The Sorceress of Belmair

Bertrice Small

www.millsandboon.co.uk

For all those readers who love Lara and her world.

Thank you.

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

THE OLD KING of Belmair was coming to the end of his days. He sensed it. And as he had lived over eight hundred years it did not seem to him like such a great matter. But he was leaving his world in even poorer condition than he had inherited it. He knew what needed to be done, but he had never quite been able to bring himself to do it. Now, however, as the purple sands in the great hourglass representing his life that sat in the king’s chamber ebbed away to almost nothing, the king knew he must act before it was too late. If it was not already too late.

“Send for the dragon,” the king said to the chief footman who stood next to his throne.

“Send for the dragon!” the chief footman said to the second footman who repeated the command to the third footman, and so on until the order had reached the last footman in the line within the chamber.

Opening the door the last footman called out, “Send for the dragon!”

And then they all waited in silence. After some time had passed one of the dragon’s servants, dressed in bronze-gold livery, ran into the room and up to the king’s throne.

“My mistress is sleeping, Your Majesty. It will take some time to awaken her for it has been a long while since you have sought her counsel,” the servant said.

“Are you a servant of the first rank?” the king asked.

“I certainly am!” the servant assured the king. “My mistress would allow no one of lesser stature to speak to Your Majesty. Though she sleeps, the protocols are always and ever observed.”

“How long will it be before she is awakened?” the king asked.

“I’m afraid it will be several days, Your Majesty,” the servant answered, his tone holding just the proper amount of regret. “She tends to sleep heavily.”

“Time enough,” the king replied pleasantly. “Send to me before she comes.”

“Of course, Your Majesty,” the dragon’s servant said, and then bowing, he backed from the chamber.

As he did, he was passed by a beautiful young woman who hurried into the king’s presence. She was tall and slender with the grace of a willow. Pale as moonlight, her long hair, which was worn loose, was as black as the night, and her eyes were as green as spring. She was dressed in a flowing gown of violet silk.

“You have sent for the dragon, Father?” she said as she came.

“I have. It is past time, my dear Cinnia, that I did so,” the king told his only child.

“You know what she will say,” Cinnia responded. “She has said it before, but you would not listen. Will you listen now, Father?”

The old king sighed. “I have no choice now but to listen,” he admitted.

“But will you follow her advice, Father?” Cinnia persisted.

“I fear I must,” the king replied, and he sighed again. “My time is coming to a close, Daughter. Look to my glass. A successor must be chosen to follow me. It is the dragon’s duty to choose the next king of Belmair, and it is your duty to wed my successor.”

Now it was the girl who sighed deeply. “I do not know,” she said, “why a queen cannot rule Belmair, Father. I am as good a sorceress as any male sorcerer.”

The king nodded. “It is true, Daughter, that you have strong powers, but tradition dictates that a king rule Belmair.”

“Can tradition not be changed, Father?” Cinnia asked seriously.

“Tradition, Daughter, is what keeps our society civilized,” the king reminded her. “Remember our history, my child. The last of our kind to challenge tradition, to cause dissent among our peoples, were sent from Belmair. We do not want to be like them now, do we? Their lives were shortened when they left here, and they have been gone for so many centuries now that they have forgotten their own history. They do not remember from where they came, yet in their overweening pride believe themselves superior to all others in the world in which they live. Worse, they have changed little. They are still contentious.” His eyes began to grow heavy. He slumped in his chair. “I am weary, Cinnia. Leave me now,” the old king said.

“Are you all right?” she asked him anxiously. “Shall I call the physician?” Her small hand felt his forehead to see if he was feverish.

A small chuckle escaped him. “Nay, Daughter. I am neither ill nor quite ready to die. Look to the glass. There is yet enough purple sand in it giving me the time I will need to speak with the dragon. To meet with my successor. I am just old and tired.”

Cinnia moved closer to the old king, and bending, kissed his withered cheek. “I’ll call Samuel, and he will help you to your bed, Father. The king of Belmair should not sleep upon his throne. It takes away from your dignity.”

“As you will, Daughter,” he answered her. “As you will.” And his gnarled old hand waved her from his presence.

1

THE DRAGON FINALLY OPENED her eyes. Turning, she found her servant standing by her bed, waiting. She yawned and stretched lazily. “How long have I slept, Tavey?” she asked her servant, yawning again.

“A little over a hundred years, mistress,” Tavey replied. “The king has called for you. He is in need of your counsel. The purple sand in his hourglass is almost gone.”

“Humph,” the dragon replied. “How typical of Fflergant,” she said. “For all his bleating about tradition he has never done anything in a timely and correct manner. Now as his days end he calls for me. I have advised all the kings of Belmair since time began, but never have I dealt with one such as this king.”

“Perhaps,” Tavey ventured, “it was meant to be this way, mistress. Have you not always said that everything happens for a specific reason?”

The dragon arose from her bed. Her name was Nidhug, and had she allowed herself to appear in all her glory she would have stood higher than her own castle. For simplicity’s sake she used her own magic to stand no taller than eight feet. It allowed her to enter the king of Belmair’s residence easily as the chambers there were only twelve feet high. “You know me too well,” she said. “How long have you served me, Tavey?”

“Since the beginning of time, mistress,” he answered her with just the faintest smile touching his thin lips.

“Humph,” Nidhug responded. She stretched out her hands. “You have kept my claws nicely trimmed,” she noted. “And my scales are quite supple.”

“I have oiled them weekly, mistress,” Tavey said. “Sleeping should not negate your need for maintenance. You are the Great Dragon of Belmair, mistress.”

“How long ago did Fflergant call for me?” Nidhug asked her servant.

“Five days ago, mistress,” Tavey responded.

The dragon stretched again, opening her delicate gold wings and extending them briefly before refolding them. She was a very beautiful creature, her scales an iridescent sea-blue and spring-green. The crest upon her head was purple and gold. She had beautiful dark eyes swirled with both gold and silver, and thick, heavy eyelashes that clearly indicated her gender. “Tell Fflergant that I will come to see him in the third hour after the dawn tomorrow morning,” she told Tavey. “But before you go to him, tell the cook I will have two dozen sheep, a dozen sides of beef, a wheel of sharp yellow cheese and six cakes soaked in sweet wine for my dinner. Oh! And a nice salad, too, Tavey,” Nidhug said. “I am in the mood for greens tonight.”

“At once, mistress,” the servant said, and hurried from the chamber to first speak with the dragon’s cook. “She’s awake,” he said, entering the kitchens and giving the cook the order for his mistress’s dinner.

“Is she ill?” the cook wanted to know. “’Tis scarcely a mouthful.”

“It was only a nap,” Tavey said. “Add a few dozen roast geese and capons to the order if it pleases you. She could very well discover she is hungrier than she thought, and will thank you for thinking of it,” he said. Then he slipped out the kitchen door to cross the dragon’s gardens, which led into the king’s gardens and into the king’s castle. Before he could find the king, however, he met the king’s daughter, the sorceress Cinnia.

“Is she awake?” Cinnia asked immediately upon seeing Tavey.

“Yes, my lady, she is.”

“When will she see my father? The sands seem to be moving faster,” Cinnia said.

“Come with me, and you will learn the answer to your question,” Tavey said.

“Tell me!” Cinnia demanded.

Tavey turned and looked at her. “You are not the king of Belmair, my lady, and my message is for the king, not his daughter.”

Cinnia’s green eyes narrowed, but the dragon’s servant stood his ground. “I should be Belmair’s next ruler,” she said darkly.

“Belmair has never been ruled by a woman,” Tavey replied quietly, and he began to walk toward the king’s chamber once again.

“Does that mean it shouldn’t?” Cinnia said.

“It is not our tradition, my lady,” her companion replied. “The dragon has always chosen Belmair’s kings. When there has been no son as has happened in this case the dragon chooses a suitable man, and if there is a king’s daughter and she is unmarried, then she weds the new king so that the blood of the old king continues on as will happen for you, my lady. It is a good and sensible tradition, and has kept peace on Belmair.”

Cinnia said nothing more. What was there to say? Her fate had suddenly be taken out of her hands. She was Belmair’s most respected sorceress, but she no longer had any control over her own life. If she attempted to defy tradition she would be punished. The dragon’s magic was far greater than was Cinnia’s, and she was more than well aware of it for it had been the dragon who had taught her.

Reaching the king’s privy chamber, they entered. Fflergant looked pale, but seeing Tavey, he seemed to perk up.

Tavey bowed to the king. “My mistress has just awakened, and, learning of your need, has told me to tell you she will be here in the third hour after the dawn tomorrow.”

“Thank her for me, and tell her I eagerly await her coming,” the king replied. Then he fell back among his pillows, and his eyes closed again.

Tavey looked to the great hourglass. The purple sand was almost all gone now. When the last grain of it dropped from the top to the bottom it would turn silver, and the king would die. He bowed again, and backed out of the chamber.

Cinnia went to her father’s side. “You cannot die before this is decided,” she said. “It is tradition. And you cannot die before you have passed your authority to your successor. That, too, is tradition on Belmair.”

“I have almost waited too long,” Fflergant said weakly. “My pride could not admit to the fact that I was getting old, Daughter. But my time is very close now. I heard your mother singing again in my dreams last night. She is waiting for me.”

“And you will be with her soon enough, Father,” Cinnia said softly, her eyes welling with tears. “But do not leave me until you have met this man who I must wed and who will be Belmair’s next king.”

“There can be no delay,” the king told his daughter. “Once he is chosen and brought to the castle, the marriage must take place. My last breath as king will be his first breath as king. That is also tradition, Cinnia.”

The young woman nodded. “I chafe against it, but I will not break with tradition, Father. I will not be like those exiled from us so long ago,” she promised him.

“I am relieved to hear it,” the old king said with some small humor. “I know how difficult it is for you, my daughter, for you are not a woman to sit by her loom weaving contentedly. Nidhug has taught you well, and you are a great sorceress.”

“I show promise, the dragon says,” Cinnia responded with a chuckle.

“I wonder who she will choose to follow me,” the old king said.

“What are your thoughts on the matter, Daughter?”

The young woman considered, and then she shook her head. “I can name no one I would choose to follow you, Father. Unless there is someone in one of the three provinces I do not know of, I can think of none. Its dukes are ancient, and long wed.”

“Memory fails me, Daughter. Do any have sons?” the old king asked.

“Only Dreng of Beltran,” Cinnia answered, “but he is long wed.”

“How odd,” the old king said thoughtfully. “In a time when a king is needed it would appear there is none to be had.”

“Perhaps tradition is about to change,” Cinnia suggested mischievously, “and a queen will follow you.”

“If that be so,” replied her father, “the queen still needs a husband if she is to produce the next king. Even all your sorcery cannot give you a child without a man.”

“We can make all the suppositions we want to make,” Cinnia said. “Only the dragon can tell us what is to come, Father. Even I acknowledge that. I am sorry she did not come tonight, but I know how hungry she is after one of her little naps. She must eat before she can consider the solution to our problem.”

And Nidhug was indeed enjoying her evening feast. She praised the cook lavishly for her presence of mind in including the poultry offerings. “No one, Sarabeth,” she said to the cook, “can roast a goose as you do.” She popped a whole bird into her mouth, crunching down upon it, her thin tongue whipping out to lick her lips. “Delicious!” Nidhug pronounced as she swallowed the goose. “And capon, too! Is it stuffed?”

“Of course, mistress, and with that apple and walnut stuffing you so like,” the cook replied, forgetting entirely that it had been Tavey’s suggestion to include a bit of poultry. “I only did two of them, but I roasted two ducks in the plum sauce you favor, as well,” Sarabeth told the dragon.

“Excellent!” the dragon said. “I shall need all my strength tomorrow, for the king is not an easy man to deal with, I fear.”

When the dragon had finished her meal she went up upon the battlements of her castle and stretched to her full height. Then unfolding her delicate wings she rose up into the night sky. Belmair possessed twin moons. One of silver, one of gold. Their phases were identical, and tonight they shone in their first quarter, lighting the landscape below her as she flew. Peace flowed through the dragon’s veins as she looked down.

Belmair was not a large world. It consisted of four islands of varying size set in a great sea. The largest island, which bore the name of Belmair, was the king’s land. The three provinces were the smaller islands of Beldane, Belia and Beltran. Beldane was a lovely land of valleys, gentle hills and glens. Belia was mountainous. Beltran consisted mostly of great tracts of forest and meadows. Each province was ruled over by a ducal family, and each duke answered to the king.

The kings of Belmair did not always follow a familial succession. From the beginnings of time as far back as the Belmairans could remember, it was a dragon who had chosen the king from among the ducal families. And if the preceding king had a daughter of marriageable age the new king was required to wed her.

Once many centuries back, a king designate had been betrothed to a woman he loved when he had been chosen to be king. The betrothed maiden was willing to step aside for her beloved’s sake for no one chosen by the dragon to be Belmair’s king could refuse the honor. The previous king’s daughter was willing to give up her place for she saw the love the king designate had for his betrothed, and she was a maiden with a kind heart. The dragon settled the matter by sitting both maidens in a pen filled with peas. Somewhere among the peas was a pearl. Whoever found the pearl would be the king’s bride. The rumor was that the princess, finding the pearl first, surreptitiously pushed it into the other girl’s view thus giving up her place. The dragon, who knew all, saw the princess married to the young duke of Beltran, who was also in need of a wife, and blessed her with healthy children and many happy years with her husband to reward her for her good and thoughtful heart.

The dragon stopped to rest herself upon a mountaintop in the duchy of Belia. It was spring, and the snows were melting. The sea surrounding the island, visible from her perch, sparkled in the dappled moonlight. She closed her eyes briefly and breathed deeply of the fresh mountain air. There had been but one Great Dragon of Belmair before her—her father. And when her time was over there would be another Great Dragon, but as she had yet had the inclination to raise a hatchling, she knew she would continue her watch over Belmair into the distant future.

The problem before her was to choose a successor for King Fflergant. But there was no successor here on Belmair. She knew each ducal family, and she knew all the men in those ducal families. But none of those males was the next king. She might have changed tradition and chosen Cinnia to be Belmair’s queen. But Cinnia, while a great sorceress although Nidhug would never tell her so, was not capable of ruling Belmair no matter what the girl thought.

“Greetings, Nidhug. How beautiful you are in the moonlight,” an elegant voice said, and then Kaliq, the great Shadow Prince of Hetar, laughed as the dragon’s eyes flew open with her surprise to see him standing before her. “My lord Kaliq, I greet you in friendship,” Nidhug told him.

“What brings you to Belmair?” Indeed what did bring him to Belmair? She had not seen him in at least a thousand years. Kaliq of the Shadows did not come casually. There was a purpose to his visit. And to come at this particular time? He had intrigued her as he always did.

“The purple sands in Fflergant’s glass are almost gone,” Kaliq began. “You need a king, and there is no king at this time here in Belmair, is there?”

The dragon shook her head. “Nay, there is no one, my lord Kaliq.”

“That is because Belmair’s new king is in my palace, Nidhug,” the prince said.

“He is Hetarian?” This could not be!

“He is my son,” the Shadow Prince surprised the dragon by saying. “His mother is called Lara. She is the daughter of Ilona, queen of the Forest Faeries in Hetar, and of a Hetarian called John Swiftsword. Lara has always believed that Dillon was the son of her first husband, Vartan of the Fiacre. We were once lovers long ago, and I told her that we Shadow Princes no longer reproduced. But how could I deny myself the joy of having a son with her for she was perfect. I left my seed in Lara, and when she was ready to give Vartan a child that seed bloomed. I saw to it that the boy had Vartan’s coloring, and when people looked at him as a boy they saw Vartan through the magic with which I surrounded him.”

Kaliq chuckled. “Lara has always thought Dillon gained his magic through her and her faerie blood. But he has my blood, too. He came to me for training when he was twelve. He is now twenty-two, and a great sorcerer. The perfect king for Belmair, and the perfect mate for the fair Cinnia, the sorceress of Belmair.”

“She is a great sorceress,” Nidhug said proudly. “I have taught her myself. But a Hetarian as Belmair’s king? I do not know, my lord Kaliq.”

“He was not born in Hetar, nor has he ever lived there. He was born in the Outlands into the Clan Fiacre. He was raised by the Fiacre, and later in Terah by his mother and his stepfather, Magnus Hauk, its Dominus. And for almost half his life he has lived with me.”

Nidhug nodded, but then she said, “For all its lands with their differences it is still considered the world of Hetar, and the boy’s grandsire was Hetarian.”

“With faerie blood in his veins, as well,” Kaliq responded. “Trust me, Nidhug. Dillon is meant to be Belmair’s new king and Cinnia’s husband.”

“Show him to me,” the dragon said quietly.

The prince held out his palm, and blew into it until a large iridescent bubble had formed itself into a perfect sphere. Then he gently waved his hand over it.

The dragon peered into it and saw a handsome young man with dark hair and blue eyes. He sat on a bench in earnest conversation with a lovely young girl while three young children played about them. “Who are the others?” Nidhug asked.

“The girl he speaks with is his sister, Anoush, daughter of Vartan. The other three are Magnus Hauk’s offspring. The older girl is Zagiri, and the twins are Taj and Marzina.”

“The twins are quite dissimilar,” the dragon noted.

“Yes,” the prince replied. “Kol, the Twilight Lord, caught Lara on the Dream Plain, and implanted his seed within her. As her husband had just gotten her with child that seed quickly took root, and the children were born together, and assumed to be twins.”

“I thought Kol was imprisoned,” the dragon said.

“He is now,” Kaliq told her. “And he has been forbidden from the Dream Plain for what he did there.”

The dragon nodded. “This is an interesting family whose blood you would mix into Belmair,” she said drily. She peered more closely. The young man was fair of face and sturdy of form. Was he strong enough, however, to rule both Belmair and its sorceress? “Can he wield the power of a Belmairan king firmly? He looks to be a gentle man. But he cannot be! You are asking me to introduce a stranger into Belmair as its new king. The ducal families will not be pleased by a decision such as this.”

“Only Dreng of Beltran has a son,” Kaliq said. “And he is married.”

“But all three dukes have grandsons,” the dragon pointed out.

“Most are not old enough to be king, and the two who are could not control Cinnia,” the great Shadow Prince said quietly. “Fflergant’s sands will be gone in less than three days, Nidhug. Do you think I did not know this time was coming? I did not give Lara my son on a purely sentimental whim.”

“Does he know?” the dragon asked candidly.

“He will before he comes to Belmair,” Kaliq answered her. “I believe he has suspected it, though, for the last few years.”

“And his mother?”

Kaliq smiled. “In time, Nidhug. Lara has only partly fulfilled the destiny that was planned for her. In time she will, but for now it is Belmair’s future we must concern ourselves with. Have you seen enough?”

The dragon looked a final time into the bubble. “He is loving,” she said. “Tender with his three sisters, and thoughtful of the little boy. I can only hope you are correct, my lord prince, and that your son is strong enough to master Cinnia. If he can then he will rule Belmair well. She would be queen of Belmair in her own right, you know. Swear to me that your fatherly pride has not blinded you.”

Kaliq blew gently upon the bubble and it dissolved. “I love him well, I will admit, but he is strong, I promise you, Nidhug. He will be one of Belmair’s great kings.” Reaching out he placed his hand on the dragon’s forehead between her two eyes pressing the heel of it firmly against her skin. “Here is all the knowledge that you will need to know,” he said. “We will speak again soon.” Removing his hand from her forehead, he disappeared from her sight.

The dragon stood for a moment longer, absorbing the knowledge the prince had transferred into her head. Then she looked up at the star she knew as Hetar. It was a crystalline-blue, and it twinkled coldly in the black silk night sky. She would be fortunate not to have an insurrection on her hands when she announced that the next king of Belmair was a Hetarian. While Hetar had lost the history of its beginnings, Belmair knew that history well. Those who called themselves Hetarians were not originally of that world. They had been Belmairans once. But they had chafed against tradition, and caused such trouble among the world’s people that the king of that day had gathered them all up, placed them into a bubble and sent them to the world of Hetar.

She had never bothered to consider exactly what had happened to them because it didn’t matter as long as they were no longer able to cause trouble for Belmair; Kaliq had given her that knowledge when he had touched her forehead. For centuries in their arrogance and pride, the Hetarians had existed in another bubble of sorts, believing themselves the only denizens of their world but for a people they called Outlanders.

The Outlanders and the Terahns were Hetar’s original inhabitants. Like the Hetarians, the lord of the Dark Lands had come later. But now all knew that the other existed. The women of Hetar were in revolt against the government that kept them subjugated because of their sex, as their ancestors had once been in revolt against the ruler of Belmair for wanting change. And from this madness the next king would come.

