her call upon his deity.

Now he thrust with the dominant rod, entering her woman’s channel in a single smooth motion. Establishing a slow and sensuous rhythm that grew quicker as he pistoned her, he watched Lara’s face as her lust, now fully engaged, rose to a peak. She struggled against the arm restraints. Laughing, he leaned forward and began to suck upon one of her nipples.

She began to moan as wave after wave of passion overtook her. It was utterly amazing. His dominant rod drove in and out of her. The lesser rod lay buried within her rear channel throbbing hotly. Then suddenly both rods were moving in unison and they touched one tiny spot within her body. Lara screamed as her lust threatened to overwhelm her. “No more! No more!” she begged him.

“You wanted this, my precious, and now until both rods have been fully satisfied you must give of yourself to me,” he growled fiercely, his lust for her enormous.

She tightened her inner muscles about both rods and he groaned. “Witch!” Then before he had thought he would be ready his juices mushroomed forth in a fierce burst leaving them both in an exhausted and weakened state. And the Lustlings fluttered forth to undo the chains binding Lara before bathing the sex of their master and his mate.

He lay half atop her and Lara wrapped her arms about him. “I remember virtually nothing before today, my lord Kol, but I do know that you are a magnificent lover. I am fortunate that you chose me as your mate.” Then she fell asleep again.

Kol’s head lay between her breasts and he could hear her beating heart. She was incredible, his beautiful faerie woman. He would never let her go. No other man would ever possess Lara again. She was his and his alone. How had he lived without her?

He allowed himself the luxury of sleep in her bed for a short while, and then he arose and went to his own apartments. There he found Alfrigg awaiting him.

“Have you seeded her, my lord?” his chancellor wanted to know.

“Not yet.”

“You have spent all this time with the woman and have not yet rodded her? My lord, that is not like you.”

“She has been well rodded,” Kol said, “but I am not yet ready to seed her. She is a pleasurable mount, Alfrigg, and I think after waiting a year I am entitled to take a bit of enjoyment for myself before I fill her belly with my son.” Then he told Alfrigg the tale he had woven for Lara. “I will gain her trust more easily if I take my time with her. And I will need to call the Munin lord from the Penumbras. Lara needs practical matters restored to her memory. She is like an infant newborn and I cannot be forever explaining what this is and what that is.”

“As long as you keep the memories of her faerie nature, her magic and her past life from her,” Alfrigg said.

“She still has her magic,” Kol replied. “The Munin could only take her memories of her magic, but they could not take the magic itself. They have not the power and neither do I, which is why I must gain her complete trust, Alfrigg. When I stole her from her bed in the New Outlands, I left behind the spirit guardian her mother gave her when she was a child. She cannot hear its voice here. She can hear only mine.”

“My lord,” Alfrigg cried, “you should have taken it with you! If anyone should find her amulet then they will know she has been stolen and not simply wandered away or gone off by herself as is her wont.”

“It is too late now,” Kol replied. He waved a hand at Alfrigg. “Leave me now. I must bathe and then speak with the Munin lord.”

Alfrigg bowed but his expression was disapproving and dour as he backed from his master’s chamber.

Kol clapped his hands and a servant hurried forward. “Tell the bath master that I am coming,” he said. “Then bring me fresh garments. When you see me being dressed, ring the black iron bell in my receiving chamber to summon the Munin lord to me.” Kol set off for his bath, his servants scurrying quickly ahead to announce his arrival.

The black marble bath was steamy and scented with sandalwood. It was not necessary for Kol to speak with the servants there. They knew what was required of them and performed their functions thoroughly and silently. He was bathed and massaged with sweet oils. Stepping into a small dressing chamber he found fresh garments and footwear awaiting him. Kol stood as his servants dressed him and then without so much as a word he left them and hurried to his receiving chamber where he found the Munin lord awaiting him.

The wraithlike creature bowed. “How may I serve you, my lord?” he asked.

“I need some of Lara’s memories restored to her. She knows nothing and it is like dealing with a child. It was amusing when she woke up earlier but I have no further patience for it. Practical knowledge, everyday information, is what I want returned to her,” Kol said. “But nothing of her personal history, her magical abilities or her life prior to awakening in my arms may be returned to her. Do you understand?”

“Perfectly, my lord,” the Munin said. He flitted over to the great alabaster jar where Lara’s memories were stored. He opened it and peering down into the tall vessel he appeared to rummage within, then he drew long golden threads from its depths with his bony fingers and transferred them to his other hand. “I think these are exactly what you desire, my lord Kol,” the Munin said in his reedy voice.

“Follow me then,” the Twilight Lord ordered, “and I will take you to her. She should be sleeping for she was well rodded but a short while ago.” He led the Munin from the chamber and down a dim corridor to Lara’s apartments. He cautiously opened the door to the room where he had left her. She still slept.

The Munin drifted over the sleeping woman and, holding each of the long golden threads over her head, individually let them slip from his fingers and back into her head where they belonged. As he did he surreptitiously admired the faerie woman. She was very beautiful. Though he had enjoyed sifting through her memories the night he and his brothers had stolen them, he found himself feeling just the faintest touch of guilt, which was very unusual. Her memories were powerful ones, for she was a powerful woman. But if the Twilight Lord’s Book of Rule had said she would be the mother of his son, then so she would be. It was easier for her that she did not know who or what she was.

“It is done, my lord Kol,” the Munin lord whispered.

“Then you may go, with my thanks,” Kol said. “You are content with your home?”

“It is perfect, my lord Kol,” the Munin lord said, “if perhaps a bit cold.”

Kol nodded. And knowing he was dismissed, the Munin lord vanished away.

The Twilight Lord sat down by Lara’s bedside. He could not get enough of looking at her. It was amazing to realize she was actually here with him. It was unbelievable to find she possessed the same lust for pleasures that he did. The women in his Women’s House were all compliant but none were like Lara. Kol felt his need rising and he arose from her bedside. He didn’t want to exhaust her, especially after she had demanded both of his rods. She looked pale as she slept. He would go to the Women’s House and use several of the complaisant females who spent their lives just waiting for him. It would ease his longing and Lara would not consider that she had a barbarian for a mate. Reluctantly, he left her.

When Lara awoke her mind was clearer than it had been earlier. She felt just faintly sore. Turning over, she looked for Kol, but he was not there. She felt a slight relief. He was a powerful lover and his two rods were extremely talented, but even being fed a light meal between their passionate bouts was not enough to erase her tiredness. Well, she had been ill for several weeks, Lara considered. Still she was hungry. “Hello?” she called out. Almost immediately two serving women entered the chamber.

“What is your desire, my lady Lara?” the taller of the two asked.

“I want a bath and I want food,” Lara told her.

“At once, my lady Lara.”

“What are your names?” Lara said.

“The master said your memory was faulty after your terrible sickness. I am Macia and my companion is Anka. While I go to fetch your food she will escort you to your bath. The bath mistress will be glad to see you again, my lady Lara,” Macia said with a servile bow and a smile. Then she backed from the room leaving Lara with the other servant.

Anka hurried over to the bed and helped Lara to stand, bracing her as she swayed slightly. “It is not far, my lady Lara,” she said. Then she led Lara to a pale gray marble bath chamber. “The bath mistress is called Zenda,” she whispered helpfully and Lara smiled her thanks.

Zenda came forward to take over as Lara entered. She spoke little except to tell Lara what she wanted of her. Lara sat silently as the nails on both her feet and fingers were pared and then carefully shaped. She stood in a shallow stone basin as two serving women washed her thoroughly with fragrant scented soap and large sea sponges. Then they rinsed her with perfumed water. As they worked, Lara found she was able to identify certain objects in the bath. With relief she realized some of her memory was returning.

Zenda herself washed Lara’s hair, marveling at its golden beauty as she rinsed it with lemon. Next, she had Lara lie upon a marble table and using the softest cloth she gently washed Lara’s genitals, pushing the cloth into both of her orifices to draw out any residue of Kol’s juices. Lara was surprised, but as her memory was not all restored she assumed this was just something else she had forgotten. Zenda flushed the sensitive apertures with a warm solution of alum.

“You will be tight for him each time,” she told Lara in a rare spoken explanation.

Lara was finally led to another table where she was massaged with rose oil. The masseuse rubbed the fragrant oil into every inch of her skin. The nipples on her breasts tingled. The golden curls on her mons were crisp and sweetly scented. A tiny bit of the oil was rubbed into her long hair, which was still damp. As she lay upon the table, a serving woman brushed and brushed and brushed her hair until it was at last dry and faintly aromatic with the perfumed oil. When she arose from the table she was clothed in a pale lavender robe, then Anka was there to lead her back to her chamber. A table had been set up for her with a variety of foods. The table was covered with fine linen and lit with candles. There was a black onyx phallus as a centerpiece upon it.

“Where is my lord Kol?” Lara asked Macia.

“I will find his serving man and ask, my lady Lara,” Macia answered and hurried off to seek out the man.

“The lord is in the Women’s House,” Kol’s body servant said when Macia found him. “He does not wish to wear the faerie woman out.”

“Fool!” Macia snapped at him. “Mind your tongue! You do not know who is listening and the lord’s mate must believe she has been here for over a year. If our master heard you he would flay you alive and you would deserve it. The lady Lara is to mother the next Twilight Lord. It needs be done with her consent, not as the product of a rape. All the servants have been told of this and all have acted accordingly but you. If you let your words betray him again, I will report you.”

“You demand such exactness, Macia, but I will be more careful in the future, I swear it,” the serving man said. “Do not report me to the master! Like all of us, I live in fear of his anger. His punishments are extremely cruel.”

“Have I not said that I shall only do so if I catch you at it again?” Macia replied.

