Authors: Bertrice Small
The prince quickly called for refreshments to be brought to his garden escorting Lara and her daughter there. Sweet apricot Frine was brought, along with cheese and rounds of crisp flatbread. Kaliq poured a small goblet of Frine for Marzina, handing it to her along with a circle of flatbread and cheese. Lara helped herself, struggling to keep calm. If she frightened Marzina any further she might forget something important.
“Now, child,” the prince said quietly, “tell me everything that happened when you returned to the chamber where Anoush had been sleeping.”
“She was gone,” Marzina said. “The bed upon which she lay, too, my lord.”
“Did you notice anything else about the chamber?” he asked her.
Marzina’s brow wrinkled as she tried to remember. “It was cold, my lord. Colder than it should have been.” She paused. “And there was a smell.”
“What kind of a smell?” he pressed her gently.
“Flowers,” Marzina told him. “The scent was heavy and sweet like—” she thought “—like lilies. Night-blooming lilies!”
“The Darkling!” Lara exclaimed. “That is the fragrance that always surrounds her, Kaliq. How did she know that the spell was broken? She must have been trying to undo it herself, and kept coming to Anoush’s bedside. I can but imagine her surprise when she discovered my daughter was hers for the taking. But where will she have secreted Anoush?”
“I want to help!” Marzina cried.
Lara turned a fierce eye on her youngest child. “Nay,” she said. “You have not the skills and your interference in something you did not understand has put your sister in danger. You lack self-discipline, Marzina. You are so eager you will not take the time to learn, nor do you have the patience you need to learn properly. You have been given a gift, and when this is over you will be taught how to use it properly. But until then I forbid you from attempting magic of any kind.”
Marzina’s violet eyes grew stormy with rebellion. “You are just jealous,” she said. “My powers will one day be greater than yours.”
“Possibly they will,” Lara answered. “But not unless you learn how to channel them properly.”
“You will remain here at Shunnar for the interim,” Prince Kaliq said in a quiet voice, “for you are in danger, too, my child. When this is over I will teach you myself as I did your brother Dillon. You have the ability to be a great sorceress, Marzina. But if you would learn from my brothers and from me you must swear to me you will obey your mother’s dictates and eschew magic for the time being.” The Shadow Prince looked into the young girl’s face. “Can you promise me that, Marzina?”
“Oh, yes, my lord!” Marzina cried. “To learn from you would be an honor!”
“Then when this battle is done you will return to Terah for one year,” the prince told the girl. “You will live in the Temple of the Daughters of the Great Creator learning self-discipline from the High Priestess Kemina. If at the end of that time she can assure me that you have learned your lessons well then I will take you as a student, Marzina. But your return to Shunnar will depend upon your learning patience and composure. If there is no peace in your heart and soul then I cannot teach you, for you will be unable to learn from me as your mother once did.”
“A whole year?” Marzina said. “Could it not be half a year, my lord?”
“It will be a full year unless you are unable to absorb the lessons of the High Priestess. Then it will be longer,” Prince Kaliq said firmly in a stern voice.
“I will learn, my lord,” Marzina said.
“Excellent! Now, do I have your word that you will practice no magic until you are once more allowed to do so?” he asked her. “And it is I, not your mother, who will make that decision, my child.”
Marzina sighed a deep sigh. “You have my word, my lord,” she promised him.
He smiled warmly at her. “Good.” Then he clapped his hands, and a serving woman came into the garden. “Take the princess to her bedchamber, Cressida. You will care for her while she is here in Shunnar.”
“Yes, my lord.” The servant bowed. Then she turned to Marzina. “If you will come with me, my princess.”
“Good night, Marzina,” Prince Kaliq said.
“Good night, my lord. Good night, Mother,” the girl said, and followed Cressida from the prince’s private garden.
“It was good of you to offer to teach her,” Lara said.
“Her skills are far beyond her grandmother’s abilities, and those of the Forest Faeries,” he answered. “That she managed to unravel my protection spell is quite amazing. Her blood is yours, and Kol’s. She must learn how to control her great skills lest she become destructive. My brothers and I will teach Marzina, but a year with Kemina will help her, I think you will agree. I will keep her here until this new war is won. Now, however, we need to find out where Ciarda had taken Anoush.”
