The Shadow Queen

before. She screamed softly with delight as her body spasmed over and over and over again. “Kaliq!” Lara cried as she felt him stiffen, groan, and then his manly juices poured into her. “Ooh, Kaliq!”

He held her tightly, his kisses covering her heart-shaped face, her throat, her chest. It matters not to me the lovers you take, Lara. You are mine and mine alone. No man, mortal or magic, can give you the pleasures that I do. No female, mortal or magic, can pleasure me as you do, my darling, he said to her in the silent language. The fates and all destiny help me, for I love you.

Oh, Kaliq, Lara murmured back to him in the same language, I love you, too. I have always loved you from the first. I loved Vartan, and I loved Magnus, as well. But not as I love you, my dear lord.

He said nothing more but held her in his arms until he knew that they had both recovered from the tremendous passion that had overwhelmed them. His hand stroked her golden hair as he enjoyed these moments of perfect peace with her. When finally he sensed her heart had calmed itself he said, “Tell me about your day.”

And Lara told him how she had brought the dark twins to her, of what had been said, of how she had quickly returned them to their own kingdom when Marzina had intruded upon them. “It is so like my mother to have taught her a spell like that,” Lara said. “It was thoughtless with no balances and checks. What if she had appeared a few moments ago as we labored together?”

“I suspect,” Kaliq said, “that her education would have been quite furthered, at least in the areas of pleasures.” The prince chuckled. “What did you tell her about Kolgrim and Kolbein?”

“I said you had sent them to me for questioning in the matter of the Hierarch,” Lara told him. “It was all I could think of to say. And of course, Kolgrim, with his usual vile humor, called me Mother. But I don’t think Marzina heard him.”

“Nay, it would not have been very good if she did,” Kaliq agreed. “It will be better if Marzina never knows who sired her, my love.”

But Marzina had heard Kolgrim call Lara Mother, and, returning to her grandmother’s castle, she told Ilona of the two young men with the same face who had been with Lara when she arrived. “Why did the one with golden hair call her Mother?” she asked the Queen of the Forest Faeries.

“I have absolutely no idea,” Ilona replied, pretending puzzlement. “If Kaliq had sent them to your mother for questioning perhaps the young man was being sarcastic. Did you not say you greeted your mother properly? He heard you call her mother, saw your mother’s surprise at your arrival. He was taunting her, Marzina. And did she not send them immediately from her presence?”

Marzina nodded. “She addressed them as Dark Lords,” the girl said.

“And they probably were,” Ilona responded. “Your mother and the Shadow Princes are seeking those behind the Hierarch. They are certain to come from the Dark Lands, Marzina. Your mother has been known to obtain information when others could not. This is a serious and dangerous business. A powerful Darkling is involved.”

“What exactly is a Darkling, Grandmother? Is it faerie?”

“Aye and nay,” Ilona said. “This one is a particularly beautiful female. She will have magic in her veins, and her mother or a grandmother was probably faerie, but from the dark side. She uses her beauty among her other skills to seduce men in order to gain power and wealth. But particularly power. We are not all light, my child.”

“Could I not help my mother in this endeavor, Grandmother?” Marzina asked.

“One day you will be strong enough, and you will be skilled enough to help your mother should she require your aid, but you are still too young, Marzina,” Ilona said.

“Did my mother not begin her adventures when she was about my age?” Marzina responded pertly.

“Your mother was sent into the world by her father not understanding the heritage she possessed. She had no magic then and was helpless. It was her brave spirit that helped her to survive to reach the Shadow Princes, who, learning she was my daughter, Maeve’s granddaughter, trained her in the ways of magic. Once they unlocked the barrier she bloomed even as you bloom under my tutelage, Marzina.” Ilona stroked her granddaughter’s dark hair affectionately. “I know how much you love your mother, and that you want to help her. But right now your presence would weaken her at a time she must have and use all of her strength.”

“Why?”