Returning to Lara, the serving woman reported, “The lord is speaking with some of his other good servants at this time. He bids you eat, for he may be late or not come until tomorrow. Would you like me to send a message to him that you wish him to be with you now?” She smiled pleasantly and her voice was friendly.

“Nay,” Lara replied. “I will await his pleasure.” She began to serve herself from the bounteous repast that had been brought to her. She was hungry and the variety of dishes offered was generous. Lara realized as she ate that she knew and understood things she had not upon awakening. She only wished all of her memory had returned. Well, it was just her first day back among the living. When she had finished her meal she arose and walked to the open colonnade that overlooked the mountains. The sky above her was dark but between the mountains she could see a sunset of bloodred, purple and gold clouds. Thunder rumbled faintly behind those clouds. It all had a strange beauty but it was also a bit frightening.

Why couldn’t she remember Kol or much of anything else before she awoke in his bed earlier? Still, she had been anxious, nay eager, to taste pleasures with him. If somewhere in her deepest heart and mind he had been a stranger, an enemy, would she have been that impatient, that ardent? The mere act of thinking seemed to hurt her head. And then Lara sensed him enter the chamber. She did not turn about but remained still and quiet where she was. Coming up behind her he touched her robe, which dissolved away. His hands reached about her to cup her breasts in his palms.

“How did you do that?” Lara wanted to know. His hands were cool.

He laughed softly. “I do not wish to imagine your beautiful body. I wish to see it and be able to avail myself of it whenever I so desire. What fun is being a great lord if I cannot always have my own way, my precious?” He squeezed her breasts lightly and began to tease her nipples with the balls of his thumbs.

Lara murmured from deep in her throat and leaned back against him. He was naked, too. She rotated her bottom against his groin, feeling his rod already hard and eager for her. “I have been well fed by your servants,” she said. His rod was very, very long and she did not believe she had ever known a larger one. It rubbed itself against the crease separating her buttocks.

Kol felt the lust rising again and he moved her quickly to a roll-armed couch upon the open colonnade. His hands left her delicious breasts as he bent her back over the silken arm of the furniture. His fingers foraged between her thighs and he smiled to find her already wet for him. He pushed three fingers deep within her and began to move them teasingly about. “Ohh, such a hot and precious little mate I have,” he crooned at her. “Oh, how she likes having my fingers inside her tight and burning sheath. I am glad you are recovering so quickly now, Lara. Soon we must create my heir. You will be my good girl and bear my son, won’t you?” His fingers thrust hard and deep.

Lara moaned. “Yes, my lord Kol, I will gladly give you your son,” she promised him. “Just don’t stop,” she pleaded as his fingers pushed in and out of her.

He laughed low and bending forward he grazed her nipples with his teeth. “Not yet, my precious, for I find I will first need to grow tired of rodding you. And I am not ready yet to give up that privilege. The others in my Women’s House cannot satisfy my longings. Only you can ease the lusts that overwhelm me.”

“You have other women?” she gasped, squirming in his grip.

“While you ate I used up half a dozen of them,” he said smiling into her incredible green eyes. “But as you can see my lust is not yet sated, my precious.”

“I hate you!” she screamed, and reached out to claw him. “I am your mate! There can be no others, my lord Kol! I will not share you!”

But he caught her wrists with his free hand and pinioned her arms over her head as he held her down with his big body. Laughing into her angry face he told her, “Aye, you are my mate but my appetites are great. I must be able to satisfy them and you will not interfere with me, my precious.” Withdrawing his fingers from her sheath he sucked on them thoughtfully. Then he said softly, “Shall I have those women whom I rodded so recently killed for you, my precious?”

“Yes!” she cried. “They shall never boast of having known you. Only I shall have that privilege.”

“Ahh, Lara my precious, I knew the Book of Rule was correct when it said you would be my mate and the mother of my son. You have a deep capacity for naughtiness inside you.” He turned her over so that she was facedown upon the couch arm and sought her woman’s passage. Finding it, he inserted the tip of his rod but a single inch. “Would you like to watch while they are strangled, my precious?” he asked her softly. “One by one by one?” he crooned into her ear.

“Yes!” she gasped. “Oh, please, my lord Kol, rod me. I die for it!”

“You must ask me more politely, my precious,” he purred.

“Please, my lord Kol! Please rod me for I long to have you inside of me,” Lara cried out. She was burning with her lust for him.

“Shall we kill them first, my precious?” he asked of her.

“No! No! I need your rod!” she half sobbed.

“Nay,” he said. “First we will kill my last six lovers, my precious. Then I shall rod you for the rest of the night. You are strong. You can wait.” He stood, then pulled her up and when he touched her shoulder she was once more wearing the gown she had worn earlier. “Come,” he said.

He led her by the hand from her apartments and across a narrow stone bridge that spanned a deep chasm. On the other side of the bridge was a stone house styled in the same style as the castle. Two giants standing guard at the gates stepped aside to allow them to pass. Once inside they were greeted by another giant. “Ymir, fetch the women I was with earlier and herd them one by one into the execution chamber. Strangle each one in her turn and dispose of the bodies afterwards.”

“Yes, my lord,” Ymir said and lumbered off.

“Come, we will watch from the secret room,” Kol told Lara. He brought her to a small square chamber. Inside was another roll-armed couch facing a stone wall. Kol raised his hand and snapped his fingers; the stone immediately became glass and they were able to view the execution chamber just below. “Now, my precious, we can watch it all,” he murmured softly in her ear as he bent her forward pushing the gown up to bare her legs and buttocks. Lifting his own robe he guided his rod between the twin halves of her bottom, finding her woman’s passage and pushing in just enough to open the way for his further voyage when he was ready. “Can you see clearly, my precious?” he asked her solicitously.

“Aye,” she whispered, unable to take her eyes from the room before her.

Ymir entered with a young woman who was obviously terrified. She cried out, begging the giant for mercy, but he throttled her with one hand and tossed her body into a corner.

The Twilight Lord pushed a short way into Lara’s body. “She always smelled of violets,” he remarked.

A second girl entered and was as quickly dispatched as the first.

Kol moved further still into Lara’s lust sheath. “She always screams when I give her pleasure,” he said. “Do you want me now, my precious?”

“Yes,” Lara gasped as a third girl was strangled and Kol drove himself deep inside of her. By the time the sixth girl had been dispatched Lara was gasping with her lust and Kol was thrusting himself hard—again and again and again—until the woman beneath him was moaning. Suddenly they cried out simultaneously as their passions peaked.

Kol quickly withdrew from her as the Lustlings appeared to attend to them. “Do you see how much I adore you, my precious? From this moment on I vow I will have each woman I use strangled in your honor. You are my mate and you shall be the only one to boast of having pleasured me, Lara. Come now, let us return to your bed. My rod has only just whetted its appetite for you and there is still a good long night ahead of us.” Taking her hand again he led her from the Women’s House. As they crossed the narrow bridge over the chasm they saw Ymir ahead of them carelessly tossing the bodies of the murdered women over the edge into the darkness. He had finished by the time they reached him and stepped aside with a bow to allow them to pass.

Back in their bed he asked, “Did you find it exciting to watch Ymir kill the women, my precious?”

“I am not certain,” Lara answered him slowly.

“But did it not add to the piquancy of our passions?” he questioned.

“It was exciting,” she admitted, “to watch as the deed was being done and at the same time feel your mighty rod within me while knowing that earlier you had rodded them, as well. But I need not such distractions to enjoy pleasures with you, my lord.”

He pushed her back among the many pillows upon the bed, his mouth finding hers and kissing her deeply. His tongue slid within her mouth and she noticed with surprise that his tongue was forked. Still, it entwined itself about her tongue sensuously, caressing, taunting, leaving her breathless with her need for him. Had she ever desired a man like she desired Kol? Her fractured memory would not cooperate and give her the answer. Then she decided that she didn’t care. She wanted him. She needed him. And he was hers and the great rod impaling her was all that was necessary to her existence.

The long night lay ahead of them and they used it well. If there was day in the Dark Kingdom, Lara hardly recognized it. Her world was now nothing more than satisfying her various appetites. If it had ever been anything else she could not remember, nor did she care. Her surroundings were beautiful and comfortable. She was well served by Macia and Anka. She had a wardrobe filled with exquisite and rich robes. Each time she arose she bathed and chose carefully from among them with an eye to pleasing Kol. On those few days when she could not take pleasures with him he visited the Women’s House, and afterwards those he had enjoyed were killed and thrown into the chasm. Lara watched from her colonnaded porch as Ymir deposited them over the balustrade of the bridge and then she welcomed Kol home with a smile.

The Twilight Lord was almost dizzy with his delight in her. Lara the Good, the gracious and generous faerie woman he had stolen, was fast becoming Lara the Wicked. In freeing her from her history and leaving her with just the barest of memories sufficient to survive, by filling her beautiful golden head with his own thoughts he was slowly, slowly, drawing her into his web of darkness.

When he had first stolen her he had let her sleep beneath his spell for two months. It had been difficult but it was important that she believe the tale he had concocted regarding her past. The Munin lord had advised him rightly that the longer she lay unconscious without her memories the easier it would be to convince her of whatever he told her.

For the past two months he had built up her trust in him as he led her further and further away from all she had ever known. Her appetite for lust was incredible. He had never known any female with such desires and such stamina. He could not get enough of her body, her kisses, her hot tight pleasure sheath that enclosed his eager rod over and over again. She was his. All his.

But now the idyll he had woven was coming to an end. He had to impregnate her for the mating lust was ready to peak and at the very moment that it did he must get a son on her, or he would be forced to wait another five years. All his seed would produce in the meantime would be daughters. And once he had made a son, the mating lust would never again come to him. Alfrigg, however, was chiding him daily for his tardiness.

“You must get your son on her, my lord, or we cannot proceed,” he said.

“But once she is with child I cannot touch her until after the child is born,” the Twilight Lord complained.

