The Shadow Queen

“I can try, my lord,” Mikhail replied.

“Then do it,” Jonah said. And, turning, left his library. He sensed his throne was in danger. Best to meet the enemy before planning how to survive him.

13

THE WORD BEGAN TO spread swiftly throughout Hetar. The Hierarch had come. Come to bring them back to the glory that was Hetar. A Hetar where everyone had a place, where tradition was honored. And in Terah word of the Hierarch reached Lara when one of the Terahn trading vessels brought this news to the young Dominus.

“What is a Hierarch?” Taj asked his mother.

“It is nothing but a legend,” Lara said, “but someone is using that legend to their own advantage.”

“But what is this Hierarch supposed to do?” Taj persisted.

“Make Hetar all glorious and powerful once again,” Lara responded.

“Then Hetar and its Hierarch could be a threat to us once more,” Taj said thoughtfully, surprising his mother with a new astuteness.

“Perhaps,” Lara told him. “Perhaps not. But now are you not late to your lessons? Do not keep Sinon and Gare waiting, my son.”

The boy hurried off, and Lara raced to the little windowless room she kept for her magic. She had a library of old volumes on several shelves, and now she began to look through them for an early history of Hetar. Finding it, she took it from the shelf and began to thumb through it. Finally she came upon what she sought.

At the end of her days the Lady Ulla was suddenly blessed with the gift of Sight. She saw a great future for her adopted land, but she also saw a time when Hetar would become bloated with its own importance, when false leaders would lead the kingdom astray, taking them from the traditions that had made them great. It was then that Hetar would fall upon terrible times. There would be starvation, and plague, and many deaths. But just when all was considered lost a savior would appear. He would be called the Hierarch, and if the people of Hetar would heed his words, and obey his dictates, Hetar would be returned to the great and prosperous kingdom that it had once been. He would come suddenly, his origins lost in the mists of time. No one but the Hierarch could save Hetar. And before he came a direct descendant of the Lady Ulla would sacrifice her own life to save that of her son. A son who would eventually become the most faithful of the Hierarch’s adherents. There would be those in Hetar, powerful persons, who would attempt to deter the Hierarch, but he would prevail against them, for he was Hetar’s only hope. This was the last prediction made by the Lady Ulla, and as all her previous prophecies had proved true, the foretelling of the Hierarch was to be taken seriously.

Lara closed the small book from which she had been reading. She was suddenly both amazed and admiring of the sorcerer Usi, whom she had defeated back when she had first come to Terah. Like all with magic, he had never expected his own end. But he had prepared for it nonetheless. His two concubines had borne his children in secret. A son whose descendants ruled the Dark Lands. A daughter from among whose descendants the forerunner of the Hierarch, the Lady Vilia, came. And it all led but to one end. The darkness that would envelop Hetar, and then Terah.

The Hierarch was no savior. Oh, she was certain that he would appear so in the beginning. But once Hetar was back to where it had begun the darkness was certain to fall. A people who believed that they were superior to all other peoples, who believed that they could do no wrong and justified their evil with their own righteousness were a dangerous people. And a dangerous enemy. Terah would have a difficult time standing against such an enemy. But who was controlling the Hierarch? Kol was imprisoned and helpless. Was it his sons? It was something she needed to learn quickly. She chanted:

Kolgrim, Kolbein, come to me

Though you would rather hidden be

This faerie woman calls you her way

And you cannot help but obey.

And the twins, identical looks upon their startled faces, were immediately before her.

Kolgrim smiled warmly. “Why, Mother, how nice of you to invite us to visit.”

Kolbein reached for the dagger in his belt, but with a snap of her fingers Lara turned it into a thorny rose. Kolbein yelped as his fingers were sorely pricked.

“You should emulate your brother’s manners,” she told him. “Sit down, both of you!” And Lara pointed to two stools as she settled herself in the chamber’s single chair. “I have some questions for you, my lords. What do you know of the Hierarch?”

“A Hetarian legend,” Kolgrim said.

“Never heard of it,” Kolbein snarled, but he did not look at her.

“Do not lie to me, Kolbein,” Lara said sharply. “You were your half sister’s lover, and I am certain she is behind this alleged Hierarch now making himself known in Hetar. Ciarda has great plans, and I will wager they do not include sharing the throne of the Dark Lands with her little brothers, or the spoils of Hetar.”

“Why, brother dear,” Kolgrim purred, “you lay with the bitch? More fool you to give her your essence. If she makes a child it will be more powerful than either you or I. Did you not consider such a thing as you rutted on her? But no, you would not have. Your only interest would have been in satisfying your need for pleasures. I cannot believe that we shared our mother’s womb, for you are surely a fool!”

Kolbein’s hand went again to where his dagger had been, but he remembered in time the thorns, and pulled his fingers back. “You are just envious that she wanted me for her lover,” he growled.

Kolgrim laughed. “I should sooner bed a pandorian spider, dear boy,” he said. Then he turned to Lara. “The Hierarch has announced his presence in Hetar?”

She nodded. “And has performed enough small miracles to gain the adoration of the populace, and the attention of Hetar’s Lord High Ruler and the magnates.”

“You believe Ciarda is behind it?” Kolgrim asked.

He was so like his father in thought, and gesture, Lara thought, fighting back a shudder of distaste. But it was obvious he was the cleverer twin, whereas Kolbein was a rough brute with little intellect. “I do believe Ciarda is pulling the strings of her puppet,” Lara told him. “She would complete the conquest that your father could not.”

“Where is your proof?” Kolbein demanded to know.

“Do you deny that she spoke to you of the Hierarch? Do you deny that she planned to murder your twin, leaving you to control the Dark Lands?”

Kolbein flushed, said nothing, but shuffled his feet uncomfortably.

“You fool!” Kolgrim burst out. “She meant to rule our kingdom through the son you would give her, or have you already given her a son? And you would have been disposed of at her convenience in some manner that suggested a normal death. How could you be so stupid, Kolbein? Thank Krell that our sire is not here to see you destroying everything our ancestors so carefully built.” Now he turned to Lara. “Thank you for warning me of this viper you birthed.”

“I did not bring you here to help either of you. If my actions to prevent the darkness from escaping your kingdom has accomplished that it was not my original purpose. But perhaps it is good that you both know what is going on outside the Dark Lands. I imagine you have both been so busy attempting to supplant each other it did not occur to you that it is not all about the pair of you.”

“You sound like Chancellor Alfrigg.” Kolgrim chuckled.

Suddenly there was the sound of tinkling bells, a puff of bright pink smoke and a young girl appeared in Lara’s magic chamber. “Mother!”

“Marzina!” Lara gasped, horrified.

“Well, well, who have we here, Mother dear?” Kolgrim asked, a toothy smile lighting his handsome face.

“Return Dark Lords from whence you come! I’ll call if you must come again,” Lara said quickly, and the twins were immediately gone.