“I will go to Cam. If the Darkling means to use my daughter to control him I will learn it. He may even know where Anoush is,” Lara said.
“As we are certain it is Ciarda who has Anoush, I believe we can also be certain that she will keep your daughter safe. She would not have stolen her without reason, and her reason is to control her puppet, the Hierarch,” the Shadow Prince said. “We will begin again on the morrow, my love.”
“Nay, I must go now,” Lara insisted.
“You need your rest,” he scolded her.
“I need to ascertain my child is safe,” Lara said.
“You need sleep first,” Kaliq told her firmly, and, raising his hand, he put a sleep spell upon her even as, seeing it coming, she protested. He caught her up in his arms as she collapsed, and, carrying her through his garden, he brought her to her own chamber, laying her upon the bed. Kissing her brow, he whispered, “Sleep well, my love.” Then he left her.
When Lara awoke it was just before dawn. Rising, she went to her bath, bathed and put on fresh clothing. A servant brought her yogurt, fresh fruit and hot tea made from the baby leaves of the Umbra trees, those same trees whose fruit produced red dye. The liquid she drank was a pale red-gold, and had its own faint sweetness to it. Lara sat quietly in the private garden off her bedchamber that separated her quarters from the prince’s. The air around her was yet cool as the peach and gold clouds in the blue skies above her began to fade away with the rising sun. Kaliq, she had to admit, had been right. She had very much needed the sleep he had given her. Refreshed now, she was ready to face not just the day, but whatever else she needed to face.
When she had finished her meal Lara descended from the prince’s palace into the great meadow of horses nestled between the cliffs where she knew she would find her friend the giant Og, who was the prince’s horsemaster. “Og,” she called. “Where are you?” And then at the far end of the meadow she saw his red head.
“Og!”
she called as loudly as she was able to, and she waved to him.
He was not a large giant, but Og quickly covered the mile separating them in several great strides. “Lara!” He set his palm down, and she stepped into it. Og raised her up so they might converse face-to-face.
Leaning forward, Lara planted a kiss on Og’s ruddy cheek.
He beamed at her, his light blue eyes crinkling with delight. “It is good to see you, Lara. How goes the battle between the light and the dark?”
“As always,” she said, and then she brought him up to date. “My youngest daughter will be at Shunnar for a while. Will you befriend her?”
“I thought she was with your mother,” Og said.
“She was until she did the unthinkable.” And Lara explained what had happened.
“She undid the prince’s spell?” He was amazed.
“Undoing it was the easy part for her. She got into difficulties because she could not reweave it back together,” Lara replied.
Og could not help but chuckle. “What a minx the lass is,” he said. “Reminds me of a certain someone not so long ago.”
“I certainly never did anything like
that,
” Lara said. “She had no right to do what she did, and now I must begin again with the Hierarch because Anoush is gone.”
“I will befriend the lass,” Og promised. “It would appear she is amazingly talented as Dillon was. She will make you proud one day.”
“She is so eager, Og. But she has been forbidden the use of magic until she gains self-discipline. Marzina is so anxious to be grown. Perhaps because she is the youngest of my children she feels a need to be taken seriously. But for now she needs to be diverted. Will you help her to find a horse?”
“Aye,” he promised. “Some wild little thing that needs training. That will keep her busy while she is here. Especially if she can’t use magic.”
“Thank you, my old friend,” Lara said. “Now I must be going, but you need not put me down. I’ll just transport myself from your hand.” And her words hadn’t even died when she was gone.
Lara reappeared in Cam’s privy chamber. He had fallen asleep as he sat at his worktable, his head upon his arms. She touched him gently. “Awaken, Nephew,” she said softly, but as he tensed beneath her hand Lara knew he was now awake.
Cam raised his head. “What do you want?” he asked her.
“The Darkling has stolen Anoush away. Do you know where she is?” Her faerie green eyes looked directly at him.
“Nay,” he answered. “She would not tell me. All she would say was that she had Anoush now, and if I ever expected to make the faerie woman’s daughter my bride I would obey her every command.”
“Do you see now, Nephew, the evil of this creature? Or are you still not certain if your ambition is greater than your love for Anoush?” Lara said.
“Why can I not have the power and the woman I love?” he wanted to know.