“Have you no other women to ease your lusty rod, my lord?” the chancellor asked dryly. “You have more important things to do.”

The Twilight Lord laughed. “Rodding Lara is indescribable, Alfrigg. But then if I were mated to your Eitri I should seek other pursuits.”

“In her youth Eitri was considered most handsome for a woman,” Alfrigg defended his mate. “But when you are over five hundred years old, the first blush of beauty fades, I fear.”

“I know you have my best interests and those of my kingdom at heart, Alfrigg,” the Twilight Lord said. “I will impregnate Lara soon, I promise you.”

“The darkness she carries within her is impressive, my lord. I have watched as you have drawn it forth from her,” Alfrigg replied admiringly.

Kol nodded. “Aye, she will teach my son well,” he said. And then he felt the mating lust within him, burning him, demanding of him that he do his duty. Alfrigg was right. As much as he regretted it, it had to be tonight. And it would be a night Lara would remember for the rest of her life. There would be pain in this particular mating, but she was more than ready to accept that pain. Kol smiled and licked his lips in anticipation. “Good night, Alfrigg,” he said to his chancellor.

The dwarf raised a questioning eyebrow to his master and Kol nodded. Alfrigg smiled. “Good night, my lord. I will pray to Krell for your success tonight.” And then the chancellor withdrew, bowing as he went.

The Twilight Lord sat for several minutes watching as a great storm began to roll in from the surrounding mountains, over his castle. This was another sign that his son and heir would be conceived tonight. The lightning crackled and the thunder boomed, but there was no rain. None at all. Kol walked between the columns onto the portico. He leaned against the cold marble balustrade and looked out over his kingdom. Within the mountains there lived a race of fierce giants and another of wily dwarfs; the forests covering the mountains were inhabited by the Wolfyn, a race of creatures who had the head of a wolf and the body of a man. They all owed him their allegiance. And now he had the Munin secure within the Penumbras. Everything was proceeding as the Book of Rule foretold.

He had captured the faerie woman ordained to be his mate. He had her memories, save those few she needed, safe in the great alabaster jar in his receiving chamber. After two months asleep and another two in his arms, she was his alone. She trusted him and tonight he would cajole her into admitting love for him. Then he would mate her, planting his seed deep in her womb. Lara would give him his son. And when she had he would restore her knowledge of the magic she possessed. She would rule by his side and use her magic to help him take first Hetar and then Terah. All the worlds would be his with her help. Kol smiled. How good it felt when everything was going well, he thought.

He turned back into the chamber and called to a servant, who immediately hurried into the room and bowed slavishly.

“How may I serve you, my lord?”

“Go and tell my bath master that I shall come shortly. Then go to the lady Lara’s apartments and tell her servants that I shall join my mate tonight. I wish her prepared to receive me when I come.”

The servant bowed again and then he said, “My lord, may I be so bold as to ask a question? I have not the right but we are so anxious for your happiness, my lord.”

Kol nodded. His mood was good.

“My lord…is tonight…” He hesitated, looking nervous.

Kol smiled broadly. He knew what the man was asking. “Aye, it is,” he said. “Now go and do as I have bid you.”

The servant scuttled out, then hurried to the bath master. “The lord is coming shortly for his ablutions. He has said that it will be tonight!”

The bath master nodded and began shouting orders to the other slaves in his charge. “You are certain?” he demanded of the serving man.

“He said it!” came the reply. Then the servant ran from the baths and hurried to Lara’s apartments. He knocked and was admitted by Macia. “Prepare your mistress,” the servant said. “The master will come. He has said tonight is the night your mistress will be seeded.”

“Indeed,” Macia replied. “And how came you by this intimate knowledge?”

“His mood was good, so I dared to ask,” the serving man replied. “He said aye.”

“About time,” Macia said. “Well, go along now. You have delivered your message. The rest is up to them.” She shut the door on the serving man and called to Anka. When her companion came Macia told her what the servant had said.

“She is just waking,” Anka replied.

“Then let us feed her and then she must go to the baths before she is ready for him,” Macia said. She went into Lara’s beautiful bedchamber and bowed. “The lord has sent word that tonight is to be a special night for you, my lady,” she told Lara. “You must be fed and then bathed. He will come soon.”

They brought her raw oysters and juicy capon, asparagus, and berries in sweet cream. Lara’s appetite was a good one; she ate it all. Then they led her to her bath where the bath mistress, already alerted as to the importance of this particular night, was relentless in seeing that her mistress was brought to her full beauty. Lara’s long golden hair was washed, perfumed and dried, then some of it was braided with bits of glittering silver thread. Finally a gossamer silk gown in deepest midnight-black was dropped over her head. The contrast of the dark silk against her golden hair and pale skin was meant to entice Kol all the more. Then they led her back to her chamber to await him.

And when he came to her, a length of black silk wrapped around his loins, his pale skin glistening with a light coat of oil, her heart began to hammer with excitement. His eyes were a silver-gray tonight. His short ebony hair smelled faintly of sandalwood. Lara reached up and took his handsome face between her two small hands, smiling into his eyes. Then standing on her toes she kissed his mouth sweetly.

“Do you love me?” he asked her low.

“I love you,” she replied. “How could I not when you are so good to me?”

“Will you give me my son, Lara?” he questioned. “Will you willingly accept our mating tonight? It cannot be done unless you wish it, my precious,” he told her.

“Oh yes, my lord Kol,” she breathed with a sigh. “I will gladly bear you your son. I want to give you a son! I adore you, my dear lord! There is none other but you for me.”

“There is pain in creation, my precious,” he warned her. “Pain in the seeding, and pain in the birth. But from that pain will come the next Twilight Lord. If you love me enough you will accept the suffering. Do you, my precious?” His gray eyes scanned her small heart-shaped face. “Do you love me enough, Lara?”

“Aye, I do!” she declared. “But tell me one thing, my lord Kol. What is pain?”

She did not remember! Krell! She could not recall pain. He had not considered that. But her loss of the memory of pain would make their mating even better. The shock of it when it first happened. The fear she would feel as it continued would breed up a cruel strong heir for him. Kol took Lara in his arms. “It is naught for you to fret about, my precious,” he told her gently and he caressed her hair with his big hands.

She looked up at him with shining eyes. “Then let me be the mother of your son, my lord Kol. Let me give you this gift of my love!”

He bent and kissed her mouth, tenderly at first and then with increasing passion as the final and fiercest mating lust wrapped itself about his body. He touched her gown and it dissolved into a silver mist. He yanked the length of silk from his loins. His rod was enormous tonight—and already hard as iron. It would remain that way for several hours until the final culmination of the mating. “On your knees before me,” he ordered her.

Lara obeyed and wrapping her little hand about his rod she kissed its fiery tip. Then she began to lick it from stem to tip until finally she took him in her mouth and sucked upon him, her tongue swirling about the tip while his hands kneaded her head.

“Take more,” he growled and then moaned as she took him farther. He could feel himself touching the back of her throat and then she opened her throat even wider, half swallowing him. Kol almost screamed as she did. He was not ready to release his juices. “Enough, witch!” he said in an odd hard voice that she had not before heard.

Lara let her teeth gently graze his rod as she drew it from her mouth. She gave the tip a final lick before he pulled her up. “Something is different tonight,” she said softly.

“The creation of an heir is a special moment,” he told her. “My rod is stronger than it will ever be again. And from the moment I plant my seed I will not touch you again until after the birth. This will be a great sacrifice for both of us, my precious. But we will have other interests to share, I promise you.”

“What else will we share?” She wanted to know.

“I will tell you on the morrow. Tonight is meant for our mating only.” And he began to kiss her again, his forked tongue caressing her tongue, exploring her mouth as he had a hundred times before. Then he led her to their bed and laying her back, he kissed her breasts and licked her flesh until she was filled with heated desire. His forked tongue played with her lust orb until she was whimpering for surcease. He pushed his tongue into her sheath, stroking the walls of it, preparing her for what was to come. He could feel the sharp little nodules on his rod beginning to surface from beneath the skin. His own lust was almost out of control now and he knew it was time. He slid his tongue from her sheath and licked the soft insides of her thighs. She lay quietly, her green eyes closed, as she enjoyed his tender homage. Then pulling himself up, Kol slipped between her thighs. Leaning forward he whispered in her ear, “Tell me you want me, my precious.”

“Oh yes, please, my lord,” she told him, opening her green eyes. “Come into me and let us share the ultimate pleasure of creating a child.”

He smiled down at her and then in a single thrust drove himself into her eager body. The look of shock and pain in her eyes only whetted his lust for her. Her scream of distress only caused him to begin a relentless rhythm as his rod moved slowly back and forth within her sheath, the sharp nodules stroking her cruelly.

“It is different! Oh, Krell! It…it…it hurts!” Lara sobbed. The hard rod within her was covered with sharp hot spikes that had not been there before. They burned and rubbed against the tender walls of her sheath causing her pain—yet increasing her lust.

“Wrap your legs about me, Lara!” he commanded her. “I must get deeper!” He stopped his motion briefly to force her reluctant limbs up and about his waist. Then he pushed deeper into her, reveling in her fright and agony.

“My lord! My lord! You must stop, I beg you!” Lara sobbed.

“Do not fight it, my precious,” he told her. “Let the pain sweep over you. From this pain will come the creation of my son. Trust me! Now scream for me, Lara!”

Lara screamed fiercely and to her surprise the unbearable pain transformed into an incredible sweetness. “Oh, Krell!” she gasped. She could have sworn he was growing in length within her. As her fear subsided she realized that her own lust was being stoked to a fever pitch. He held her arms above her head now. The eyes looking down at her were black, a tiny flame of crimson burned in the center of each orb. As her own eyes closed, Lara knew he no longer saw her. His whole being was concentrated on the pleasure they were struggling to attain and the child that would come forth from it.

