survive what is to come, my brothers and I must regain our combined strengths – strengths we have expended on your behalf, I might add. I have seen the Terahn plain. It is all Lara says it is.”
“And I have seen it also,” Rendor spoke up. “The land is vast and green, and but for the native birds and beasts, uninhabited. It is well watered, and there are stands of trees even as we have here. I saw several lakes, as well. The beach edging the other sea, which is called Obscura, is sandy and wide.”
“Beasts? You said beasts?” Floren said nervously.
“There was nothing I saw any different from what we have here,” Rendor told him impatiently. “Cease seeking reasons not to go, Floren. If you insist on forcing your people to remain, their deaths will be on you and no other.”
“It is a vast undertaking,” Accius of the Devyn said slowly. “How do you propose to make it happen, Lara? Will your brothers help us, Kaliq?”
“You will be transported by means of our magic,” Lara told them. “And it must be soon, Accius.”
“You would put us down in the middle of a wilderness without shelters or supplies?” Floren interrupted her.
“Floren, shut your mouth!” Rendor roared impatiently. “Do you think so little of Lara that you believe she would place us in harm’s way? Let her finish. Open your mouth before she has, and I will kill you myself, you bloody old woman!”
Floren looked thunderstruck at Rendor’s words. He opened his mouth, and then closed it again as quickly. About him his companions were snickering.
“All that you have will accompany you,” Lara continued as if nothing had happened. “Your homes, your barns and outbuildings. All of your creatures, and chattels. Your granaries holding your harvests, and supply of next year’s seeds. Even the workshop where you develop your new species of plants, Floren. The climate on the Terahn plain has a shorter winter and a longer growing season,” Lara told them. “You will be able to plant and harvest your crops at least twice yearly.”
“Twice?” Floren looked nervously to Rendor, but he had been unable to be silent.
“Twice,” she assured him.
“How would you accomplish this transfer of our people and goods?” Accius asked her. “It is indeed a very large undertaking. What songs we shall write about this!”
“We will move one clan family grouping at a time. I had thought you might draw lots to decide the order in which you would go,” Lara suggested. “But before you do I would have you speak among yourselves, and then when you are in agreement I would first have you swear fealty to the Dominus who has kindly offered you these lands.”
“Do you marry him to save us?” Roan of the Aghy asked her boldly.
“I marry him because I love him,” Lara replied promptly, “but there is always a bride price of some sort, Roan, and this was mine. Especially when I learned from Kaliq that Hetar was planning to invade the Outlands. I am glad the Dominus loves me enough to pay my price. Be loyal to him, and do not shame me.”
The horse lord nodded his red head. As much as he had always lusted after Lara he had come to realize that she was not the woman for him. He looked at Magnus Hauk, and wondered what it was about this man that had caused her to choose him.
“I see no need to discuss this further,” Accius of the Devyn said. “Do any of you?” He looked about the small enclosure. “Forgive me, Rendor, for I do not mean to usurp your authority, but I know I am free to speak my thoughts. We Devyn are your poets, and the bards of our people. It matters not to us where we reside, but perhaps the rest of you need to speak more on it.”
“Nay,” Roan said, and to Lara’s surprise the others all nodded in agreement. Even Floren of the Blathma.
“Then,” said Lara producing a green velvet drawstring bag before their eyes, “it is time for you to chose the order in which you will leave. Within the bag are numbered tiles. I offer Rendor the first pick.” She opened the bag just wide enough for his hand to slip inside. Pulling out the tile he showed it to her. “Eight,” Lara said. “The Felan will go last. Liam of the Fiacre, chose next!”
One by one the clan lords drew their tiles. The Fiacre pulled three. The Piaras four. The Tormod five. The Blathma two. The Aghy seven. The Gitta six. The tile marked one was drawn by the smallest of the clan families, the Devyn.
“Is everyone content with their drawing?” Lara queried them.
The clan lords murmured their assent.
“When will you transport us, and how long will it take?” Rendor asked for all of them. “And what do we tell our people?”
“You will tell your people nothing,” Kaliq spoke up. “I have no doubt there are some among your people who may already have been subverted by the government of Hetar. Vartan’s murder was an assassination arranged by Gaius Prospero himself. There are always those among the people who can be lured by the promise of a reward they might not otherwise ever possess.
“Enjoy this Gathering, my friends. Go back to your homes as you always do to prepare for the winter season. Two weeks after your return, the transport shall begin. And within eight days your clan families will be safe in Terah.”
“What if Hetarians spy upon us during the winter months, and see the Outlands devoid of people and buildings?” Vanko asked, speaking for his sire.
“Those spying upon the Outlands after you have departed will see your homes, and all that they might see if you were actually here. That is simple magic to accomplish,” Kaliq said with a smile. “Only when the invasion begins will they find neither mortal nor houses, beasts or other chattel. The Outlands will be empty. And by the time they have sorted out the confusion of the invasion that found nothing to invade, many questions will need answering. I expect Gaius Prospero will, however, be quick to find answers to those questions, be they true or not,” he chuckled.
“And most important,” Lara told them, “we will have prevented a war, needless destruction and the deaths of many innocents.”
“Once again you have saved us,” Roan of the Aghy said quietly.
Lara blushed at his praise. “I have done only what it was meant for me to do, my lord of the Aghy,” she told him.
“And you are certain the land is suitably fertile?” Floren worried.
“The land is fertile,” Magnus Hauk said, and he gazed directly into Floren’s brown eyes.
The look was somehow reassuring to Floren. “Thank you, my lord Dominus,” he said, and his features relaxed for the first time since they had all entered the tent.
“Now,” Lara told them, “all that remains is for you to swear your fealty to Magnus Hauk, the Dominus of Terah.”
One by one the clan lords stepped forward and knelt before the Terahn ruler. Lara directed them to take his hands in theirs, pressing them first to their foreheads, then to their hearts and finally placing a kiss on the Dominus’s hand containing his ring of office. Each of the clan lords repeated the same words as he did so.
“I, pledge you my loyalty, and that of my clan family, Magnus, Dominus of Terah. We will come when you call upon us to protect and preserve Terah and in return you will protect us from all enemies.”
Magnus Hauk replied, “I accept your loyalty, and pledge you mine. I shall preserve your safety, and you and your clan family will serve me when I call upon you for the good of all Terah.”
When all had pledged Lara said, “Then it is done, my lords. I thank you for trusting me. Remember you must keep all of this from everyone, even your wives and lovers. It is for the safety of the Outlands and its people.”
They nodded in agreement.
Lara looked to Liam of the Fiacre, and beckoned him to her. “The children,” she began.
“They are well!” he quickly said.
“Of course they are,” Lara replied with a smile. “I know they are safe with you, Liam. I just wanted you to know that with your permission I should like my younglings to remain in your care. Dillon and Anoush are Fiacre, and must remain so. When I give the Dominus an heir he will expect me to mother it exclusively. I do not want Vartan’s children neglected by any, even their own mother.”
“Will you come to see them once we are resettled?” he asked her.
“Of course!” Lara told him. “They are my own, and I love them for all I cannot be the mother they should have.
