“You will feel the grass beneath your boots, and smell the sweetness of the air, I promise you,” Lara said. “My magic can do that for you.”
“When?” he asked her.
“I will come for you tomorrow night while you sleep, Rendor,” Lara promised him. “And my lord Magnus will be with me.” She smiled as she felt the Dominus squeeze her hand. She had known his jealousy would surface unless he was included.
“I will be ready,” Rendor said.
“Then we must go,” Lara told him.
“Will you take your children from the Fiacre?” he asked her.
Lara shook her head. “If Dillon is to follow in his father’s footsteps one day he must remain with his clan family.”
“And your daughter?”
“Anoush knows only Noss as her mother. When she is older she will know who I am, but not now,” Lara replied. “They are well?”
“They are,” Rendor said watching with surprise as his visitors began to fade away, and the light that had surrounded them dimmed into darkness. He was left with the small lamp in his hand casting its feeble glow about the little storage chamber, almost as if he had imagined the whole scene. But he knew he hadn’t. Turning about, Rendor exited the room, closing the door behind him, climbing the stairs back up to the hall. He did not join Rahil for some time, but sat before the banked fire considering all that he had learned and heard this night.
It would not be easy to convince the others that they must migrate from the lands they had always known, across a great sea and into a new place. It would be very difficult to convince them of the danger from Hetar. The magic of the Shadow Princes in protecting the Outlands had been discreet, invisible to the eye. He could already hear Floren of the Blathma questioning whether the Shadow Princes had really been involved in their safety, or if it had all been a ruse meant to put them in their debt. Rendor sighed. They would be leaving everything they ever knew.
And then he remembered what Lara had promised. It would all be transported to the Terahn plain. Only the lands about them would be unfamiliar. Everything else would be the same. But would it? And was the land as perfect as Lara was implying? And was it safe? She mentioned nothing of weather, or wild beasts. These were things that also had to be considered. Better that which they knew than that which they did not. Could not Hetar share the Outlands with the clan families?
Finally Rendor went to his bed, and slept heavily. The day that followed seemed to go even more slowly than the one before. But at last it was night, and he was once again alone in his hall. Completing his duties he sought out his bed, and being weary with his concern he fell quickly asleep.
“Rendor?”
It was Lara’s voice. The Felan clan lord opened his eyes, and found himself on a foggy plain. “I am here,” he answered her.
“Good!” Lara said appearing by his side. Then with a wave of her hand she cleared the mists surrounding them, and there spread before him was the most beautiful land he had ever seen.
“It is so green,” he told her, and she laughed.
“Aye, it is,” she agreed.
He bent down, and pulled several stalks of grass from the earth. The ground beneath was dark and loamy. Rendor chewed on the grass. It was sweet.
“Are you making this so?” he asked her.
“I am merely allowing you to know the truth I speak of this place,” Lara said.
“Show me the sea,” Rendor said.
Lara waved her hand again and they were standing on a high bluff overlooking a broad beach of smooth golden sand. Beyond it stretched a turquoise sea. The air surrounding them was warm and fresh, the wind gentle.
Rendor breathed deeply. “I can smell the sea,” he said.
“Yes,” she answered him. Nothing more.
“The mountains?” he queried her.
Lara pointed, and Rendor followed the direction of her finger. The Emerald range was even farther away than the Purple Mountains of the Outlands. The Terahn plain was obviously larger than their own. The clan families would have more land for their flocks and herds, for cultivation. He had to admit he was impressed.
“There is no magic in what I see?” he queried Lara.
“The only magic I have used is that which allows me to show you what Magnus and I have promised you,” Lara answered him. “The Terahn plain, the Sea of Obscura, the Emerald Mountains are all exactly as I have shown it to you, Rendor.”
“If you can do this, then make it happen,” Rendor said. “I have no need to engage in a war with Hetar, nor have any of the clan families.”
“Magnus and I will come to you on the second night of the Gathering. Call a confidential meeting of the clan lords. We will present our case then,” Lara said.
“Your Dominus is right. They must all agree for no one can be left behind to even hint at where we have gone,” Rendor said.
“None will be. I will convince even the most difficult skeptic,” Lara promised him. “It is my destiny, Rendor, to save the clan families. I was born to do this, and I will! Failure is not in my nature. Besides my magic is great now, and the Shadow Princes have not protected the Outlands all these months to see your people destroyed now. Have you seen enough, my friend?”
“I have,” he told her.
“Then sleep once more, Rendor of the Felan. I will see you soon,” Lara said.
And he woke up to discover it was morning. He should have felt exhausted, but instead he felt invigorated, and full of excitement. He had sensed that something was changing, and now he knew what it was. The Terahn plain was beautiful, and the people of the Outlands were going to be happy there. Happy and safe from Hetar for the first time in their history. For the next few days he worked to prepare for the trek to the Gathering. His wife, Rahil, remarked on his newfound vigor as they enjoyed pleasures together one afternoon for the first time in many weeks.
“You are like a carefree lad again,” she told him, a pleased smile upon her face. “I quite enjoy it, Rendor, my husband. It is as if the weight of the world has been lifted from your shoulders.”
“It has!” Rendor told her.
“How has this happened?” she wanted to know.
“You shall soon know, wife,” he said to her. “But now is not the time.” His fingers tweaked the large nipple on her big breast. “Now is the time for more pleasures, Rahil!” And he was suckling upon her while his fingers entertained themselves within her hot wet sheath, and she moaned with undisguised delight. And when he finally mounted her Rahil could not contain her cries of satisfaction while those within hearing in the hall nodded and murmured that Rendor was still as lusty as his finest breeding ram, and that Rahil was a most fortunate woman.
Days later they left for the Gathering, traveling across the Outlands plain to the Gathering place. Rendor was pleased to see those clan families who lived farthest away, the Piaras and the Tormod, had already arrived. Petruso, lord of the Piaras clan, now shared his authority with his eldest son, Vanko, who spoke for his father. Petruso had had his tongue torn out in the last Hetarian invasion, rendering him speechless, but he was still a fierce fighter.
Imre, lord of the Tormod, greeted Rendor jovially. “We almost have our lands restored,” he told the Lord of the Felan, “but of course Petruso complains it will never again be the same,” he chuckled. “For a man who can no longer speak he has become incredibly vocal.”
Rendor smiled. “Surely you didn’t think the loss of his tongue would render Petruso silent? He was always a vocal man, but I do regret the loss of his singing voice. Who else is here?” He gazed around the encampment.
“Everyone but the Blathma,” Imre said. “You know Floren is always late because some field or another needed his final touch before the first frost. He should be here by tomorrow. Why?”
“We will need to have a secret meeting of the clan lords,” Rendor said. “And until it is concluded it must be kept from public knowledge.”
