The Shadow Queen

“Why do you not ask Dasras to choose six favorites and then drive them to a far pasture?” Lara asked the Horse Lord.

“I did, and he was most amenable. But the mares not chosen by your horse refuse to mate with my breeding stallion. They will not settle down until they believe Dasras is gone for the year and their companions returned,” Roan said, running a big hand through his hair.

Lara giggled, and when he looked aggrieved she laughed. “I am sorry, Roan, but it is very funny. Really it is. Why did you not tell Dasras he was not welcome in your meadows this year? He would have stayed away, and been content with his mate, Sakira, who resides among the Fiacre. You know two blooded stallions cannot live peaceably together when a herd of mares is involved.”

Roan looked abashed. “I know,” he admitted, “but the truth is I always enjoy seeing Dasras’s enthusiasm for my mares. And I did not think you would come this year, Lara. I do not know how Terahns mourn.”

“In very much the same way as the clan families. Magnus’s funeral pyre was escorted to sea three days after his death,” Lara said. “My husband would have expected me to continue on as if he were here. Taj needed a carefree summer with his friends. He has taken his responsibilities as Dominus most seriously, and it is a heavy burden for a boy of thirteen,” she said.

“But you rule for him, do you not?” Roan asked.

“The Dominus rules,” Lara replied. “I but advise him, and I do so from the shadows behind the throne, for Terahns do not have female rulers.”

“Aah,” Roan replied, understanding dawning in his dark blue eyes. Then he grinned mischievously at her. “I have always liked dominant women,” he told her.

“Pah! You like all women, Roan of the Aghy,” Lara mocked him. “How many women do you call wife now?”

“Eight,” he replied, “yet none satisfy me as I know you could.”

Lara looked at the Aghy Horse Lord. He had always lusted after her from the first moment he had met her. She remembered Vartan, her first husband, warning his friend off. What kind of a lover would Roan be, Lara wondered? He probably lacked finesse, but would be as lusty and enthusiastic as his stallion. She had to admit she was curious.

“Do you want to take pleasures with me, Roan?” she asked him.

His mouth dropped open with surprise, but he quickly recovered. “Aye!” he said. “You know I have always wanted you, Lara. Do you want to take pleasures with me?”

“Perhaps. Perhaps not,” Lara answered him. “If the moment is right it will come. And then it will go, for I am not of a mind to keep a permanent lover, Roan.”

“Nor I,” he told her. “And I need no more wives. I already have too many,” he said with a rueful smile.

“You could hardly take the Domina of Terah for a wife.” She reminded him gently of her status. “But mayhap we will enjoy each other’s company during the weeks I am here visiting my daughter and her family.”

He knelt before her, smiling. “Do you not age at all, Lara? You are more beautiful than ever if such a thing is possible,” he said. His big hands slipped beneath the soft cotton gown she wore, sliding slowly up her legs to her thighs. “Your skin is like the finest silk, Domina.” Then, bending his fiery head, he began to follow the path his hands had taken, kissing and licking his way to the junction of her closed thighs. He could smell her female scent, and it was intoxicating to him. He nuzzled at her, and her legs slowly opened to him. Pushing his head between her legs, he peeled her nether lips open with his thumbs, staring at her sex with admiration and awe, licking at her juices, which were already beginning to flow for him.

“May I suck you, Domina?” he asked her softly, and when she nodded his mouth closed over her love bud, and drew upon it.

Lara closed her eyes, the better to enjoy the tugging sensation upon that most sensitive part of her anatomy. She had not expected such delicacy and elegance from the Horse Lord. His teeth nibbled gently upon her, then he sucked several hard tugs on her flesh, and she murmured with her appreciation. He brought her to a perfect wave of pleasures that flowed over her, leaving her relaxed and sated. “That was very nice, Roan,” she complimented him. “May I return the favor?”

“Nay, it is not necessary,” he told her. “I can give a woman a taste of pleasures to come without needing to rut like a boy, Lara. I enjoyed the interlude. Next time, however, we will take pleasures of each other.”

“We will indeed,” Lara told him. “You surprise me. I had not expected such finesse from you, my lord.”

Roan chuckled as he rose to his feet, drawing her gown back down again. “I have had many years of practice, Lara. I know how to give a woman pleasures, and I know you are skilled in giving a man pleasures. I will look forward to our coming together tonight.”

“I will recall Dasras on the morrow,” Lara said to him. “You mean to remain the night, then? If you wish to return home now I can easily send you, my lord.”

Roan laughed. “You will scream for me, Domina,” he told her softly. Then he left her in the garden where he had found her.

Now it was Lara who laughed. Roan had always been supremely confident where passion and pleasures were concerned. It would be fun to have a lover for a brief time. She was faerie, and her desires ran hot. Soon enough they would return to the castle, and she must take up her duties as the Domina, as the Shadow Queen behind the throne of the young Dominus. But it was summer now, and the New Outlands were rich with growth as the cattle of the Fiacre and the horses of the Aghy fattened themselves in rich green meadows. The moment was ripe with possibilities, and the air lush with the anticipation of a new lover. She hoped he would not disappoint her but the little demonstration he had just offered her was certainly encouraging.

Noss rejoined her. “Roan was whistling when he returned to the hall,” she said.

“I think I shall take him as a lover while I am here,” Lara said casually.

“You must tell me then if he is as good as he claims he is,” Noss replied with a rich chuckle. “He has desired you for years, but you know that. Why now?”

“It pleases me now,” Lara responded.

“Something is coming,” Noss said, suddenly serious. “You pleasure yourself because it gives you strength for the hard times. I know you, Lara. What is it?”

“Kol had a daughter by one of his women. A Darkling named Ciarda. She seeks to destroy Kol’s sons and rule the Dark Lands herself. Her magic is strong. If she is allowed to have her way she will reach out her hand to wreak havoc in Hetar first and then Terah. There is a rumor there now that the Hierarch is coming.”

“The Hierarch is a myth,” Noss said. “Isn’t it?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Lara said, “but I do know Ciarda must be stopped. Kol’s sons are practically grown, and they continue to battle for supremacy in the Dark Lands. I must seek them out, and learn which of these two evils is the lesser. Then I will destroy the other that Ciarda may be exposed. Her half brother will control her once he has the Dark Lands firmly in his grip. It will take years, and the darkness will be kept at bay.”

“You must destroy your own child?” Noss gasped.

“I birthed them, but they are not mine,” Lara said. “They are Kol’s sons. You know I was entrapped into having them. Few know my connection with the Dark Lands, Noss, but you are my friend, and know what I went through.”

Noss nodded. “I was honored that you could confide in me,” she remembered. “I cannot imagine what you suffered then, and must now suffer.” Noss reached out and took Lara’s hand.

Lara squeezed the hand in hers. She and Noss had a long and deep bond even if their lives had gone in different directions. “It will be easier, I think, for not knowing them,” she told her friend. “I hope it will be easier, but even my cold faerie heart quails at the thought of condemning someone to death. Still it must be done.”

“Could not someone else do it?” Noss asked her. “Why did the Shadow Prince make you the responsible party for such a heinous act?”

Lara sighed. “Is it monstrous to condemn a monster?” she asked. “And Kol’s sons will be monsters you may be certain. Those who have been responsible for raising them will have seen to that. They will have vied with each other to produce the most atrocious and shockingly evil creature.”

“Do not think about it,” Noss said. “It is too awful to even contemplate.”

“Nay, I shall not think about it. I shall think of the Horse Lord instead,” Lara said with a small smile. “Tonight I shall enjoy his passion, and tomorrow he will be gone. He will be a perfect divertissement, and I will not consider what is to come.”