magnates, and we all know it. This must cease!”
“And just how do you suggest we stop it?” Cuthbert Ahasferus asked, sneering.
“Surely you do not forbid profit?” Aubin Prospero said nervously.
“You sell your goods to increase your profits, but to what end, my lords?” the Hierarch demanded to know. “You make money, and more money, and more money. What do you do with all those coins, my lords?”
“Why we invest our monies,” Cuthbert Ahasferus replied.
“To what end?” asked the Hierarch.
“To make a profit!” Aubin Prospero said. “Is that not clear to you?”
“More profit and to what end? More profit?” the Hierarch said. “Your greed for profit alone has driven Hetar to ruin, my lords. Profit is good when the investment is in the kingdom’s folk and infrastructure, not in more and more and more profit. Your coins are nothing more than metal, and useless until those coins are used to help your people.”
“Ridiculous!” Aubin Prospero said.
Watching from her corner, Lara thought that the speaker was beginning to resemble his father, the late Emperor Gaius Prospero. He could not see beyond his pile of coins. She was surprised by Cam’s words, for she knew at this point the Darkling was not by his side. She knew that when Ciarda had felt most of her powers waning away she had gone to learn why it was happening. And in that moment a Shadow Prince was able to slip next to her and listen to her thoughts.
“We must take our excess profits, and put them into rebuilding Hetar,” Lord Jonah told his High Council. “The houses of all the magnates will be searched for hidden wealth. The goldsmiths and the bankers will be called to account for the deposits they hold for the magnates. A percentage will be taken from each of them to fund the rebuilding that must be done to restore Hetar.”
“Do we not pay taxes?” Cuthbert Ahasferus shouted.
“Most of the truly wealthy find ways to pay as little as possible. We will assess the truth, and then each of you will pay a quarter of all your wealth, and in future you will pay twenty percent of your yearly profits,” the Hierarch said.
“Remain seated, Cuthbert, Aubin!” Lord Jonah told them sharply, for he saw that they were attempting to sneak out of the council chamber to warn their cronies.
“You cannot force us to do this!” Aubin Prospero shouted furiously.
“Obey me or I will set the people upon you. I will see your household sold into slavery, your monies, your house and your goods taken,” the Hierarch said in a dark voice. “As for you, son of the traitor and profiteer Gaius Prospero, you will first be whipped fifty lashes in the main public square for your great sin of greed. Then you will be chained to the wheel in a mill house to spend the rest of your days grinding grain.”
“Tell him you will show him his fate,” Lara whispered in Cam’s ear.
“Behold, and see your fate if you disobey me, Aubin Prospero!” And Cam waved his hand in the air.
Immediately everyone in the chamber saw the house of Prospero, the women, children and servants being taken from the house in chains. The picture in the air that surrounded them changed and they saw Aubin Prospero being whipped as the spectators cheered and counted aloud each stroke of the whip. The picture changed again and Aubin Prospero, gaunt and hollow eyed, trod a well-worn circle chained to a wheel that was grinding grain around and around and around the mill house.
Gaius Prospero’s son grew pale with genuine terror as he was shown these pictures. He slumped in his chair, and turned his eyes away.
“This
“Tell them you must leave them now,” Lara murmured in Cam’s ear.
“I leave you, good council members, to discuss this by yourselves,” Cam said grandly, and he waved his hand once again only to find himself back in the small room that was now his. Lara was by his side. “Ciarda never allowed me to do anything like that,” he said excitedly.
Lara shook her head as if weary. “Your Darkling doesn’t have enough power to do what I just did for you, Cam. Oh, I know she gave you the power to come and to go some months ago, but that power no longer works, does it?”
“Nay, it does not. When I asked her about it she said I no longer needed such a small power,” Cam told Lara.
“She has few powers of her own, Nephew. And her father has tried to aid her from his prison with the little magic left to him, but the effort he has made has weakened him, and diminished his magic to the point where it is almost gone. He will give her no more, for he wishes to survive to regain his throne,” Lara told Cam.
“Ciarda says that will never happen. That the Lord Kol wants her to have his kingdom,” Cam said.
“Cam, in the Dark Lands, no woman has ever ruled, nor will ever rule. They are a race of men mostly, and the few women born have their fate decided at birth. It is to produce more of their kind, and nothing more. Ciarda has a little more latitude being the daughter of the Twilight Lord. But it is one of her twin brothers who will eventually rule there. It is the duty of the old dwarf who is chancellor to eventually decide which one.”
“But what if those heirs were not there?” Cam asked Lara.
“Then another male in the direct line of Usi and Jorunn would be chosen,” Lara told him. “Whatever Ciarda may think, Cam, she will not rule the Dark Lands.”
“She will try,” he said, surprising Lara. “She means to gain the male seed of the one called Kolbein, and birth a son whom she will rule through even as you rule Terah through your son Taj,” Cam told Lara. “Then she will kill them both. She said it.”
“If she murdered the heirs she would be killed herself, for it is forbidden to kill any in the direct line of the Twilight Lords,” Lara explained to him.
“Oh,” Cam answered. Then he said, “I trusted you today, Aunt, and stood by the side of the Lord High Ruler. I aided him, did I not? Now tell me Anoush is safe, and that you found her.”
“I found her in the castle of the Twilight Lord and brought her to safety,” Lara said. “I do not go back on my word, Nephew.”
“And we will wed when this is over?”
“If Anoush wishes it,” Lara told him.
“You must protect me from Ciarda, for she is certain to learn what I have done,” he said. Cam was beginning to realize it was Lara who had the greater power.
“You will be safe, for as I have told you her magic is little. Her anger is another thing, Cam, but you are clever enough to defuse it, I am certain,” Lara murmured.
“If I offer her pleasures she is generally content,” he admitted.
“Then do what you must,” Lara said. “We battle to keep the darkness from engulfing us all, Nephew. Farewell for now!” And Lara vanished from his sight.
Cam sat down and considered what he had done this day. Ciarda would not be happy, of course, but when he explained that his small act had gained the trust of his aunt she would understand. He didn’t believe Lara when she said that Ciarda had only small magic. Had he not seen her magic for himself when she first came to him? Surely that was not small magic. Although his inability now to transport from place to place was suspicious.
Still, Ciarda had promised him that he would rule Hetar. His aunt offered him a bit of land and some cattle. Cam laughed to himself. It mattered little to him if Ciarda was his overlord. He would still control Hetar for her and that was, he had decided, a lot better than being a propertied Fiacre herdsman. As for, Anoush he would have her eventually despite her mother. Had not Jonah gotten Zagiri for himself?
Yet if by chance his aunt were more truthful than Ciarda then his deeds today will have gained him her trust. If he were clever he could, at least for the interim, convince both Ciarda and Lara that he was doing their bidding. He would watch carefully to see which one of them was the real power, and then ally himself with that power. The more he saw of Hetar the more he wanted it. But then, being a propertied man in his own land was not the worst fate he could have. And there again he would have Anoush with her mother’s blessing. Cam had never felt more fortunate in his entire life. Whichever way he turned he would win and no one would be the wiser.
No one except the young Shadow Prince called Baram who had been assigned to accompany the unsuspecting Cam wherever he went, now listening to his thoughts. And reporting all he heard to Prince Kaliq. Baram smiled as he listened to the foolish young mortal who thought himself clever enough to play both sides against the middle.