Nidhug shook her head. She had to trust the great Shadow Prince, for of all the creatures in the cosmos he was the one who stood highest in the Originator’s favor. If he said Dillon of Hetar was to be Belmair’s next king, then it must be so. The dragon unfolded her golden wings again and rose into the night sky to fly back to her castle. The dawn was just beginning to pull at the edges of the sky when she gained her own battlements. As her large, clawed feet touched the stone roof she shrank down to a more manageable and less frightening size.

Watching her come, Tavey marveled at the beauty and the magnificence of his mistress. He stepped forward immediately as she landed, bowing. “Your oil bath is ready, mistress. And Sarabeth has prepared a small breakfast for you,” he told her.

“I will soak my scales first,” Nidhug told him. “Will there be cinnamon rolls?”

“Only three trays, mistress. The cook thought that while you would be hungry this morning, you would not want to feel too full. She’s done a nice kettle of porridge, two hams and four dozen boiled eggs for you, as well.”

“How well you all care for me,” Nidhug said, feeling a bit sentimental. “Aye, I will need to be on my toes this morning, given what I must tell Fflergant and his daughter. Send for the dukes. They must be here tomorrow morning to be told the name of the next king. Now, I must have my soak. My scales are dry from the wind.” She hurried off.

When she had soaked for an hour up to her jowls in the warm oil, Nidhug felt refreshed. Arising from the large oval marble tub the dragon let her serving women gently rub the oil into her skin and blot away the excess. Then she repaired to her dining room for her morning meal, and having finished it she prepared to depart for the king’s castle. She would walk across the gardens that separated the two castles, giving her time to consider exactly how she would approach the matter of succession. By the time she had reached Fflergant’s castle and the throne room, she knew exactly what she must say.

“I called for you almost a full week ago,” the old king said by way of greeting.

“And good morrow to you, Your Majesty,” the dragon replied. She glanced at the hourglass and caught her breath. He was almost gone.

“Who will follow me?” Fflergant demanded to know. “Cinnia tells me that the dukes have no sons but one. What of grandsons? The dukes must have grandsons.”

“They do,” the dragon said, “but none are suitable. Several are already wed, and the rest too young to be either king of Belmair, or a husband.”

“How young?” the king wanted to know.

“The oldest of them is eleven, Your Majesty,” the dragon answered.

“Eleven. In three years he would be mature enough to be a husband,” Fflergant said. “And in the meantime there could be a regency to rule for him.”

“I will turn him into a toad,” Cinnia said darkly. “You will not wed me to a child, Father. It is past time for the tradition of kings only rule Belmair to change. You have no other choice. I must be Belmair’s queen in my own right. I will not take a little boy for a husband and then be told what to do by a regent’s counsel. I am seventeen, not twelve.”

“What other choice have we?” her father asked, desperately looking to the dragon.

“It is not a question of choice for Belmair,” the dragon said. “It is my decision who rules. The Great Dragon of Belmair has always determined its king from the beginnings of time, and I am the Great Dragon, Nidhug XXII. Fflergant of Belmair will be followed by Dillon, son of Kaliq of the Shadows.”

“A Hetarian?” the old king gasped, and fell back in his throne. A dozen grains of purple sand remained in the top half of the life glass.

Seeing how near to death Fflergant was, the dragon stopped the sands flow.

Cinnia noted Nidhug’s action, and looked to her mentor questioningly.

“I am permitted to do such in extreme cases,” Nidhug explained softly, and the girl nodded. Then the dragon turned to the old king. “Your Majesty, I know this must seem more than odd, but you must trust me as did your last three predecessors. The son of Kaliq of the Shadows is meant to be Belmair’s next king. His mother is a faerie woman called Lara. She was born in the faerie forest, and raised by her Hetarian father, who also has faerie blood. She is a great woman who has always used her powers for the good. Lara’s mother is Ilona, queen of the Forest Faeries. Dillon is more than worthy of your daughter. He is fair to look upon, and has lived twenty-two years.”

“I will not wed a Hetarian,” Cinnia said. “They are a cursed race, Nidhug, and you are mad to even suggest it. He will bring discord to Belmair. Is that not why we sent his ancestors from our world? If you try to force me to this I will find a way to kill him.”

“The Sorceress of Belmair should be wed only to a great sorcerer,” Nidhug told the girl in a quiet voice. “It was your ancestors who exiled the dissenters from this world, sending them to the place you called Hetar, and now you scornfully refer to them as Hetarians. But that world already had a people upon it. People much like the Belmairans. They are Terahns, and they called their world Terah. They prefer peace to war. They are artisans and simple folk content to be with themselves. And until recently the two peoples knew little of each other. In Hetar, except for those who call themselves Coastal kings, none of the Hetarians knew of the Terahns. Dillon’s mother changed all that for it is she who is meant to eventually unite the world upon which she lives into one world of peace, unity and prosperity. It is not an easy task, and even she is not aware of her full destiny yet. This union between you and her son is meant to be, Cinnia. You cannot refuse it. If you do then you must be exiled from Belmair.”

Cinnia flushed with an anger that threatened to overwhelm her, but then as Nidhug’s words sunk in she grew even paler than she normally was. “I would be sent from here?” she whispered, frightened. But then her courage returned, and she stamped her foot. “You give me a choice between marriage to a Hetarian, or exile? Is it not your duty to protect Belmair? Protect its people? Its ruler? Me?”

“Aye,” the dragon said, small puffs of smoke coming forth from her carved nostrils. Cinnia’s selfish childishness was beginning to annoy her, and she had to struggle with herself not to become angry. “You have been given a choice, sorceress. Marriage or exile. But either way, Dillon of the Shadows will rule next in Belmair.”

Cinnia glared defiantly at the Great Dragon. She wanted to tell Nidhug to go to Limbo. She wanted to scream with her frustration, and her outrage. Belmair needed no foreign king. It was she who should be her world’s next ruler. Cinnia, the sorceress of Belmair, had been born to be its queen! But then she felt the cold, weak touch of her father’s hand on her hand.

“Tradition, Daughter. Tradition,” the old king murmured weakly.

Their eyes met. Hers were angry. His were pleading, and for a moment her resistance dissolved. She had no way to defeat her mentor, and accepting exile would serve no purpose, for if Nidhug had chosen him then this Dillon would be king of Belmair. If she left some other girl would be his queen, and that knowledge was not pleasing to Cinnia. “I will do my duty and marry this man,” she finally said.

“You have chosen wisely as I knew you would,” the dragon replied. “The dukes have been sent for, and will be here on the morrow to learn of my decision.”

“They will be no more pleased with it than I am,” Cinnia said sourly.

“Certainly that is true,” the dragon agreed, “but they surely know there is no other choice. There are no suitable males to follow Fflergant.”

Ping.

The dragon turned at the sound. A single grain of purple sand had fallen from the top to the bottom of the life glass. Eleven grains remained. “You must be wed before the day is out, my child,” Nidhug said. “Even my magic cannot hold back what must be, and the new king must be in Belmair when the old king breathes his last.” She closed her eyes and silently called out to Kaliq, the great Shadow Prince, to come to her.

“I am here, Nidhug,” the prince said as he materialized from the umbrages of the dim room. He went immediately to Fflergant. “Ah, yes, I see your problem. He is close. Greetings, King Fflergant of Belmair. I am Kaliq of the Shadows. I am going to stop time just briefly so I may go and fetch your successor.” With a gentle wave of his hand Kaliq did exactly that. Even the dragon was caught in his spell. He paused a moment to look closely at Cinnia. She was lovely, and his son deserved no less. Turning, he slipped back into the shadows of the chamber, emerging in his own palace.

“Dillon,” he called out. “Come to me now.”

“I am here, my lord prince,” Dillon said as he appeared in a puff of pale green smoke. “How may I serve you this day?”

“Sit down,” the prince said. “We must talk, and there is not much time.” When the young man had settled himself, Kaliq said without preamble, “You are not the son of Vartan of the Fiacre. You are my son, although you mother is unaware of this.” To the prince’s surprise Dillon smiled.

“Thank you,” Dillon said. “I have suspected as much for several years now, but I dared not speak until you did. As much as I love my mother and my grandmother, it was unlikely that the powers I possess came just from the faerie side of my heritage. They are far too strong, and grow stronger. But why do you tell me this now, my lord? Something has changed. What is it?”

“The great star we call Belmair is another world, Dillon. And you are to be king of that world. Even now its old king lies dying. It is your fate to take his place and to wed his daughter. Belmair is protected by a Great Dragon. Her name is Nidhug, and she has trained the sorceress of Belmair in some of the same arts as I have tutored you. We will speak more on this later this evening, but for now you must come with me to catch the last breath of the old king, and then marry his daughter immediately. There is not much time left.”

Dillon swallowed hard. “Does my mother know of this?” he asked.

“No,” Kaliq said. “I lost track of time, my son, and did not realize Fflergant’s death was so close. Come!” The prince flung open his great white cape, and Dillon obediently stepped inside of it.

As the cloak swirled around the two men, Dillon said, “You might have given me a bit more warning, my lord father. What if I don’t like the girl?”

“She already hates you—” the prince chuckled “—for she would be queen of Belmair in her own right. Beware of her until you have won her over.” He tossed the garment open once again.

Dillon found himself in a square chamber that was softly lit. On one wall was a throne in which a frail old man half sat, half reclined. A young girl, frozen in position, stood near him. On the other side of the throne was a very small dragon, equally still.

“I have frozen time briefly,” the prince explained. “The girl is called Cinnia. The dragon Nidhug uses her magic to keep her size small while she is in the company of people. When you become friends she will allow you to see her in all her glory. She is quite magnificent, Dillon, and very wise. It was her decision that you be Belmair’s next king, for it is her duty to make the choice. Trust her. She will be your ally.” He waved his hand gently once again, and the chamber came to life.

Ping.

Cinnia gasped.

Ping. Ping.

“Cinnia, sorceress of Belmair, I bring you my son, Dillon, sorcerer of the Shadows. Will you have him as your husband?” Prince Kaliq asked.

Cinnia nodded, glancing quickly at the handsome stranger.

“Speak the words,” Nidhug said softly.

“I, Cinnia, sorceress of Belmair, accept Dillon of the Shadows for my husband, and for my king,” the girl said aloud.

“Fflergant, King of Belmair, will you accept Dillon of the Shadows as your successor and as the new king of Belmair?” Nidhug asked the old man.

“I do!” he cried loudly with the last of his strength.

Ping! Ping!

Six grains of purple sand remained in the glass.

“Dillon of the Shadows,” Nidhug said, “do you accept the crown of Belmair, and all it entails?”

“I do,” Dillon answered.

“Will you have Cinnia, the sorceress of Belmair, as your wife?”

“I will,” Dillon replied. He had hardly even looked at the girl.

Ping. Ping. Ping!

“Then take the last breath of Fflergant as he breathes it,” the dragon replied. “As he, and all the kings of Belmair have taken the last breath of those who preceded them.”

Dillon stepped up on the dais containing the throne. The old man’s eyes were closed now. Dillon bent down, and opening his mouth took the old king’s last breaths into his body as Fflergant breathed them.

Ping! Ping! PING!

As the sound echoed throughout the room the old king suddenly faded away, leaving the chair empty. The sand in the glass next to the throne turned silver, and then it, too, disappeared. And then suddenly the top of the life glass was filled so full with a new supply of purple sand that no grains were able to begin dropping right away.

Cinnia began to cry. Dillon went to her and attempted to comfort her, but she pushed him away angrily. “Leave me be. My father is dead, and I am wed to a stranger.”

“You are a stranger to me, too,” Dillon reminded her.

“But your father is not dead!” Cinnia sobbed.

“Nay, but until today I thought he was,” Dillon said.

Startled Cinnia stopped weeping, and looked at him. “What do you mean?” she asked him.

Dillon smiled. “It is a tale for another day, lady. Now we must mourn the good man who was your father. Tell me of your traditions so we may follow them.”

“We have none where death is concerned for at death our bodies simply evaporate here on Belmair. Even the life glass of the king has refilled itself with the death of my father. If we go into the Hall of the Kings now we will find a marble bust of Fflergant in the place designated for it. There will be a new empty alcove waiting for you when your reign comes to an end,” Cinnia explained. She wiped her eyes. “We do not celebrate death here in Belmair. We celebrate life. My father was a good king. He will be remembered as such, but he is gone. No further mention will be made of him.”

Dillon nodded. “Thank you for explaining that to me,” he said quietly.

“Nidhug and I will leave you two to become acquainted,” Kaliq said. “I will rejoin you for the meal later.” Then, taking the arm of the dragon, the Shadow Prince walked from the small throne room.

“I am twenty-two,” Dillon said when they were alone.

“I am seventeen,” Cinnia responded.

With a wave of his hand he conjured a perfect white rose, and offered it to her.

Cinnia glared at the rose, and it withered and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

“Surely you do not mean to make a puerile attempt to woo me?” she said scornfully.

“Considering that we do not know one another yet are wed, aye, I was attempting to make a small effort on your behalf,” Dillon responded. And he held out his hand to her. From his fingers hung a beautiful necklace of green stones that matched her eyes.

Cinnia sniffed, pointed a finger and the necklace shattered into dust.

A kitten appeared in his outstretched palm.

She hissed, and it turned into a writhing viper.

Dillon flung the viper into the air, and they were showered with a burst of pink snowflakes.

Cinnia laughed aloud and he grinned back at her. Then she grew solemn. “It isn’t you, my lord. I am simply angry at this turn of events.”

“You wished to be queen of Belmair in your own right,” Dillon said quietly.

“Yes!”

“But tradition dictates Belmair be ruled only by a king,” he continued.

Cinnia nodded. “It isn’t fair! I am the sorceress of Belmair, and I would be a good queen to my people. There was no males available from the ducal families, and then Nidhug said I must marry a Hetarian and he would be the new king. Hetarians are an anathema on Belmair.”

“Why?” Dillon asked her, and he drew her down onto the dais’s steps where they might sit comfortably while they spoke.

“Aeons ago, those we now call Hetarians were citizens of Belmair,” Cinnia began.

“But certain of them grew overly proud. They began to question our traditions and the authority of the king. They wanted to make changes that went against our ways. The king then, his name was Flann, gathered up the troublemakers one spring night. They were placed in an enormous bubble and sent to your world, which is the star we call Hetar. This history is taught to every child born here. Bad children are threatened by their mothers who tell them that they will end up on Hetar if they do not behave.”

Dillon laughed. “You cannot know how terrible a threat that is,” he told her.

“You are not of Hetarian blood?” Cinnia asked.

“I have some of their blood through my mother’s father, but then he also had faerie blood,” Dillon answered her. “I was raised in the Outlands and in Terah until I was twelve. Then I was sent to Kaliq for my training. I did not know until a little while ago that he was my father. I was raised to believe that Vartan, lord of the Fiacre, was my father. Even my own mother does not know the truth. I barely remember Vartan, but I have had a good stepfather in the Dominus of Terah, Magnus Hauk. And my mother is an incredible woman. She has great powers.”

“What will she think when your father tells her where you are, what you are to be and that you have a wife who is a sorceress?” Cinnia wanted to know.

“At first she will be angry that Kaliq planned this without consulting her. But she will be far angrier when she learns the truth of my paternity,” Dillon said with a smile. “My mother has been cursed, or blessed if you will, with a destiny that is not yet fulfilled. It has taken her many places. She has had great adventures, and done marvelous things. But she does not like being at the mercy of a greater power. Did you?”

“No, I did not,” Cinnia admitted.

“I find your tale of how Hetarians came to be rather interesting, for that is not at all the story told on Hetar,” Dillon said.

“We know they have forgotten this world. It was meant that they forget. We did not want them returning to cause havoc once again,” Cinnia said. “But tell me what they say of their beginnings.” She shifted against him, stretching herself briefly.

“It is said Hetar was once a world of clouds and fog. That the Shadow Princes came from those mists, and for generations mated with the faerie races they found there. When the day came that the clouds evaporated and Hetar was visible to all, it was discovered there were other races living there created by the tree, earth and sea spirits. The Shadow Princes took the desert for their own, and so Hetar was born. The City was built, and civilization ensued. It is a bit more complicated than that but that is the basis of the history of Hetar as it is told,” Dillon finished.

“Some of it is probably true,” Cinnia remarked, “but if you ask him your father will tell you the truth of Hetar. We were told our people were deliberately settled on one side of that world in order to keep them from those on the rest of Hetar. I believe you call them Terahns. And then there were smaller regions called the Outlands and the Dark Lands. But Prince Kaliq knows more of it than I do. We but sought to rid ourselves of those who caused trouble in our lands.”

“Tell me of Belmair,” Dillon said. “I am very much at a disadvantage as you can appreciate, Cinnia.”

“I did not give you permission to speak my name,” she said sharply.

“You are my wife, and therefore your name is mine to speak,” Dillon said.

“I will not be some meek creature who sits by her loom in the hall, my lord Dillon,” Cinnia told him. “I am a great sorceress!”

“And what do you do with your sorcery, Cinnia? Other than play with mine?” he asked her wickedly. “Do you use it for good?” He turned so he might see her face.

“Play? I do not play!” the girl said outraged.

He laughed softly. “Aye, you do. Your dragon has taught you all manner of magic, but you don’t really know what to do with it. But I will teach you.”

“You? Teach me? A Hetarian?” Cinnia said scornfully. “I think not!”

He took her hand in his, and running a finger up her bare arm and back down again, said, “I am not Hetarian, Cinnia. I am of the Shadows and I am faerie.” Then, raising her hand to his lips, he kissed each of her fingers before turning the hand over and placing a kiss upon her palm. “There is a great deal I can teach you, Cinnia.” Dillon’s blue eyes met her green ones, and he smiled slowly into those startled eyes.

She heard her heart thumping in her ears. Her lips parted softly in surprise at her reaction to him. “Are you attempting to seduce me?” she asked him.

“You can only be seduced if you want to be seduced, Cinnia,” Dillon told her. “Do you want to be seduced?”

“No!” She snatched her hand back.

“I think you do, however we will not argue the point,” Dillon told her. “But I believe I asked you to tell me of Belmair as I am to rule it.”

“Does our world seem very blue to you on Hetar?” she asked him.

“It does,” he said.

“That is because most of our world is water,” she told him. “Belmair consists of four islands, each a different size, floating within a single great sea. Our island is the largest and is called Belmair. The others are Beldane, Belia and Beltran. Each of the other three islands is a duchy ruled by a ducal family. Those families answer to the king on Belmair. Our kings do not necessarily follow a direct line of descent. It is the dragon who decides who will rule us. In this manner no one family has ever gotten too much power to wield over the others. My father’s family came from Beltran. My mother was the youngest daughter of the previous king, who came from Beldane originally. She was very beautiful and very frail. That is why there were no more children after my birth. She died shortly after I was born. I had my father, and I had Nidhug,” Cinnia told him.

“Tell me who now rules the three duchies?” he asked.

“Let Nidhug tell you,” Cinnia said. “We must feast to celebrate our union, and then you must mate with me before the morrow when the dukes arrive to learn who their new king is. Unless we are well and truly mated, your legitimacy can be questioned, and that will not please either Nidhug or your father, will it? I go now to prepare.” In a small flash of light Cinnia was gone from the throne room.

Dillon arose from the step where he had been sitting. “My lord father, I know you are there. Please come to me.”

The Shadow Prince stepped from a dusky corner of the room. “Nidhug and I are going to take you to see your kingdom now,” he told Dillon. “She awaits us on the battlements of the castle. Do not be frightened by her size when you see her true self.”

“When are you going to tell mother?” Dillon asked Prince Kaliq.

“When I return to Hetar,” came the answer.

“And when will that be?” Dillon inquired, his tone amused.

“In a few days. Tonight we feast, and then you mate with Cinnia. On the morrow the others will arrive. They will be astounded that an outsider had been chosen to rule over them, my son, but they will accept the dragon’s judgment. And, too, my presence will give even greater legitimacy to Nidhug’s decision. That you come from Hetar will disturb them, aye. But the fact that you are my son will calm any fears they may have. When that has been accomplished I will return to Hetar to seek out your mother and tell her of what has transpired.”

“There are some things back at the palace that I will want,” Dillon said. “My staff, Verica, for one.”

“You will find everything in your chamber here now,” Kaliq told him. “The royal quarters are unique. Both you and Cinnia have a set of rooms, and in the middle of them is the Mating Chamber. But come! Nidhug awaits us, and she wants to show you all before the sun sets this day.”

Together, Kaliq and Dillon left the throne room, and climbed to the roof of the castle where the Great Dragon, Nidhug, was even now awaiting them.

2

WHEN THEY REACHED THE ROOF Dillon caught his breath in amazement when he saw the size of the dragon in her full glory. The afternoon sun set her iridescent blue and green scales to sparkling. Seeing the two men had arrived, she reached out her hand, and they stepped into her palm so she might raise them up to sit upon her back.