He thrust and he thrust and he thrust. Back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth. So near! They were so near! She could sense it. Outside of their bedchamber the lightning flashed and flashed again. The thunder roared over and over. And then Lara felt the pain returning, growing in momentum, the heat of it threatening to destroy her. But she would not be destroyed! She would not! At the very moment they reached nirvana together Lara screamed as the fierce heat of his boiling juices containing but a single seed exploded and the miniscule life force buried itself deep into her womb. As it dug itself down and into her she felt more pain. Then the pain vanished. Outside, the storm disappeared and suddenly all was completely silent.

They lay together for a short time as their breathing quieted and the strength returned to their limbs. And then Kol arose from her bed. “It is done,” he said, and turning he walked slowly from her bedchamber.

“I love you, my lord,” she called after him as the door closed.

And Kol smiled at her words. Yes, she did love him. And faerie women did not give children to those they did not love. Even if they had no memory of it. But she loved him and the seed he had just planted within her was already growing. His son! Then he felt a small pang of regret. Her body was no longer his. It belonged to his son. And having tasted her passion, having shared pleasures with her, Kol knew that no other female would ever satisfy his lustful nature again. He would slake his desires on the pretty nubile creatures in his House of Women until after the child was born. And he would continue to please Lara by having each woman he coupled with strangled after he used her. Lara must be happy while she carried new life. She must be content. Whatever she desired he would see she obtained.

And while she carried that new life he would continue to draw the darkness from her. Lara of Hetar, Domina of Terah, savior of the Outland Clan families. Lara the good faerie, mentored by the great Prince Kaliq himself. Good, however, was but one side of the coin, Kol thought with a smile. Everyone had darkness in them. And without her memory of the life she had led before he stole her away, that evil could be cultivated slowly like a beautiful flower. Only once before in her past life had she let the darkness touch her briefly but it meant that the cruelty within her could be fostered, cultured and refined. He would enjoy watching it grow even as the belly nurturing and sheltering his son grew. Reaching his own chamber Kol lay down and slept. His duty for now was done.

Chapter Four

KALIQ of the Shadows looked out over the valley of horses where his herd and the herds of his brother princes stood grazing. “It is done,” he said, turning to his beautiful companion. “And neither the clan families or Magnus Hauk suspect.”

Ilona, queen of the Forest Faeries, nodded. “What will happen now?” she asked. “I pray her memory does not return to her until it is finished.”

“Her memories are safely stored and only the Munin can give them back to her. I will not see that done until the child is well along,” Kaliq said. “Then Lara will have her memories and will instinctively know what she must do. Kol is besotted with her, Ilona. It has worked out perfectly.” He smiled, well pleased. “And Lara will be safe for the interim.”

“They still search for her,” Ilona remarked. “The clan families are heartbroken. They cannot be convinced it was not their fault. But Magnus believes that Hetar is responsible for Lara’s disappearance. He would go to war. Mortals can be so irrational.”

Kaliq chuckled. “They can,” he agreed. “But does it not prove to you, my fair Ilona, that the Dominus of Terah loves his wife beyond all reason? He is really the perfect husband for her.”

“I wish they had met after this. How will you manage to keep what is happening from him when we regain her? And how will Lara cope with what has happened to her? You know how damnably honest she is. A wicked mortal trait! She will want Magnus to know everything and I do not believe he can live with it. It will destroy them both.”

“Ilona, Ilona, you surely know me better than that,” Kaliq murmured chidingly. “Trust me, my queen. I would never destroy Lara or any she loved.”

Ilona sighed. “Inscrutable as always,” she replied. “I don’t suppose you will tell me what it is you plan to do, Kaliq.”

He smiled again. “Nay, I will not. You complain that mortals are irrational, Ilona, but your faerie race can also act without logic or reason.”

“Do not act so superior with me, Kaliq,” the queen of the Forest Faeries snapped.

“But I am superior to you,” he said calmly. “And my kind are far older than your race, as well.”

“If it had been my choice—” Ilona began but he stopped her mouth with his hand.

“It was your choice when this task was offered to you, Ilona. You might have refused but you did not. It was your choice to take John Swiftsword as a lover and, between you, create Lara. You knew her destiny. There must always be balance, Ilona, and Lara brings that balance.”

“But I did not know I would love my daughter as I do, Kaliq,” the queen cried. “I thought being separated from her all those years had drained me of any love I might have harbored. Alas! My cold faerie heart betrayed me. I do love Lara and I am terrified of this destiny she has been given.” Ilona sobbed. “Look at me! I weep! Faeries do not weep, Kaliq! They should not weep! Yet I do!” She stamped her feet furiously at him.

“Do you believe I do not weep at the thought of the Twilight Lord possessing my exquisite Lara?” Kaliq demanded. “I have observed Lara from her birth. I watched as she grew into the beautiful girl Gaius Prospero, in his pique, sent from The City. She should have been brought to me first and never known the brutality of the Forest Lords, yet even I am not completely privy to the will of the Celestial Actuary. But then I had her in my care and she proved an incredible pupil. I shall be haunted until I finally fade from this realm by the nights we spent together. You weep, Ilona? Your tears can be no more heartfelt or bitter than mine, oh queen of the Forest Faeries!”

Ilona reached out a small delicate hand and touched his cheek. “Forgive me, Kaliq. You have always loved her, I know. I am sorry her fate was not to be yours.”

He smiled ruefully. “Her spirit could not have been content in the confines of our desert kingdom,” he admitted. “And Lara would surely not be pleased with either of us if, in her absence, we allow Hetar and Terah to go to war. I have sent my brothers, Lothair and Nasim, to The City to gather what information they can. The High Council is little more than a mockery of what it once was but if the Shadow Princes eschew it, then it appears as if we are no longer a part of Hetar. With Gaius Prospero, if you are not with him you are against him. While he will never be bold enough to attack us for he fears our magic, our presence on the High Council alleviates his paranoia. He believes Terah weak without Lara and even now plans to attack Magnus Hauk at the first opportunity.”

“The Terahns have a small army thanks to my daughter,” Ilona said, “but I doubt they could hold off a full-scale attack from Hetar. The Crusader Knights and the Mercenaries are great in number. Once they see the richness of Terah it will not be easy to hold them back. They could not in a thousand years wear out the land there. And that is only on the Terahn side of the Emerald Mountains. The New Outlands possesses an equal amount of land. Terah offers an invader lands and slaves without number. Do you believe that Gaius Prospero is farseeing enough to dare such an expedition?”

“I do not know if he is farseeing but he is surely greedy enough. It is his right hand, Jonah, who has the greater intellect and instinct. Actually, I consider Jonah a more formidable human than I do Gaius Prospero. The emperor can be tempted from his path and I have already arranged for him to be so subverted. My brothers and I have created a female who will so remind him of Lara that he will do what he must to possess her. Without her he will wither and die. She will hopefully keep him from his own folly long enough for Lara to meet her destiny and then return to her husband and family.”

“A woman? You seek to have a mere woman distract Gaius Prospero?” Ilona asked. “And what of the more dangerous Jonah? If the emperor is bedazzled by a mere woman does that not give Jonah his opportunity?”

“Jonah will be far too busy, I suspect, calming the emperor’s two wives, Vilia and Anora. And Vilia, who is Jonah’s secret mistress, will also be busy attempting to persuade her lover to take this chance to destroy the emperor.” Kaliq chuckled.

“If this creature you have created looks like Lara, will not Jonah be suspicious?”

“Come and see for yourself what we have done.” Kaliq invited the queen. He led her to a tall mirror. The prince gestured with his right hand and the mirror grew dark.

Then it cleared to reveal a lovely young girl picking spring flowers in a meadow. The girl was petite and slender. As she stood clutching her bouquet, Ilona saw she had a heart-shaped face with two beautiful violet eyes. Her long reddish-gold hair flowed free, contained only by a narrow ribbon. She bore a slight resemblance to Lara but not enough that it would be noticed immediately.

“Her name is Shifra,” Kaliq said softly. “We gave her just enough allure and knowledge that Gaius Prospero will be overcome by his lust for her.”

“It will do no good,” Ilona said. “Remember that Lara cursed his ability to enjoy pleasures any longer.”

Kaliq laughed, remembering the incident. “That is true, my dear Ilona, but we have made it possible for Shifra to overcome that curse. For the first time in several years the emperor will enjoy pleasures. And he will enjoy them every time he mounts her. That is why he will want to make her his third wife and his empress. Can you imagine the uproar his decision will cause within his household? Vilia was wise enough to befriend Anora when Gaius Prospero took his second wife. And Anora was content to let Vilia have the authority in the household as long as she was catered to and could practice her painful love with the emperor. But Shifra, being young and innocent when the emperor takes her, will begin to exhibit the pride of a woman who believes herself above Gaius Prospero’s senior wives and he will support her at every turn, infuriating the other two. You see, we have made Shifra an amalgam of both Vilia and Anora. The emperor will finally have his perfect woman in one woman.

“The lady Vilia is enormously clever. She will act in her own best interests, for remember, she has Jonah, who actually loves and admires her, though not quite as much as he loves himself. He is a very ambitious man and has just been waiting for an opportunity. Who knows what will happen when he sees the woman he cares for being abused and embarrassed before all of Hetar? As for Anora, she will destroy herself with her outrageous behavior when she realizes her rival has bested her. She has always considered Vilia her inferior in the emperor’s heart.” The prince smiled. “In the end it is Lara’s destiny that will prevail. Remember that from a distant tomorrow will come Hetar’s true destiny.”

“The prophecy,” Ilona said softly. Then she sighed. “I just wish I could have prevented my daughter from the pain she has, and will, experience.”

“Look! Look in the mirror,” Kaliq said. “Shifra is about to begin her journey!” And the Shadow Prince and the queen of the Forest Faeries watched fascinated as the band of slavers rode into the meadow.

