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“I didn’t say I would, Mother. I just said I might,” Marzina answered pertly.
Lara had to laugh. “Well, threatening is as bad as doing it, so control your anger in the future. You must learn that or else your magic will control you, and not the other way around.” She turned to Zagiri. “You are happy being what you are, my golden daughter. Please let Marzina be what she is meant to be. You should help one another. Now I would be alone in my garden. Leave me, my darlings.”
They all arose from the soft lawn, and the three sisters hurried back into the castle. Lara walked to the end of her garden, and, reaching a wall, looked down the Dominus’s Fjord and out to the sea. Suddenly she could just make out a faint smudge of lavender upon the horizon. It would be the sails of Corrado’s vessel, and it was headed home. A wave of sadness overwhelmed her briefly. It was finished. Magnus was gone. She felt the ice about her cold faerie heart harden with her admission of fact. The small bit of mortal within her retreated, cowed by the magic thundering through her veins now. There was no time for mortal weakness anymore.
But her brief mourning had weakened her. She needed to go where she might regain her strength again, and she knew just the place. But first she must set her household in order. Taj would return by nightfall. She could not escape until everything was as it should be. She would ask Corrado to stay at the castle while she was gone, for she could not leave her children without proper supervision. But she needed a few days to herself. She needed to draw deep from her well of strength. Even a faerie woman had her limits though few would consider that.
Lara felt a soft breeze touch her face. It smelled of both the sea and the spring flowers that grew on the cliffs around them. She breathed deep, and felt a wave of peace flow over her. A smile touched her lips. She would have a small respite before she would be needed. Her instincts told her that, and Lara was both glad and relieved. Looking out toward the sea, she could see the lavender smudge taking on the shape of sails. The return of Corrado’s ship meant a whole new era was beginning. And once again Lara’s destiny was moving closer.
CHAPTER THREE
THE OASIS OF Zeroun sat amid the rough golden desert sands. Above it was a cloudless blue sky with its bright, hot sun shining down. The sun felt good on her shoulders. Little had changed in the years since she and her giant friend, Og, had stopped at the oasis. The great tall trees with their curving, rough brown trunks capped by crowns of green fronds still towered over it. The stone well still stood at its center. And that wonderful oddity in the midst of the desert, a crystal pool with a soft sandy bottom and a waterfall amid the rocks of the oasis. Lara smiled as she looked about her. There was nothing in sight but desert. Once she had thought the sight both beautiful and frightening, but that was before her faerie powers had fully manifested themselves. Now as Lara gazed upon the world about her she simply thought it beautiful.
A wave of her hand, and a pale turquoise-blue silk tent with a striped turquoise and coral silk awning was erected. Lara stepped inside, and waved her hand once more. A large platform covered with a lime-green silk feather mattress appeared, and above it another awning striped in lime-green and gold. A single low ebony table materialized, a polished brass bowl filled with succulent fresh fruits in its center along with a crystal decanter of Frine. Multicolored pillows in shades of blue, coral and green popped from the air itself, and surrounded the table. An ebony trunk banded in brass appeared at the foot of the bed. Lara smiled. It was perfect.
Shedding her single white robe, she walked from the tent and into the cool waters of the pool. The sand beneath her feet was as soft as she remembered it. She swam slowly about the pool, emerging beneath the waterfall and letting the icy stream soak her pale golden head. Swimming back to the edge of the pool, she emerged to let the sun warm her naked body. Lara sighed deeply. It was perfect. For the next few days she would be free of all cares. Alone. She would rest and regain her strength in this place she remembered so fondly from her girlhood. Returning to the tent, she lay down, and slept for the next several hours.
When she awoke the night was falling. Lara stepped outside the tent and placed a small protective spell about the oasis. She might have raised a fire in the old stone fire pit that was still there, but she chose not to do so. While the Oasis of Zeroun was off the beaten track, she still did not want a fire attracting the attention of anyone wandering the desert at night. She magicked a brazier to heat her tent. Then she conjured a small loaf of warm bread, and a bit of cheese that she ate with her fruit. Having satisfied her appetite, she fell back into bed, and slept until midday of the following day.