“Look carefully,” she told them, “and you will find two small pockets upon my back into which you may safely seat yourselves.” When they had, she opened her great wings and rose from the castle’s battlements to fly.

“Cinnia said Belmair consists of four islands in a vast sea,” Dillon remarked. “She is correct, of course,” the dragon answered as she flew.

“Your island of Belmair is the largest, and the most perfect of the four. As you can see there is a small range of mountains to the west. Fertile farmlands, woodlands and valleys cover the rest of the island. The coastline is both sandy and rocky with beaches and hills.”

Dillon gazed down. Everything was very green, and it reminded him of Terah except there were not great cliffs and fjords. The woodlands below them now were just coming into full leaf, and the few planted fields were hazy with new growth. The meadows housed cattle and sheep, but curiously he saw no sign of life other than around the two castles. “Where are the villages and the people?” he asked Nidhug.

“There are few and they are widely scattered,” the dragon answered.

“Is it like this on all the islands?” Dillon wanted to know.

“Aye, it is,” was the answer.

“Why?” Dillon asked the dragon.

“I don’t know,” Nidhug admitted. “For the last few hundred years the young women on all the islands have been disappearing. The men have had no wives to wed, and fewer and fewer children are being born. Some women are returned to us when they are old, and can no longer have children or be of use. They are not able to tell us where they have been, and are horrified to find themselves old. If it continues, Belmair’s civilization will die. That is why I trained Cinnia to become a sorceress, but as powerful as she is, she needed a husband who was even more powerful. Your father knew it, and that is why he brought you here to me to be Belmair’s new king. Together you and Cinnia can work to solve the mystery of where our young women have gone, and correct the situation so our population can once again thrive.” She turned north now over the great sea, and they were soon flying over a mountainous island, the highest peaks of which were still covered with snow. “That is Belia. It is the smallest of the duchies.”

“Have you no idea of who is stealing your women?” Dillon inquired. “You have great magic yourself, I am told.”

“My magic is fairly limited to protecting and serving Belmair, and its kings,” Nidhug replied. “The magic of the Shadow Princes is the greatest of all magicks.”

“Did you know all of this?” Dillon asked Kaliq.

The Shadow Prince smiled enigmatically. “Solve this conundrum, and you will be the greatest sorcerer of your time, Dillon, my son.”

Dillon laughed softly. “That I might be a bit of dust in a corner when you tell my mother about all of this.” He chuckled.

“She will soon have her own problems to solve,” the prince replied with a small smile. “And she knows I would never see you harmed.”

“You won’t be here,” Dillon reminded his father.

“My powers extend to Belmair. You have but to call me,” Kaliq answered him.

“That is a great comfort to me,” Dillon said drily, “but as I recall you have taught me to puzzle out my own problems.” Turning away from the Shadow Prince, the younger man looked down to study the sea as they flew.

Prince Kaliq of the Shadows nodded, satisfied. Between them, he and Lara had raised their son well. Dillon would be a great king for Belmair, and the mystery would be solved because Dillon was not a man to give up. Belmair could not be allowed to die, and Kaliq was himself concerned as to who was doing this, and more important, why?

“There is Beldane,” Nidhug called to them. “It is an island of mostly fields and glens. The hunting is excellent on Beldane, and the duke has many lodges scattered about his duchy for guests. Autumn, of course, is the best time for it.”

Turning east they flew over the next largest island to Belmair, Beltran, a vast hilly and wooded landscape. Below them a small group of sailing boats was setting out from a harbor below a castle.

“Dreng comes early,” Kaliq noted.

“I believe he thinks one of his little grandsons will be chosen to be king for he is the only one of the dukes with male progeny. He will be to Belmair by sunset, for when summoned by me the dukes’ boats come by magic in just a short time. We cannot have that,” Nidhug said. “Storm brew!”

Suddenly below them, the thunderclouds began to roll swiftly in. The sea grew frothy as the waves rose, crashing wildly on the shore, and the lightning crashed about the boats. One vessel was struck, and its mast caught fire. The little fleet struggled back to the harbor, and anchored to ride out the weather.

“It won’t clear until dawn,” Nidhug said in a well-satisfied voice and she chuckled. “Dreng is bold to think he can make my decision for me.”

“How will he feel when he learns I am king?” Dillon asked.

“Surprised. Possibly resentful, but he will accept my will for there is no other choice, Your Majesty,” the dragon answered. “When your father came to see me last night, I was amazed afterward that I hadn’t realized that someone not born of Belmair must be chosen to follow Fflergant if we are to solve our difficulties. And that someone must have even greater powers than Cinnia. Whoever, whatever, is taking Belmair’s young females must be stopped.”

“Agreed,” Dillon responded, “but I am more curious as to why they are being taken. There is something wicked here on Belmair.”

Having completed their tour of the islands, the dragon returned them to the royal castle where she once again condensed herself into a smaller size. “Let us now feast,” the dragon said. “And afterward your father and I will preside over your mating with Cinnia. How are you getting along? She is a charming girl, isn’t she?”

“She is spirited, much like my younger sister Zagiri,” Dillon noted. Then he told Nidhug and the prince of his attempts to charm Cinnia, and of how she had rebuffed him.

“A kitten into a viper.” Nidhug chuckled. “The naughty girl, but I am quite enchanted that you turned the viper into pink snowflakes, Your Majesty. It is obvious that Prince Kaliq has taught you about women, as well as magic.”

“Do not women possess a magic of their own that is to be courted?” Dillon asked her with a smile.

The dragon rolled her beautiful eyes, and her eyelashes fluttered coquettishly. “I am, for the first time, envious of a human female,” she said.

Her two companions chuckled. They entered the Great Hall of the castle. It had a high ceiling with beams carved and gilded with both gold and silver, as well as painted in red and blue. The arched windows lining the hall on both sides were recessed into the stone walls. The glass in them was clear with designs showing pastoral scenes in stained glass. Beautifully woven silk and wool tapestries hung on the gray stone walls between the windows. There were three great fireplaces in the hall, one on either side of the chamber, and the third behind the high board. The floors were slabs of gray stone.

The hall was empty but for Cinnia, who waited for them before the high board. She was garbed in a simple loose purple silk gown with a boat neckline and flowing sleeves. A thin chain of gold links decorated with pale amethyst crystals sat upon her hips. Her long black hair was pulled back into a single strand. She looked both fragile and strong at the same time. Kneeling before Dillon, she said, “I bid you welcome home, Your Majesty. The meal is ready at your command.”

Dillon raised her up. “Do not kneel to me again, Cinnia. If it is Belmairan tradition that a wife kneel before her husband, it is a tradition that I will not continue. You are a great sorceress, and you are my wife. I mean to make you queen.”

Her green eyes lit up with joy, but then the happiness faded away, and she shook her head at him. “I would be nothing but a consort if Your Majesty desired it, but I would have no authority even over our household. In Belmair, all is the king’s.”

Dillon turned to the dragon. “Is this a tradition that is written in stone?” he asked.

“Nay, it is not. But it has always been done this way,” the dragon answered him.

Dillon considered, then said, “As I am not Belmairan born, but am now nonetheless the undisputed king of Belmair, could I not make this change, and allow others to understand this is my way of honoring Cinnia, the great sorceress of Belmair, who is now my wife? Whose help I will need if I am to govern wisely and well?”

“There will at first be a certain amount of grumbling,” the dragon replied, “but I believe that to honor Cinnia as your first official act as Belmair’s king would quickly be seen as respecting Belmair and its traditions.”

“Then I shall do it,” Dillon said. He turned to Cinnia again. “You understand that the final word in all things but the household will be mine?”

“I do, Your Majesty! Thank you!” Her green eyes were shining now.

“And you will call me by my name when we are in private, or in an informal setting?” he asked smiling at her.

She nodded. “I will, Your…Dillon.”

“Then it is settled, and now please see that the meal is served. Our guests and I are hungry,” Dillon told her with a grin.

Taking her arm, he escorted her up onto the dais and seated her to his left at the high board. The prince sat on his right, and the dragon to Kaliq’s right. Cinnia signaled the servants to begin serving the meal, and Dillon watched, amazed at the separate menu of foods brought to the dragon. When the meal had concluded, and Nidhug had consumed the final of her eight sherry-soaked whipped-cream cakes, a minstrel came into the hall and sang for them. A serving woman appeared and whispered something into Cinnia’s ear. She nodded.

“It is time for me to go and prepare for our formal mating ritual, my lord,” she said rising from her seat. “You will be sent for when I am ready.” Then before he might speak she hurried away.

“What preparations will she make?” Dillon asked Nidhug.

“She will be thoroughly bathed so her body is pleasing to you,” the dragon replied. “The ritual consists of you coupling with her before witnesses, in this case the prince and me. Once you have been joined none has the right to separate you. This is why I prevented Dreng from arriving tonight. Your father accepted you as his successor. She accepted you for her husband, and as her king. You took Fflergant’s last breath. Now the last thing to be done is the joining. Once that is accomplished the deed is done, you will be king of Belmair until the last of the purple sands in your life glass is gone to the bottom. From the looks of the glass, that will be many years hence, Your Majesty.”

“If she is to bathe, then I should like to bathe also,” Dillon said, but the dragon shook her head.

“Nay, not until afterward. Cinnia’s body must be imprinted with your natural scent so it will always recognize you,” the dragon explained.

“Belmairans have sensitive skin,” the prince explained to his son. “Once her skin has been imprinted by yours, it will always recognize you even if you scent yourself.”

“How odd,” Dillon murmured low. Then he said to Kaliq, “What other little surprises are in store for me?”

Kaliq shrugged. “I have never lived in Belmair,” he replied.

“Is Cinnia a virgin?” Dillon asked the dragon.

If a creature could looked shocked, Nidhug certainly did at the query. “Of course!” she exclaimed. “Why would you think otherwise?”

“It is not a requirement in either Terah or Hetar that a girl be a virgin on her marriage. That she cleve to her husband once she is, is expected,” Dillon said. “I ask because a virgin would require more gentleness, more care, than a girl who has experienced passion a time or more. Is she aware of the differences between bodies male and female? Does she have any idea of what to expect?”

“Aye, she knows what is required,” Nidhug answered him. “I have taught her myself. Knowledge she has. Experience she is lacking.” The dragon chuckled. “Again, I must express my envy for my pupil. Your father’s prowess as a lover has extended even here to Belmair. I can but imagine what his son, and the son of a faerie woman, is like.”

“For Cinnia’s sake,” Dillon asked his two companions, “can you render yourselves invisible if you must be within the chamber? I have made love to women in my father’s hall surrounded by his brothers and their women. But this will be her first experience, and I think she should be put at her ease as much as possible.”

“Are you as fierce with your opponents as you are tender with your wife?” the dragon wondered aloud.

“I am,” Dillon surprised her by answering.

The serving woman now returned, and going directly to Dillon said, “Your Majesty, my lady awaits your coming.”

Dillon arose and followed the woman out of the hall. He was interested to see that they traveled along a well-lit corridor, at the end of which he saw a large oak door. The serving woman stopped and pointed before turning about and hurrying off back down the hallway. Dillon saw no knob upon the door, so putting out his hand he silently commanded it to open. The door remained shut. Interesting, he thought. And then he smiled. “Open for King Dillon, and in future always recognize my hand upon thee, or my footfall as I approach thee.”

The door swung open, and Dillon stepped into the chamber. It was a circular room with a stone floor and a glass ceiling that came to a witch’s peak. There was but one piece of furniture in the room, an enormous oaken bedstead hung with gold and red tapestried curtains. The pillars of the bed were carved around with grapevines. The headboard, though half-hidden by goose-down pillows, showed a stag and a doe as they ran through a forest. The wood canopy had a glass top that allowed those in the bed to gaze up through the glass ceiling to the night sky.

“Are you going to take off your garments?” Cinnia asked him.

He had been so intrigued by the simplicity of the chamber and the intricacy of the bed’s carvings that he hadn’t looked to see if she was in the bed. She was, sitting up, a scrap of silk covering her breasts.

“Have you ever seen a naked man?” he asked her as he began to strip off his clothing. He let it drop to the floor for there was no place where he might lay them.

“Nidhug has shown me pictures,” Cinnia said. “But, nay, I have never seen a naked man not in a book. Are Hetarians different from Belmairans?”

“Since we come from the same root stock originally, I do not think so,” he said. He was fully naked now, having kicked his soft felt shoes off. He turned so she might look at him. “What do you think? Am I the same as the men in the book?”

“You are bigger,” she replied.

“How?” he asked her.

“All over,” she said. “You look very strong, my lord.”

“I am. I have been trained to be not just one thing, but many. My grandfather was a great swordsman, and my mother is famed as a warrior, as well.”

“We rarely fight here on Belmair,” Cinnia told him. “We are a peaceful folk.”

“Peace is the better route,” he agreed, “but sometimes you must fight to protect what you hold dear else it be taken from you. I prefer the use of magic to solve problems, but I have also been trained to be a warrior by the same Shadow Prince who trained my mother before me. If I must fight, I can.”

“Have you ever fought?” she asked, curious.

He nodded. “Once, my oldest sister could not discourage a persistent suitor. I was forced to do battle with him.”

“Did you kill him?” she wanted to know.

Dillon nodded. “He refused to be satisfied otherwise. It made me sad to do it, but there was no other way. He threatened to kill Anoush if she would not wed him.”

“Did she marry another?” Cinnia inquired.

“She is not ready to wed,” Dillon said, and he walked toward the bed, and reaching it, climbed into it. “Now, however, is not the time for stories, Cinnia. We must complete a mating cycle tonight so that the three dukes can accept the dragon’s choice more easily.” Reaching out, he drew her gently toward him. “You have never known a man, I am told. But have you played lover’s games with any young men?”

Cinnia shook her head wordlessly.

“Have you been kissed upon your lips by any other than a family member?” he asked her. But he knew the answer before she even gave it. She was a total innocent for all the books she had read, for all the dragon’s teachings. “Then we must begin with the kissing,” he said in a firm tone. His lips brushed over hers, and the touch of his mouth caused Cinnia to gasp softly. He pressed his lips harder against hers, and Cinnia tried to push him away. In doing so the silk coverlet that had covered her breasts fell away, and her breasts pressed against him.

“Ohhhh!” Cinnia cried out, surprised.

Dillon’s head was spinning at the touch of her body against his broad, smooth chest, but her startled cry caused him to ask, “What is it? Are you all right?”

Suddenly Cinnia was no longer in his arms, and a small black-and-white bird fluttered to the top of the headboard.

Dillon didn’t know whether to laugh. “We must be joined tonight, Cinnia. You cannot use magic when we make love.” He reached his hand out to the bird but it scampered down to the end of the headboard. Cat! Be that! Dillon thought, and a large golden feline jumped up quickly from where he had been to snatch the bird from its perch, and hold it gently between its paws. They were quickly themselves again, and she lay naked in his arms.

“That wasn’t fair,” Cinnia said petulantly.

“I know you are afraid,” he said to her, and his hand stroked her silky black hair. “That is all right, my young queen. I mean to take my time and to be gentle with you. My blood runs hot, Cinnia, but I have been taught by the masters of passion how to give pleasure to a woman. Even a frightened little virgin. You need do nothing but follow my lead tonight. In time I will teach you to give pleasure, as well as receive it. But tonight we have a small duty to perform, and I would have you enjoy it, not be terrified by it.”

“There are no witnesses,” Cinnia said weakly.

“Show yourselves,” Dillon said, and both Kaliq and Nidhug appeared.

“Oh!”

“I thought you would be more comfortable if you could not see them,” he said.

“Yes, I would,” she admitted, and their witnesses disappeared once again.

“Now, where were we?” he pretended to ask himself. “Oh, yes! I was trying to teach you to kiss decently.” He swooped down again to take her lips with his.

Indignant, Cinnia wanted to protest the insult, but when his mouth found hers she discovered she wanted nothing more than to prolong the kiss, and they did. One kiss melted into another, and another and another until she was dizzy with the distinct feeling of something pleasurable happening to her. But when she felt his hand upon her breast she stiffened nervously.

“It’s all right,” he murmured in her ear. “A woman’s breasts, while meant to nourish her young, are also meant to be admired, and caressed, Cinnia. And you, my queen, have beautiful little breasts.” Bending his head, he kissed a nipple while his supple fingers traced the small globe gently. Then opening his mouth, he took the nipple into it and sucked it.

Cinnia shuddered as the sensation of his tug upon her breast traveled all the way down her torso into her belly and beyond into the sacred place. This couldn’t be right, she thought nervously. Something that felt so wonderful…better than anything she had ever experienced…should not feel so incredible. “You must stop, my lord,” she managed to say to him, her fingers winding into his thick dark hair and pulling at it.

He lifted his head. “Why?” His blue eyes were dark with his rising desire.

Her breast felt suddenly bereft, Cinnia thought, and the nipple puckered with the sensation of the cool night air. “Because this cannot be right,” Cinnia said to him.

Dillon laughed low. “Nay, my young queen, it is very right. It is almost perfect.”

“But the joining is, I am told, when our bodies become one,” Cinnia protested. “How can they become one when you do naught but kiss and caress me?”

“A proper joining requires that your body be prepared to receive me. If I forced myself upon you with no care for your comfort I should be little better than an animal. Kissing and caressing are but a small part of the preparation, Cinnia. You must trust me for I have loved many women, and never yet had a complaint,” he told her.

“I do not want to hear about your other women!” Cinnia said angrily.

“And you shall not. I have mentioned it only to reassure you that I know what I am doing, my queen. But you, my little virgin, seem to have a great many opinions for a girl who has yet to know a man.”

“I have done much studying on this subject. Ohhh!” He was nibbling her fingertips, and now his lips traveled up her slender arm to her rounded shoulder. Cinnia felt absolutely weak. “Ohhh!” His tongue was licking up the side of her neck, and now as he lay her flat, his tongue caressed her throat, his lips pressing a kiss into the hollow of it where he paused to enjoy the sensation of the blood pulsing beneath her skin. Her flesh was smooth, soft and sweet to the taste. “Ohhh!” His tongue moved quickly down, sliding between her breasts to lick at her belly. Cinnia shivered. “It is too much,” she told him softly.

“It is but a beginning,” he murmured as low. He lay his dark head upon her belly, and let his fingers play with her now. The tips trailed over her shapely silken thighs, coaxing them open for him as they pushed between the flesh and twined themselves in the thick black curls at their junction.

Cinnia stiffened defensively.

“It’s all right,” he soothed her, and he pressed a finger against her slit, which was already showing signs of moisture.

“Ohhh!” she exclaimed as the finger slipped past her nether lips.

Dillon sought for her pleasure point, and finding it he began to tease at it.

He was her husband, Cinnia had to keep reminding herself. Whatever he was doing was certainly proper, but oh! The ball of that wicked finger was arousing in her feelings such as she had never imagined existed. She was tingling all over right down to the soles of her feet, and it all seemed to emanate from that finger. “Ohh! Ohh! Ohhhh!”

Cinnia gasped as a feeling of sweet release seemed to pour over her. “Oh, that was so nice,” she told him. “Is it always like that?”

“You will have to tell me,” he said, smiling down into her face.

“Do you think I am ready for the joining yet?” she asked.

“Let us see,” he replied, and he carefully pushed a single finger into her sacred place, all the while watching her face as he moved the finger gently back and forth. When she made no protest or complaint, he withdrew the single finger, and then pressed two fingers within her. Her green eyes widened slightly as he moved the twin digits back and forth at a more rapid pace. She was tight, but she was very wet now. “Aye, you are ready,” he told her as he again withdrew his fingers, putting them in his mouth to suck upon them. “You taste sweet and salty all at the same time,” he told her as he covered her body with his, pushing her legs up as he did.

“The book says it hurts the first time,” she told him, her eyes now showing a small bit of fear.

“Only for a moment, my queen,” he said as he positioned himself. He had initiated virgins before. Some were eager, but others like Cinnia were hesitant. With virgins like Cinnia there was only one way to handle the matter once she was ready. Pinioning her arms above her head he filled her, tearing through her maiden’s shield with a single hard thrust, as she cried out with shock. “There, my queen,” he said, brushing away the surprised tears that had appeared upon her cheeks, “the deed is done, and the worst is over.” Then releasing her arms he began to ride her with slow, deep thrusts at first that became deeper and quicker as she began to respond to him.

It had hurt, but the pain was as quickly gone as it had come. She concentrated upon the sensation of the manhood now plundering her. He was big. Of that she was certain despite her inexperience. He filled her full with his great length. Cinnia was filled with fierce emotions. Her hands clutched at his shoulders, her fingers digging into his muscled flesh. Then unable to help herself she began to claw at his back, whimpering as she sought for something she couldn’t even understand.

Dillon laughed aloud as he felt her nails raking at him. She was feeling passion! He had aroused her to passion! A virgin, well, no more a virgin. He drove harder into her, sensing her desperate need for satisfaction. Hers and his own. Her legs, with some primitive instinct, wrapped about his torso, giving him deeper access. She was tight, and she was so wet and sweet for him.

