He laughed.
Dasras was bridled and led into the stable yard. They mounted the big horse, and suddenly two great white wings sprouted from his rib cage. Magnus found himself moving his legs just slightly to accommodate them. At a soft whispered command from Lara, the horse rose into the air while below the men in the stable yard watched in rapt amazement. The Dominus asked if he might direct the animal, and Lara quickly acquiesced. Dasras turned to fly up the fjord.
The Dominus’s fjord had no villages, but the homes of many of Terah’s important men were located there. They stopped at each, and Lara broke the spell surrounding each household’s men. Uma came out to greet them when they arrived at Lord Dodek’s house. To Lara’s surprise she appeared quite happy, and was delighted that her husband could now hear her. They moved on, crossing the fjord and flying across the mountains to the next fjord as the day was coming to an end. They stayed at Felda’s husband’s farm. Norval was not unhappy to be freed of the sorcerer’s spell.
For the next few days they traveled from village to village freeing the men of Terah of the curse, flying over the mountains from fjord to fjord. And Lara was astounded at the vast tracts of land that went as far as the eye could see. As they finished in the last village the Dominus was eager to return home, but Lara begged him to let Dasras fly into the uninhabited lands as far as the Obscura.
“Where will we sleep?” he demanded of her.
“On the plain below us,” Lara said.
“What will we eat?” he wanted to know.
“Faerie bread,” she told him. “It will taste like whatever you want it to taste. Please, Magnus. It is important to me.”
“Fly on, Dasras,” the Dominus said, and the horse did. And then as the day was coming to a close Magnus Hauk saw the sea that Kaliq had told Lara was called the Obscura just in the near distance. “That is not Sagitta,” he observed. “Its waters are almost the color of my eyes, they are so vibrant a blue.”
“No. It is called the Obscura. Kaliq told me about it. On its other side is the desert kingdom of the Shadow Princes. Only they know of its existence in Hetar. Now we know and that knowledge may prove valuable to us one day, my lord Dominus.” She turned so she might see his face. “Your world is going to change, Magnus. Better you be in charge of that change than others.”
“What is it you want of me?” he asked her astutely.
“The promise that if I marry you, you will give me whatever I desire as a wedding gift, my lord Dominus,” Lara said.
“And what is that?”
“First your promise,” she replied.
“If I ask you again to wed me, Lara of Hetar, I will give you whatever it is you desire as a gift, and pledge of my devotion to you. I swear it on the Great Creator,” he told her.
She kissed him softly on the lips, and smiled into his turquoise-blue eyes. “Thank you, Magnus,” Lara said in a soft voice. Then she whispered to him, “Have you ever swum naked in the sea, and then made love beneath the stars?”
“Aye to the first, and nay to the second,” he told her.
“I have never done either,” she said. “I think it is time we broadened my education, my lord Dominus.”
“Only if I may be your instructor,” he replied.
“Descend, Dasras,” Lara said to the horse, and the animal obeyed, alighting on a low bluff overlooking the Obscura.
“Unbridle me before you hurry off to seek your pleasures,” Dasras said sternly. “I shall need to graze among this lush greenery most of the night to restore my energy while you two play in the waves, and lie upon the beach expending yours.” He stamped a hoof impatiently.
Lara unbridled the beast. “Then we shall both have the night we desire,” she told Dasras.
He looked at her a long moment, a twinkle in his dark eyes. “Indeed,” he said, and then with a snort the big stallion dashed off.
Chapter 10
“SOMETHING IS DIFFERENT,” Magnus said as they prepared to depart the following morning for the Temple of the Great Creator.
“What is different?” Lara asked him as she slipped the bridle over Dasras’s head.
“You,” he answered.
“She has ceased debating with herself,” Dasras told the Dominus, and then he took the bit in his mouth. “She will probably accede to your wishes to wed.”
“Is he right?” the Dominus asked.
“Will you not let me speak for myself?” Lara demanded of Dasras. “I have not yet come to any decisions, Magnus.”
“So she says,” Dasras teased his mistress, and then with a snort shook his magnificent head. “Run your fingers through my mane, Mistress. The wind yesterday has tangled it.” Then he addressed the Dominus again. “Do not rush her, Magnus Hauk, and you will obtain your way in the end, for she is a sensible woman.”
“One of these days, “Lara muttered, “I’m going to make a spell to silence you,” she threatened, but they both knew she didn’t mean it. Her slender fingers worked busily through his creamy mane as she combed it.
“You can’t silence me. My voice comes from Prince Kaliq, and his powers are greater than yours, Mistress.” Then he stamped his hooves. “Are we ready now?”
They mounted the big horse, and he galloped several miles across the green plain before taking to the skies once again. They would reach the Temple of the Daughters of the Great Creator by midafternoon. Lara had made the decision to go there first and inform the priestesses that the curse had been lifted. The High Priestess would then accompany them to the Temple of the Great Creator in order to prove to the priests there that their hearing was indeed restored.
“I do not think I shall ever get used to riding upon the back of a horse that flies,” Magnus said. “It is truly amazing, my faerie love.”
“I am as awed as you, Magnus,” Lara admitted. “Until my mother gave him this great power Dasras was simply a fine mount and an excellent warhorse.”
“You have fought a war?” he asked.
“We called it the Winter War. Hetar broke an ancient treaty and came into the Outlands. They invaded one spring in the area of the Tormod and Piaras clan families. These people are miners of gold, silver and gems, but they are also careful keepers of their lands. If you wandered through their mountains and did not know it you would not realize all the industry that goes on there. If they take a tree, they replant a tree.
“Gaius Prospero, who Kaliq tells me has now managed to get himself elected emperor, is a man for whom commerce is everything. He sought the riches that the Tormod and Piaras dug from the earth. He enslaved their people. Hetarians have always been taught that the Outlands is a place of savagery and chaos. In Hetar the laws and rules by which we live are carefully set, and strictly enforced, more with the poor than with the wealthy, however. In the Outlands they had lived simply, each clan family doing what it did best, and keeping to its own boundaries. I believe those who ruled Hetar feared if our people could see how easily the Outlanders got on they would have wanted to make changes. Change is not easy anywhere, but most especially in Hetar.”
“Greed was the sole reason for Hetar’s invasion?”
“I believe there was more behind it. But when the other clan families learned of the invasion they took action, and beat the invaders back. Not a man was spared but for those who drove the carts of their dead into the center of the City. It was a nasty lesson, and they still burn with the defeat. Hetar has become overcrowded in recent years. The Midland farms can no longer grow enough food to feed the people. When they were rebuffed in their incursion into the Outlands, Hetar began to encroach into the province of the Forest Lords. And the scrubland that separated the desert province of the Shadow Princes, from that of the Forest Lords is also being taken. It is only a matter of time before Hetar invades the Outlands again. The Shadow Princes have been keeping the Outlands safe by means