For the next three days she followed the same routine. She ate, she slept, she swam, and now and again she let the hot desert sun bake her for a few minutes. Lara could feel the strength flowing back into her from the moment she had awakened that first morning. Stepping through her tent on the fourth evening, she found Kaliq waiting for her. “My lord!” she said, surprised to see him. Lara walked to the ebony trunk, and drew forth a pale green silk gauze gown which she slipped on over her head.
“Did you really think you could come into the Kingdom of the Shadow Princes, and I would not know you were here?” he asked her, smiling his seductive smile.
“Did I need your permission to come to Zeroun?” Lara asked him as she reached for a small bunch of magenta-colored grapes, and began plucking them one by one, putting them into her mouth and eating them.
“Why did you not tell me you were here?” he asked.
“I wanted to be alone. I was worn-out both emotionally and physically with the shock of my husband’s death,” Lara told him honestly. “Sometimes that small bit of me that is mortal overcomes me, Kaliq.”
“I would have had you come to Shunnar,” he said.
“But I did not want to go to your palace,” Lara told him. “I wanted to be alone to regain my strength, my equilibrium. I wanted to be able to think without all the distractions of my family, of my responsibilities, of Terah.”
“He put too much on your shoulders,” Kaliq said. “You are faerie, not mortal.”
Lara laughed, and, walking across the tent, she sprawled down on the bed next to him. “Will you always persist in trying to protect me, Kaliq?” she teased him gently.
“Aye,” he told her. She smelled of sunlight and fresh air. “Will you always persist in trying to tempt me?” the Shadow Prince countered.
“I don’t have to try,” Lara told him boldly. “Do I?”
“Nay, you do not,” he admitted. He touched her shoulder with a single fingertip, and her silk gauze robe dissolved.
Smiling up into his intense gaze, Lara magicked his white robes away. “And now, my lord?” she asked him softly.
His mouth met hers in a scorching kiss that seemed to go on and on and on. He seemed to absorb her with his lips. Her body arched, her full breasts meeting his hard, smooth chest. “Aah, my love, is it too soon?” he asked, ever thoughtful.
“I am faerie, Kaliq, and you know we cannot live long without passion. My husband is dead. He will not return to me. Nor would he, knowing my nature, expect me to deny myself pleasures.” She caressed his jawline, and ran her fingers through his dark hair as his deep blue eyes devoured her. “Make love to me, my lord,” she said softly.
He smiled down into her green eyes. Within the magical realm he was considered a powerful creature. He had his whole existence enjoyed the female race, but never until Lara had he truly given his heart. “Faerie witch,” he murmured against her lips. “Do you think to command my obedience? Remember who I am.”
Lara smiled up into his sapphire eyes. “I know who you are, my lord. You are a deliciously lustful being with whom I have always enjoyed taking pleasures. How long has it been, Kaliq, since you last sheathed yourself within me?” Reaching down, she caressed his hard cock. Her fingers ran up its length, and then back down again.
“You think I do not remember?” His head dropped to one of her breasts, and he licked the nipple slowly, the pointed tip of his tongue encircling the thrusting nub of flesh. “Was it not when I brought you back from the kingdom of the Twilight Lord?” He shuddered as she cupped his sac, retaliating by nipping at the tender flesh of her nipple, then sucking it hard.
“You took shameful advantage of me, Kaliq,” she purred as she slipped from his embrace. Twisting her body about, her charmingly rounded buttocks facing him, Lara grasped his length, and licked its taut head. Then, taking him into the warmth of her mouth, she began to slowly suckle upon him.