Shifra looked up at the sound of hoofbeats. Recognizing the breed of horsemen bearing down on her she picked up her skirts and began to run. With a whoop of delight the slavers bore down on her until their leader, a man named Lenya, came abreast of the fleeing girl and scooped her up. Shifra fought him, beating at him with her small balled-up fists, and struggled to escape his grasp. “Let me go!” she cried. “Let me go, you barbarian!”

In reply Lenya swiftly turned the girl about so that she now lay facedown before him over his saddle. “Be silent, girl!” he told her. “You are caught and there is nothing for it but to accept your fate. It will probably be a most comfortable one, for you are beautiful and young.”

The slavers rode on until nightfall when they stopped to make a camp. Shifra was tied to a young tree while the slavers built a fire, found water and began to cook their evening meal. When they had eaten Lenya came with a bowl of stew and began to feed Shifra a small portion. He was pleased to see her eat for often captives did not. And as she ate he began to question her.

“What in the name of the Celestial Actuary were you doing all alone out in the middle of nowhere?” he demanded.

“I am an orphan,” Shifra began. “I lived with my old grandmother in a hut in the forest that surrounds the meadow where you took me. She will be alone now and she will surely die.” Shifra began to sob.

“If she is old then perhaps it is her time to die,” Lenya replied sanguinely. “I believe we passed a hut near the forest road as we came. There was an old hag digging in a garden. She was much too decrepit for us to be bothered with, but you are a nice tender little morsel. We shall get a goodly profit in The City for you.”

“That was my grandmother,” Shifra wept. “She will wonder what has happened to me now. Oh, my poor nona!”

Lenya snorted. “Are you a virgin?” he asked her rudely.

Shifra colored at his words and hung her head. “Yes,” she whispered.

“I am going to check,” he told her. “I cannot represent you as something you are not, despite your beauty. If you are a truly a virgin I will get a much higher price for you than if you are not. What is your name?”

“Shifra,” she told him. “I am called Shifra.”

He nodded. The name meant beautiful, and it certainly fit her. Calling to his men he untied her. “Put her on the blanket and two of you secure her arms. The other two of you, spread her legs wide for me,” Lenya said. When his men licked their lips and leered at his instructions Lenya continued. “She says she is a virgin. If she is then she will bring us a much, much higher price at the slave market in The City, you fools. We will make so much coin off of her that you will all be able to spend at least two nights at the Pleasure House of Maeve Scarlet,” he told them with a grin. “Now get the girl on her back so I may examine her.”

“What if she isn’t a virgin?” one of his men asked.

“Then we shall all take pleasures with our little Shifra tonight, my lads, but I hope she has not lied, for the Pleasure Women at Maeve Scarlet’s are exceptionally well trained and always welcoming of a hardworking man.”

As they brought her down onto the blanket Shifra began to struggle wildly, sobbing and begging them not to harm her. But she was a dainty girl and no match for the big men holding her prisoner. They quickly had her secure, both of her arms pinioned to either side and her legs spread wide. The tears pouring from her eyes and her little cries of distress would have moved a stone cliff.

Lenya knelt by the girl. He pulled her skirts up, revealing the snow-white skin beneath and a mound of tight red-gold curls clustered upon her mons. He looked admiringly. No doubt about it, she was prime goods. Now if only she spoke the truth. He pressed a single finger past her plump nether lips. Shifra sobbed and begged him to stop. His finger found her passage and he pushed it slowly into her. Shifra shrieked her distress. Lenya’s finger reached the barrier of her virginity. Quickly he pulled his finger back and out lest he damage that barrier. He looked up smiling broadly at his men. “She is as pure as the driven snow, my lads. Our fortune is made! Now release her,” he said.

Shifra curled herself into a tight little ball, weeping with her shame.

Lenya stood up. “Remember,” he said to his men. “I will cut the balls of any of you who touches her and make you eat them roasted,” he threatened. “Drop another blanket over her. I will be sleeping next to her tonight.”

The other slavers knew their leader well enough to know he was not jesting with them so they said nothing more. Two days later they arrived at The City. Shifra was taken to a public bath to be scrubbed. Lenya left his men there while he went to an open market to seek a more attractive garment in which to display his treasure to the slave master. Presentation was, he knew, half the battle when selling a piece of choice merchandise. Finding what he sought, he returned to the bath to find Shifra almost ready. He gave the garment to the bath mistress. “For the girl Shifra,” he told her.

“She’s a real beauty, Lenya,” the bath mistress told him. “Where did you find her? I’ve done an extraspecial job with her. I hope you’ll remember me when you get your price.” And she smiled, showing several broken and blackened teeth.

“Have I ever forgotten you?” he replied.

“Aiiii, but this girl is truly valuable,” the bath mistress said.

“I will not forget you,” he repeated. “Now finish up. I am in a hurry to get to the slave market. The auctions begin at noon. I’ve been looking forward to an evening or two at Maeve Scarlet’s.”

The bath mistress cackled and then disappeared back into the baths. She returned a short while later with Shifra, who was now garbed in a pale green gown of sheerest silk through which her lush and rosy body could be just faintly seen. The skirt of the gown was narrow. One of her beautiful rounded shoulders was bare as were her arms. Her long red-gold hair had been washed and now flowed loose down her back to her buttocks. Her feet were shod in a pair of simple sandals.

“Here she is,” the bath mistress said, pleased. “You have an eye for the right costume, Lenya.” Then she lowered her voice. “I have given her a cup of Razi so that she will not be so frightened or struggle.”

Lenya pressed double the amount he would have usually paid the bath mistress into her hand. “And there will be more later,” he told her.

“You are generous beyond measure, but come back before you and your men go to Maeve Scarlet’s,” she chuckled.

“I will,” he responded with a grin. Then he took Shifra by the hand. “Come now, my beauty, and let us see the excitement you will cause.” He led her to a waiting litter, for he would not walk her to the slave market now that she was ready. He followed along as the two bearers hurried through The City’s crowded and noisy streets. Finally they gained the slave market and Lenya hurried to find the slave master who, seeing him first, called out to the slaver.

“Lenya! Rumor has it that you have found a treasure for me to auction today. You are in luck, my friend! If the girl is what she is said to be I will sell her in the private chamber rather than here in the open market. I get a much better clientele for choice merchandise there,” the slave master explained. He walked to the litter and drawing back the curtains, was stunned by the violet eyes that looked back at him. Reaching into the litter he handed the girl out, then slowly walked about her nodding. “I have not had anything this fine in years,” he said admiringly. “Where did you find her? And are there more of them?”

“I doubt it,” Lenya said with a chuckle. “We came upon her picking flowers in an open meadow on the forest’s edge. We had passed a hut where an old woman lived. Shifra said it was her home and her grandmother.”

“In the forest?” the slave master said. “But she has not the look of Forest Folk.”

“She is probably Midlands born, but the hut was poor, which means the farm from which the old woman came was probably bought up or confiscated by the emperor some years ago. She says she’s an orphan. Do you really care?” Lenya asked.

“Is it too much to ask if she is a virgin?” the slave master said hopefully.

Lenya grinned. “I verified it myself. The maiden’s barrier is there. I did not damage it, knowing its value.”

The slave master reached out to squeeze one of Shifra’s breasts. Gasping, the girl drew back like a scalded cat, her eyes wide with shock. The man chortled. “I shall want a thirty per cent commission,” he said.

“Do not be greedy,” Lenya scolded him. “This maid will sell in less than five minutes and the only reason it will take that long will be because the bidding will be hot and heavy. I will give you ten percent.”

“Twenty,” the slave master replied.

“Fifteen and not a coin more,” Lenya responded.

“Agreed!” the slave master said. “And you are just in time, for the private auction is beginning first. Come in and you may view the proceedings. I will sell the girl last, however, in order to get a fair price for the rest of my merchandise but do not fear. There are only five others. Top quality is difficult to come by these days.”

Lenya saw Shifra led away and he settled down to watch the auction. Two girls were quickly auctioned off to Pleasure Houses. A third to a wealthy magnate. There was a faint stirring in the audience behind him but Lenya did not bother to turn about. The remaining two slave girls were sold. Then the slave master stepped forward.

“My lords,” he said. “I have less than an hour ago received for sale a virgin of such incomparable beauty that it will be many years before I receive such a slave again.” He clapped his hands and Shifra was led out to be placed in the center of a small raised dais. “Young, my lords. Untouched. Rare.”

“And expensive,” said a voice in a group of men to appreciative laughter.

The slave master joined in their laughter. “Aye, my lords, expensive.”

“Let us see what it is you really offer,” another voice called.

The slave master nodded to Shifra and reaching up she undid her gown, letting it fall to her feet. Slowly, carefully she pirouetted about as she had been told to do and she heard the whispering sighs from the men gazing up at her. They admired the small round breasts with the berry nipples. They admired her lush thighs and her plump buttocks.

The slave master allowed them to look their fill and then he said, “What am I bid for this piece of perfection, my lords?”

Lenya held his breath waiting. Would he gain five thousand coins for her? Six?

“I bid fifty thousand gold cubits,” a voice called from the audience.

“Fifty thousand,” the slave master said as if it were a mere opening bid. His heart was hammering against his rib cage. “I am bid fifty thousand. Who will bid sixty?” He looked about the chamber. “Come my lords, will no one else bid for this rare beauty?”

The room remained silent and so the slave master brought down his small gavel. “Fifty thousand gold. The slave girl Shifra is sold to our gracious and glorious emperor, Gaius Prospero, for fifty thousand gold cubits.” The gavel hit the slave master’s podium with a loud thunk. “Done for fifty thousand gold cubits!”