“I want!” Cinnia cried out. “I want it!” she sobbed. She could put no name to what it was she wanted, but she suspected that he would know.

“And you shall have it, my queen,” he promised her. His length flashed faster and faster within her. And then he felt her crisis building, building, coming, coming.

Cinnia screamed as pleasure such as she had never known rose up to enfold her. She was drowning in it. She could scarcely draw a breath for it consumed her, raising her up, up, up, and then flinging her down. She vaguely heard the sound of her cries that were mingled with another sound. His cries.

The room was suddenly filled with a golden light. The air crackled loudly with their passion. There was even a thunderclap. Kaliq and Nidhug, revealed by the brightness, looked at each other, startled. And then the dimness came once more, and the sounds of the couple’s heavy breathing as they returned to reality. Dillon and Cinnia lay sprawled next to one another. She seemed to be caught in the throes of a half-conscious state, her breathing rapid, but calming slowly.

Father! What has just happened? Dillon asked Kaliq in their silent language. Never before have I had such a reaction to and with a woman.

She is magic as you are, my son, the prince told him. All the women you have known before were mortal, and while she is mortal technically, she is also a sorceress.

Will it be like this all the time with her? Dillon wanted to know.

I do not know, the prince responded honestly. But now it is time for sleep. Kaliq waved his hand over the bed, and it disappeared with its occupants. Then he and the dragon exited the chamber, and it folded in upon itself.

“I put them in her bedchamber,” Kaliq told Nidhug.

“Let us go and have some wine,” the dragon replied. “And perhaps we can decide what happened to cause such a reaction between them. Come, I have a small privy chamber here in the royal castle.” She led him to it, and conjuring up two goblets of wine the prince and the dragon sat companionably. “I have seen many joinings between the king and his bride in my lifetime, but never have I seen happen what happened tonight,” Nidhug said. “Your experience in the amatory arts is, of course, greater than mine, Kaliq. Have you ever seen such a mating as took place between your son and Cinnia?”

“Nay, I have not,” the prince admitted. “It is obvious to me, however, that if they use their powers together they can accomplish much good for Belmair.”

The dragon nodded. “I hope,” she said, “that they will fall in love.”

Kaliq chuckled. “I did not know you were such a romantic, Nidhug,” he remarked. “Have you ever been in love?”

“Alas, male dragons are few and far between. Have you any on Hetar?” she answered him. “In my youth, some twelve hundred years ago, I did mate with a handsome specimen, but then he flew off when he learned that I was the Great Dragon of Belmair. I stored the egg from that encounter in a cave on Belia. One day when I feel my time is coming to an end, I will hatch it. It is, sadly, the way of the Great Dragons of Belmair. And then I will live just long enough to raise my offspring, and pass on to it all the knowledge it will need to be the next Great Dragon.”

“You have a purpose in life, which is more than many have,” Kaliq said. “To have a purpose is important, Nidhug. And in answer to your question, nay, we have no dragons on Hetar.”

“How long do you mean to remain here?” the dragon inquired.

“A day or two more to be certain Dillon and Cinnia can manage together. After that I must leave them in your capable hands, old friend. And I shall then have to seek out Dillon’s mother, and tell her of what has transpired. Her life has been most circumspect these past few years. This is but the first of the changes that is to come into her life. Lara is not fond of change.” Kaliq chuckled.

“Why did you never tell her that you were Dillon’s sire?” the dragon asked him.

“Because she was very young, and just coming into her powers when I brought her to Shunnar. Because I knew she could fall in love with me, and it was not at that time her destiny to do so. Lara was born to accomplish several things, certain of which she has already done. But other things lie ahead for her. She yet has enemies, some of whom she is aware. Others of whom she has yet to meet. She was meant to be with Vartan, and to become a part of the Outlands, which she did. And she loved Vartan enough to want to give him a child, for as you know faerie women only give children to those they love. I don’t know why, but in a moment of weakness I implanted my seed within her. And when she was ready for a child my seed grew, and she believed it was Vartan’s son. It was better that way, Nidhug. If it had been known at the time that Kaliq of the Shadows had given a child to a faerie woman, who knows what Dillon’s life would have been like. And Lara would have remained with me and accomplished none of what she needed to do. She would not have left her child to my brothers and me.”

“Yet from all you have shared with me previously she did leave her children to follow her destiny,” the dragon said.

“Aye, she did. But the children were with the Fiacre, and always safe, living as normal mortal children live. But of course early on Dillon began sensing that he was different, and his fascination with magic was unquenchable. Lara thought his talents came from her, and decided that I must be the one to teach him. He has been with me since he was twelve, and it has been a joy,” Kaliq said, his face alight. “I will miss our daily contact, but our magic allows us to be together quickly.”

“And you believe that together he and Cinnia can solve the mystery of why our young women have been disappearing over these last hundred years?” Nidhug asked.

“Look what their simple joining created tonight,” Kaliq reminded the dragon.

Nidhug nodded. “Do you think it will happen every time they join?” she wondered.

“I frankly admit to not having an answer to that question,” Kaliq said.

“Can you give them love?” the dragon asked sentimentally. “A marriage is so much better when there is love.”

“I could give them love,” Kaliq said quietly, “but it is better if they find that love for themselves. It is there, Nidhug. My son knows how to please a woman, but he has never loved one. And your young mistress is innocent where men are concerned. Tonight they have begun their adventure. In time the love that is buried within each of them will claim them. We have but to wait and be patient.”

“My lord Kaliq,” the dragon ventured slowly, “do you know the answer to the mystery of Belmair’s missing women? I know you know far more than you are ever willing to admit. But that is the nature of your kind.”

“I do not know,” Kaliq told her. “But I believe by combining their powers my son and his bride can overcome whatever the difficulty is.”

“Is it evil?” Nidhug asked him.

“I cannot tell. It cannot, however, be good, but sometimes there are those who cause unintentional wickedness. Dillon and Cinnia will learn the truth,” the prince promised the dragon. “Belmair is theirs, and they will not allow it to be destroyed.”

The dragon nodded. “I will show you to your bedchamber now,” she said. “Then I will return to my own castle. Tomorrow will be a long one, and the dukes will need all the reassurances I can give them that what has transpired is the right thing.” She arose and led Kaliq from her privy chamber to another room where a silent servant awaited to help the prince prepare for sleep. “I bid you good-night, my lord,” the dragon said, and then she was gone.

Kaliq allowed the servant to bring him water to wash. He ordered a tub for the morning, and requested that he be awakened at sunrise. The servant bowed himself from the chamber, and Kaliq was alone. The last few hours had been amazing. He wondered if he might gain entry to the Dream Plain from Belmair. If he could find Lara, then perhaps they might speak and he could tell her what he had done. But then he decided against it. He owed Lara the courtesy of telling her face-to-face. The prince slept.

In the morning after he had bathed and eaten, he asked the servant assigned to him to take him to the young king. He found his son busy studying a map of Belmair in a light-filled library. “Good morning,” he called to Dillon.

“Good morning, my lord,” Dillon replied. “I am looking over this new world you have given me to see if there is something wrong somewhere that will give me a starting point to solving the mystery, but it all seems ordinary.”

“Where is Cinnia?” Kaliq asked.

“Preparing herself to meet the dukes later,” Dillon said.

“Should you not be doing the same?” Kaliq said. “You must honor these men, my son, for you can be certain they were not expecting the king they have been given. You will need to exercise a great deal of diplomacy with them. The people we know as Hetarians were exiled because they wanted to make changes in tradition here, but they were also sent away because they were willing to fight over it. The Belmairans think themselves above that kind of thing.”

“Their need to hold to their traditions and not change is similar of the people of Hetar,” Dillon noted. “Everything changes, my lord. Nothing remains the same.”

“Nay, it doesn’t,” Kaliq agreed, “and that is precisely where the problem lies here. For over a hundred years the Belmairans have had a problem, but because the problem did not jibe with their traditions, they ignored it. Now it could be too late.”

“You cannot know if it is too late until we learn what is causing this problem,” Dillon said in logical tones.

Kaliq chuckled. “Precisely, my son,” he replied. “Now go and dress yourself properly so you may greet your guests with honor.”

“I have no clothing but what I was wearing yesterday when we came,” Dillon said.

“You will find your possessions in the king’s bedchamber. Come, and I will show you,” Kaliq said. “Do you know how to return to the royal apartments?”

Dillon grinned. “I do,” he said, and then he proceeded to lead his father to them.

There he found the carved and painted wooden wardrobe filled with beautiful garments. The robes and tunics were decorated with embroidery, bejeweled and ornamented with gold and silver. There were trousers and capes. The fabrics were rich. Silks, soft wools, cottons. Many of the garments were white, for that was the color the princes wore most, and Dillon was considered one of them because of his father. In a painted chest with drawers the young king found accessories of all kinds, and a large box filled with magnificent jewelry. The wardrobe also contained shoes and boots of fine leather in several colors.

Dillon examined it all, and then turning to his father, said with a wry smile, “You have provided me with a fine dower portion, my lord Kaliq.”

The prince chuckled. “You are a king now, Dillon. It is fitting you present yourself like one.” He clapped his hands, and a servant hurried in to bow before them. “Help His Majesty to prepare himself for his guests,” Kaliq told the man. Then he turned to his son again. “I will await you in your day chamber,” he said.

When Dillon appeared almost an hour later, he was garbed in flowing white trousers and a long white tunic that was bejeweled and decorated with pure gold threads upon the wide cuffs of his sleeves and six-inch-wide border at the tunic’s bottom. The tunic’s neckline was a round one. There was a heavy gold chain about his neck, and on eight of his fingers he wore a ring, each with a different colored stone. Diamond. Ruby. Sapphire. Emerald. Amethyst. Topaz. Peridot. And a great black pearl on the middle finger of his left hand. On his feet were red leather slippers decorated with gold.

“Will I honor the dukes, my lord?” he asked Kaliq.

“You will,” the prince said, nodding, satisfied, and for the first time realizing what a truly handsome man Dillon had become. Tall and slender with a body well toned by his physical activities. Slightly tanned from the desert sun that Dillon loved so well. His dark hair was cropped short and styled simply. The blue eyes that had once appeared to all as Vartan’s were now the bright blue of a Shadow Prince. “You have the natural presence of a king,” Kaliq noted. “Your mother would be proud of you.”

“Will I ever see her again?” Dillon asked, and for the first time since they had arrived in Belmair yesterday his voice sounded vulnerable. Dillon had always been very close to Lara, who loved him with a love all mothers kept only for their firstborn.

“Of course you will see her. As soon as I tell her what has happened she will want to come, and she will not be satisfied until I have brought her, nor will she be happy until I have given her the magic for reaching Belmair,” Kaliq assured the young man.

The door to the day chamber suddenly burst open, and Cinnia appeared. “The dukes are just landing now,” she told them. “We need to be in the throne room to greet them.” She looked at Dillon, surprised. “You look nice,” she said. But she never questioned where his garments had come from for it was obvious to her that magic was involved in his wardrobe. “They will be pleased after the shock has worn off. Perhaps I could look a bit more elegant.”

“Allow me,” Kaliq said, and with a wave of his hand turned her red gown into a flowing white silk one, whose bejeweled and gold decoration matched Dillon’s garments. On her small feet were identical red leather slippers. About her neck a delicate gold chain. From her ears hung ear bobs with all the same jewels found in Dillon’s rings. On her left hand was an elegant but simple red-gold betrothal ring. The prince looked at her a moment, and then with another wave of his hand Cinnia’s hair was drawn back into a mass of curls and waves dusted with gold. “That should do it,” he said.

Dillon, with foresight, conjured a full-length mirror so Cinnia might see herself.

Surprised she nodded her thanks to him, and then studied first her image, and then the image in the glass of them together. A small satisfied smile touched her lips. “We are quite magnificent,” she noted.

“Indeed, my queen, we are,” Dillon agreed. “Now come, and let us greet our guests. If we do not hurry, they will be there before we are.”

Accompanied by the great Shadow Prince the young king and queen walked quickly through the castle corridors to the small throne room. The smell of death was now gone from the chamber to be replaced by the fresh scent of honeysuckle and woodbine set into several tall-footed vases set about the little room. Dim and bleak the previous day in the presence of death, the area now glowed with bright golden light that poured through windows that yesterday had been darkened and almost invisible.

Dillon took two steps up onto the dais to stand before his throne. To his right the dragon stood silently, and to his left Kaliq of the Shadows took his place. Cinnia stepped one step up to stand before her smaller throne. From the little balcony that served as an awning above the two thrones, a flourish of trumpets sounded. The double doors to the room were flung open, and the three dukes strode into the room. Seeing the young couple in all their regal garb the trio stopped. Surprise was very evident upon their faces.

Nidhug stepped forward. “Greet your king, Dillon of the Shadows, Tullio of Beldane, Alban of Belia, and Dreng of Beltran!”

The three men bowed almost automatically, but then Dreng burst out.

“A Hetarian, Nidhug? You have chosen a Hetarian for our king? What kind of a jest is this that you tease us with, dragon?”

“There is no jest, Duke Dreng,” the dragon answered. “Tradition will not allow Belmair to be ruled by a queen in her own right. There was no man of sufficient birth here for her in Belmair. And what simple man would take the sorceress of Belmair for a wife? But tradition demanded she be wife to the next king.”

“Fflergant is dead?” Alban of Belia asked, although he knew the answer to his own question even as he asked it. Still, he had to ask.

“Aye, the old king is dead,” the dragon confirmed. “But before he died he accepted Dillon of the Shadows as Belmair’s new king, and he accepted him as husband for Cinnia. He saw them take their vows before me. Then the young king had Fflergant’s last breath as tradition demanded.”

“And the joining?” Tullio of Beldane demanded to know.

“The joining took place last night, and was witnessed by me, and by the king’s father, Prince Kaliq of the Shadows,” the dragon told the three dukes. “Now give your loyalty to King Dillon, my lords. All that has taken place in the last day is my will. The will of the Great Dragon of Belmair. Will you deny me?”

The three dukes fell to their knees together before Dillon and spoke with one voice. “We pledge our loyalty to our new king, Dillon of the Shadows. May your life be long and your reign a happy one, Your Majesty.”

“Rise up, my lord dukes, and welcome to our home,” Dillon replied. Reaching out, he drew Cinnia up to stand next to him. “Tradition dictates that only kings can rule Belmair, but Cinnia will be your queen, not simply my consort. While my word will be final, her words will be listened to and considered well, my lord dukes. This is my first act as your king. My second will be to learn what wickedness works itself in Belmair that has stolen your young women away and puts us in danger of extinction. Together my wife and I will combine our magic to correct this problem. We will work together with you, my lord dukes, and soon all will be as it should be.”

The three dukes had arisen to their feet as Dillon had spoken. His words had surprised them. They had not expected a foreigner to understand their ways, their centuries-old traditions. And they were not really convinced that he did. He was not, after all, one of them. Publicly elevating Cinnia’s opinions to importance was in and of itself suspicious. Dreng of Beltran, who was the boldest of them, finally spoke.

“Your Majesty, may we deal frankly with you without fear of reprisal?”

“You may always voice your opinions to me freely, my lords. I may not always agree with you, but I will certainly never punish any for speaking out. Are not the dukes of Belmair the king’s closest advisors? But whatever you do, do not tell me what you think I wish to hear, for none of you can even begin to imagine what I think,” Dillon responded. “Honesty does not displease me, but duplicity will.”

Dreng of Beltran looked uncomfortable. He struggled to find the right words. No matter what the king said, he did not believe Dillon could be that open-minded.

“You wish to ask me why the Great Dragon chose the son of a Shadow Prince from Hetar to be your king over your oldest grandson, Calleo, do you not?” Dillon asked.

Dreng of Beltran grew red in the face. “Majesty, I mean no disrespect,” he said.

“It is a fair question, my lord,” Dillon replied. “Calleo is a boy who has lived barely eleven years. He is not old enough to rule, and you, my lord, are not clever enough to rule for him. None of you are for that matter. The problems besetting Belmair require a fresh eye. And, too, your grandson is not old enough for a joining. By your own traditions, his kingship would not be legal without the joining. Such a choice could have caused strife among the Belmairans, and strife is the very thing Belmairans seek to avoid, is it not? I am told that you despise those you call Hetarians. But I am not a Hetarian.”

“But you come from the world of Hetar,” Duke Alban of Belia said quietly.

“I was born in the Outlands, a place reviled by Hetarians. The man I spent half my life believing was my father was the clan chief of a people known as the Fiacre. He was murdered in a plot conceived by Hetar’s rulers. He had displeased them by fighting back when they attempted to invade the Outlands. He had organized the seven tribes inhabiting the region into a single government. Under his leadership, and that of my mother, they had driven Hetar from their lands, and punished them, as well.

“My mother is a faerie woman with some small amount of mortal blood. Her name is Lara. Her parents are Ilona, queen of the Forest Faeries, and John Swiftsword, now deceased, a Hetarian mercenary who earned the rank of Crusader Knight. He was of mixed mortal and faerie blood. My grandfather died in a great battle against the forces of darkness. He was called the greatest swordsman in Hetar’s history. While my mother’s early years were spent in Hetar, she left it to follow her destiny, which is not yet entirely fulfilled,” Dillon explained.

“When I was twelve,” he continued, “I was sent to Prince Kaliq to be trained in the magic arts. I have, since an early age, exhibited a strong leaning toward these arts, and my mother believed that only this Shadow Prince could train me properly. The ability for magic is a great gift, my lords, a great responsibility, and an equally great burden for those who have it. I have lived in the world of the Shadow Princes since I was twelve, and only when my fate became clear did my father reveal the truth of my parentage to me. I am of the Shadows. I am faerie. But I am not Hetarian.”

“We call the world from which you come Hetar,” Duke Alban said.

“How did you know you might send your dissenters to that which appears to be no more than a star?” Dillon queried him.

“We told them,” Kaliq said quietly. “When we saw the trouble some were causing here in Belmair we offered to share a portion of our world with them where they might be isolated. The Shadows know all that occurs in the cosmos. It is our calling.”

“So you called your rebels Hetarians after the world to which they were sent,” Dillon mused aloud. “Did you ever consider there might be other races upon that star?”

Duke Alban shook his head. “The Shadows offered us a solution to our problem, Majesty, and we accepted it,” he said. “Whatever else was involved had nothing to do with Belmair.”

Dillon nodded as if in agreement with Duke Alban. You have given me a far greater task than I first realized, my lord father, he said silently to Kaliq. I am beginning to see where the Hetarian attitude was born. He heard Kaliq chuckle so softly that only his ears might hear it.

“My lords,” Cinnia spoke. “We have prepared a feast to celebrate your coming. Will you join us? And Duke Dreng, I would ask that you allow me to send a servant to fetch your grandson, Calleo, and permit him to join us.”

“I will right gladly,” Dreng said.

“I remember being eleven,” Dillon noted. “I suspect the lad will be vastly relieved not to have to marry a sorceress this day.”

And his companions within the room laughed loudly, the dukes slapping each other on the back. Kaliq caught Nidhug’s eye, and the dragon nodded, well pleased by how the morning had gone. Despite Kaliq’s assurances, she had been concerned at how the three dukes would take the appointment of a foreigner to their throne. But it had gone well. Dillon had acquitted himself admirably before the trio of Belmair’s high aristocracy. He obviously had his father’s ability to charm. And Cinnia had behaved beautifully due in part, the dragon suspected, to her husband’s public behavior toward her. Dillon had not robbed her of her dignity.

“Thank you,” she said quietly to Kaliq.

The prince turned his beautiful bright blue eyes upon Nidhug.

“You are wise beyond all others of your race that I have known,” he told her. “I will see that my son heeds your advice, my lady dragon.” He took her hand up, and kissed the blue-green scales.

“Allow me a small indulgence,” he said to her, and then he murmured a small spell, and Nidhug’s elegant claws were suddenly sheathed in pure gold. “Ah, yes, much better,” Kaliq told her. “You have such lovely claws. They are beautifully shaped.”

“Oh, how wonderful!” the dragon cried holding out her hands to admire his handiwork. “Thank you, my dear Kaliq.” She looked into his eyes as she spoke, and suddenly in an instant Nidhug knew what it would be like to be made love to by this great lord of the Shadows. She drew in a sharp breath as heat suffused her body, which threatened to expand to her normal size. She swallowed back the flame in her throat and for a brief moment she glowed ruby-red. Fortunately no one saw what was happening, and the dragon was saved embarrassment. “Kaliq!” she scolded him, and the Shadow Prince shrugged apologetically.

Then together they entered the Great Hall of the castle where the banquet awaited.

3

“MY SON IS WHERE?” Lara, Domina of Terah, said.

