“Does the chamber glow golden and the air crackle when you possess her as it did in the joining?” Kaliq asked, curious.
Dillon nodded.
Kaliq shook his head. “There is no doubt in my mind that you were meant to be together. I always sensed the woman you wed would be the great love of your life. That is why I encouraged you to pleasures early. I wanted you skilled in passion, and I wanted you to be satisfied when you did marry.”
“You were wise, my lord,” Dillon told him. “I want no other.”
“Will you love her?”
Dillon smiled. “Aye, I will, and Cinnia will love me although she yet bridles against me like a skittish young mare. She is a riddle, but I will solve her!”
“I am pleased,” Kaliq said, and then he was gone. He was pleased, the Shadow Prince thought as he reappeared in his own library in his palace of Shunnar. Dillon was strong, as Kaliq was strong. Vartan, a good and loving man, had needed Lara to direct his every step. He had been a magnificent warrior. There was none better in battle. But he had not the skills to plot and to plan. He could have never produced a son like Dillon, the prince considered smiling slightly. He had been in Belmair a week now, and already he was on the trail of the mystery plaguing his new kingdom.
Kaliq poured himself a goblet of cool frine and drank half of it down. Setting the goblet aside upon a table he spoke in the silent language.
After several minutes the marble wall seemed to fade in one spot, and Lara stepped into the chamber. “Greetings, my lord, what mischief are you or have you perpetrated now? You do recall it is the middle of the night in Terah. I cannot remain long lest Magnus wake up and seek me.” She was wearing a house robe of peach silk.
“I need you to help me convince your mother to let Cirillo go to Belmair for a short while,” Kaliq said candidly. Did she ever look less than beautiful? he wondered.
Lara burst out laughing. “I haven’t even told mother yet that you have taken my…our son away from Hetar. Now you wish me to convince her to allow her only son and heir to be whisked away? I do not think she will permit it.”
“Dillon needs his aid,” Kaliq said.
“What has happened?” Lara demanded to know.
“Nothing yet,” Kaliq responded. “There is a hidden chamber in a great library, and while all know it is there, they cannot find any evidence of it. We need to find it, and get into the room. The books there will probably tell us what magic existed in Belmair once and why it is gone. If indeed it is gone.”
Lara nodded understanding. “You think it is faerie enchantment, and only a faerie can undo it,” she said. “I could go to Belmair and help my son.”
“You are faerie, my love, but not entirely. I would take no chances with this. Besides I suspect your brother will enjoy escaping his mother for a brief time. And he will particularly enjoy a fresh hunting field.”
Lara laughed again. “He does enjoy women,” she admitted. “He has our mother’s sexual appetites. It is certainly not from Thanos, his father, who is surely the most conservative faerie man I have ever met. Very well, I will help you. But first I must tell my mother of Dillon’s true parentage.”
“We will go together,” Kaliq said.
“Not now,” Lara told him. “I must away home. In the morning I will tell Magnus that I am going to visit my mother for a day or two. He prefers it to mother visiting us. Whenever she does, Magnus’s mother, Persis, learns of the visit and hurries to visit us at the same time. The two are in constant competition over the children although I will say Persis favors Taj to the girls.”
“Will you ever give Magnus another child?” Kaliq asked her.
“Why would I? I have given him three, and he has a son to follow him now,” Lara responded to the question. “Nay. I have enough children. I shall have to watch four of them grow old, Kaliq. Dillon, of course, will live long. Did I tell you that Hetar is proposing a marriage alliance between Marzina and Egon, Jonah and Vilia’s son?”
“Turn it down,” Kaliq said. “The Twilight Lord took pleasures with Vilia upon the Dream Plane. While the child is Jonah’s seed, for he had already been conceived when Kol took Vilia, Kol’s essence bathed the child before its birth.”
Lara shuddered at the mention of Kol, the Twilight Lord. “He was certainly busy, wasn’t he,” she said acerbically.
“The boy will be evil and grow more so as he ages. Your innate goodness has kept Marzina safe, but a child born of her loins and Egon’s seed would be a disaster. Of course that is what Kol hoped for when he violated you, and then took pleasures with Vilia. Jonah’s wife, like Kol, is a descendant of Usi the Sorcerer, who caused such misery in Terah. A child born of Usi’s blood on both sides is certain to be dangerous.”
“How long have you know about Vilia’s ancestry?” Lara asked him.
“We always knew that Usi had two concubines he had impregnated. We knew that when Usi’s brother had no sons it would be Usi’s son he made his heir, and so the line of descent has been clear there. We did not know about Vilia until Kol took pleasures with her on the Dream Plane. There was no need for him to use her unless he had a very good reason. He could not create a son with his cousin, but he could influence who that child would be by bathing the unborn creature in his juices. And doing that with just any woman wasn’t enough. He needed a child that carried Usi’s blood as Vilia’s son did through her,” Kaliq explained.
Lara nodded. “I will tell Magnus,” she said. “We will meet in my mother’s forest palace tonight.” Then, stepping back into the shimmering tunnel through which she had traveled earlier, she was quickly gone from his sight. She stepped from the tunnel into the small windowless room she used for these journeys, and hurried back to her bedchamber where she was relieved to see her husband sleeping soundly. Lara slipped back into bed.
When the morning came she told her husband, “I think I shall go and visit my mother today, my darling. It has been some time since I last saw her. The children will be at their studies, and Anoush will work in her herbarium as she does most days.”
“Must you go?” he grumbled. “I miss you when you are gone. How long will you remain with Ilona?”
“A day, possibly two,” Lara said, stroking his rough cheek. “Isn’t it better I go and visit with her, than she come here? You know as well as I do that your mother has a spy or two among our servants. The second my mother arrives, yours will be close behind. Then they will quarrel over the children as they always do. I just want to spend some time with Ilona without any fuss.”
He chuckled. “Why are you always right?” he asked her.
“Because I am,” she teased back.
“Go then with my blessing, Lara, my wife,” Magnus Hauk, Dominus of Terah, told her. “Go and enjoy your faerie world with your faerie cakes and wine. And take my love and deepest respect to your mother. Maybe I will call Dillon home to visit with me while you are gone. We haven’t seen him in some time, either.”
“Dillon contacted me last night on the Dream Plane,” Lara lied. “He is off on some magic business of Kaliq’s, and will be gone several weeks. He didn’t want us to worry, Magnus, my love.”
“Drat!” the Dominus swore lightly. “Well, perhaps I shall take Taj and visit Uncle Arik at the Temple of the Great Creator. It’s time my son began learning some of the responsibilities that will be his one day.”
“What a grand idea!” Lara said. “Give your uncle my love.” Her conscience was now clear.
They dressed and ate breakfast together. Then Lara sought out her children to tell them she was going to visit their grandmother.
“Your father and Taj are riding to the Temple of the Great Creator and so it will just be you girls,” Lara said. “Anoush, I expect you to keep order among your sisters. Zagiri, Marzina, you will listen to your elder sister, remembering she speaks for me. And no, Marzina, you may not ride Dasras in my absence. He is much too big a horse for so little a girl. Do you understand me?”
Marzina looked up at her mother with her beautiful violet eyes. “Yes, Mama,” she said meekly. “But can I ride out on his daughter? She doesn’t have Dasras’s wings, but she goes so swiftly on her four feet. And, yes, I will take a groom with me.”
“If Zagiri goes, too,” Lara said, “yes, you may ride your own horse.”
“Thank you, Mama,” Marzina said.
Zagiri rolled her eyes. It was a look that said “she’ll disobey you if she thinks she can get away with it.” “Give