It was only then that Lenya dared to turn about. And there was the emperor himself. He was staring intently at Shifra. No wonder no one else had dared to bid against him, he thought. But then, had the emperor not bid, neither he nor the slave master would now be rich men. He almost laughed aloud. He was done with slaving, he decided in that moment. After today nothing he did would compare with this.

A servant of the emperor made his way to the slave master and gave him a scrip with the emperor’s seal upon it. “Bring this to the treasury at your convenience. You will be paid there. Send the girl to the emperor’s home in the Golden District at once.”

Then he turned and departed.

“We do not have the gold?” Lenya said nervously.

“I will put today’s open auction in the hands of my son,” the slave master said. “You and I shall go immediately to the treasury, my friend, and collect our payment. I trust no one, especially not the emperor. The girl shall not leave this place until we have our coin.”

Lenya nodded and together the two men hurried to the large treasury building, a new structure located just inside the gates of the Golden District. Showing the scrip with the emperor’s seal they were permitted entry. An officious clerk peered suspiciously at the paper and then without a word called for his superior who in turn called for the assistant treasurer who looked at the scrip.

Then he said, “How do you wish this paid out, sir?”

“In a lump sum,” the slave master said.

“No,” Lenya interjected. “Pay him his seven thousand five hundred coins. The remainder you will transfer immediately to Avram the Goldsmith in my name.”

“You bank with Avram?” The slave master was surprised.

The assistant treasurer turned to the slave master. “Sir?”

“Do as he says,” the slave master told him. “He is Lenya the Slaver. The merchandise was his. I will take my commission and go.”

“Have my monies transferred now,” Lenya told the assistant treasurer. “I am going to Avram to get the coin I will need to pay my men.”

“I am curious,” the slave master said while the paperwork for the transfer was prepared. “What do you pay your men?”

“They will each get five percent of my profit,” Lenya answered. “It is usually two percent of our sales. But I have never before gotten such a sum for a bevy of slaves, let alone one girl. I’m not a greedy man. My men have all been loyal and with me a long time. I shall retire to a small villa in the Coastal Kingdom now and take a wife.”

“Here is your record of the transfer of funds,” the assistant treasurer said, handing the papers to Lenya.

“Good day to you then,” Lenya told them and he was gone from the treasury.

“What did you sell for him?” the assistant treasurer asked the auctioneer, curious.

“A slave girl—an extraordinarily beautiful slave girl. The emperor purchased her,” the slave master said. “Fifty thousand gold coins. Not even the legendary Lara earned that sum for Gaius Prospero.”

The treasurer handed the slave master a heavy bag of coins. “You shall have an escort back to your establishment,” he said. “Courtesy of the emperor, sir.”

“Thank you,” the slave master nodded. He must be quick. The slave girl Shifra must be delivered immediately now that she had been paid for in full. He hurried from the treasury with the two armed mercenaries. When he returned he discovered that a litter had been sent from the emperor for his new purchase. His assistant, afraid to refuse a royal transport, had already sent the girl along. The slave master did not chide the man. He was actually relieved to be rid of Shifra now. Someone that beautiful was bound to cause trouble sooner or later.

* * *

SHIFRA WATCHED curiously as the litter carrying her passed through the streets of The City. She had been created for loving, Prince Kaliq had told her. She was meant for only a great man. Certainly the emperor was a great man. Did he not rule all of Hetar? She smiled, remembering how she had awakened one day to find the Shadow Princes standing over her. They had tended her lovingly and taught her all about passion and pleasures without once disturbing her virginity, which they assured her was for a great man alone. Who was she, she asked them? An orphan, they told her, raised by her grandmother and when they told her that, her memories of Nona were suddenly there. She had become lost in the forest and they had found her and healed her. Now she must return to her grandmother and let her fate play out. And because she had trusted the princes she had done as they bid her. And now she was to be rewarded. Gaius Prospero, the princes told Shifra, was going to fall in love with her. She had but to follow her instincts with him.

The litter bearers hurried through the gates of the Golden District. The girl within looked out and saw a beautiful park surrounding the great marble mansions that dotted the landscape. They passed through another set of gates guarded by men-at-arms in elegant dark blue-and-gold uniforms. Shifra heard gravel crunching beneath the sandals of the bearers, and then they came to a stop. The litter was set down, the curtain was opened and a hand reached in to help her out.

“I am Tania, Lady Shifra, and I have been assigned to care for you,” the owner of the hand said. “If you will please follow me I will take you to the quarters that have been arranged for you.” She moved quickly away and Shifra had to run to keep up.

They walked through a beautiful rotunda. At its center was a rectangular fountain decorated with a boy riding a bronze dolphin that spouted water from its mouth. There were water hyacinths floating in the pool and benches upon which to sit. Shifra had never seen anything like it and thought it was wonderful.

“It is a very big house,” she ventured softly.

“It is,” Tania agreed. “And since the master became emperor it has gotten even bigger. The northern wing, which was once used for housing my master’s special merchandise, has been rebuilt and enlarged. There is now a throne room, a great room for entertaining, a new dining room for feeding guests and, of course, the emperor’s right hand, Lord Jonah, has his offices and living quarters there. Such a man for work, Lord Jonah! Nowadays he spends several months a year in Terah as the emperor’s ambassador, as well. He is probably the only person in Hetar that our emperor trusts.”

“Where are we going?” Shifra asked.

“You are to be housed in the west wing,” Tania replied.

“Does anyone else live there?” the girl queried.

“Indeed. The emperor’s wives, Lady Vilia and Lady Anora, live in the west wing. I will be frank with you, Lady Shifra. Neither will be pleased to know you. They are most jealous of their positions and have squabbled ever since my master became emperor over who should be empress, for neither has been appointed to that position.”

“Oh,” Shifra said. This was something she would consider carefully.

Ahead of them were tall twin doors covered in gold leaf. On either side of the doors stood a man-at-arms. As they reached them the two guards snapped to attention and the doors sprang magically open for the two women to pass through.

“Come this way,” Tania said to Shifra, leading her down a corridor.

“Tania! Stop!” an imperious voice called out.

“Aye, do not go a step farther,” another voice said.

“Be silent,” Tania hissed to Shifra as she turned about. “Yes, my ladies?”

“Is this the slave girl Gaius paid such a ridiculous sum for this afternoon?” came the query.

“Yes, my lady Vilia, it is,” Tania replied politely.

“Turn around, girl!” Lady Vilia said. “What is your name?”

Shifra turned slowly, her eyes lowered. She bowed servilely, and responded in a soft little voice, “My name is Shifra, great lady.” Her eyes remained lowered.

“Let me see your face, girl,” the lady Vilia said sharply. Her hand yanked Shifra’s head up roughly. She stared, displeased, but then she said, “I see nothing special in this girl that would have caused Gaius to waste so much coin. He must surely be entering his dotage. What do you think, Anora?”

The other woman, younger and more beautiful than the first, looked Shifra over slowly and carefully. “She has very fair skin, Vilia. I expect the merest cut of my whip would break it. But then I expect we shall soon see, for Gaius needs not only to be whipped, but to whip in order to raise his cock to perform.” She ran a nail down the side of Shifra’s cheek, laughing softly at the faint weal it raised. “Oh yes, she will mark nicely and easily. Have you ever been whipped, girl? Your master is an expert at it.”

“He will not whip me,” Shifra startled them by answering. “And he will need no whip to coax his cock to perform with me.”

Anora laughed. “Gracious, the little slave girl has a bit of spirit. How amusing, and how intriguing, eh, Vilia?”

“You will speak to me with respect, girl,” Vilia said sharply.

“Yes, my lady empress,” Shifra said softly.

“I am not the empress,” Vilia replied. She was not certain whether the girl was insulting her or not.

“You are the emperor’s first wife, my lady, are you not?” Shifra said.

“I am,” Vilia answered slowly.

“Then you should be the empress,” Shifra told Vilia.

“Well, I am not,” Vilia answered. Now she was truly confused. Was the girl mocking her or was she attempting to ingratiate herself? She smiled at the sour look on Anora’s pretty face, and decided that Shifra was being polite. “Take her along to her rooms, Tania,” she said.

“You are a bold thing,” Tania said softly as they went along.

“Why isn’t she empress if she is his first wife?” Shifra wanted to know.

“Because he is afraid to make a choice between them,” Tania said. “The lady Vilia rarely graces his bed any longer but she is the mother of his children. He will not publicly show her any disrespect for while he has managed to make himself emperor, he still fears the common people. The lady Vilia is well liked for her many charities. The lady Anora, however, gives him relief as no other has been able to for several years since he was cursed by a faerie woman. He no longer enjoys pleasures.” She flung open the door at the end of the corridor they had been traversing. “Here we are,” she said.

“You know a great deal about this house,” Shifra said low.

“I have been a slave here for many, many years,” Tania answered. “I serve only Gaius Prospero and my allegiance has never wavered. It never will. I have his trust because I have earned his trust. If I speak candidly to you, my child, it is so you will successfully make your way here. He obviously saw something in you that caused him to spend more money than he has ever expended on anything. And he put you in my charge. It is therefore up to me to see you do not disappoint the emperor. Do you understand me, Shifra? I will guide you and you will follow.”

Their eyes met and Shifra nodded slowly. “You will lead me, and I will follow you, Tania. I would be a fool not to and you will find I am not a fool.”

Tania smiled. “I did not think you were, my child,” she said. “Now tell me when you last were bathed? The emperor will visit you later tonight and you will want to make every effort to please him at your first private meeting.”

“They bathed me this morning in the slave merchant’s house before I was displayed for sale,” Shifra answered.

“It will have been a hurried affair and the luxuries lacking,” Tania told her young companion. “We will begin again.” And for the next several hours she personally worked with the bath mistress and her assistants to perfect Shifra’s beauty. There was something about the girl, Tania thought, that reminded her of the fabled Lara and yet what it was she could not quite put her finger on. Because she knew him well, she suspected that something was what had caused Gaius Prospero to purchase the slave girl.