It was afternoon in the desert palace of Shunnar. The private garden of the prince was hot, and the heady fragrance of damask roses hung heavy in the air. Along a wall decorated by a stand of tall hollyhocks in reds, pinks, yellows, peach and lavender, several small green birds hovered over the blossoms, their tiny wings beating furiously as their long beaks sipped nectar from the flowers. The garden’s fountain tinkled soothingly, the sunlight giving the arc of spray from it a rainbow appearance.

“Dillon is now the king of Belmair,” Kaliq said quietly.

“Why is my son king of a nebulous world of which I know less than nothing?” Lara demanded of him. “I recall my mother mentioning it briefly many years ago. She said the magic kingdoms call the great sky the Cosmos, and that there were other worlds within it, and the star we call Belmair was one. I could hardly conceive it then. And now you tell me my son is no longer in our world? That he is there?”

“Dillon was needed, and it was his fate to be there,” Kaliq said. “The dragon needed him, Lara, my love.”

“The dragon?” Her voice had risen at least a full octave. “What dragon?”

“The Great Dragon of Belmair, Nidhug,” Kaliq replied. “You must calm yourself, my love, for all is well. Dillon is exactly where he should be at this time.”

“You had no right to steal my son and send him to some other world in this Cosmos of yours!” Lara cried. “Why, at least, did you not tell me first? I have always trusted you, Kaliq. Why did you feel it was necessary to do this without speaking to me beforehand? You know how much I love Dillon.” Her beautiful green eyes were filling with tears. “Will I ever see him again?” Her voice had begun to quaver just slightly.

Kaliq put his arms about her. She was, he thought sadly to himself, as beautiful, as vulnerable, as compelling as she had ever been despite the fact that her oldest children were grown, and her younger children half-grown. “Of course you will see Dillon again. I will take you to Belmair anytime you want to go, Lara, my love.”

For a brief moment she was content to be in his arms, but then she shook him off angrily, stepping back, looking up into his handsome face. “My son! He is my son! You have overstepped your bounds, Kaliq. How dare you make a decision like this for Dillon without even consulting me first. He is my son!” she repeated.

Kaliq drew a long breath, and then letting it out he said, “And he is my son, too, Lara. I cannot fathom that in your faerie arrogance you have believed all these years that his incredible talents and his wondrous powers came just from you. The child of a faerie woman and a mere mortal man could not have gained the wisdom and skills that Dillon showed from his earliest childhood.”

She had been standing, and now she sat down heavily upon a marble bench near the fountain. “I was the child of a faerie woman and a mortal man,” she said.

“Your father had faerie blood in him, too, Lara. You know that even if he did not,” Kaliq reminded her.

“You said you could not give me a child,” Lara reminded him weakly.

“I lied,” Kaliq told her bluntly. “We Shadow Princes can reproduce whenever we choose to, although we do not do so often anymore. There is no real need for it given our longevity. Now and again one of us will spawn a child. We give our lovers female children as a rule. But I wanted a son.”

“Why did you not tell me?” Lara said.

“Because you were very young then, and while I realized that you were in love with me, I could not keep you. Remember, I know much of your destiny, Lara, my love. You were not meant to remain your life long here in Shunnar. Think of what you have accomplished since you left here all those years ago. You have lifted a curse from Terah, set the powers of darkness against itself, begun a peaceful revolution in Hetar. You have rescued a people from certain extinction and fought successfully in two wars. You have birthed five children. None of it would have been possible had you remained in Shunnar. Think of me as selfish if you will, but I wanted my son born of your loins.”

“How was it possible?” Lara asked. “I was with Vartan for months before I loved him enough to give him a child. Tell me what magic you worked upon me?”

“You were in love with me,” Kaliq began. “I was able therefore to plant my seed within you. The magic involved was that my seed would only bloom when you were ready to give another your love and a child. Vartan, like me, had dark hair and blue eyes. It was a simple thing to have people believe Dillon resembled Vartan because of that. But have you not noticed that recently his eyes became the bright blue of the Shadows?”

“You are not selfish,” Lara said angrily. “You are arrogant, Kaliq!”

“No more so than you are, my love,” he told her, a small smile touching the corners of his sensuous mouth. “We belonging to the magic kingdoms have a tendency to be so.” Reaching out, he took her hand in his, holding it just tightly enough so she could not snatch it back as she immediately attempted to do. “Do not be angry with me, Lara.”

“Tell me why I shouldn’t be angry at you, Kaliq?” Lara said furiously. “Why did you not tell me this years ago? After Vartan died at least? You are no better than Kol, the Twilight Lord, secreting your seed within me.”

“I did not tell you because I wanted you to continue to believe that Dillon was Vartan’s son. Dillon needed to believe it, too, because he needed the normalcy that being the son of a mortal man gave him. He needed to know in those early years that he was Fiacre, that he belonged where he was, especially when you were away so often. And as Vartan’s son he held the responsibility for his sister Anoush when you were not with them. Oh, Noss and Liam had physical custody of the children, but Dillon felt Anoush was his charge despite that because she was his blood. As it was Dillon showed his talents from an early age, and the Fiacre were uncomfortable with those talents as they were with you and your magic. They tolerated Dillon because he was their martyred leader’s son. Would they have done so had they known he was in truth my son?”

Lara sighed. “No,” she admitted, “they would not have.”

“You have protected Dillon in your way over the years. I have protected him in my way. And do not dare to compare me with Kol! My love for you has always been a pure love. His was not. He would have kept you a prisoner in the Dark Lands had he had the power to do so. I allowed you to go free to live out your destiny.”

“I have wounded you,” Lara said softly. “I did not think such a thing was possible, Kaliq. You still love me.” She freed her hand from his.

“I have never stopped loving you, Lara,” the prince admitted.

“Does it please your cold faerie heart to know that, my love?” he taunted her.

The green eyes met his. “Aye, it does,” she said cruelly.

The prince laughed aloud. “Faerie witch,” he said in a fond tone.

“Does Dillon know the truth of his parentage?” Lara asked.

“I told him before I took him to Belmair,” the prince said. “Do you know he told me that he has suspected it these last few years?” Kaliq shook his head. “He is an amazing young man, my love.”

Lara nodded. “He is,” she agreed.

“Do not be angry with me that you must share him,” Kaliq said.

Now it was Lara who laughed. “You are the most devious man I know,” she told him. “Charming, but devious, and I think, utterly ruthless. Why did our son have to go to this Belmair? As I recall, my mother said it was a peaceful and prosperous place.”

“Peaceful, aye. But they have a mystery that unless solved will destroy them,” Kaliq said. And then he began to tell Lara the story of Belmair, and its connection with Hetar. How aeons before the divisive among the Belmairans had been exiled to Hetar so that Belmair could retain its peaceful ways. How Hetar had lost that knowledge of its history over the ensuing centuries. “They are much like the Hetarians, except they are peaceful and have no great passion for acquisition. They live according to ages-old traditions and laws. Their kings have always been chosen by the Great Dragon, who is Belmair’s protector. They are not always hereditary.”

“But why did this dragon choose Dillon?” Lara wanted to know. “Why a young sorcerer from Hetar?”

“Because the daughter of the old king is a sorceress of much skill. She has not Dillon’s talents for magic, but she is strong enough to work with him.”

“And why would she?” Then suddenly Lara shrieked, and jumped up. “You have mated them, haven’t you? Not only have you taken my son from me, you have given him to another woman! Tell me why I should not kill you, Kaliq?” Lara demanded.

“Well,” he replied, struggling not to laugh at her, for he knew she would never forgive him for it, “you cannot kill me. And yes, they are married. It is the tradition on Belmair that if an old king has an unmarried daughter, the new king must take her as his wife. They must be joined physically for the succession to be official. And the dragon and I stood witness to the event. Dillon is king of Belmair now, and Cinnia is his queen.”

Lara sat back down. “There should be something I can do to punish you,” she muttered darkly. Then, “Will he be happy with her? Please tell me he will be happy.”

Kaliq took Lara’s hand again, and then he told her of what had happened when the joining of Dillon and Cinnia had reached its culmination. “They will love one another eventually,” he said. “But first they will need to reach an understanding, for Cinnia is proud of her abilities and has no real idea of how much more powerful Dillon is. When she learns it, her pride will be hurt, and it will take her a while to accept the knowledge.”

“Is she a fool then not to realize a Shadow Prince’s son is stronger that the piddling magic her dragon taught her?” Lara queried him.

“Cinnia, like all Belmairans, has lived an insular life,” Kaliq explained. “She knows little of other worlds. She has no idea that Nidhug’s own powers are limited. Cinnia is known as the sorceress of Belmair, Lara. She is considered powerful among her own people. There is little magic in Belmair but for Nidhug and Cinnia’s.”

“What of its faerie population?” Lara asked.

“The Belmairans do not speak of faeries,” Kaliq replied slowly.

“I do not think that there are any in Belmair.”

“Every world has faeries,” Lara said. “They are a part of its creation.”

“If they exist there, then they are secret creatures,” Kaliq responded, “for I have never heard of any. Perhaps faeries existed in Belmair at one time, but they no longer do. It is not a large world, Lara, and it only consists of four islands in a great sea. There is more water than land mass to Belmair.”

“When can I see my…our son? You said you would take me there, Kaliq.”

“Let him have a little time to acclimate himself,” the prince suggested. Then, changing the subject, he asked her, “Will you tell Magnus the truth of Dillon’s blood?”

“Certainly not!” Lara exclaimed, and she laughed. “My poor husband is jealous enough of you as it is. I have finally after all these years managed to allay his fears. I did not even tell him I was coming here when you called to me. I left him sleeping in our bed, and I had best get back soon else he awakens and finds me gone.”

“Changes are coming,” Kaliq said to her as she arose and prepared to return to her own home.

“I know,” Lara told him. “I sense it, but not yet, Kaliq. I have time.” Then with a twist of her wrist and hand she left him in a puff of pale mauve smoke.

The Shadow Prince remained seated within his garden. He wondered how Dillon was doing. He had left him almost two days ago now. He almost withstood the urge to use his magic to check on his son. Dillon was a man grown, and he had to find his own way. Still Kaliq could not resist taking a small peek. Reaching into his white robe he drew forth a small crystal globe. “Show me my son,” he commanded it. The globe darkened, and then as it lightened Kaliq saw Dillon in a library with Cinnia. They were obviously engaged in a heated exchange. He wished he might hear them, but it was enough to see Dillon. “Cease,” he told the crystal, and it instantly cleared.

CINNIA SHIVERED suddenly, and shook off the sensation.

“What is it?” Dillon asked her, seeing her body shake momentarily.

“Nothing. Just briefly I felt as if someone was watching us,” Cinnia said. “And then it was gone. My father’s death, our marriage. It has all made me very nervous.”

“If you sensed someone watching, then someone was,” Dillon told her.

At once she was fascinated. “Teach me that kind of magic,” she said to him. “Nidhug never has. I just know potions, shape-shifting, simple spells, but nothing like being able to watch others. That is a valuable tool to have.”

“We would need a crystal sphere or a reflecting bowl,” Dillon said, “and I have neither. My father saw my wardrobe and the like was transferred from my rooms at Shunnar, but I shall have to ask for the rest when I see him again,” he told her.

“Oh.” Cinnia was disappointed.

He had lied, but he was in no mood to get into another argument with her. She was the most argumentative female he had ever encountered. She questioned his every move, and while Cinnia was a passable sorceress, and there were no other in Belmair according to Nidhug, she was not mature enough in his opinion to be given access to greater knowledge at this time.

“What are you contemplating, my lord?” she asked him. “Your brow has quite furrowed. That is something I have now learned about you so that I know when you think seriously,” Cinnia told him.

“I am considering how best to approach the problem of the missing females,” he told her. “Magic is obviously involved here, Cinnia. Now the question is just what kind of magic? And why are these females being stolen away and some returned when they are ancient? And why can they not remember where they have been, and are most distressed to find themselves old?”

Cinnia shrugged. “If the answers to those questions were known I should not need a powerful sorcerer for a husband,” she said.

“Who possesses magic in Belmair besides Nidhug and you?” he questioned her.

“Magic has never been an attraction for Belmairans,” Cinnia answered him. “Those who count themselves among the scholars are more interested in the history of our land. In the Academy, which is near the castle, they argue the points of our history day and night. The rest of our citizens are farmers, fishermen, artisans and merchants,” she told him. “I am useless to you, I fear.”

“Nay, you have been a great help to me. At some time, somewhere, here in Belmair, there was magic, Cinnia. I will go and speak to the members of the Academy to learn more about the history of this world in which we live. I shall be back in time for dinner, and tonight I shall expect you to share your bed with me.”

“I was quite worn after the joining,” she replied. “I am still tired, my lord.”

“What is it, Cinnia?” he asked in a gentle voice. “You may speak freely. You are my wife. Did you not enjoy the joining?”

“I did not feel in control of myself,” she told him candidly.

“Lovers are never in control of themselves, Cinnia,” Dillon said, reaching out across the rectangular table where they were sitting to take her hand in his. Turning the hand up, he kissed the palm, and then the sensitive inside of her wrist.

Cinnia colored. “There!” she exclaimed. “It is happening again. You touch me, kiss me and I am not myself. I am confused by it.”

“It is the same for me, as well,” he told her. “I feel the softness of your skin beneath my lips, breathe the scent of moonflowers that surrounds you, and I am lost, Cinnia. Each of us, the individual, the I becomes we, a single unit.”

“But I have never felt like this before!” she wailed at him. “I am…” She hesitated, but then she burst out, “Afraid! I don’t want to lose myself to you, to any man.”

“We do not lose our singleness just because we make love,” he told her. “We blend and combine our passions, Cinnia.” Then raising her hand up again, he kissed the back of it and pressed it briefly to his cheek. “I must go now,” he said, and standing up, he hurried from the library. Finding a servant he asked the way to the Academy.

“I will take you there myself, Your Majesty,” the servant said, and he led Dillon outside, over the drawbridge and down a short gravel path to a porticoed building. “There is the Academy,” the servant told him, pointing. Then he returned the way he had come, leaving Dillon standing before the building.

After a moment Dillon walked forward, and opening the door to the building he stepped inside. He was in a large foyer, and before him was a desk with an elderly man seated behind it. He stepped forward, and the man seeing him arose and bowed.

“Your Majesty,” he said. “Welcome! I am Byrd, the head librarian. How may I serve you?”

“I am seeking the history of magic in Belmair,” Dillon said. “Do you have someone well versed in the subject?”

Byrd thought. And he thought. Finally he said, “That would be Prentice. He concerns himself only with the obsolete in our history. He isn’t particularly well thought of that he would waste his time on the outmoded. Are you sure I couldn’t offer you another scholar? One who is more up-to-date in his thinking and his knowledge, Your Majesty.”

“Nay, I will need to see Prentice,” Dillon replied.

“Very well, I shall send for him,” Byrd said.

“Nay, I will go to him,” Dillon answered. “Where is he?”

Byrd reached into his black robes and drew forth a miniature life glass attached to a golden chain. He peered closely at it, and finally said, “At this time of day, Your Majesty, in fact at any time of day or night, Prentice can be found in his chambers, which are situated in the lower level of the building. He has no need for light or air it seems. Page!” he called, and a young boy came from the corner bowing before the two men.

“Take His Majesty to Prentice,” Byrd told the page.

“Thank you,” Dillon said.

“It has been a pleasure to serve Your Majesty. It is rare for the king to take an interest in us and what we do. I am honored, and I will tell the scholars of your visit,” Byrd replied, bowing again before returning to his place behind the desk.

Dillon followed the young page from the chamber, and down one, two, and finally a third flight of stairs. The first flight had been marble. The second was stone. The last wood. Down a dimly lit corridor they walked, and finally the page stopped before a wood door with a rounded top. He rapped upon the door several times before it was flung open by a tall, gaunt man with a shock of graying red hair. The page jumped back, frightened, and with a small cry turned and dashed back down the corridor to the stairs.

“Well?” the man in the door demanded. “What do you want?”

“Information,” Dillon said, amused. “You are Prentice, I assume.”

“If it has to do with our ancient past, come in. If it doesn’t then go back from wherever you came,” Prentice said bluntly.

Dillon bent to step through the doorway and into the scholar’s chambers. He heard the door close behind him. “I want the history of magic in Belmair,” he said, turning back around to face the scholar.

“Who are you?” Prentice demanded to know.

“Your king. My name is Dillon, and before you ask, nay, I am not of Belmair. I was born on Hetar. My father is Kaliq of the Shadows, and my mother, Lara, a faerie woman, Domina of Terah. And now, Master Prentice, I should like some answers.”

“So old Fflergant is dead,” the scholar said. “He was a good king, but dull as mud. You’ve married the daughter, Cinnia? She’s a sorceress, you know.”

“I have wed Cinnia. I’m a sorcerer,” Dillon replied. “Nidhug believes that by combining our powers we may be able to learn why the women are disappearing from your world before none are left and Belmair ceases to exist.”

Prentice nodded. “Of course you are right, Your Majesty. Magic will be involved somehow. Sit down! Sit down! I would make you some tea, but I seem to have broken all my cups.” He shrugged. “No matter.” He sat down opposite Dillon.

“Tea, appear. Here.” Dillon said, and at once a tray with two steaming mugs of tea and a plate of biscuits appeared upon the table between them.

Prentice chuckled. “Thank you,” he said. “I don’t suppose you could conjure up any wood for my hearth. They are supposed to bring it to me, but seldom remember.”

Dillon made a small gesture with his hand, and the wood basket was filled to overflowing. Then he pointed a single finger at the little hearth, and a fire sprang up.

“Now that’s a fine, practical magic to have,” Prentice said as he picked up the mug of tea and reached for a sugar-frosted biscuit.

“Your wood basket will never empty no matter how much wood you use,” Dillon told him. “Nor will your fire go out. Consider that a small payment in return for your knowledge.”

“I don’t suppose you could include the tea trick, too,” Prentice said hopefully.

Dillon chuckled. “From now on when you wish tea just tell the mug to fill itself, and it will,” he said to the scholar. “Now, tell me of magic here in Belmair.”

“It’s been centuries since anyone except the dragon has practiced magic,” Prentice said. “Once that wasn’t so, but somewhere along the line the magic was lost to us.”

“Were there any magic folk here in Belmair?” Dillon asked.

“Faeries? Pixies? Gnomes? Every world has magic folk of its own.”

“I seem to recall hearing of magic folk somewhere in our distant past, but it is not at my fingertips. Still I have the best ancient histories here in my rooms. I could seek out the knowledge that you need, Majesty. It might take a while,” he said, a languid hand waving at the shelves of books all about the room. “But I will find what it is you need to know.”

“Then do so, my friend,” Dillon told the scholar. “The rulers of Belmair have waited for over a hundred years. I can wait a little bit longer to learn what I need to know. Can you tell me about the Hetarian exiles?”

“Ah, now there I am quite conversant,” Prentice said eagerly.

“Speak, but condense it for me,” Dillon told the scholar.

“The official history taught to all the children is that those cast out of Belmair were dissidents who fought tradition and wished to make changes. Well, that is true, but there is much more to it. The old king was in his last hours. He had twin sons. Each wished to rule in their father’s place. But the dragon, in an effort to prevent these brothers from killing each other over the kingship, chose a young man from another of our aristocratic families. One of the twins accepted the dragon’s decision and swore his allegiance to the new king. But the other brother would not. Instead he attempted to change the structure of our government. When he could not he attacked the castle with his adherents. There was no other option but to banish them. We do not fight each other here in Belmair. We follow the traditions and customs of our ancestors for they are good customs and traditions. We do not want change.”

“And yet you have gotten change,” Dillon said. “I am not Belmairan born.”

“But the dragon is our tradition, and it is the dragon’s decision who will be king,” the scholar said. “The dragon chose you. And even I comprehend why someone from another of the worlds in the Cosmos was chosen. There was no one here in Belmair. It was that simple. And you could end up being Belmair’s last king if the problem of our lack of children isn’t solved soon, and quickly.”

“I agree,” Dillon said. Finishing the last of the tea in his mug he stood up. “I will leave you to your work, scholar Prentice. I will come now and again without warning. Do not be frightened if I suddenly appear as I am now leaving you.” Then Dillon moved into the shadows of the chamber, and was gone.

“Most convenient,” Prentice said to himself, and he set to work seeking out the books he would need for his research. Let the others among his kind mock his fascination with the past. With luck, his knowledge, coupled with the sorcerer’s skills, would save them all, the scholar thought almost smugly.

