The Shadow Queen

taken the powers of a succubus, and he had violated Lara, planting his seed in her to grow along with Magnus Hauk’s son so that when her time came, she birthed that boy, and she had birthed a daughter, Marzina. No one knew Marzina’s true sire but Kaliq, Lara and Ilona. Kol had been imprisoned in a hidden place for a thousand years. And her life had once again moved in a straight line. Until now.

She couldn’t go back. She couldn’t! But if Anoush was imprisoned in the castle of the Twilight Lord as she once had been, Lara knew she would have to go back. She couldn’t leave her oldest daughter helpless to…to…Lara gasped. What if they had awakened Anoush? What if Kolgrim and Kolbein had told her who they were? What if despite their blood tie they had violated Anoush? Kolbein thought nothing of taking pleasures with his Darkling half sister, Ciarda.

She had to know if Anoush was in the Dark Lands. And Lara knew that she could trust no one else to learn the truth of the matter but herself. She began to weep, and hated herself for the weakness. When the shock of what she must do had subsided, she bathed her face in a basin of lavender water that she conjured. Then she poured herself a cup of bobble-berry Frine. Finally she stood, and, going to a small cupboard, she drew out fresh clothing, re-braided her hair and stripped off her pale green silk robe.

She would wear the garments in which she had always felt the strongest. She donned an ivory silk shirt, tucking it into the soft cinnamon-colored leather pants she loved best. Next came a pair of silk and wool foot coverings, and the well-worn but comfortable brown leather boots that came to just over her knees. Lara wrapped a dark green sash about her waist. It contained several hidden pockets filled with herbs and special small stones. She tucked an ivory-handled dirk into a leather-lined knife case within the heavy green silk.

Andraste! To me! Lara called, and her famed sword appeared already settled within its leather sheath. Lara buckled the belted sheath about her chest so that Andraste might rest snugly against her back. The sword was already humming softly as Lara drew on her soft dark green leather gloves. It had been some time since she and Andraste had journeyed together.

Fear not, my child, Ethne said to her. You journey to the Dark Lands, but the light surrounds and is within you. You are protected.

Lara sat a moment, drawing a small piece of parchment from a drawer in her table. Picking up a quill, she scrawled a quick message to Kaliq. Then, calling a faerie-post messenger to her, she entrusted the tiny faerie with its delivery to Shunnar.

“At once, Domina!” her messenger said, and was gone from Lara’s privy chamber in a flash of light.

Lara drew several long, calming breaths. And then she spoke aloud. “Into the darkness I must go. Keep me safe from harm and woe. Return me back when I would. And let me do only good.” She felt herself being drawn into a whirling black vortex where about her the winds howled and blew icily. Lara bit her lip till she drew blood to keep from screaming. The spinning slowed, slowed, and finally stopped. And she was standing in the throne room of Kol’s castle. It was a place she had never thought to see again. Lara shivered, but then iron seemed to enter her veins. I am faerie and I am stronger than anything here, she thought.

“Why, Mother, how nice of you to pay us a visit.” She heard Kolgrim’s familiar mocking voice, and Lara turned to face him.

“But for the color of your hair you look just like your father, standing there upon the steps to his throne,” she said to him as she walked toward him.

“Would you like to see my sister?” Kolgrim queried her pleasantly.

“Where is she?” Lara asked him. Her heart had now returned to a normal beat.

“We put her in your old room. The place our father conceived us, and you bore us,” Kolgrim said. And he smiled at her.

“If you have harmed her in any way,” Lara began.

Kolgrim held his hand up. “She sleeps,” he said. “She has no idea where she is.”

Lara felt a rush of relief.

Seeing it upon her face, he laughed. “Is she so precious to you, then? Unlike us, of course. Did you love her father?”

“Her father is a great hero of his people. Your father was a villian who stole me from my husband, and begat you upon me,” Lara responded.

“Yet faeries do not give children to those they hate,” Kolgrim said.

“You do not know the whole tale?” She was surprised, but then why would anyone associated with the Dark Lands have told him? “Your father had the Munin steal my memories. He convinced me I was his wife, and had been ill. Kol could be very kind when he chose, and because he needed me to conceive his heir, he was indeed kind to me. Of course, when my memories were restored and I learned what had happened, I did what was required of me. I used my magic to make two of the one, thus bringing chaos to the Dark Lands,” Lara told Kolgrim.

He nodded, and his dark gray eyes held an admiring light. “Perhaps it is from you I gained my cleverness,” he said to her.

“There is nothing of me in you or your brother!” Lara replied.

“I have your golden hair, Mother,” he murmured.

“I am taking Anoush back with me,” Lara told him.

He shook his head. “I cannot allow you to do that,” he said. “I’m afraid it would anger our Darkling sister greatly. Ciarda is particularly nasty when crossed.”

“You cannot allow?” Lara burst out laughing. “You have no real powers yet, and when your powers are eventually realized they will only be half of what they should be because there are two of you.”

“We have taken our captive by using the power of three,” Kolgrim told her. “There was a spell in the Book of Rule for it.”

“There are few spells I cannot overcome,” Lara said. “Listen to me, foolish boy. The Darkling uses both you and your brother for her own ends. She means to take the worlds into darkness, and rule it all from this castle. And she favors your brother over you, for she knows she can control him, but she cannot control you. Where is Kolbein now? Do you even know?”

“He is in the House of Women,” Kolgrim replied.

“And where is the Darkling? Probably with her mortal lover, whom she will eventually kill when he is no longer of use to her. As she will kill you,” Lara told him.

“She cannot kill me,” Kolgrim said. “It is forbidden.”

“Aye, it is, but why would that stop her?” Lara responded. “In this kingdom women are taught subservience. But Ciarda is not subservient. In this kingdom women do not rule. Yet Ciarda would rule not just the Dark Lands, but all the worlds as, well. And if she would do that, why would you think she would even hesitate to kill both you and your brother?” Lara smiled a wicked smile at him.

“The people of this kingdom would not tolerate a woman attempting to rule them,” Kolgrim said.

“The people of Terah do not permit women sovereigns, either,” Lara said, “and yet I rule in Terah even as Ciarda will rule in the Dark Lands. She will be a Shadow Queen for her son, and she will see he is too weak to overcome her.”

“She has no son! And if she did he would have to be from the direct line of Jorunn and Usi to rule the Dark Lands,” Kolgrim said. “I have never lain with her, nor will I ever lie with her.”

“For now the Darkling is content to leave things as they are, for she has other matters concerning her,” Lara told him bluntly. “But when she is ready it is Kolbein’s son she will conceive, and she will have no hesitation in killing you and your brother when she chooses to do so and you are no longer of any use to her. Now take me to Anoush.”

Kolgrim had grown oddly silent as he absorbed her words. Then he said, “Come!” and led Lara from the throne room through a familiar corridor to the beautiful apartments that had once been hers. There upon her bed lay Anoush, sleeping soundly and totally unaware of anything about her. “She looks like her sire, doesn’t she?” he said, gazing down at the dark-haired girl.

Lara nodded. “Aye, she does.”

“And she is my blood through you,” he said.

“Aye, she is,” Lara admitted.

“Ciarda is my blood, too, through our father,” he remarked. “She says it was the power of three that allowed us