Tania questioned Shifra gently as she worked. It was important that she know everything about the girl that she could if she was to help her succeed with the emperor and Tania realized that she wanted the girl to succeed. Her master needed a beautiful young wife to present to the people as his empress. And as she had told Shifra, Gaius Prospero could not choose between Vilia and Anora.

Lady Vilia was intelligent, attractive, the mother of the emperor’s children, but ambitious. The empress should not aspire to have her own power. And Tania knew that once Vilia held that kind of power, she would compete with her husband. As for the lady Anora, she was a venal woman whose excesses were beginning to show upon her pretty face. Because she could sexually gratify Gaius Prospero now, when no other woman could, she believed she was superior to other women and considered herself the lady Vilia’s equal. What one had, the other wanted. And Anora might have overcome Vilia’s influence except that she had been unable to have children.

The emperor had not visited the Pleasure Houses of The City for several years now. He did not want his inability to perform as a man publicly known. There were several houses that specialized in pain, but Gaius Prospero was a proud man. An emperor should show no weakness. So Tania was amazed that her master had bought a slave girl for such an outrageous sum. Why had he done it? Shifra’s confidence in her own sensuality was also surprising given her youth and the certificate of virginity she had carried with her. Something exciting, something different, was about to happen. Tania sensed it. If this girl could indeed pleasure the emperor and keep his favor, he might, induced by his humble and longtime slave, make Shifra his empress. Tania secretly loved Gaius Prospero, and always had. She would always seek to further his best interests.

After several hours, she led Shifra from the baths. The girl’s skin was like the finest white silk. Her tiny hands and dainty feet had not a rough patch on them. Her long, thick red-gold hair fell in rippling waves down her back. Her plump mons was plucked and as smooth as marble, its slit faintly shadowed. Her small round breasts would just fit in a man’s hand. Could she pleasure the emperor without resorting to pain? Tonight would tell the tale, Tania thought.

Shifra was fed a light but nourishing meal. Her teeth and mouth were cleansed and then she was put to bed to rest until her master was ready to avail himself of her. Tania left the new slave sleeping and hurried to find her master in his own quarters. Entering, she knelt before the emperor and said, “Shifra is ready to receive you, my lord. She but awaits your convenience.”

“What do you think of her, Tania?” Gaius Prospero asked. “Is she not exquisite?”

“She is indeed, my lord. Your eye was flawless and had Shifra been purchased by a Pleasure House she would have surely become famous. Should she please you well, my lord, a virgin of such great beauty would certainly be eligible for higher rank eventually, would she not? Or do I speak out of turn?” Tania’s eyes were lowered.

“As always, Tania, you look to my best interests,” Gaius Prospero chuckled. “I think of all my servants, you are the most loyal to me, no matter I sometimes speak harshly to you. You are a perfect example of fidelity.”

“I am the most loyal to you of any in Hetar,” Tania replied boldly. “I will never leave your side, my lord, though I be but a woman and your slave.”

“I should free you,” the emperor said softly. “You are worthy of freedom like my good right hand, Jonah.”

“Do not, I beg you!” Tania answered him. “I am content as I am.”

“I could make you Jonah’s wife, Tania. Then I should have both my most faithful servants always by my side,” Gaius Prospero said.

“I am more loyal to you than any,” Tania repeated. “And if you would reward me then allow me to always be your slave. I want no other master but you and a husband is master of his wife. I could not divide my loyalties, my lord, and surely Jonah is worthy of a wife whose sole interests were for him and not another.”

Gaius Prospero reached out and patted Tania’s bowed head as he would a dog’s. “You shall have what you desire, my good Tania,” he told her. And then, “Tania, tell me, do you think I can be a real man with Shifra? Without the whip?”

“My lord, I am no soothsayer, but you must try. I know that the faerie woman Lara cursed you, but since then you have not even tried one of your women without the whip. Shifra is a virgin but she has a look about her that tells me she knows how to pleasure a man. Let her try and if she cannot then you may resort to the whip. But I believe that lovely girl will pleasure you well.”

“I do, too!” Gaius Prospero said excitedly. “It is a feeling I got the moment I looked at her, which is why I bid such a ridiculous sum. I did not want to lose her, Tania.”

“You were wise to act as you did, my lord. Now you have had a long day. Eat, then go and bathe so you may come to Shifra. Shall I ask your wives to remain in their own apartments tonight?”

“Yes! And they are not to go near Shifra. I do not want her spoiled and it would be like Anora to do so out of spite. She is such a jealous creature. It is no wonder she needs regular whipping,” the emperor said, licking his lips.

Tania arose from her knees. “I will deliver your message, my lord, and then I shall sleep by Shifra’s bed until you are ready to join her.” She bowed her way from the chamber, hurrying back to the women’s section of the emperor’s house.

The lady Vilia nodded wearily in response to her husband’s message.

“Of course. He will want to play with his new toy,” she said. “Perhaps I shall visit my villa in the Outlands for a few days. Do you think he would mind, Tania?”

“I think, my lady, you are as always gracious and understanding,” Tania murmured. “I am certain our good lord would fully approve your decision.”

Vilia smiled at the response. She was more than aware of how devoted the slave woman was to the emperor. And with luck Jonah would join her for a few nights. It was perfect. He had been spending so much time in Terah of late and she was eager for his talented cock. Gaius rarely, if ever, visited her bed any longer, and Jonah was a far better lover than Gaius had ever been. It amazed Vilia that she had been able to keep the secret of their illicit affair for several years now. But then, they were always careful.

The lady Anora was not as understanding of the emperor’s decision. “What do you mean I am to remain in my apartments and away from the slave girl? He will need me to ply my whip on his fat bottom if he is to have any success with her. And this Shifra will need a taste of discipline, too, if she is to pleasure him.”

“He says you are to remain here and away from Shifra, lady. I am but the bearer of the emperor’s message. The lady Vilia is going to her villa for a few days. Perhaps you would enjoy visiting yours. The Outlands are lovely this time of year, I am told.”

“I will remain. When he finds he cannot perform he will want me to come and assist him,” Anora said stubbornly.

Tania bowed her way out of Anora’s apartments and hurried back to Shifra. She pulled a mat from beneath the sleeping girl’s bed and slept, awakening only when the emperor touched her with his slipper. Tania scrambled up and gently shook Shifra by her delicate shoulder. “Waken, my child. Your master has come to be with you.” Then Tania hurried from the bedchamber.

Shifra had been sleeping on her side. She rolled onto her back, stretching herself like a young cat. Her violet eyes opened and she smiled slowly as she held out her arms to Gaius Prospero. “Come, my lord, and let me give you comfort,” she purred at him. She reached up to draw him down to her.

Mesmerized, the emperor let her lead the way. She settled him in a half-seated position, plumping up the pillows about him. Then seating herself upon his thick and hairy thighs, she leaned forward to kiss him. The touch of her bottom against him caused his eyes to dilate. Her small sweet mouth on his was incredible. She ran a pointed little tongue over his fleshy lips, teasing them open and then her tongue slid into his mouth to play with his tongue. Gaius Prospero’s head spun dizzily. Reaching out he grasped her two small round breasts in his pudgy hands and fondled them.

She broke off the kiss murmuring softly, then leaning forward, her teeth began to nibble at his ear. Her tongue traced the shape of it, darting into it as she whispered to him, “Do you want to suck my nipples, my lord?” Then she nipped his earlobe with sharp little teeth. “Do you?”

“Aye, my beautiful Shifra, I do,” he groaned.

“I am your slave, my dear lord,” she told him. “I live to please you.” Then she knelt with her legs on either side of his thighs and lifting a breast pushed the nipple into his mouth. With her other hand she took his hand and encouraged his fingers to play between her nether lips. Then Shifra closed her eyes so she might enjoy the sensations of his lovemaking.

Gaius Prospero suckled upon the sentient flesh of her breast. He was startled to taste a liquid sweetness flowing from it into his mouth. It was delicious! He sucked harder and harder until there was no more of the honeyed taste and he whimpered a protest.

“No, my dear lord,” she whispered to him. “The other breast is full for you. Take it. It is yours.” She invited him. “My body is yours. Only for your delight.”

His mouth eagerly closed over the other breast while his fingers played frantically with her. When he had drained the second breast she pulled his fingers away and pushed them into his mouth. The taste was the same, and he licked them clean. As he did he realized that his cock was hard and ready for her. Shifra slid beneath him and kissing him again, smiled as he began to enter her. Her virgin shield was his only impediment. He thrust through it fiercely as she cried out.

Gaius Prospero could hardly contain himself. He could scarce restrain his excitement as he plowed her depths. Shifra wrapped her slender legs about him and whispered little words of encouragement along with her cries of delight. Her arms were tight about his neck. The emperor could not believe what was happening to him. His cock was performing as it had never before done. And he could feel the pleasures welling up in preparation to flow through him until he was weak and replete with satisfaction. The girl beneath him begged him to continue on. And he was able to do so!

And then she sobbed, “My lord! My lord! Ohh, I die!” Her supple body shuddered as she reached the peak of pleasures.

With a groan of delight he followed her down the path, his juices coming in great spurts as Gaius Prospero realized that for the first time in years, for the first time since Lara had cursed him, he was enjoying a woman to the fullest degree. He had not needed Anora’s whip turning his buttocks red and hot to perform. He had not needed to give the exquisite girl in his arms pain to raise his lust. She alone had made it happen. He rolled off her lest he crush her with his weight and gathered her into his arms.

Shifra laid her head against his shoulder for a brief moment. “Oh, my lord, you gave me such delight. Thank you for permitting me to share pleasures with you.” She sat herself up against the pillows and drew him into her embrace. “Now you must rest yourself, my lord, for ruling such a varied realm such as Hetar cannot be easy for you.”