DILLON HAD REAPPEARED within his own rooms. He sat down in a chair by his fireplace and began to consider other alternatives available. What if all the young women left in Belmair were gathered into a single place upon each of the world’s islands? It would certainly be easy to protect them if they were in one place. But it would also make them vulnerable to capture. Until he knew exactly what he was dealing with, or who, Dillon realized they could do nothing. Why were these women being taken? And why were only some of them being returned rather than all of them? King of Belmair, he thought wryly. His father had certainly not set him to an easy task. But then he had been becoming a little too complacent in his life, and a bit smug in his talents of late, Dillon admitted to himself. Being given this problem to solve would be a test of all he had learned over his years at Shunnar. Was he really as good a sorcerer as he believed himself to be? Well, he decided, he was certainly more powerful than his wife.

Cinnia. She was both a problem and a delight to him. She was intelligent. Of that Dillon had no doubt. But she was also prideful and stubborn. She was known as the sorceress of Belmair, but then Belmairans were not a complex people. Their descendants on Hetar were far more sophisticated. Still, they sprang from the same root stock.

Cinnia, however, was not like the women he had known. She did not seem to be in the least interested in taking pleasures with him. She had accepted the joining, but after that she held him at bay. His mother was a woman of great passion, and his sisters would follow her lead. The oldest of his sisters, Anoush, had already had at least two lovers, but she was not yet quite ready to wed. Cinnia had exhibited great passion in the joining, but since then she had been cold and distant toward him. He didn’t understand.

He was handsome. Skilled. Patient. Lustful. What more did a woman want in a lover?

He had been given a serving man, one Ferrex by name. Ferrex was neither old, nor young. He was almost as tall as Dillon; quite dignified with a totally bald pate and dark gray eyes. Now he came silently into the room, waiting patiently for his master to notice him. As Dillon seemed quite deep in thought Ferrex finally murmured, “My lord.”

The younger man looked up. “Ah, Ferrex, I have strayed from my schedule, haven’t I? Have I missed anything that I should not have?”

“Not to my knowledge, Your Majesty, but I did not hear you come in,” Ferrex said.

“More often than not I travel by magic,” Dillon explained. “It is more direct. You will not hear me come in unless I call for you. I was at the Academy speaking with Prentice, the scholar on ancient Belmair. I need to know more of your world before I can even begin to solve the problem of the missing women.”

“My niece was taken several years ago,” Ferrex said. “My sister sent her to pick berries and watercress for the meal. She never returned, and no trace of her was ever found. She was just fifteen.”

“Here on Belmair isle?” Dillon asked his servant.

“Nay, on Beldane,” Ferrex answered him.

“This is happening on all the four islands?” Dillon queried the man.

“Aye, Your Majesty. None have been spared,” Ferrex replied.

“Did you want something?” Dillon said.

“The young queen was wondering if you planned to join her for the evening meal,” Ferrex said quietly.

Dillon turned his head, and saw the sun was low on the horizon. “I did not realize how late it was,” he admitted. “Aye, go and tell Her Majesty I will join her shortly.”

“I will send your page, Your Majesty,” Ferrex said. “Then I will return to see you properly garbed for the evening.” He bowed himself from the room.

Dillon smiled to himself. With Ferrex in his employ, the king of Belmair would never appear not at his best. And when he had finally bathed and dressed, Dillon had to admit that he looked the part he suddenly found himself playing. He descended to the Great Hall in a fine ruby-colored silk robe with a keyhole neckline and wide sleeves, the turned-back cuffs of which were embroidered in red crystals and tiny black beads.

“I thought you had gone,” Cinnia greeted him.

“Where would I go?” he asked her, accepting a goblet of rich red wine.

“Back to Hetar, perhaps?” she said.

“You are an odd creature,” he told her. “One moment you are pleasant, the next you are as sour as an old woman, and you refuse to take pleasures with me.”

“You Hetarians go on much about taking pleasures all the time,” Cinnia answered him. “Why is it so important to you? The night should be for sleeping and restoring one’s energies, my lord. Not for adding to your exhaustion.”

“Taking pleasures is very relaxing,” Dillon said to her, surprised. “And pleasures are not necessarily confined to the nighttime hours. They can be taken at anytime and in anyplace. I have made love in a garden beneath the noonday sun, and in a desert oasis with only the stars for light, as well as in my bed.”

Cinnia wrinkled her nose. “Have I not said I do not wish to hear about your other women, my lord? It is not a subject that is of interest to me, nor are your exploits. But as I do not wish you to be discontent in Belmair for we need your magic, let us set a time each week for us to take pleasures together. If your lusts need to be released more frequently then you have my permission to take a concubine for your pleasures.”

“Nay, Cinnia, only you will serve my lusts, and you will do so when and where I desire it,” Dillon told her.

“How dare you order me about!” Cinnia cried out angrily.

“Dare?” He laughed briefly. “May I remind you, Cinnia, that I am the king of Belmair. And you are its queen only because I permit you to be. I think perhaps the time has come for me to teach you that lesson so you will not forget it again.” Reaching out he yanked her into his arms and kissed her hard. “Soften your lips,” he commanded her, and then he kissed her again. This time the kiss was slow and hot.

Her heart was beating wildly, but she wasn’t going to let this foreigner they had made her marry control her. Cinnia bit the lips kissing hers.

“Ouch!” Dillon yelped, surprised that she would fight back. But then taking her by her arm he dragged her across the hall, sat down upon a chair and yanked her down across his lap, pulling up her silk skirts as he did. His big hand descended to make contact with her bare flesh as he licked the blood from his lips.

Cinnia squealed furiously. “Stop that at once, you brute!” she commanded him.

Dillon began to spank her in earnest. “Did no one ever bother to teach you manners, you vicious little bitch?” he demanded. Eight. Nine. Ten.

“I hate you!” Cinnia yelled, and she struggled to escape his grasp.

“Your behavior and attitude haven’t exactly warmed my heart, either,” he growled at her. His hand continued to smack at her round bottom. Fourteen. Fifteen. Sixteen.

“I’ll never take pleasures with you again, you beast!” she threatened.

“Oh, yes, you will,” Dillon replied. Twenty! “I’m going to teach you how to be a woman, Cinnia.” He dumped her onto the hall floor, and stood up. “Anytime. Anyplace.” He quickly pulled her up. “Here. Now!”

Cinnia suddenly found herself being drawn down into his lap, and onto his manhood. She gasped with surprise to find herself very wet and ready for him. How could this be? He had been violent with her, and not at all a lover. She moaned low as her burning buttocks made contact with his bare thighs, and she felt him inside her fully sheathed. “The servants!” she cried softly.

“Will learn to be discreet,” he said as softly. “Now ride me, my queen, and ride me hard. If you do not give me pleasures, Cinnia, I will move us to the high board, and take you there until you do,” he threatened her. “I will lay your naked body upon that polished wood and make you scream for all in the castle to hear. Now, ride me!”

Cinnia began to cry. “I don’t know how!” she sobbed.

“Move yourself up and down upon my rod, my queen,” he told her, and when she began to comply he encouraged her, “That’s it, Cinnia. Now faster, and yet faster!”

She jogged up and down upon his manhood, her pace growing quicker with each passing moment. He held her gently about the waist, encouraging her onward. Her eyes closed and she grew languid as in spite of herself Cinnia began to enjoy the conjunction between them. His hardness felt so good. He probed her deeply and suddenly something within her responded. “Oh, yes!” she cried low. “Yes!”

Dillon smiled to himself. He had found her magic center. Every woman had one. It was just a matter of finding it. He helped her to help him work it, and very quickly Cinnia was whimpering as the pleasures began to flood her. “That’s it, my queen,” he murmured in her ear, and he kissed her mouth in a long and lingering kiss. This time she did not bite him. And then he felt the quivers within her beginning to rise up to overwhelm her. He allowed her the moment, and when she fell forward on his shoulder he gently lifted her off of his turgid manhood cradling her against his silk-covered chest. It would quiet itself shortly, and he was not at all ready to give up pleasures. The night was young. “Are you ready to eat now?” he asked her casually.

“You are a horrible man,” Cinnia murmured, her eyes still closed.

“When we have finished our meal I will show you some other places a man and a woman may take pleasures together,” he purred in her ear.

She wanted to stand up, but she knew that right now she couldn’t. How was it possible that he could make her feel this way? But it felt so right nestling against him.

Finally Cinnia thought she might stand up. “I’m ready now,” she told him, and arose from his lap wobbling just slightly. She felt his hand beneath her elbow and while she wanted to tell him she was perfectly capable of walking by herself, Cinnia didn’t dare because she knew it wasn’t true, and worse, so did he.

He seated her at their high board and took his place next to her. And then as if by magic the servants began entering the hall with the steaming bowls and platters with their meal. If any of them had seen or heard what had just transpired between their master and their mistress, they showed no evidence of it. Dillon filled his plate with raw oysters, prawns, ham and meat pie. Cinnia took prawns, capon and an artichoke. There was bread, butter and cheese, which they shared.

“The hall is too big for just the two of us,” Dillon noted. “Is there a smaller chamber we might use?”

“My father always ate in the Great Hall,” Cinnia said.

“I am not your father,” Dillon responded. “The hall is a grand place for entertaining, but you and I need a more intimate place to dine when we are alone.”

“It is tradition…” she began.

“Some traditions need to be changed. It is ridiculous for two people to eat in a hall built for great feasts. And it makes extra work for the servants who have to trot the length of this hall simply to bring us a platter or bowl so we may take a bit of food.” Dillon looked out over the hall to where the servants stood attentively awaiting an order.

“Who is steward here?” he asked.

A plump, short man stepped forward. “I am, Your Majesty. My name is Britto.” He bowed politely. “How may I serve Your Majesty?”

“Is there a smaller chamber where the queen and I may eat when we are alone?” Dillon asked the steward.

Britto’s brow furrowed in thought. Say no. The steward heard Cinnia’s voice in his head, for a quick look in her direction told him she had not spoken aloud. Say no! came the command again. “Your Majesty, I regret we have no other accommodation for your meals,” Britto said apologetically.

“You are certain, Britto?”

“Yes, Your Majesty, I am certain,” the stewart said nervously.

“Then there is nothing else for it but that I make the Great Hall smaller when it is just the two of us,” Dillon replied calmly. “Hall, small,” he said. And suddenly the chamber walls seemed to move in, and the length of the room shrank by three-quarters.

Britto’s eyes grew wide with his surprise, and the waiting servants murmured anxiously as they suddenly found themselves in a considerably smaller space.

“What have you done?” Cinnia demanded to know.

“It’s a simple charm,” Dillon told her. “When we leave the hall it will return to its original size. But if it is just the two of us, or we have fewer than ten guests, the hall will retain a lesser proportion. Your precious tradition is preserved, Cinnia.” He looked down at the steward, who still stood before the high board. “And in future, Britto, you will accept my orders over those of the queen. Do you understand?” Dillon picked up his wine cup and drank deeply.

Britto swallowed hard. “I heard her, Your Majesty. Plain as day, I did, but she never opened her mouth,” the steward said, looking distressed.

Dillon laughed. “I’m surprised all of Belmair didn’t hear her she was shouting at you so loud, Britto. Your mistress is a prankster, are you not, my queen?” He caught Cinnia’s hand up, and kissed it. “She will not do it again, however, will you, my pet? It really is not kind to frighten our good servants.”

“I am sorry I startled you, Britto,” Cinnia said, extricating her hand from her husband’s. She glared at Dillon. “How did you know?” she murmured at him as the servants now returned to their duties and began clearing the high board of the dishes.

“Speaking silently comes naturally to me,” he told her. “That is one of the ways my mother first knew of my talents. Certainly you didn’t think I wouldn’t hear you?”

“Why did the dragon pick you?” Cinnia responded with her own question.

“Because she needs a sorcerer with true strength, and I am he,” Dillon replied. “You simply do not have the skills to overcome whatever magic is at work in Belmair. I do. But I will need your help. The dragon would not have taught you magic if you could not be of help to me. You must stop being angry at me, Cinnia, because I am king. You could not rule by those traditions that you seem to hold so dear. And you will never lose your fear of taking pleasures with me until you stop being afraid of losing yourself to our passion, for there is great passion between us. You are my wife. I want no other woman.”

“How can you say that and mean it?” Cinnia said. “Until several days ago I knew nothing of you. But within moments of our meeting we were wed. And after that we were joined, to legitimize your selection by the dragon as this world’s king. You know nothing of me.” Was he, she wondered, the one she had sometimes felt watching her? A feeling had come upon her at times in the last few years that she was being spied upon. Nay, it could not be Dillon spying. The feeling was not the same and he had not been aware of her existence in years past.

“But I do know you,” Dillon continued. “You are beautiful, which is obvious to all who look upon you. You are intelligent, and perhaps a bit too proud. You are kind, for I saw how gently you spoke with your father in the hour before his death. You have manners. And you have magic about you, for ’twas not only I who created that spectacular effect that was the result of our joining, Cinnia.”

“It didn’t happen before we ate,” Cinnia answered him. “And of course I am proud. I was born royal.”

“It didn’t happen earlier because we were angry with one another. We were not making love. We were making war,” Dillon told her. “When I make love to you, my queen, you will experience passion again as you did at the joining. As for pride I recognize it easily. My grandmother has the same prideful bearing that you do. She was born a queen, and she never lets you forget it. Now, the table is cleared. I believe that we have some unfinished business.” He stood, drawing her up with him. “Come!”

“I don’t know you,” Cinnia said as he led her out of the hall and upstairs to their apartments where their servants were awaiting them.

“What would you like to know?” he asked her. “You can see that I am handsome,” he teased her.

“And vain!” she shot back. “You told me you are twenty-two to my seventeen. You have siblings. How many? Are they brothers or sisters? I’ll tell you what I do know. You seem kind. And your brow gets wrinkly when you concentrate on something. And I know that your magic is far greater than mine. But you could teach me.”

“I have three sisters and a brother,” he told her. “Anoush is the oldest. She is your age. Zagiri is thirteen. The twins—Taj is the boy, and his sister, Marzina—are nine. My little brother is my stepfather’s heir. On Hetar it is believed I am the son of the martyred Fiacre clan chief, Vartan. Anoush is his daughter. As for teaching you my magic, Cinnia, eventually I will share some of my knowledge with you, but right now you are not mature enough, and your temper is much to quick to be entrusted with too much power.” His hand touched the door to their apartments, and it sprang open for him. “We will bathe first,” he said to her. “Together.” Ferrex and Cinnia’s serving woman, Anke, hurried forward. “Prepare the bath,” Dillon said. “Anke, take your mistress, and when she has disrobed bring her to the bath chamber.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Anke said. Like Ferrex she was neither old nor young. She was of medium height with a sweet face, slightly plump with pretty brown eyes and brown hair she wore in two thick braids woven about her head.

“Do not dally, Anke,” the young king said.

“No, Your Majesty, I won’t,” Anke answered, and she led her mistress away.

“He wants us to bathe together,” Cinnia said to her servant. “Is that not shocking, Anke? I shall not do it. Lock the bedchamber door.”

“Nay, mistress, I will not argue with my master in a matter so insignificant,” Anke told Cinnia. “Lovers like to bathe together, and it is time you became lovers. He is the king, and he is your husband. That is not likely to change. This is a good way for you to become better acquainted with one another. You have not lain with him since the joining. You will cause gossip if you continue to behave like a skittish doe with her first buck.”

“In the hall before the meal…” Cinnia began.

“He took you for a little joggity-jog,” Anke said. “I know.”

“You know?” The girl’s cheeks grew red.

“As soon as the servant entering the hall saw she withdrew, and warned the others not to disturb you,” Anke said in matter-of-fact tones. “She heard your cries as he was spanking you, and hurried to aid you, but saw you needed nothing, and did not require any rescue,” Anke finished. “He’s a fine man, mistress, and should give you great pleasures if you will let him.” She quickly drw off Cinnia’s silk gown and chemise. Then sitting her mistress down, she brushed her long black hair out and pinned it up. “Come along now,” she said, leading Cinnia brisky from her chamber to the bath chamber.

“I’ll leave you a night garment on the chair by the fire so it may warm. You may want it later, mistress. Ah, here we are!” Anke flung open the door to the bath chamber. Warm, moist steam billowed out into the small corridor. “I bid you good-night, mistress!”

Gently the serving woman pushed Cinnia through into the room and shut the door behind her quietly.

Cinnia stood silently for a long moment. The door behind her opened again, and turning she saw Dillon step through. Oh my! Cinnia thought as she looked at him naked. The joining had been such a tumultuous affair she really had not gotten a good look at him. She saw now that he had a big body, but it was proportioned properly.

Broad chest. Narrow hips. Long, shapely legs. He turned briefly to shut the door behind him. His buttocks were lovely. Nicely rounded, firm, and she had the most incredible urge to fondle them with her hands. Cinnia’s cheeks grew warm with her lascivious thoughts; and when he turned back to her he grinned. Her cheeks grew hotter. Could he know what she had been thinking? It was untenable! “Stop that!” she commanded him. “It is not polite to intrude upon others thoughts, my lord.”

He walked across the room and, reaching her, smiled down into her eyes. “I want to hear you call me by name, Cinnia.”

“You are the most arrogant man I have ever met, Dillon,” she answered.

He grinned again. “I probably am,” he agreed. “The result of my exalted pedigree, my queen. Now, let us bathe each other.”

The bathing chamber consisted of several small rooms. In the first two indentations in the shape of shells had been imprinted into the marble floor. A gold spigot, fashioned like an openmouthed fish, sprang from the wall bordering each of these recesses in the floor. Faintly scented lukewarm water poured from them. Next to each shelf was a small table upon which rested a large sea sponge and a round, flat dish of thickened soft soap bearing the same fragrance as the water.

She found herself quickly over her shyness regarding their nudity. She stole a quick look at his maleness. She was hardly familiar with the masculine body, but she doubted his manhood would be called insufficient by any standards. And if she was to admit it to herself he had indeed given her pleasure in the joining. It was that that most disturbed her. They were barely acquainted and she had enjoyed it. What did that say about her? Belmairans did not have the easy morals of Hetarians. Cinnia stepped into the shell.

“Now it is your brow that furrows,” Dillon said to her, and he directed the spigot head to wet her body.

“Are you invading my thoughts?” she said sharply.

“You asked me not to, and so I am not,” Dillon answered her. “I would know what troubles you, Cinnia. Can you put it into easy words, or would you prefer I seek those words for myself, my queen?” He dipped the sponge into the soap, and began to lather it over her shoulders and back.

She was silent a long minute, and then she said, “I liked what happened between us in the joining, Dillon. But what kind of a woman does that make me?”

“A passionate one, for which I am delighted,” he told her quietly.

“I reacted like an easy Hetarian woman. They were always different that way than we were. Swift to indulge their senses without a care for anyone or anything else,” Cinnia told him unhappily. “I didn’t know you, and yet I enjoyed the passions we shared in the joining. Nay, I reveled in it.”

“How many brides know the men with whom they are matched?” Dillon asked her. “It is rare in my world that women wed men they know well and love. Women in my world marry for many reasons, but love is rarely among them. Respect and love come afterward. Is it any different here in Belmair? And if a bridegroom is skilled and gentle, should his bride not gain pleasures with him? Why should her wedding night be one of fear and loathing, Cinnia? Why should she not have her passions stoked and brought to sweet fulfillment? Who would ever tell you such a terrible thing?” He swirled the sponge over her adorable buttocks, and squatted down to wash her thighs and shapely legs. Then he stood again and helped her to rinse the soap from her body.

When Cinnia turned to face him her pretty cheeks were pink. But Dillon tipped her small oval face up to his and tenderly kissed her lips. “No one told me anything,” she managed to whisper against his mouth. “Oh, I knew the basics of what must be between a man and a woman. Nidhug was emphatic that I learn such things. But we Belmairans are an old and honored race. Passion such as you engendered in me is unknown to us, Dillon.”

“Nay, it isn’t,” he told her. “It simply isn’t considered good manners in Belmair to discuss it, my queen. Enjoy it, aye! But discuss it? Nay! Would you like to do my back now?” Handing her the sponge he turned his back to her.

Taking the sponge from him, Cinnia rinsed it, and then dipping it into the soap she began to wash his broad back and shoulders. He was tall, and so it became necessary for her to stand upon her tiptoes. She laved the sponge across and down his body, and when she had finished she rinsed him as he had her, and Dillon turned about to face her.

4

“WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?” Cinnia asked him.

“Because it helps us to know and trust each other better,” Dillon said.

“You Hetarians are so carnal,” she replied, giving him a wry smile.

He took the soapy sponge from her. “And you have been wed to the most sensual of their races, my queen.” He drew her into his embrace with his free hand, and bending his head, found her mouth. The kiss he shared with her was long, and grew more passionate with each moment that passed. Her lips were petal soft beneath his, and she did not resist. Rather, he sensed her shy attempt to share his desire. Finally Dillon released her. His bright blue eyes stared down into her face. “I think,” he said slowly as if carefully choosing his words, “that with time I can make you as naughty as a faerie.” Enjoying the blush that suffused her pale cheeks, he handed her a second sponge. “Now let us wash each other,” he suggested.

