In fact, my faerie beauty frightened many. The Master of the Merchants purchased me, and meant to resell me into one of the City’s Pleasure Houses, but my beauty caused dissension among the Pleasure Mistresses. So I was consigned to a Taubyl Trader, and the Head Forester and his brother paid a small fortune for me because they believed the child of a half faerie girl would free them from Maeve’s curse, poor fools. Knowing naught of my faerie heritage, I did not realize that because I hated them, their seed would not flourish in my womb.”
“How did you learn of it?” Ilona asked quietly. Her daughter’s recitation was so bitter, and she could see Lara was angry.
“Og, the Forest giant, told me. It was he who aided me to escape. He now takes care of the prince’s horses,” Lara said.
“I had thought the Forest giants were extinct,” Ilona said softly. “We did not learn of their massacre until after it had happened.”
“He was in his mother’s womb. She fled only to be caught several years later when they slew her,” Lara replied. “The Foresters do not know that giant memory is passed on in the womb. They did not want the shame of Maeve’s curse made public.”
“No, they would not,” Ilona said. “The Foresters know nothing outside of their own world, nor do they want to know. I am sorry for what has happened.”
“According to my grandmother it is my fate, my destiny,” Lara responded sharply. “She blames my father, but I do not.”
“Nay, you shouldn’t. I know that your father loves you, and did what he believed was best for you. He might, however, have called upon me, and I would have aided him. He might have asked for my help. I would have given it, and surely he knew that. But your father was ever stubborn, yet had he really considered you at all, he could have called upon me. After all, you are my child, too. I am the one who carried you beneath my heart until your birth, and it was he who drove me away. If he had but asked, it could have been easier.” Then catching herself she said, “But John was always an over-proud man. Tell me of his wife?”
“Susanna is a good woman. She was kind to me, and we were friends. But I think she was jealous that you had first captured my father’s heart,” Lara said. “And I was a reminder of you. At least my grandmother was not there to remind her constantly of how I resemble you.”
“Ina is dead then?” Ilona did not sound grief-stricken.
“Several years now, yes.”
“Your father’s sword skills, of course, helped him win his matches at tournament time,” Ilona said. “So now he lives well with a new wife and a son. His daughter, his old life in the Quarter, is behind him. And you have begun your journey, Lara. It will not be an easy one, I fear.” She reached out, and touched the girl’s face. “Do not be angry with me, my daughter. I have never stopped loving you, and I left Ethne to protect you as best she might. Her powers are very limited, however, as you have learned.”
“What of my powers?” Lara wanted to know. “Do I have any?”
“Do you want them?” Ilona said.
“Yes! I want them because I never again want to be at any man’s mercy, Mother! I am not afraid of this journey, this destiny you all prattle about, but I must be as well-equipped as any soldier if I am to survive and triumph.”
Ilona waved her hand, and two goblets appeared, floating in the air before the women. The faerie reached out and, taking a goblet, offered it to Lara. “Let us sit and talk more,” Ilona said, and there was a bench in the mist where they had stood speaking. She drew her daughter down to sit beside her. “Tell me which of the Shadow Princes is your host?”
“Prince Kaliq,” Lara said.
“What has he taught you so far?”
“To enjoy passion. To control it so I remain the dominant,” Lara said. “I lost my virginity to Enda, brother of the Head Forester. While easier than Durga, he was still a beast. I despised them both. But with Kaliq it is different. I think I may even love him a little,” she admitted.
“Do not love him more than a little,” Ilona warned, but she smiled at her daughter.
Unable to help herself, Lara smiled back, feeling a sudden rush of warmth for this beautiful faerie who had given her life. “And Kaliq has brought me Master Bashkar, from whom I have learned the history of Hetar as well as its great literature and poetry.”
“Excellent,” Ilona said. “Now there remains but one thing for you to learn.”
“What is that, Mother?” Lara was curious.
“You must be taught how to fight, to protect yourself. When you have learned to defend yourself you will be ready to move on, and you must,” Ilona said. “You have a…”
“A destiny. A fate. I know! I know! But what is it?” Lara asked.
Ilona sighed. “What little I know I cannot tell you, my daughter. You may change your fate slightly now and again as you move along life’s path. If I speak on it I could spoil it. Have I not already done you enough harm?”
It was then Lara began to weep softly. “I missed you,” she sobbed. “I needed you! Why did you go?”
“I was torn between two worlds, Lara. As my mother’s only surviving child, I was chosen to follow after her as queen. Your father could not understand that a woman’s duty is every bit as important as a man’s. It was the only time he and I ever fought with one another. I offered to take him with me into my mother’s kingdom, but he would not go. As proud as he was, as duty-bound, he had his own fate to follow, too, and he would not change it to permit me to follow mine. There was no choice but to separate, and so we did. I wanted you with me. He begged I leave you. In the end I realized it was better for both you and John that you stay. Perhaps I should not have listened to his pleas. Perhaps I should have taken you with me. But I did not. Even faeries make mistakes, Lara. Will you forgive me?” Her lovely green eyes scanned her daughter’s face.
“Yes,” Lara said simply. Her whole life she had wanted her mother. What a fool she would be to turn her away now. She embraced Ilona, and kissed her cheek. Then she sighed. “We will begin anew, Mother. Now you have cleverly avoided telling me of any powers I might have. But you must, I beg you.”
Ilona laughed. “Very well,” she agreed. “I can teach you how to draw people and objects to you. I can teach you to shift your shape as does your prince. I can show you potions and lotions of interest to the human world. I know now how to be queen. I shall remain with you for a short time. It cannot make up for the years we were separated, but it will give us an opportunity to know one another better. Will that suit you, daughter?”
“Yes!” Lara responded enthusiastically. “Yes, it will!” And she laughed happily.
Ilona laughed, too, and then she said, “We must return to Prince Kaliq’s banqueting hall. His heart would be quite broken if he thought I had taken you off forever. Besides, I must return my mother to her own home shortly. She is so weak, and soon she will be faded away entirely. She can barely transport herself any longer, and coming here tonight took a great deal out of her.”
“I am so glad that I had the opportunity to meet her,” Lara said. “Will I see her again, Mother?”
“If you wish. I know it would please her greatly,” Ilona said. She waved a graceful hand, and they were returned to the prince’s banqueting hall where Maeve eagerly awaited them, smiling happily to see her daughter and her granddaughter reconciled and reunited at long last. Now she could fade away in peace.
Chapter 11
LARA BID HER GRANDMOTHER, the great Maeve, farewell. “I will see you again,” she promised the old faerie.
Maeve shook her head. “Nay, my sweet child, you will not. I came tonight because Kaliq said you were with him, and out of the great friendship I have always had for the Shadow Princes, but I am too weak to come again.”
“Then I will come to you,” Lara said.
“Nay! I will not allow you in the Forest, Lara. The Foresters have sought for a hundred years in their feeble attempts to find me. We have eluded them for all that time, but I know there could come a time when they might discover us. I would not want you there to be retaken into bondage. I will never revoke the curse I placed upon them. They were ever an arrogant people, and for centuries we overlooked their bad behavior in order to keep the