His big hands fastened about her hips, and he drew her back just enough so that he might avail himself of her pouting slit. Her nether lips were already swollen with her desire. He ran the tip of his tongue between the twin halves, and Lara whimpered. He licked at her, encouraging her juices to flow copiously. He was already dizzy with the scent of her sex. Pushing his tongue between the puckered flesh, he found with unerring aim the heated source of her sex. Peeling her nether lips apart he gazed on it, watching as it swelled before his eyes. Kaliq licked at the sensitive flesh. Then he sucked upon it, and groaned as she drew even harder upon his love rod.
“Do not milk me dry, my faerie witch,” he told her. “I would release my juices into your hidden garden, beloved.”
She immediately released him, and Kaliq put her upon her back, thrusting two fingers deep inside her. She gasped with open pleasure as the fingers moved slowly at first, then faster and faster within her until Lara cried with her small pleasure. Now he swung himself over her, pushing himself deep. And when he had sheathed himself he grew still more, letting her feel his throbbing male member thicken even further inside her.
“Ooh!” Lara sighed softly. “No lover I have ever had is like you, Kaliq.” She twined her fingers into his. “Give me pleasures as only you can, my dear lord.”
Smiling, Kaliq began to ride the woman beneath him. His lust for her burned so hot he was not certain he could give her what she craved before he took his own release. He had never been celibate, even in the years in which she was unavailable to him. And the females he made love to never had cause for complaint. But something was different when he took pleasures with Lara.
Her head swam with delight as his manroot filled her. Her heated passage enclosed him tightly as he probed her strongly. Her husbands had both pleased her in their bedsport, but with Kaliq it was always incredible. Lara wrapped her legs about his torso so he might thrust deeper, and he did. Her passions flamed, and she raked her nails down his long back.
“That’s it, my faerie witch,” he groaned in her ear. “Mark me with your claws as I will mark you with my kisses.” His mouth closed over hers, and he kissed her deeply, hungrily, his tongue dancing sensuously with hers.
Lara could feel her desire rising more than she believed it could. “Give me pleasures, my lord,” she demanded of him. “I need those pleasures that only you have ever been able to give me! Please, Kaliq! Do not hold back! I need you!”
Deeper and harder. Harder and deeper. The Shadow Prince thrust over and over again into his lover. Her head thrashed back and forth. She crested with a soft scream, and the pleasures came and came and came as she had never known them. Her body arched up against him as her legs fell away. He forced her down as he drove her harder.
Starburst after starburst exploded behind Lara’s eyelids. She wasn’t certain that she was breathing. She was awash in a pleasure that kept coming and coming and coming until she cried out a second time. “You’re killing me, Kaliq!”
His body shuddered briefly, and then as if he had gained additional strength he pushed her further into a world of unbridled passion. “Do you want me to stop?” his voice ground out harshly. “Do you?”
“Nay! Nay! I need more, my love. More!” Lara half sobbed.
He redoubled his efforts. His great manhood seemed to thrust into her so deeply that she was certain it touched her heart. He fell into a hypnotic rhythm that both soothed and excited her further. His kisses covered her face, her throat, her chest. The heat from his lips scorching her, branding her in a way he never had before. Lara could feel her heart beating wildly. Then suddenly it happened. The pleasure surrounding her exploded throughout her body like nothing that she had ever experienced before. “Kaliq!” She cried his name but once, and then she was being pulled down into a throbbing darkness that reached out to enfold her. Lara’s last memory of that moment was the triumphant sound of his voice shouting, and the feel of his creamy love juices rushing forth to cool her heated passage.
When she finally emerged from her stupor Lara found herself within his tender embrace. She could hear his heart beating with a measured rhythm beneath her ear. His big hand was stroking her long, pale, golden hair. She sighed with contentment, realizing that all her sorrow and fears were gone. And she felt strong once again. His passion had given her new strength. She knew this was not something he did for other women. “You still love me,” she said softly.
“I will always love you,” he said quietly. “You do not have to ask me that, for you know it is true, faerie witch.”