She mimicked his motions. His sponge swept down her slender throat. Hers followed down his. He laved across her chest, and then began to bathe each of her breasts, tenderly lifting each small globe as he did. Her nipples puckered, and unable to help himself Dillon bent his head and suckled on one. Cinnia whimpered faintly, trying to concentrate on the broad plain of his chest with her own sponge. He made circles as he moved down her torso and over her belly. Then he knelt and began washing her mons, pushing the sponge between her nether lips, rubbing up and down her well-furred slit. When he had finished he washed both of her legs, lifting them up to bathe her small feet. When he had finished he rinsed her off, saying, “Now it is your turn, Cinnia.” And he forced her to her knees before him.

Gathering up all of her courage Cinnia looked the enemy in the eye. She sudsed the thick mat of fur surrounding his manhood. She lifted the beast up, and ran the sponge back and forth along its length. It stirred, and she dropped it nervously, moving quickly to his long muscled legs and his large feet. When she had finished she moved to stand, but Dillon’s hands held her down.

“Stay there,” he said and turning he rinsed himself off. When he had finished he pivoted back to face her. “Now, my queen, I am going to give you your first lesson in how to pleasure me. Take my manhood into your mouth and suck upon it. Be gentle, and beware of scraping me with your teeth.”

She had never heard of such a thing, but then if the truth be known, he had taught her all she now knew of lovemaking. Following his direction, she took him in her hand, and, leaning, forward, her mouth closed over him. The flesh was warm and tasted faintly of the soap she had washed him with. Cinnia felt his hand upon her head as she began to suck upon him. She heard his indrawn hiss of breath and as she did she realized that the softness in her mouth had begun to grow firmer with each tug of her jaws.

“You can take a bit more,” he said, his voice almost strained as he pushed himself deeper into her mouth. “Use the fingers of your other hand to tickle my sacs.”

She felt the thickening peg of flesh touching the back of her throat and struggled not to gag. Reaching beneath him, she found his seed sacs, cool and slightly hairy to her touch. She teased them with delicate fingers. As his manhood expanded within her mouth and he groaned low, Cinnia suddenly realized that her simple actions were indeed giving him pleasure. She felt a rush of power as she realized he was as vulnerable to passion as she was. Cinnia sucked harder upon him until her jaws were aching, and she could no longer contain him within her mouth.

It was at that point that Dillon growled a command to her to stop, and taking her by the hand led her to the bathing pool. Looking at him as they moved from one chamber into the other, Cinnia was astounded by the length and size of him. She had never really looked at him as she was now looking at him. He was magnificent! Together they stepped down into the perfumed water. Turning her about so that she was facing up the steps, he instructed her to kneel forward upon the steps, using her hands to balance herself. Then coming behind her he sheathed himself deep and fully within her body.

Cinnia gasped at his entry. His hands fastened themselves about her shapely hips, and he began to pump her, slowly at first with long, majestic strokes of his cock; then with increasing rapidity, with fierce, hard thrusts of his manhood. She whimpered, a sound of desperation, as he moved within her. “Please!” she begged him. “Please!”

“Tell me what it is you desire, my queen,” he whispered hotly in her ear.

“Give me pleasures, Dillon! Give me pleasures!” she cried. And the room filled with golden light, and the air crackled around them.

“Your wish, my queen, is mine to fulfill,” he murmured, kissing her ear, and then nipping hard on the lobe. Finding her pleasure center, he used it well, and she was quickly cresting as the feelings of delight swept over her. Withdrawing from her, he sat down upon the steps, cradling her within his arms, kissing her small face as she floated back to reality once again, and he kissed her slowly, murmuring softly against her lips, “Anytime, anywhere, Cinnia.” He reminded her of his earlier promise.

She opened her eyes at long last. Every inch of her tingled with excitement. “Do you behave like this all the time?” she asked him softly.

“You are mine,” he said simply. “I am going to fall in love with you, Cinnia. Not because you are beautiful or because you are my wife, but because we were meant to be together like this forever. I don’t want you resistant to pleasures. Not when the cojoining of our bodies is such a good thing.”

“The light was gold and the air crackled again,” she said to him.

“Because we were in tune with one another,” he told her. “You were not resisting me, my queen.” He dumped her gently from his lap into the warm scented water. He was still fully aroused, his manhood engorged with his lust.

Cinnia stared. “You are not satisfied,” she said. “And yet I was. Why?”

“I learned long ago how to prolong my desires,” Dillon told her. “I will make love to you again several times before we sleep. It pleases me to see you fulfilled, and there is time for me to reach that perfect state. We will relax together in the pool.”

The watery enclosure was square, and had a depth of five feet. On one side of it was a pink marble flower from whose center water sprayed forth. The ceiling was glass, and revealed the velvety-black night skies above them ablaze with stars. He noted to her that the sky they watched now was different from that he was used to in Terah, or his father’s palace of Shunnar.

“What is the biggest difference?” she queried him.

“I cannot see Belmair,” he said with a smile. “What is that bright star?” he pointed to a particularly bright orb almost directly above them now.

“That is Hetar,” she told him. “It is magnificent from afar, isn’t it?”

He nodded, agreeing. “It is.” Then he asked her, “Why do you have no siblings?”

“My mother died shortly after giving birth to me,” Cinnia said. “My father chose not to remarry although there were several women of suitable families who would have made him a good queen. But since king’s sons here in Belmair do not necessarily follow in their father’s footsteps he felt no great urge to sire a son,” Cinnia explained. “He wed late in his life, and might not have married at all but he saw my mother once, and fell in love with her. They were wed for over two hundred years before I was born, and I was quite a surprise to them I can assure you.” She chuckled with her memories. “When a child was not born to them in the first years of their marriage they assumed they would never have one. Belmairans live a normal life span of several hundred years, but we age incredibly slowly,” Cinnia explained to him, for she could see he was somewhat confused.

“But you said you were seventeen,” Dillon said.

“I am,” she told him. “But I will live several hundred years if illness does not fell me first,” Cinnia said. “How long will you live?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “My father has lived since the beginning of time itself. My mother, being mostly faerie, should live for several hundred years. I suppose I will live at least as long as she does.” He swam across the pool to stand beneath the spray of water from the pink marble blossom. Their life spans were similar. He would not be forced like his mother to watch as Cinnia grew older, and he remained the same. It was likely that they would age together. Had the dragon and his father been aware of that, Dillon wondered? He would remember to ask Kaliq when next he saw him. Cinnia was looking at him, and the young king suddenly became aware of his throbbing member. He needed to couple with her again. He swam back to where she was awaiting him.

Cinnia leaned against the marble walls of the pool, enjoying the warm water as it lapped against her. This bathing had been a surprisingly good idea of his. She did feel more comfortable in his presence, and she was learning little bits and pieces about him. Her eyes closed and she listened to the flower fountain as it sprayed into the water. It was a most soothing sound. And then she sensed him. Her eyes flew open and he stood directly before her.

Taking her small face between his big hands, he kissed her slowly, lingeringly. “Now once more, my queen,” he told her.

She felt his hand cupping her bottom as he lifted her up.

“Wrap your legs about me, Cinnia,” he directed her.

As she did she felt his thick length pressing once again into her body. Cinnia sighed, clinging to him as he moved hungrily within her until she was dizzy with her own lust, and the pleasures being joined with him brought her. But then suddenly he withdrew from her, and she protested. “No, Dillon! No!”

“Come,” he said without explanation, and led her from their watery playground into the third chamber of the bath. Here the air was filled with an exotic and elusive perfume. There was a wide marble bench upon which rested a large pile of fluffy towels. Taking one he began to dry her. The towel was warm. When he had almost finished he lay several towels upon the bench, and instructed her to sit down. When she had he dried her feet, kissing and sucking upon the toes as he did so.

Cinnia couldn’t help but giggle. “You are a great fool,” she told him.

“Lay back,” he said in reply, and when she was stretched out upon the wide bench he spread her legs wide, and seating himself he leaned forward to peel open her nether lips with his thumbs, and lick the sweet coral-pink flesh.

Cinnia gasped, shocked. “What are you doing?” she asked, attempted to rise up.

“Stay still!” he told her sharply. “This is but a new pleasure for you, my queen.” Then his tongue began to explore her slowly as he licked and probed and tasted her.

Cinnia’s senses whirled with the sensations he was engendering. They were delicious, and she suspected, very naughty pleasures he was offering her. He seemed to be in no hurry to end the delightful torture. His tongue licked one side of her flesh, and then the other. He explored carefully, and when the tip of his tongue met what was an incredibly sensitive part of her, Cinnia squealed nervously. Immediately he began to taunt and tease that tiny jewel until she was almost mindless with the delight, and when she was certain he was going to kill her with it, Dillon was mounting her once more, and thrusting deeply into her body. “And again, my queen,” he said.

He rode her hard. Their breathing became ragged and rough as he pushed into her again and again and again. He was a fierce lover now, and Cinnia reveled in the wildness they were sharing. She wrapped herself about him so he might have deeper access to her. Their fingers intertwined restlessly as they climbed and climbed and climbed until they could climb no more. Then together their passions burst. Her cry echoed about the room. His shout as he allowed his juices to finally erupt mingled with her soft cries of pleasure, totally and completely fulfilled. The room was bedazzled and drenched in a quivering golden shimmer, and the sounds of crackling light could be heard. The glow danced about them, tiny darts of lightning shining within it, snapping noisily. And then the chamber grew quiet and dimmed as the light faded away and they collapsed in a tangle of arms and legs upon the wide marble bench. Finally Dillon pulled himself up and stood. Cinnia lay pale, her breathing now quieted, but obviously weak with satisfaction. He bent and, picking her up, carried her from the bath, and into her bedchamber, where, drawing back the coverlet on the bed, he lay her down. Walking to the hearth, he added more wood before returning to the bed and climbing in with her.

“Your sensual nature will be the death of me,” Cinnia murmured.

“Not for at least a thousand years,” he replied, and he pulled her into his arms. “I’m going to sleep with you tonight. I cannot be certain yet that my lusts are satisfied.”

“Mine are,” she half groaned. “Your passions are enormous.”

He laughed softly. “Are you learning to trust me, my queen?”

“It would seem I have no choice,” Cinnia answered him.

“Passion is not so terrible, is it? You seem to enjoy my attentions,” he teased her.

“I do,” she admitted softly.

“I want you to trust me in other things, too, Cinnia. If you do we can solve this problem besetting Belmair,” Dillon told her.

“And you will teach me some serious magic,” she said sleepily.

“When you are ready, aye, I will,” he promised her.

“Good night, my lord.”

“Good night, my queen,” he replied. But he lay awake for several minutes listening to the sounds of her breathing, enjoying the voluptuous young body within his embrace. Cinnia was not an easy woman to know, he thought to himself as he had earlier. Though the Belmairans scorned those they had sent into exile many centuries before, they were much like them in their desire for order and conformity. Their need for tradition, sameness. But the king their dragon had chosen was anything but Hetarian or Belmairan in his thoughts and methods. It was going to be an interesting time as they all came to terms with one another.

Several days later the scholar, Prentice, sent a request to the king that he come to his chambers at the Academy. Gara, who had been assigned as the king’s new secretary, set the message aside, for he did not think a missive from an unimportant scholar worthy of his master’s immediate attentions. Gara knew of Prentice, for he had been educated at the Academy. The fellow was half-mad it was said. But then Dillon thought to tell Gara that he was awaiting word from Prentice.

“A message came yesterday, Your Majesty,” Gara quickly said, “but this Prentice is not a scholar highly thought of by the Academy. I considered it of no account.”

“Prentice is doing some very important research for me on ancient Belmair,” Dillon told his secretary. “In future all communication from him is to be brought to my attention immediately. I apologize I did not advise you of it sooner,” the young king said, soothing the ruffled feelings he saw rising up in Gara. “The administration of a world is quite new to me. I understand that you served the old king’s secretariat.”

“Indeed, Your Majesty, I did,” Gara replied. “And I will serve you personally with every ounce of my skill and loyalty. I shall put Prentice on my list of important personages immediately.”

“Thank you,” Dillon replied, smiling. “Now I shall go to the scholar and see what it is he had found for me.” He left his library. Gara, mollified, carefully scribbled Prentice’s name into a small book upon his desk. Out of sight of his secretary Dillon swirled his cloak and directed his magic to the scholar’s chambers. Stepping from the shadows, he greeted him. “Good morrow, Prentice. I have just now been informed of your message. Such a delay will not happen again.”

“Your Majesty!” Prentice jumped, slightly startled by Dillon’s appearance, but he realized he would have to get used to such comings and goings. The king did have the blood of the Shadows in his veins. “No, no, I understand. You have been given Gara for your secretary. A good man, but his name does mean mastiff, and he will guard you carefully from what he considers unimportant distractions,” Prentice said wryly.

Dillon laughed. “He has added your name to his list of important personages.”

The scholar barked a sharp laugh. “How it must have galled him.” He chuckled. “I do not believe, Your Majesty, that I have ever been considered a personage of import.”

“What have you found?” Dillon asked him.

“I sought out from our archives histories from our furthest known past,” the scholar said. “And within I found two small references to the wicked ones. Both said virtually the same thing. That the wicked ones had been told to depart Belmair. There is nothing else. No explanation of who these wicked ones are, or why they were told to leave or if they did.”

“Are you certain these two references do not refer to those sent to Hetar?” Dillon questioned the scholar.

“Those histories themselves were written at least two centuries before that event took place, Your Majesty,” Prentice replied. “However, there is a locked room hidden somewhere within the archives that is forbidden to us all. Byrd would have the key to that room, for it is passed down from one head librarian to the next. If I could gain access to that room perhaps I might find the answers you are seeking.”

“I shall speak with Byrd, and have him give you the key then,” Dillon said. Then stepping into the shadows of the scholar’s chamber, he directed himself to where the elderly head librarian sat behind his desk. “Good morrow, Byrd,” Dillon spoke.

The old man looked up. He had been concentrating upon a book, and his hearing no longer good, he had not observed Dillon’s arrival. “Your Majesty!” He stood politely.

“You hold a key to a locked room within your archives,” Dillon said. “I should like that key, and then you will take Prentice and me to that room.”

“Your Majesty, I will gladly give you the key,” the old man said, and he carefully extricated an old-fashioned brass key from the large key ring attached to his rope belt, handing it over to Dillon, “but I cannot take you to the room because I do not know where it is.”

“How can you not know where it is?” Dillon asked him. “You have a key. Did not your predecessor tell you where it was when he passed the key on to you?”

“My predecessor did not know where the room was, nor did his predecessor, and so forth back many, many generations, Your Majesty. The key has been passed down to each of us holding this post at the Academy, for it is tradition that the head librarian hold the key to the forbidden room, but no one has ever known where the forbidden chamber is. That, too, is tradition.”

“Are you even certain it exists?” Dillon asked Byrd.

“Of course it exists. I have the key to it,” the old head librarian replied.

Dillon didn’t know whether to laugh or to weep at Byrd’s answer. Thanking him, he returned to Prentice’s rooms by more conventional means in order to have a few moments alone to think it all through. Entering the scholar’s abode, he told him of his conversation with Byrd. Prentice did laugh out loud at the old man’s assurances that even though no one knew where the room was that it did exist because he had the key. Dillon joined him in laughter, and they sat down together over two cups of strong tea.

“Come with me into our archives, Your Majesty,” Prentice said.

“Perhaps two sets of eyes can find the door to this room.”

Together the two men went to the archival chamber, but although they searched and searched for several long hours, they could find no evidence at all of a hidden chamber. They finally returned to the scholar’s cozy chambers.

“I wonder now myself if this room exists,” Prentice said.

“It exists,” Dillon said certain. “A head librarian in your distant past filled that room with books he did not want scrutinized by just anyone. He locked the door to that chamber, and the key has been past down ever since. I do not believe this is a myth, Prentice. But somewhere along the line, that room was enchanted and concealed by means of magic. It can only be found by magic. I will need more help than Cinnia or the dragon can give me, for this is special magic that was worked to hide that room. I will call upon my father and ask that he send my uncle, Prince Cirillo of the Forest Faeries to me. Cirillo and I are of an age, and we were raised together in my father’s palace of Shunnar where we studied the strongest magic. Together he and I can find this chamber, and then, Prentice, we will unlock its secrets!” Dillon stood, and with a swirl of his cloak he disappeared.

The scholar ran a bony hand through his graying red hair. The young king was quite interesting and intelligent. And his interest in Prentice had already drawn the curiosity of several of the more important scholars at the Academy. In time, he thought, I shall be vindicated, and others will see that my studies of our ancient past are not foolish. And now he would meet a faerie prince. Prentice wondered if there had ever been faeries in Belmair. Until now he had never considered it.

Dillon returned to his library. “Permit no one to disturb me,” he told Gara. Seating himself by the fireplace, he said silently, Father, I need you. Several moments later Kaliq appeared from the shadows in the room. Rising to greet his sire, Dillon embraced him, and without any preamble said, “I need Cirillo. Can you bring him to me? Or must I return to Shunnar and meet with him there?”

“I can bring him,” Kaliq said, “but whether your grandmother will allow it is another thing. You know he is her heir, and she dotes upon him. Then, too, there is the fact that I doubt your mother had gotten around to telling her yet of your good fortune. Why do you need him?”

“I have set a scholar from the Academy to work attempting to learn if there was once magic in Belmair. He found two small references to wicked ones who were told to depart Belmair. It was two centuries before the Hetarian exile, so we are certain it does not refer to that. There is a locked chamber in the Academy archives with forbidden books. The old head librarian possesses a key to it, but no one can find the room. My scholar, his name is Prentice, and we have looked ourselves. It is obvious to me that the room was hidden by faerie magic. Cirillo was also very good at solving puzzles when we were boys together. I will wager he can find that room.”

Kaliq nodded. “Aye, faerie magic can be quite convoluted when they wish to hide something. I would be interested to know why they wanted the room with the forbidden books hidden. The answer to that may actually be the answer you seek. I will ask your mother to intercede with Ilona for us.”

“You’ve told her then,” Dillon said, “and yet you live, my lord.”

The Shadow Prince laughed heartily. “Aye, I’ve told her. She kept castigating me for deciding your future, and reminding me that you were her son. When I told her you were my son, too, she was even angrier at first, but eventually she overcame her ire. Of course it is not something she will tell your stepfather. It seems after all these years he is still jealous and wary of me,” Kaliq said, amused.

Dillon laughed, too. “Aye, when I lived with them in Terah, Magnus was never certain when you would suddenly appear from the shadows, and come into their life again.” He engaged the Shadow Prince with a look. “You will always love her, won’t you, my lord? My mother is your weakness, I fear.”

“I will always love her,” Kaliq agreed, “but believe me when I tell you she is not my weakness. If she were, you would have been born several years earlier, and lived an entirely different life. Loving her as I do I could still let her go. But we are not discussing your mother, Dillon. I will return to Shunnar immediately and see how we may arrange for Cirillo to join you here in Belmair. How is your sorceress wife?”

“Her powers are small, but eventually I will teach her so she may be stronger,” Dillon replied. “Right now I am educating her in the ways of passion. She is reticent, for they do not speak of love in Belmair. She is less reserved with me now than several days ago,” he said with a smile.

“Does the chamber glow golden and the air crackle when you possess her as it did in the joining?” Kaliq asked, curious.

Dillon nodded.

Kaliq shook his head. “There is no doubt in my mind that you were meant to be together. I always sensed the woman you wed would be the great love of your life. That is why I encouraged you to pleasures early. I wanted you skilled in passion, and I wanted you to be satisfied when you did marry.”

“You were wise, my lord,” Dillon told him. “I want no other.”

“Will you love her?”

Dillon smiled. “Aye, I will, and Cinnia will love me although she yet bridles against me like a skittish young mare. She is a riddle, but I will solve her!”

“I am pleased,” Kaliq said, and then he was gone. He was pleased, the Shadow Prince thought as he reappeared in his own library in his palace of Shunnar. Dillon was strong, as Kaliq was strong. Vartan, a good and loving man, had needed Lara to direct his every step. He had been a magnificent warrior. There was none better in battle. But he had not the skills to plot and to plan. He could have never produced a son like Dillon, the prince considered smiling slightly. He had been in Belmair a week now, and already he was on the trail of the mystery plaguing his new kingdom.

Kaliq poured himself a goblet of cool frine and drank half of it down. Setting the goblet aside upon a table he spoke in the silent language. Domina of Terah, heed my call. Come to me from out yon wall.

After several minutes the marble wall seemed to fade in one spot, and Lara stepped into the chamber. “Greetings, my lord, what mischief are you or have you perpetrated now? You do recall it is the middle of the night in Terah. I cannot remain long lest Magnus wake up and seek me.” She was wearing a house robe of peach silk.

