“The words to the curse, for I cannot begin to untangle this web until I know them,” Lara told him.
“He is a fine figure of a man, Mistress,” the horse noted with a toss of his head towards the Dominus.
“Dasras!” Lara blushed.
The great beast snorted humorously, his dark eyes alight with mischief. Then he said, “Let me rest so come the morning I will be ready to carry you once again upon my back, Mistress. It will be good to go adventuring together again.” He turned his head to Magnus Hauk. “As long as she gives you her fealty, you will have mine as well, my lord Dominus. But remember that my first loyalty is to Lara, widow of Vartan, daughter of Swiftsword of the Crusader Knights, and Ilona, queen of the Forest Faeries.”
“You are an honorable beast,” the Dominus said. “I understand, Dasras. Sleep well, for we have a long ride tomorrow.” He gave the horse a friendly nod of his head, and then said to Lara, “Are you ready to come now?”
Lara hugged her animal again, kissing his muzzle. “Rest,” she said. “I will see you on the morrow.” Then she took Magnus Hauk’s hand, and they departed the stables. “It is almost time for afterwards,” she murmured, and he chuckled.
They returned to his private garden. It was a beautiful green place and walled with a small pool and waterfall. The hour had grown late, and above them the sky was blue and pink and gold with fragments of narrow clouds trailing lazily across the firmament. In the stone wall facing out there were several round openings through which one could look down into the fjord below. Across it the mountains climbed gently. And outside the castle, there was no sign of life that she could see.
He stood behind her, and now his big hands clasped her two breasts. “You did not tell me you had two children,” he murmured in her ear. His hands fondled her. “Even I know faerie women give children only to those they love. Who was he?”
“Vartan of the Fiacre, my husband,” Lara said. “I told you I was his widow, and Dasras greeted me as such. My husband desired children of me. He loved me deeply, and I cared for him in return. I gave him a son and a daughter, even though we both knew that one day I would leave them. What I did not expect was that he would not be there to care for our children.”
“You do not say you loved him,” Magnus Hauk said.
“I cared enough for him to let him seed me and bear him children,” Lara replied.
“You will love me without reservation when you bear me a son,” the Dominus said in a suddenly hard voice. “I will accept nothing less of you.”
“I cannot promise you I am capable of loving a man,” Lara told him.
“You will love me!” he repeated. “If you cannot, you are no better than my Pleasure Women.”
“Find husbands for Uma and the others, and dower them generously. Nay, very generously,” Lara told him. “It is unkind to keep them when you do not love them, my lord Dominus.”
“How do you know I do not love them?” he demanded of her, his hands kneading her breasts, his fingers toying with her nipples beneath the fabric of her gown. His lips were nuzzling the back of her neck, and she could feel his heat.
“Do you have children hidden somewhere in your castle, my lord Dominus?” she murmured. “I have seen none in the Women’s Quarters. I am certain if you desired children of these women you would have had them already.”
“None of the women I take for my pleasure remain long,” he admitted. “I do not want children with them and so they are given an elixir each day under the watchful eye of my sister, Sirvat, which they take to prevent any mishaps,” the Dominus explained.
“Since I have come you have not lain with any of the three,” Lara noted.
“Will you give me a child if I send them away?” he asked her, nipping the nape of her slender soft neck. Her fragrance taunted him.
“I will not give you a child if you do not send them away,” Lara replied. “But first, my lord Dominus, we have other issues to solve. I must try to lift the sorcerer’s curse from the men of Terah. I cannot do that if I am distracted by jealous women, or a child in my belly. The choice is yours to make.”
“I will consider your suggestions,” he told her, releasing her breasts, turning her about and then pressing her back against the stone wall. He began to kiss her face while his hands yanked up the skirt of her gown. He loosened his own garment and then, cupping her buttocks, raised her up to impale her upon his manroot. He smiled, satisfied at her gasp as he entered her. The walls of her love sheath closed about him tightly, hot and wet and eager for him. “I told you the first day I saw you, Lara, that you belonged to me,” he growled in her ear as her arms encircled his neck, and she kissed his mouth.
“And I told you that you would belong to me,” Lara said, her legs wrapping about his torso. “But you will never have that which you desire most from me while there are other women for you to share pleasures with in this house.” Then she kissed him again, fiercely, her tongue doing battle with his as he opened the doors to paradise for them.
“I love your tightness,” he groaned against her mouth. Her strength excited him.
“I love your bigness,” she admitted. Her head was spinning with pleasure.
They rocked back and forth until the sweetness between them crested and drained away, leaving them both weak and satisfied. Her legs fell away from his body, but she clung to him tightly as her gown fell back to cover her.
“I will have Sirvat arrange it while we are away,” Magnus Hauk said to Lara. “Will that please you, my faerie lover?”
“I want only what is best for you, my lord Dominus,” Lara murmured with false meekness.
He chuckled. “You are the most delicious witch. Were you not, I should throw you over this wall into the fjord below as soon as look at you.”
“But like Dasras I might sprout wings and fly away from you,” she teased him. “Would you not miss me, my lord Dominus?” Lara purred. His robe was open, and she bent her head to lick at his nipples. “You taste salty,” she said. “I like salt!”
“Faerie, cease your torment,” he responded, closing his robe. “You will shock my servants. Besides, I am now hungry for my supper. Come to the Great Hall with me.”
“Not tonight,” she said. “I would rest before we begin our journey tomorrow. Besides the men in the hall always look slightly unnerved to hear my voice. I will return to my own chamber. With my lord Dominus’s permission, of course.” Her green eyes twinkled with mischief even as she spoke the words.
He pressed against her, the palm of one hand against the wall by her head. His other hand played with her long golden hair. “Have you cast a spell on me, faerie witch, that my hours without you seem empty no matter how busy I am?” He lifted up a lock of her hair and kissed it. “That the elusive fragrance you wear follows me wherever I go?” His hand cupped her head. “That you unleash in me feelings of incredible power and weakness in equal measure?” His lips brushed hers very, very softly.
Her eyes were closed as his smooth deep voice spoke to her. His words amazed and surprised Lara. But most of all they excited her, for she sensed in Magnus Hauk the man who was her equal. Her true equal. Could she fall in love with him? He was falling in love with her, she knew. Was she really capable of that kind of all-consuming love? Did she dare to be? Sometimes, Lara thought, she wished she was just a simple woman without a destiny. Without responsibilities. But that was not her fate.
His mouth closed over hers, and just for a moment she gave him what he desired, but only for a moment. Then she was smiling into his turquoise eyes, her hand caressing his face tenderly. He smiled back at her. “You will break my heart,” he told her in a rare moment of candor.
“Not you, Magnus,” Lara promised him softly. “Never.” Then she slipped from his embrace and hurried from the little garden.
He watched her go. A tiny sigh escaped him. But catching himself, he called a servant, and sent him to his sister asking her to join him at first moon rising. He would keep his promise to Lara, and send Uma, Felda and Alcippe away. They had begun to bore him of late anyway. One woman was more than enough for him – provided that woman was Lara. He realized with sudden clarity that he had waited all his life for her.
He repaired to his Great Hall for the evening meal. He would not tell even his closest associates that Lara was going to attempt to remove the sorcerer’s curse. If she failed to find the answers she needed, there could be hard feelings toward her, or even toward the Dominus himself.
As the first silvery moon rose over the castle Sirvat joined her brother. She brought with her a dish of candied