“I am not certain I am worthy of such a love,” Lara responded with a sigh.
“The love is mine to give to whom I choose, my darling,” the Shadow Prince told her. “Now sleep. When you awaken I shall be gone. And it is time that you returned to Terah. The young Dominus needs you, Lara. And be warned. Hetar has learned of Magnus Hauk’s death. Even now they consider their options.”
Lara wanted to engage him in conversation regarding this news, but she could not seem to remain awake. She fell into a deep and restful sleep, and when she awoke she was alone once more. From the way the light was falling outside her tent she could see it was late afternoon. They had spent the previous night making love, and she had slept the day away, but she felt wonderful. Arising she went to bathe in the pool with its sandy bottom, stepping beneath the waterfall to rinse her long hair. Then, seating herself on a smooth rock ledge by the pool, she brushed her hair dry in the sunlight, plaiting it into a single thick braid.
Returning to the tent, she opened the ebony trunk, and drew forth a soft cotton chemise, as well as a beautiful high-waisted turquoise-blue silk gown with long, full sleeves, and a deep square neckline. Reaching into the trunk a second time, she pulled out a pair of matching kid slippers, and slipped them on her feet. A small box at the bottom of the chest held the Domina’s ring. Taking it out, she put it on her finger. Other than the chain with the crystal star about her neck she wore no other jewelry.
Lara stepped from the tent to stand beneath its awning. It was almost sunset at the Oasis of Zeroun, which meant it was almost sunrise in Terah. She would be home when her children awoke. These few days away from her responsibilities had given her new strength and a great clarity. Lara spoke a small silent spell. Invisible to all but me, this shelter no one else shall see. Then with a wave of her hand she commanded a golden passage to open that would connect the Oasis of Zeroun with her castle in Terah. Stepping into it she walked a short distance, emerging into a small windowless room in the castle she used for this sort of magic.
“Good morning, Domina,” her servant, Mila, greeted her as Lara entered her apartments. “You appear well-rested. The children are all well.” Mila knew that thought would be foremost in Lara’s mind. “Shall I bring your breakfast?”
“Aye, I am ravenous,” Lara told her. “While you fetch it I will tell the Dominus that I am returned.” She hurried from her chambers to her son’s apartment. Taj was not yet fully awake as she bent to kiss him. “Good morrow, sleepyhead,” she greeted him.
His turquoise-blue eyes flew open. “Mother! You are back!”
“I am, my lord. Did anything happen while I was gone that requires our attention?” she queried him.
“A faerie post arrived late last night from Hetar,” Taj said as he sat up in his bed. “I said I would review it in the morning.”
“To whom was it addressed?” Lara wanted to know.
“To me,” the boy told her.
“Excellent!” his mother approved. “Trust the Lord High Ruler to follow proper protocol. Jonah is taking no chances at offending us, and because he does not know who the regent is he is being careful.” Lara smiled.
“But he knows who my mother is,” Taj replied ingenuously.
Lara laughed lightly. “Aye, he knows,” she responded. Then she gave him another quick kiss, ruffling his dark gold hair. “I must go and have my breakfast, my lord Dominus. Come to me when you have had yours, and we will see what Hetar wants.”
Her energy was high, and Lara could not believe how well she felt. Scarcely more than a week had passed since Magnus Hauk had been killed. While there was an underlying sadness within her, that sorrow no longer absorbed her. She wondered if death affected everyone this way, or was it just her cold faerie heart that allowed her to put the past behind her, and move on? Whatever the answer she was glad, for weighed down with grief over Magnus Hauk, she could not have managed to do what she must do, and her husband had entrusted her with the fate of their son, and of Terah. She would not fail him, but then she never had failed him.
She ate her meal, and shortly afterward her son joined her carrying the message from Hetar. Taj handed the rolled parchment to his mother. “You open it,” he said.