“Because you are not worthy of both,” Lara said candidly. “You are a mere mortal, Cam, for all of Ciarda’s plans. Had she not chosen you to be her cat’s paw you would be herding Sholeh’s cattle in the summer meadows of the New Outlands now.”
“And would Anoush be my wife?” he asked her.
“Perhaps,” Lara said.
“And perhaps not,” he responded.
“I have not lied to you,” Lara told him.
“Nor I to you,” Cam replied. “I am torn, yet whatever choice I make I would like it to be my choice and not one that is forced from me for expediency’s sake.”
“I find the fact you struggle with the choices before you oddly encouraging,” Lara said to him. “In anger I said I should not return to your side, Nephew, but it would be easy for me to leave you to the darkness. However, I cannot do that. I have made a hard choice. Now you must make one.”
“I love her,” Cam admitted. “But I love the feeling that power gives me, too.”
“Use this masquerade to help the people of Hetar, Nephew,” Lara encouraged him. “Go to the Lord High Ruler Jonah, and stand by his side. I will make the magic that you need if you do. And when this battle is over I will do as I previously promised you. The Darkling underestimates my powers, for she is young, ambitious and foolish.”
“She will kill Anoush if I betray her, Aunt,” Cam said, and his eyes were fearful.
“Think, Nephew! What did she say when she told you she had Anoush in her power? She had to have said something,” Lara prompted him.
His brow furrowed as he sought to remember the conversation with Ciarda. Then Cam said, “She told me she had hidden your daughter in the one place you would never consider looking. She was almost gleeful as she told me.”
“I will find Anoush,” Lara said firmly. “For now, Cam, do nothing. If she gives you a task, do it so slowly that it takes forever to get it done.”
He nodded. “But I cannot deny her forever, Aunt. The Darkling is no fool. If I demur too greatly she will suspect something.”
“Then do what all men do when they seek to avoid an issue,” Lara instructed him.
He cocked his head questioningly.
“Give her pleasures, Cam,” Lara told him with a small smile, and then she was gone from him in her green mist, and it seemed he heard her tinkling laughter faintly in the air as she vanished.
He considered her words. Was it possible that she could find Anoush and retrieve her, bringing her to safety once more? He had been surprised that Ciarda had managed to gain possession of his love, especially given that she was protected by not only her mother, but a powerful Shadow Prince. He should have asked Lara about it.
He would ask Ciarda about it, although he suspected she would lie to him or evade his questions. If his aunt could aid him with her magic bolstering his persona as the Hierarch, and he actually helped Hetar’s ruler, could he, having tasted power, be content to disappear into anonymity and return to the New Outlands? Could he be happy being just a propertied member of the Fiacre clan family? A man with a wife he loved, and children? Again there was no easy answer to his questions, and no help for him. It was he who must make the decision. Cam didn’t know if he wasn’t ready to make it, or if he simply couldn’t make it.
When Ciarda appeared a short time afterward needing to take pleasures with him, he made certain that they were both well satisfied before the pillow talk that invariably followed their passions. The Darkling was never truly at ease, as if she feared to show a vulnerable side to her nature. Cam knew she relaxed a little if he brushed her long black hair, and so, taking up a brush, he began to do so.
“Anoush is safe?” he asked. “You are certain of it?”
“Of course she is safe,” Ciarda said impatiently.
“I am amazed that you were able to destroy the spell put about her,” Cam murmured.
Ciarda giggled. “It was not just my magic,” she admitted to him. “And my half brothers aided me in spiriting her away. They now possess the Twilight Throne that was once our father’s. In the Book of Rule, which contains our history, past, present and sometimes future, there are spells to be had. None of us individually has the real power. We are too young. We used the power of three to gain your Anoush. Together we are powerful.”
“Powerful enough to break a spell cast by a Shadow Prince?” he queried her.
The Darkling cocked an eyebrow but neither confirmed nor denied his question. She just smiled mysteriously.
Cam could not help but wonder whether the power of three was stronger than the power of a Shadow Prince. It wasn’t something with which he had a familiarity. When his aunt came again, and he was certain she would, he would ask her. He had to be very careful of the path he chose lest he be destroyed, for he stood haplessly between two forces of magic, and he wasn’t certain which held the real power.