“I need you to help me convince your mother to let Cirillo go to Belmair for a short while,” Kaliq said candidly. Did she ever look less than beautiful? he wondered.

Lara burst out laughing. “I haven’t even told mother yet that you have taken my…our son away from Hetar. Now you wish me to convince her to allow her only son and heir to be whisked away? I do not think she will permit it.”

“Dillon needs his aid,” Kaliq said.

“What has happened?” Lara demanded to know.

“Nothing yet,” Kaliq responded. “There is a hidden chamber in a great library, and while all know it is there, they cannot find any evidence of it. We need to find it, and get into the room. The books there will probably tell us what magic existed in Belmair once and why it is gone. If indeed it is gone.”

Lara nodded understanding. “You think it is faerie enchantment, and only a faerie can undo it,” she said. “I could go to Belmair and help my son.”

“You are faerie, my love, but not entirely. I would take no chances with this. Besides I suspect your brother will enjoy escaping his mother for a brief time. And he will particularly enjoy a fresh hunting field.”

Lara laughed again. “He does enjoy women,” she admitted. “He has our mother’s sexual appetites. It is certainly not from Thanos, his father, who is surely the most conservative faerie man I have ever met. Very well, I will help you. But first I must tell my mother of Dillon’s true parentage.”

“We will go together,” Kaliq said.

“Not now,” Lara told him. “I must away home. In the morning I will tell Magnus that I am going to visit my mother for a day or two. He prefers it to mother visiting us. Whenever she does, Magnus’s mother, Persis, learns of the visit and hurries to visit us at the same time. The two are in constant competition over the children although I will say Persis favors Taj to the girls.”

“Will you ever give Magnus another child?” Kaliq asked her.

“Why would I? I have given him three, and he has a son to follow him now,” Lara responded to the question. “Nay. I have enough children. I shall have to watch four of them grow old, Kaliq. Dillon, of course, will live long. Did I tell you that Hetar is proposing a marriage alliance between Marzina and Egon, Jonah and Vilia’s son?”

“Turn it down,” Kaliq said. “The Twilight Lord took pleasures with Vilia upon the Dream Plane. While the child is Jonah’s seed, for he had already been conceived when Kol took Vilia, Kol’s essence bathed the child before its birth.”

Lara shuddered at the mention of Kol, the Twilight Lord. “He was certainly busy, wasn’t he,” she said acerbically.

“The boy will be evil and grow more so as he ages. Your innate goodness has kept Marzina safe, but a child born of her loins and Egon’s seed would be a disaster. Of course that is what Kol hoped for when he violated you, and then took pleasures with Vilia. Jonah’s wife, like Kol, is a descendant of Usi the Sorcerer, who caused such misery in Terah. A child born of Usi’s blood on both sides is certain to be dangerous.”

“How long have you know about Vilia’s ancestry?” Lara asked him.

“We always knew that Usi had two concubines he had impregnated. We knew that when Usi’s brother had no sons it would be Usi’s son he made his heir, and so the line of descent has been clear there. We did not know about Vilia until Kol took pleasures with her on the Dream Plane. There was no need for him to use her unless he had a very good reason. He could not create a son with his cousin, but he could influence who that child would be by bathing the unborn creature in his juices. And doing that with just any woman wasn’t enough. He needed a child that carried Usi’s blood as Vilia’s son did through her,” Kaliq explained.

Lara nodded. “I will tell Magnus,” she said. “We will meet in my mother’s forest palace tonight.” Then, stepping back into the shimmering tunnel through which she had traveled earlier, she was quickly gone from his sight. She stepped from the tunnel into the small windowless room she used for these journeys, and hurried back to her bedchamber where she was relieved to see her husband sleeping soundly. Lara slipped back into bed.

When the morning came she told her husband, “I think I shall go and visit my mother today, my darling. It has been some time since I last saw her. The children will be at their studies, and Anoush will work in her herbarium as she does most days.”

“Must you go?” he grumbled. “I miss you when you are gone. How long will you remain with Ilona?”

“A day, possibly two,” Lara said, stroking his rough cheek. “Isn’t it better I go and visit with her, than she come here? You know as well as I do that your mother has a spy or two among our servants. The second my mother arrives, yours will be close behind. Then they will quarrel over the children as they always do. I just want to spend some time with Ilona without any fuss.”

He chuckled. “Why are you always right?” he asked her.

“Because I am,” she teased back.

“Go then with my blessing, Lara, my wife,” Magnus Hauk, Dominus of Terah, told her. “Go and enjoy your faerie world with your faerie cakes and wine. And take my love and deepest respect to your mother. Maybe I will call Dillon home to visit with me while you are gone. We haven’t seen him in some time, either.”

“Dillon contacted me last night on the Dream Plane,” Lara lied. “He is off on some magic business of Kaliq’s, and will be gone several weeks. He didn’t want us to worry, Magnus, my love.”

“Drat!” the Dominus swore lightly. “Well, perhaps I shall take Taj and visit Uncle Arik at the Temple of the Great Creator. It’s time my son began learning some of the responsibilities that will be his one day.”

“What a grand idea!” Lara said. “Give your uncle my love.” Her conscience was now clear.

They dressed and ate breakfast together. Then Lara sought out her children to tell them she was going to visit their grandmother.

“Your father and Taj are riding to the Temple of the Great Creator and so it will just be you girls,” Lara said. “Anoush, I expect you to keep order among your sisters. Zagiri, Marzina, you will listen to your elder sister, remembering she speaks for me. And no, Marzina, you may not ride Dasras in my absence. He is much too big a horse for so little a girl. Do you understand me?”

Marzina looked up at her mother with her beautiful violet eyes. “Yes, Mama,” she said meekly. “But can I ride out on his daughter? She doesn’t have Dasras’s wings, but she goes so swiftly on her four feet. And, yes, I will take a groom with me.”

“If Zagiri goes, too,” Lara said, “yes, you may ride your own horse.”

“Thank you, Mama,” Marzina said.

Zagiri rolled her eyes. It was a look that said “she’ll disobey you if she thinks she can get away with it.” “Give Grandmother my love, Mama,” Zagiri said.

“I will bring her all your loves,” Lara said, and then kissing each of her three daughters, she hurried off to the small windowless room she used for privacy. Closing the door she looked directly at a wall and said silently, Open! A shimmering tunnel of light appeared before her. Again her silent voice commanded, Golden road I wish to roam. Take me to my mother’s home. Then she stepped into the tunnel and walked quickly through it, exiting into the dayroom of Ilona, queen of the Forest Faeries.

“Good evening, Mother,” Lara said. “Kaliq should be joining us shortly.”

“Lara! What a lovely surprise!” Ilona said rising to kiss her daughter. She drew Lara down onto a pale lavender silk couch with her.

“If Kaliq is coming it must be important,” Ilona noted. Wine! A carafe and three crystal goblets appeared on the low brass table before them. “Can you give me a hint?” Ilona smiled, reaching out to stroke Lara’s face, an almost mirror image of her own, with her slender fingers.

They looked like sisters separated by a year or two rather than mother and daughter. Their faerie blood allowed them to age very slowly. Ilona was over four hundred years old, but she didn’t look a day over twenty-five.

“I am here!” Prince Kaliq suddenly appeared. “Ah, Lara, you arrived before me. Have you told your mother yet?”

“Told me what?” Ilona filled the three goblets with wine.

“Nay,” Lara said sweetly. “On reflection, I thought I should leave it to you, my lord.” She smiled brightly at him.

“I will tell half,” he bargained with her, “and the second part needs my voice. You must tell your mother the beginning.”

Lara stuck out her tongue at him. Turning to her mother, she said without any preface, “Kaliq has recently told me that Dillon is his son, and not Vartan’s.”

“Of course he is,” Ilona replied calmly. “All that talent for magic he has did not come from just you, and it certainly didn’t come from Vartan who could do nothing more complex than shape-shift into a bird.”

Lara looked astounded. “You knew?” Was she a fool that she had not guessed it?

“I suspected it although each time I broached the subject yon wily prince either denied it or led me into another topic,” Ilona said, amused. “Well, I am glad now that it is all out in the open. What did Magnus said?”

“It is in the open only in the magic world,” Lara said. “I have no intention of telling Magnus. Despite my husband’s best intentions he is still jealous of Kaliq. I wish to remain with my mortal husband until he is no more. If I told him that Kaliq is Dillon’s sire, do you really think he could accept it? Especially as he loves Dillon as his own. You will say nothing to him, Mother. Do you understand?”

“I can’t believe he hasn’t figured it all out himself,” Ilona muttered.

“I didn’t,” Lara replied. “I believed Kaliq when he lied to me. After all, is not the great Shadow Prince my closest friend? My friend would not lie, but he did, didn’t you, Kaliq?” She smiled at him again, but it was a wicked smile. “Now, do tell my mother all the rest of it, my dear friend,” Lara said in dulcet tones.

“You are still angry with me,” Kaliq said softly.

“Aye, I am,” Lara admitted. “If Magnus ever learns the truth he will think that I lied to him because he believes his faerie wife to be indomitable.”

“Now, do not quarrel with the man, Lara,” her mother said. “Shadow Princes rarely fall in love, but if they do their love is an endless one. Kaliq cannot help himself.”

“Thank you, Ilona,” the prince responded drily.

“Tell her,” Lara taunted him, and she laughed when a tiny flash of irritation appeared in his bright blue eyes.

“What?” Ilona repeated.

“My son was needed on Belmair,” Kaliq began.

Ilona’s green eyes darkened. “What have you done?” she demanded to know.

“A powerful sorcerer was needed on Belmair,” Kaliq continued. “The old king was dying. The dragon could find no successor to him, and the king’s daughter, the sorceress, wanted to be queen in her own right. Belmair is not ready for such change. Their world has found perfection by living in an orderly fashion. Change needs to be introduced slowly to the Belmairans, Ilona. You know I speak the truth. With King Fflergant dying, an heir had to be found. The sorceress needed a husband, and Belmair needed a new king. I spoke with the dragon myself, and she agreed that Dillon was the answer. The sorceress needed a husband she could not intimidate although if the truth be known the dragon could teach her little, and Cinnia, for that is her name, can only do simple sorcery. But she is beautiful and clever, and Dillon is already half in love.

“Belmair, however, has a problem that has plagued them for over a hundred years, but being the people they are, they have avoided the issue because it was distressing. Now their world stands in danger of extinction unless the answer to the mystery can be found. For a little over a century young women of marriageable age have been disappearing from Belmair. Sometimes one of them will return, but when they do they are old, and have no idea where they have been or what has happened to them. Dillon is now attempting to learn what magic exists on Belmair for other than the dragon, and now Cinnia, the Belmairans have no remembrance of magic in their world.”

“But of course it is magic!” Ilona said impatiently. “So you have wed my darling grandson to a Belmairan princess, and made him a king. Is it totally legal by their laws? And have the Belmairans accepted him?”

“Everything was done according to their traditions,” Kaliq assured her. “And the three dukes have approved the dragon’s choice and pledged their loyalty to Dillon.”

“Well,” Ilona allowed, “that is something at least. And the girl. Cinnia? Has she received him as her bridegroom and her king?”

“Before everything could be legal a joining had to take place. Both the dragon and I bore witness to it. Cinnia seems content, Ilona. And my son has had enough women in his lifetime to be ready to settle down now with one,” Kaliq told Ilona.

“If she’s mortal she will die, and he will know others,” Ilona said drily.

“Belmairans live several hundred years,” Kaliq informed her. “It is something in the water, I believe.”

“Tell her the rest,” Lara said.

“What rest? There is more?” Ilona sounded outraged.

“Your mother knows the rest.” He turned to the faerie queen. “It is the true history of Hetar to which she refers,” Kaliq explained.

“Oh, of course I know that,” Ilona said. “It is, after all, a part of the history of the Forest Faeries, for we, like the Shadow Princes and the Terahns, are native to the world of Hetar. We were already long here when they came.”

“Why did you never tell me?” Lara asked her mother.

“There was no occasion to tell you. Until now it should not have mattered to you. Belmair is that great star in the evening sky, and nothing more,” Ilona explained.

“Until now,” Lara said softly.

Ilona nodded. “Aye,” she agreed, “until now.”

“I need Cirillo,” Kaliq said.

“What?” Ilona cried. “You are not satisfied with removing my favorite grandson from our world? You would take my only son and heir, as well?”

“Dillon believes there is faerie magic involved in Belmair’s difficulties,” Kaliq explained. “Only a faerie prince can undo faerie magic, Ilona. You know that is truth.”

The queen of Hetar’s Forest Faeries glared at the Shadow Prince. “Indeed it may be truth, but I cannot put my only son at risk even for you, Kaliq. And you are cruel to even ask it of me.”

“There is little risk, Ilona,” Kaliq assured her. “A door to a room of forbidden books has been hidden within Belmair’s Academy library. We know that all the books and histories referring to magic in Belmair are within that room. Only Cirillo can find that door, and we need to find it if we are to learn the kinds of magic that once existed in Belmair. Only then can Dillon begin to solve the puzzle of the missing women, and why whoever is taking them needs them.”

“Thanos will have a fit,” Ilona said. “He dotes on his son. Would you go with him? Remain by his side and protect him?” she asked.

“Aye, I will,” the Shadow Prince promised her. “I will guide my son and yours as I have always done, Ilona.”

“Is there another way?” Lara, who had been silent until now, asked him. “I do not want my younger brother in any danger, Kaliq. Could I not find the door for Dillon?”

Kaliq shook his head. “Your blood is not one-hundred-percent faerie, my love. And even if it were you could not undo this magic. Only a faerie prince can overrule a spell created by other faeries.”

“You cannot even be certain it is faerie magic,” Lara replied.

“If it isn’t then Cirillo will be gone but a few hours,” Kaliq said. “But you yourself know that all worlds have faeries living within them. Dillon believes it is faerie magic, and I must concur with him that it probably is. We need Cirillo.”

“For what do you need me?” Prince Cirillo of the Forest Faeries had just entered the room. “Mama.” He kissed Ilona’s cheek. “Big sister.” He kissed Lara’s cheek. “I shall not kiss you, my lord, never fear,” he told Kaliq with a grin. He was a tall, slender, handsome faerie man with silvery-blond hair and crystal-green eyes. He was garbed in beautiful ice-blue silk garments.

“I suppose you are in the mood for an adventure now that you have discarded your latest little mortal lover,” his mother said drily.

An interested look came into the faerie prince’s eyes. “An adventure? Aye! I should enjoy a good adventure! It’s dull as muffins around here these days.”

Lara laughed and shook her head.

“Clarify it to him,” Ilona said, her voice tinged with irritation.

The Shadow Prince took his time, and explained to Cirillo all that had happened to Dillon, and the reason his assistance was necessary. When he had finished he asked the young man, “Are you ready to come with me now?”

“Indeed, my lord, I am! It’s been over a year since I last saw Dillon. So he’s your get, my lord? Well, I suppose I knew it all along. His powers are so extraordinary. No mortal could sustain them.” The young faerie prince chuckled. “And you’ve given him a kingship and a wife. You quite dote on the lad, don’t you, my lord? Is she pretty?”

“She is beautiful as you will shortly see, Cirillo.”

“Blond? Brunette? Redhead?” Cirillo asked.

“Her hair is as black as a raven’s wing,” Kaliq answered.

“Then she’ll be fair,” Cirillo said.

“Her skin is like moonlight,” Kaliq told him.

“Eyes? Let me guess? Violet? No. Blue? Perhaps. No. Ah, green! Am I right? Green?” His look was both boyish and eager.

Kaliq nodded. “As green as springtime,” he responded.

“There is faerie then somewhere in her blood,” Cirillo remarked. “If her eyes are green then a faerie once mated with one of her ancestors. And a sorceress to boot.”

“Her sorcery is limited, but on Belmair it is considered unique,” Kaliq said.

“How long will it take us to get there?” Cirillo wanted to know.

A stricken look touched Ilona’s beautiful face. “You will be careful, Cirillo,” she said to him, her hand touching his silken sleeve. “And you must come quickly back, for your father will give me no peace until you are safely again within our forest kingdom.”

“I’m being asked to find a door, Mama, not fight Belmair’s dragon,” Cirillo said patiently to his mother. He patted the hand clutching his sleeve.

“You are sometimes reckless, Cirillo,” Ilona said. “I would simply beg you remember that you are heir to our forest kingdom.”

“I will remember,” he promised her. Then he turned to Kaliq. “Can we go now, my lord?” And he stepped next to the Shadow Prince.

“We can,” Kaliq said, enfolding them both in his cloak, and before either Ilona or Lara could say another word the two men were gone.

To Lara’s amazement her mother gave a little sob. “Mother!”

“He is my baby,” Ilona said, and she wiped a single tear away. “I am allowed a tear now and again, Lara. The last time I wept one was the day I left you.”

“He will be all right,” Lara comforted her mother. “And he will be with both Kaliq and Dillon. He’ll return in a day or two with all sorts of gossip about Belmair, and you will enjoy listening to him spin his tales of adventure.”

“Do not speak to me as if I am some old woman,” Ilona snapped, her composure restored. Then, “Are you going home now?”

“Nay, I think I shall remain with you for a few days, Mother, if you would not mind my company,” Lara told her. “Magnus has taken Taj to visit his uncle at the Temple of the Great Creator, and Anoush is watching her sisters.”

“Well,” Ilona allowed, “I suppose it would be nice to have your company. It has been some time since we have had a good visit. Every time I go to Terah that wretched old cat, Persis, invades your castle, and we have no time together. Yes. Remain if you choose. I do not object,” the queen of the Forest Faeries said. “What gossip do you have?”

“Hetar wants Marzina for Egon, but Kaliq says no,” Lara replied.

“He is right,” Ilona answered. “I hear the boy is a little tyrant. Have you heard that a civil war has broken out in the Dark Lands between the adherents of your twin sons?”

“I don’t want to know,” Lara said in a hard voice. “They are Kol’s, not mine.”

“You birthed them,” Ilona reminded her daughter. “Everything is going quite nicely, my daughter. Kol remains imprisoned where none can reach him, and his brats have begun a war to further disrupt the Dark Lands. No one knows where they are, of course, but each of them has his adherents. They quarrel for supremacy. Eventually, of course, when they reach maturity in a few more years they will come into the open, and then, Lara, the real fun will begin. One of them will have to be killed, and since neither of them under their own laws can destroy the other it will be both fascinating and exciting to learn which one will survive. It could take years before the Dark Lands are again in a position to threaten the rest of Hetar. You did a great service, my daughter. Because of you the light is stronger than the dark,” Ilona concluded.

“It is a part of my life I can never forget, Mother,” Lara told her parent, “but I do not wish to remember, either. Please do not remind me of it.”

“Then we will speak on your half brother, Mikhail. He has been elected to the High Council as a representative for the Crusader Knights,” Ilona said. “And he is, it seems, quite respected. Your wretched stepmother, of course, is not satisfied. She wanted him to follow in your father’s footsteps. Her other four roughnecks are all in training, for as the sons of John Swiftsword they are entitled to places within the ranks of the Crusader Knights. Mikhail holds a position among them, but prefers to serve within the political venue as opposed to the military. Of course none of your stepmother’s brats will ever be the swordsman your father was,” Ilona said smugly.

“Hopefully the Crusader Knights will never be needed again,” Lara told her mother. “The women of Hetar are slowly but most surely gaining equal power with the men. But it is a waiting game, I fear. In the meantime it is good that young men like Mikhail are willing to serve on the council. We speak now and again, and he is a forward-thinking man. I will forever be grateful to my father for telling him of me when Susanna would not. When he came to me on the battlefield after we had defeated Kol’s army of darkness to tell me that John Swiftsword was dead, and that he had been proud of me…” Lara own eyes grew teary with the memory. “I promised myself then that I would stay in contact with him no matter my stepmother, and I have.”

“He is a fortunate mortal to have you as his half sister. Did you tell him of your father’s faerie blood?” Ilona asked.

“Aye,” Lara said, “and he laughed when I did. He said it would be our secret, and he would not reveal it to his brothers or his mother. Mikhail is a good man.”

“How long do you think Kaliq will keep Cirillo away?” Ilona said, changing the subject. “I imagine if it is not too long Thanos need not know until after the fact.”

Lara laughed. “I think you are safe keeping Cirillo’s whereabouts from his father. As long as Thanos is involved in his arboretum you will be safe from his curiosity, Mother. The trees are his passion, aren’t they? So let us, you and I, enjoy ourselves these next few days while our men are about other things.”

Ilona smiled. “I never thought to have a friend in my daughter, Lara, but I can see that I do. Aye! We will drink wine and eat sweetmeats and do the outrageous things that women love to do. I have these two marvelous mortal masseurs I have enchanted. Shall I call upon them?” And the queen of the Forest Faeries smiled wickedly.

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