“Because she loves you, my child. Because as long as you are safe with me your mother does not have to fear. Anoush is safe with her father’s family in the New Outlands. Taj is safe in his castle. Both are surrounded by spells your mother and Prince Kaliq have woven to protect them. Only your foolish sister Zagiri in Hetar is in danger from the chaos about to descend upon that unfortunate kingdom. Lara will do whatever she has to to safeguard Zagiri. She cannot have you to worry about, as well, Marzina. Once she has taken Zagiri from harm’s way her entire concentration must be upon exposing this mortal who dares to pretend he is Hetar’s savior. If he is not removed then Hetar will be taken into the darkness. Escaping the darkness is never an easy thing, my child. Do you understand now?”

“Aye, Grandmother, I do. But it still will not prevent me from wishing I could help my mother,” Marzina said.

Ilona smiled. “I know,” she said, completely understanding her granddaughter’s desire. Then she grew serious. “You must promise me you will remain here with me until this matter is cleared up, or until your mother sends for you herself. And no more surprise visits, Marzina. What if you had intruded upon your mother in an intimate moment? She would have been very distressed by it.”

Marzina giggled. “Prince Kaliq is her lover,” she said. “He is so handsome and kind, Grandmother. I hope I have a lover like that someday.”

Ilona made a very un-faerielike sound, quite like a snort. “I have no doubt you will have many lovers, Marzina. The women in our family quite enjoy taking pleasures. One day you will, too, but not until you have grown up a little more. You have centuries ahead of you, my dear child. Centuries!”

“I am only half-faerie, Grandmother. My father was quite mortal, and of the three children my mother bore him I am the only one with magic,” Marzina said.

“Which is exactly why you will survive far longer than your mortal siblings,” Ilona pointed out.

Marzina, of course, was incorrect. She was almost pure magic. Her mother had been newly pregnant with Taj when Lara was attacked upon the Dream Plain by Kol, the Twilight Lord, and impregnated by him for a second time. Marzina’s natural father was Kol. Lara had become his weakness, and to his misfortune he loved her.

That first time she had been stolen from Magnus Hauk, and her memories taken. It had all been part of a plan by the powers of light to stop the Twilight Lord from bringing his darkness into the mortal worlds of Hetar and Terah. When she was pregnant with Kol’s child, Lara’s memories were returned to her, and she divided the child in her womb into two sons, not one, thus causing chaos in the Dark Lands, for each Twilight Lord had by tradition the ability to produce but one son.

Ilona had been present at the birth of the twin children believed to be Magnus Hauk’s offspring. No one had been more surprised than Lara when having birthed her husband’s longed-for son and heir, she then birthed a beautiful little girl who looked nothing like her blond mother and father. The Queen of the Forest Faeries had loudly proclaimed that Marzina looked like a distant relation, a Nix, and nothing more had been thought about it. Magnus Hauk never knew his littlest daughter was not his natural child, and Marzina never knew, either.

When she showed a talent and ability for magic naturally at a very early age neither Lara nor Ilona had been surprised. Given that his two other children were as mortal as could be, Magnus Hauk was amazed by Marzina’s talents, but accepted them. And the few months that Marzina had spent with her grandmother had already proved successful. Marzina was already writing her own spells, one or two of them quite advanced, especially for a faerie girl of her age. She was more than proficient at casting spells and mixing potions. She had learned much about herbs from her oldest sister.

“She has a knack for sorcery,” Ilona said to her consort, Thanos.

Lara came to visit her mother at moonrise as she had promised.

“You have been with Kaliq,” Ilona noted. “I smell his sandalwood.”

“Hours ago,” Lara murmured, but she felt her cheeks warm.

“Tell me what is happening, and why were Kol’s sons with you, Lara?”

“I needed to know what they knew of Ciarda’s recent actions. Kolgrim knows little or nothing. Kolbein is another matter. I have managed to expose his duplicity to his brother, which should keep them at each other’s