“Nay,” she told him. “You are the Dominus. You will open it, and you will read it first. Then you will hand it to me for my perusal.”
He was still a boy. He knew he was much too young for the responsibility that had been thrust upon him, and he was afraid. But his natural-born Terahn male pride appreciated the fact that his mother would defer to him in this manner. Women in general might be inferior, but not his mother. His father had told him that. Taj knew Lara was seeking to teach him, and so he opened the message from Hetar, his eyes swiftly scanning its contents. Then he handed it to her.
“What does it say?” she asked him without looking at the scroll in her hand.
“The usual diplomatic language of regret on the death of my father,” Taj said.
Lara now looked at the message. It is with great regret we learn of the untimely death of the great Dominus Magnus Hauk, ruler of the Kingdom of Terah, our most valued ally, it began. Please tender our condolences to your mother, the Domina Lara, your siblings and all of Magnus Hauk’s family. If there is any way in which your friends in Hetar may be of help, you have but to send to us. It was signed, Jonah, Lord High Ruler of Hetar. Lara set the parchment aside upon a table.
“It seems a harmless message,” Taj said.
Lara smiled. “It is. Yet there is menace behind it, my son. You will reply, of course. Hetar may be a dangerous world, but they do value manners above all. How one is perceived is most important to Hetarians. Remember that, my son. Now, have you chosen a secretary, Taj?”
“I thought to raise the chief scribe, Ampyx, to that position,” he answered her. “What think you, Mother?”
“I believe him capable, and loyal,” Lara said. “Will you allow me to appoint him to his new post? Ampyx is no fool, and it will tell him without telling him what your father wanted. He is an old-fashioned Terahn, but he is also intelligent and intuitive.”
“Let us go to the throne room,” Taj said. “And you will stand next to my throne.”
They went to the throne room, and Taj sent a servant for Ampyx. The boy sat himself upon the throne of Terah, which was fashioned of gold with a high pointed back, and studded with gemstones. It had a wide seat with a purple silk cushion upon it. He looked so young and vulnerable sitting upon his seat of office. Lara stood half in the shadows to his left. She briefly let her eyes wander to the tall arched windows that looked out over the green cliffs, the fjord and the sea beyond. She had loved this land from the moment she first saw it.
The door to the throne room opened, and the chief scribe entered. Seeing Taj, Ampyx hurried forward and bowed. He did not notice the Domina until she spoke.
“Master Ampyx,” Lara said in a strong and authoritative voice, “my son has expressed a desire that you become his First Secretary. I have approved his wish. You will begin your duties immediately.”
“I am honored by your trust, my lady Domina,” Ampyx said, bowing to her.
“You will be privy to many secrets, and you will have to keep them,” Lara told him. “Can you do this? Answer honestly, for if you fail the Dominus, or me, the punishment will be terrible,” she warned him.
“My late uncle served the Dominus Enjar, our young Dominus’s grandfather, in the capacity of First Secretary,” Ampyx said. “And before him several of my antecedents served in the Dominus’s household. Service to this family is in my blood, Domina. I know how to keep secrets.” He paused. “May I have your permission to speak freely to you, and to the Dominus?”
“You may,” Lara said, wondering what it was Ampyx needed to say to her.
“It is said that the late Dominus put the Kingdom of Terah in your charge alone,” Ampyx responded slowly. He was a tall man of undetermined age with a large hooked nose, and a completely bald pate. His dark gray eyes showed nothing at all.
“Is it?” Lara replied softly. “And yet it was the Dominus who dictated to you the announcement of his father’s death to be published throughout the kingdom, was it not? And I speak to you today only at the Dominus’s request. It is Dominus Taj Hauk who rules in Terah, Ampyx, and you will certainly tell any who ask you that, will you not?”
Ampyx bowed to Lara again. “Indeed, Domina, I will tell any who ask that such is truth.” And his fathomless eyes shone briefly with his admiration.
