is good news!”
“It is!” Lara exclaimed, smiling. “The chief of the Merfolk, Agenor, by name, has agreed to help us find the queen. He will set his people to seeking out any civilization beneath the seas, but he begs you be patient. The seas are vast, and their number is small, my son. I liked this fellow, Dillon. We must do something to make the lives of the Merfolk easier once this is all over. What a wondrous place Belmair is, and the Belmairans, alas, know little of what is here other than themselves.” Lara continued, explaining in careful detail her entire visit to Agenor.
“Do you like Alban?” Dillon asked her.
“Aye, he is a good man. Both he and his wife would appear to have open minds, but restoring Cinnia will not be an easy thing once we are able to locate her,” Lara said.
“I must continue sending out search parties. I do not want Ahura Mazda to consider that I am any less desperate,” Dillon replied grimly. “I am going to have to kill him, Mother. I offered my hand in friendship. I offered to right the wrongs done the Yafir all those centuries ago. His response was to steal my wife so that the Belmairans will consider her
“Bringing Belmair to a different frame of mind will not be easy or simple,” Lara warned her son.
“If the dragon had wanted everything to remain static in Belmair then she would not have chosen me to be its king,” Dillon said.
“She did not need the son of a Shadow Prince and a faerie woman to keep Belmair as it was, Mother.”
“You have become such a strong man,” Lara said. “I hardly know you now.”
“Power is both a gift and a curse,” Dillon noted. “It must be wielded strongly, yet carefully. And no being should ever believe that in possessing power they are either invincible or inviolate. That is the lesson Ahura Mazda will soon learn. I know that revenging myself on him will not bring me peace, Mother. It will just put an end to the chapter for me, but I will never forget that my beautiful Cinnia has been hurt by this Yafir’s selfishness.”
“Perhaps her abduction has a greater purpose behind it,” Lara said.
“Perhaps,” Dillon said. “But what I cannot fathom.”
12
THE SUMMER CAME, and Dillon had stopped the incidents of female infant snatching by the Yafir, seeing that each expectant mother was given a charm to protect her newborn daughter. Lara had returned to Terah. For now all they could do was wait for the Merfolk to find out if the Yafir had made a kingdom of their own beneath the sea. But with the warm weather the three dukes came to the king, Dreng and Tullio pressing him to take another wife.
To his credit Duke Alban counseled his fellow dukes to be more patient.
“It doesn’t matter if she’s found or not,” Dreng said bluntly. “She is tainted by her time with the Yafir, soiled and tarnished. She can no longer be considered your wife, or the queen of Belmair, nor will we accept her as such.”
“We have so many lovely young women of good reputation and family, any one of whom would be a perfect mate for you, Majesty,” Duke Tullio added.
“You have already seen two of my granddaughters,” Dreng reminded the king. “And there are several other suitable candidates from Beltran. Tullio has his niece, and at least three other young women. But Alban, it seems, has no one to offer you,” Dreng concluded a trifle sourly.
“The king has said he is not yet ready to pick another wife,” Alban murmured. “When he informs me that he is I will be happy to offer him several young women from my dukedom of Belia. Until then it would be premature to accost him.”
“Bah!” Dreng said unpleasantly. “You are a too-careful old woman, Alban.”
“Your Majesty,” Duke Tullio said, “that you refuse to choose a new wife but frets the people. It keeps the matter of the Yafir in their minds.”
Dillon was astounded by this comment. “Do you think,” he asked them, “that simply because we have stopped the Yafir from taking our females that this is the end of it? That we can go on with our lives as if nothing happened? The Yafir mean to have Belmair unless we can prevent it. Ahura Mazda must be stopped, and a new Yafir lord chosen with whom we can negotiate a peace. And how dare you refer to the queen as
The king’s angry outburst left the trio of dukes briefly speechless. Dreng stared angrily at Dillon, but both Tullio and Alban looked away. The duke of Beltran would never change in any way, the dukes of Beldane and Belia knew. But they were both aware that change had already come to Belmair in the person of their new king.
Finally Alban spoke up. “I think we should allow the king a full year to mourn his tragic loss. Had our young queen died a natural death we certainly would give him that time. Why do you persist in rushing him, Dreng? The purple sands in his glass have barely drizzled away a grain. The dragon also grieves the loss of Queen Cinnia and she is not ready, either, for the king to remarry. We have had several kings without queens, my lords,” Alban reasoned, his words being meant more for Dreng than Tullio.
“I am willing to wait until the autumn,” Dreng said, “but only if a Summer Court is held, my lords. There has been no death here. Let the king open the castle to the noble and wealthy families of Belmair. They will bring their unmarried daughters, and while he may sorrow for Fflergant’s daughter in private, he will be surrounded by youth and beauty. Surely it will help to ease his grief, and bring him to a more reasonable frame of mind,” the duke concluded with a sickly smile.
“We have not had a Summer Court in many years,” Tullio noted.
“An excellent idea, Dreng,” Duke Alban said, turning to Dillon. “It really is, Majesty,” he appealed to the king. Their eyes met, Alban’s begging the king to agree.
“Very well,” Dillon said quietly. “I will hold a Summer Court.” And afterward when he was alone with the duke of Belia, he asked him, “Why did you want me to acquiesce, my lord? You know I will have no other than my Cinnia.”
“By agreeing, you have silenced Dreng, my lord. I will speak to my sister, and she will see that Dreng keeps his distance. You will allow yourself to be surrounded by young women, which will give you time to continue your search. It will also prevent Dreng from nagging you. By the time his patience runs out we may have found the queen, and then the difficulty of keeping her by your side will fall to you. However if the queen has not been found by then-” he paused “-I think we must leave the decision not just to you, Majesty, but to the Great Dragon of Belmair, for she will know what must be done. She has known Cinnia longer than you, and will do what is right.”
“Would you accept Cinnia back?” Dillon asked Duke Alban.
“I would if you would,” Alban replied without hesitation. “You are right when you point out that Yafir and Belmairan blood has been so mixed over the centuries that there is little difference now between us. And if we may unite as one people in another few generations we will all be one.”
“How in the name of the Great Creator was a mind like yours born in Belmair?” Dillon wondered aloud. He shook his head.
Alban laughed. “I was the elder of two sons. My brother is more like the average Belmairan. I believe my father would have given him the dutchy but for my mother. She told him I would outgrow my foolish thoughts, and I think she believed I would. It is better, I think, that neither of them lived to see I did not. In fact, I have become more liberal in my thinking. There are others like me in Belmair. Mostly we keep silent lest we be accused of being like Hetarians.”