She stroked his thinning hair, kissing the top of his head.

“I will want you again tonight,” he growled at her.

“I am here for you, my dear lord,” Shifra told him. “But catch your ease for a short time and then we shall take pleasures again. To have your body joined with mine is so wonderful. I never dreamed I should find such happiness when I was taken into slavery, but in your arms all things are possible for me, my dear lord.”

Gaius Prospero was overwhelmed by her words. She had been torn from her family, roughly handled and sold as a slave, yet she thanked him. “My darling Shifra,” he said softly, “you are my treasure.” And he meant it. This petite and beautiful girl with her flowing hair was unlike any he had ever known. She was not strong and practical like Vilia. Nor was she cruel and greedy like Anora. She was grateful for his attentions and it was obvious that she cared for him, for his well-being.

Shifra looked down into his face and the emperor thought he would drown in the violet depths of her eyes. “Would I ever be permitted to love you, my lord?” she shyly asked him. “Could one day I be allowed to admit to such feelings, my dear lord?”

“Gaius,” he said to her. “You may call me your lord Gaius.” Reaching up he stroked her pale cheek, marveling at the soft texture.

“But may I be granted the right to love you, my dear lord Gaius?” Shifra asked sweetly. The smile she offered him now was tremulous and bespoke a vulnerability that made the emperor want to protect this girl from anyone or anything who would seek to harm her.

“Aye, my beautiful and sweet treasure, you may love me,” he responded. “I do not believe any woman since my mother has ever loved me.”

“Surely that is not so, my lord Gaius! You have two beautiful wives who certainly love you.”

“Vilia and Anora?” The emperor laughed harshly. “Vilia likes the power that comes with being my first wife and the mother of my children. If she could gain more power, she would. As for Anora, our relationship began in lust and what little is left of it is still no more than that. Neither of them loves me.”

“Then I will love you, my dear lord Gaius,” Shifra said ingenuously. “You are my world now. I want no more than to be in your heart and in your arms.”

“In the most trying time I have ever faced, the Celestial Actuary has rewarded me by sending you to me, my treasure. It is surely a sign that my endeavors will continue to prosper. The moment I looked at you, Shifra, you had my heart. Treat it gently.”

“I am yours,” Shifra told him. “Everything I do will be for you, to please you. Only for you, my dear lord Gaius.”

And the emperor of Hetar smiled a smile that none before had ever seen.

Chapter Five

KALIQ of the Shadows looked into the Viewing Mirror and was pleased with what he saw. The beautiful girl Shifra was performing just as he and his brothers had hoped. Her genuine sweetness, her innocence and her incomparable sexual skills were already bewitching Gaius Prospero. Hetar’s plans for conquest would be held in check for a brief time while Gaius Prospero reveled in his newly revived ability to enjoy pleasures. As much as Kaliq had regretted undoing Lara’s curse upon the Hetarian overlord, it had been necessary if Shifra was to succeed and the girl was well on her way. The emperor was as bedazzled as a youth with his first love.

For the moment, his first wife, Vilia, didn’t care. She was too busy riding Lord Jonah’s lusty cock. As for Anora, the Shadow Princes had curbed her jealousy by giving her a rather uncomfortable and most stubborn rash that at first kept her sexual organs in a heated and itchy state. And just when Anora had managed to get this difficulty under control, the rash appeared anew upon her breasts, belly and face in the form of hard purple and red bumps that when they broke, oozed stinking yellow and green pus. Anora closeted herself within her chambers allowing no one but a single unfortunate servant to share in her misery.

Kaliq could not help but chuckle although he felt a small frisson of guilt. It was a harsh punishment, but Anora had a talent for mischief, especially when she felt she was being thwarted. If she irritated the emperor enough he would leave Shifra and all of his women, returning to his plans to go to war against Terah. The only thing that could stop him would be Lara’s return and that, Kaliq knew, was many months away. The Shadow Princes and the Forest Faeries would do what they must to keep the tenuous peace among the various worlds. And so Anora suffered a plethora of bumps and rashes keeping her from Gaius Prospero, who was so besotted by Shifra he wanted nothing more than to be in her company all day and all night long.

Vilia, at her villa in the Outlands province, had a corps of spies among the imperial household who reported to her as necessary. She quickly learned of her husband’s deepening passion for the slave girl, Shifra, and considered how best to use it to her advantage. Vilia was a beautiful woman, with thick, lustrous, dark brown hair and amber eyes. Her best feature was her flawless creamy skin. She had given Gaius Prospero his only son and two daughters, but her form was still shapely. She was some years his junior, and he had divorced a wife to wed her. Hetarian law allowed a man of wealth to have as many wives as they wanted, but most of the magnates kept only two or three and usually cast off older wives to take younger.

When she had agreed to marry Gaius Prospero, who in those days was the head of the Guild of Merchants, Vilia had asked of him but one thing and he had agreed for he had been in love with her then. He could take no other wife without her express approval. And he had wanted no other wives until he had met Anora, a fair beauty, who plied her trade in one of The City’s finest Pleasure Houses. Vilia had agreed to his desire for Anora as she had long ago become bored with her husband and she had secretly taken a lover. A dangerous lover.

He was Lord Jonah, the emperor’s right hand, who had long ago been the emperor’s slave. But Jonah was far more clever than his master. He had not sprung from the lower classes of Hetar, despite his unfortunate circumstances. Indeed, he was the son of Sir Rupert Bloodaxe of the Crusader Knights and his lover, the lady Farah, a Pleasure Mistress who was now rumored to be the next headmistress of the Pleasure Guild. His mother had come from a wealthy Midlands family and was blood kin to its governor, Squire Darah. Though sold into slavery by his father’s wife when his sire died, he had purchased his freedom and then remained by the emperor’s side, encouraging Gaius Prospero in his plans, gently reining him in when those plans became foolish or risky, and all the while making his master believe that Gaius was the creator of the great destiny that was Hetar’s. Jonah was tall and slender with dark hair and burning black eyes. He had schemed to take Vilia for a lover only to learn to his delight that she wanted him. They were an ambitious pair ideally suited to one another.

As Hetar’s four moons rose over the Sea of Sagitta, the lovers lay sprawled together on a wide double chaise that was set upon a tiled terrace overlooking the water. Jonah’s slender fingers twirled themselves within Vilia’s female passage as they spoke together. Vilia murmured with each little burst of pleasure he drew forth from her.

“They say he is completely infatuated with his new toy,” she told Jonah.

“Has Anora not been able to interfere between them?” her lover asked.

“He does not need her!” Vilia exclaimed excitedly. “It seems his ability to enjoy pleasures has returned. I always thought his hysteria over that dream he had of Lara was ridiculous although I would not have thought Gaius had that much imagination. Umm…oh yes, my darling, that is nice.” Vilia shuddered delicately.

“But surely Anora would want to join them in order to protect her own status,” Jonah murmured as he licked her juices from his fingers. “After all, she is his second wife and you are not there.”

“Anora has come down with a rather unpleasant rash. She will only allow one of her servants to tend her. It is obviously quite dreadful. She can hardly interfere under those circumstances.” Then she nipped at his earlobe as he mounted her and his talented manroot slid deep. “Oh, darling, yes!” Vilia yelled as he began to use her vigorously, and when he had both taken and given pleasures they lay together contentedly. Or so Vilia thought.

It is too convenient, Jonah mused. He knew Gaius Prospero did not have the imagination to have created what Vilia believed a dream. Lara had indeed cursed the emperor and now someone had lifted that curse. And a beautiful slave girl had appeared beneath the emperor’s nose and his ability to enjoy pleasures had returned with her. And Anora, the deliciously perverted Anora, was suddenly unable to interfere. No; something else was going on here, but Jonah could not figure it out. Yet. He shrugged to himself. It was probably something magical and Jonah was wise enough to know he could not fight magic. Perhaps Lara had had a change of heart. Well, someone had.

“Perhaps,” he said to Vilia, “it is time to return to The City, my darling. If we are to plan a campaign against Terah, then we must begin soon. Before summer begins.”

“There is time,” Vilia replied. “We do not often have the luxury of time together, my love. I could wish it were otherwise. I am tired of hiding our passion!”

“Vilia, my adorable Vilia,” Jonah gently scolded her. “Listen to me and heed what I say to you. If it was known we were lovers we could both be executed. And frankly, Gaius cannot do without us, although he doesn’t know it. In time I will take his throne from him and you, my Vilia, will rule by my side as my empress. I will have no hesitation as he has in placing you there. And I will take no other to my bed, Vilia.”

“And I will give you a son to follow us, Jonah,” Vilia told him. “Together, you and I will found a dynasty. In a thousand years the name of Gaius Prospero will not even be remembered, but the Jonah dynasty will still rule!” She kissed him passionately.

The Jonah dynasty, he thought and felt a thrill run through him. This was why he adored the woman in his arms so much. She had an eye on the future, and it was not a small future but a great one that would last at least a thousand years. “You do not want your son, Aubin, to rule one day?” he asked her.

“Nay,” Vilia told him. “Aubin is too much like his father. And he is both young and foolish enough not to need anyone else’s council. I know that without you, my darling Jonah, Gaius Prospero would not be emperor of Hetar. It is you who have advised him, led him and put him on his throne. But he has been but a means to an end for you, my darling. Now we must begin planning your future.” And she kissed him again.

He kissed her back with equal passion and finding one of her plump breasts he squeezed it hard. “Yes, my Vilia,” he told her. Then his manroot sought for her again and Vilia welcomed him with a glad cry into her body.

In the morning when she awoke, he was gone. He was so very discreet in his comings and goings that none of her servants ever knew he was there. He would have returned to his own villa. She knew he would go from there to The City today for he would not have left her so early otherwise. Vilia sighed. She longed for the day when they did not have to hide. The day she would sit by his side and rule over Hetar.

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