return here, and you will not be punished. The Shadow Princes do not force women into their beds. It is said they prefer mutual passion. Their women are all free to come and go as they please,” the giant reminded her.
“What makes you think he desires me?” Lara said. “Perhaps the invitation is merely a polite one because I embroidered his robe. He can know nothing of me, or my beauty. He is simply curious to see the seamstress.”
Og chortled. “He sent you a gown. It’s just the right size, and it’s lovely.”
“It’s obvious that I am a slender woman, even wrapped in my cloak,” Lara said.
“No, he knows what you look like, I am sure,” the giant said.
Lara slipped behind the curtain that divided her sleeping space from the rest of their little tent. She pulled off the chemise, and slipped the iridescent gown on over her head. It fit as if it had been made for her. Her young body glowed through the fabric. She could not wear a chemise beneath this garment, for the chemise was not cut in the same fashion-she was meant to wear nothing beneath the gown. To her surprise, a pair of simple sandals had been left next to the gown while she was bathing. Reaching for her pearwood brush she brushed the tangles from her long hair, and then plaited it into a single thick braid.
“The prince’s litter is here,” Og called to her.
Lara stepped from her private space. “I suppose I am ready,” she said.
“You are beautiful!” he exclaimed. “This prince will fall in love with you without a doubt. He is a fortunate man.” There was a wistful tone to his voice, but she didn’t hear it, or see the sadness in his mild blue eyes.
“Love is an illusion. There is nothing more to it than lust or mutual convenience,” Lara said quietly. “If he desires me, and I him, we will couple, but that is all.”
“You have a faerie’s cold heart,” Og said. “But one day you will fall in love, Lara, and that heart will grow hot as your human blood warms it. You will see.”
“I shall try to bring you an especial treat from the prince’s castle. I know how you love sweets, dearest Og.” Then Lara walked outside to the litter chair awaiting her. It was not like the grand litter Gaius Prospero had sent for her. It was a simple conveyance of fragrant cypress wood, hung with diaphanous pale gold curtains. Two Desert men were its bearers.
Immediately the litter was lifted up, and the two bearers seemed to virtually fly over the ground until they reached the foot of the great cliffs. An entrance magically appeared, opening to allow them through. Lara was fascinated. Were the Shadow Princes faerie folk? She hoped she would soon learn the answer. Inside the cliffs, a road led upwards, lighted by crystal lamps filled with bright dancing creatures. What were they? She was going to ask. She had to ask. And then another door was appearing and opening before them.
The bearers never broke stride. It was as if they knew the way would be made smooth. They entered into a tall, wide corridor with walls of white marble streaked with gold, and lit by similar crystal lamps, but that these hung from a high vaulted ceiling. The floor beneath their bare feet was great squares of black-and-white marble. At intervals along their route were striped marble columns atop which were great onyx vases filled with a colorful array of bright flowers, some of which were unfamiliar to her. Now on her left an open colonnade appeared, and the bearers set the litter down.
A tanned hand drew the curtains aside and helped her out. She hadn’t seen him there when the litter had come to a halt, but he was certainly there now. He was tall, and ageless, but obviously no boy. His eyes were a startling bright blue, his short-cropped wavy hair, as black as night. He was the handsomest man she had ever seen, with sharp aquiline features and high cheekbones. Warm lips touched the back of her small hand. “You are half faerie,” he said. “How charming! Welcome to Shunnar, Lara.”
“Thank you, my lord. Are you Prince Kaliq?” she asked, feeling suddenly shy.
“I am,” he told her, and tucked her hand in his silk-covered arm.
“You are wearing the robe I embroidered!” Lara cried, delighted.
“You have great talent with a needle,” he told her. “Who taught you? Your mother?”
“Nay, my faerie mother deserted us when I was an infant. My grandmother taught me. She raised me until I was ten, but then the Celestial Actuary called her home,” Lara said.
“Come, let me show you Shunnar,” he said. He led her over to a balcony between the columns. “There are the horses we raise below. Beautiful, are they not?”
Lara was astounded by the sight. Within the great Desert cliffs was a greater valley, and an incredible greensward filled with herds of beautiful horses. She looked up at him. “How is this possible? Is it magic?”
He laughed. “Must it be magic? Could it not simply be an aberration of nature?”
“Is it?”
He shrugged. “Perhaps. It has been here as long as we have.”
“And how long is that?” Lara asked him.
“Since the beginning, at least according to the chronological records of our kind,” Prince Kaliq told her.
“The Forest Lords claim to be the oldest clans on Hetar,” she answered him.
He laughed scornfully. “How would they know? They never venture beyond the boundaries of their trees. Their pride in their heritage is both overweening and foolish. The Desert clans have been here as long, if not longer.” He looked down at Lara. “Is that where you come from? The Forest? The giant who guards you is a Forest creature. We had heard they no longer existed.”
“They do not, but for Og,” Lara said.
“Your mother was surely a Forest Faerie,” Prince Kaliq said. “You have the coloring so typical of that race, with your golden gilt hair and green eyes.”
“Are there faeries in the Desert?” Lara asked him.
“We call them Peries, and yes, they exist here. They are rarely seen, however, as they prefer their own company to that of other races. But we have no giants. They always seemed to prefer the Forest and the mountains. What happened to the Forest giants. Do you know?”
“Aye. The Forest folk wiped them out. Og was in his mother’s womb. She escaped the slaughter, and fled into deep Forest where she had her child alone, and survived with him for several years. Then she was caught, and killed. Og was just four. They let him live, and taught him to serve them as his predecessors had done.”
“Why did this happen?” Prince Kaliq queried Lara.
“The giants knew a great secret affecting the Forest clans. But the Forest Lords did not want that secret known. They slaughtered the giants to protect themselves. They allowed Og to live because they thought he would not know their secret, but he did. The giants pass along their entire history and memories to the next generation in the womb. Og knew it all. But he kept his own counsel in order to survive. Only when he thought me in danger did he consider escaping his cruel masters.”
“What is this terrible secret of the Forest Lords?” he asked her.
“That will be for Og to tell you if he chooses to do so,” Lara answered.
“You do not seem inbred enough to be even part Forester,” the prince remarked. “Where are you from?”
“I come from the City, and that is all you need know,” Lara said. She had so far avoided telling him much of her own history, but Kaliq was not a man to be denied when his curiosity was aroused.
“Tell me!” he commanded her.
Now it was Lara who laughed. “Why is it important to you?” she countered, looking up into his handsome face. “Has your curiosity not already been assuaged by seeing what none in the village have seen? That I am young, and half faerie, and some would call me beautiful.”
He took her face between his two big hands. “I had seen you before today,” he told her. His lips were dangerously near hers.
“At the oasis as I kept watch in the night,” she said, “I thought the rustling in the bushes was a rat come to drink at the pool, and yet I felt something more. Was it you?”
He nodded, and gently brushed her lips with his.
“But there were no footprints in the sand; and I heard no horse,” Lara told him. “How did you reach the oasis? And for that matter, how did you get back here without our seeing you?”
“Did you hear the scream of a hawk above you that day?” he asked her. He spoke against her mouth, his blue eyes engaging her green ones, her head still between his hands as he refused to allow her to look away.
“Aye.” She was almost breathless with his touch. His jeweled eyes.
“That was I,” he told her.
“You are a shape-shifter!” She drew away, a little afraid now.
His hands released her heart-shaped face. “When it pleases me,” he admitted, “and that day it pleased me