“You will help your master to compose a reply to the Lord High Ruler of Hetar. This will be your first duty.”
“Will the Domina wish to see a copy of this missive before it is sent off?” Ampyx asked politely even though he knew the answer she would give.
Lara nodded. “Thank you. That is most courteous of you.” She stepped down from the dais. “See to your duties, then. The Dominus must now return to his lessons.”
The letter to the Lord High Ruler Jonah was composed, and, reading it over, Lara had to admit she could not have done any better herself. My lord Jonah, it began. Your condolences are graciously accepted in the same spirit in which they were given. Terah will mourn the unexpected death of Dominus Magnus Hauk for some time. However, we are a peaceable kingdom, and no help is needed from Hetar. Our ships will continue to trade with yours. And Taj had signed it with a flourish. Lara was pleased. Ampyx was going to prove a valuable asset.
A faerie post messenger was sent for, and carried off the rolled parchment to be delivered to the Lord High Ruler of Hetar. Scanning it, Lord Jonah’s coal-black eyes narrowed as he attempted to read between the lines, but there was nothing upon which he could fasten. Thank you. We don’t want your help. Our trade continues. Nothing! He walked to his wife’s bedchamber. Vilia had been ill for several months with some kind of wasting sickness, but her mind was still sharp. He handed her the parchment. “Can you make anything of this?” he asked her.
“There is nothing,” she said, reading it.
“Does he really rule Terah, I wonder?” Jonah said.
“Not unless he is some sort of genius, but with Lara for a mother who knows. He is, after all, our Egon’s age. Be glad of that, Jonah, my love. The Terahns won’t let a woman rule them, and so there is certainly some sort of regent’s council overseeing the boy. We need to know who these men are. Then we may set about to subvert them. Terah will be a rich prize, my love, and it is you who will gain it for Hetar.” Then she fell into a fit of coughing that left her breathless and weak. Her beautiful amber eyes were faded, and her dark brown hair had thinned and was lackluster in color.
“Terah is a rich prize,” Jonah agreed with his wife. “Perhaps if we could gain some kind of serious alliance with the Terahns we could stop the talk of the imminent coming of the Hierarch. The rumors have even reached the High Council, Vilia.”
“The Hierarch is nothing more than a fable,” Vilia said. “A tale to make people feel better in the bad times. He doesn’t exist, Jonah.” She grimaced. “Give me some of that Razi, my love. The pain has returned, and is unbearable.”
He poured some of the liquid narcotic into a goblet for her and handed it to her.
Vilia drank deeply. The Razi was quick to work and masked her pain. “Jonah, you must listen to me. I do not have much time left. I must help you plan now, and if you follow my plan you will be victorious,” she promised him.
“You are not dying,” he told her, but he knew better and so did she.
“We must try again to make a marriage between Egon and the Dominus’s twin sister, Marzina,” she said.
“They will refuse us as they did before,” Jonah said.
“Perhaps not this time,” Vilia replied. “Magnus Hauk is dead. The new Dominus is young, and his regent’s council may decide giving us Princess Marzina as a bride for our son is a good way of keeping us at bay.”
“The Domina Lara will never agree to it,” Jonah said, “and no council of mortal men can stand against her will if she says nay.”
“Then,” Vilia said softly, sitting up again, “you must take one of the Terahn princesses for your new wife. The Dominus’s twin is too young, but Princess Zagiri is not. She is seventeen if my memory serves me correctly. And with the parents who bred her she is certain to be very beautiful, Jonah. Would it not please you to have a succulent young thing like that in your bed? And she could give you more children. Children are valuable bargaining chips, my love. Marry them into the right families and if the Hierarch actually is not a myth and came, you would have the power to combat him.”
“Do not speak to me of dying, Vilia!” But she was dying, and even he could not escape the fact. And yet she was looking out for his best interests as she always had. No man could have had a better wife in that respect, Jonah thought, although she had failed him as a breeder, and their only child was physically weak.
