“I can, my lord,” the young mermaid said. “I will go now with your permission, and my father’s permission.”
“Be careful, Antea,” Agenor advised her, “and come back as soon as you have delivered your message.”
With a saucy flip of her tail Antea dove beneath the sea and swam swiftly from her father’s cave. She left behind her a small spray of golden foam.
“My mermen and I can help to retrieve your wife from beneath the sea,” Agenor said to the king. “You will take a sailing vessel to the spot just above this castle. We will then retrieve the queen and bring her to the surface.”
“But how can she possibly breathe? She will drown before she reaches the surface,” Duke Alban said.
“Not if she is carrying a piece of our magic seaweed. It will enable her to breathe beneath the water as she rises up,” Agenor explained.
“But how will we get through into the bubble without destroying it and alerting the Yafir? These folk are the Yafir, Majesty, are they not?”
Dillon nodded. “I will give you a spell that will let you pass through the bubble when you need to, and return back, as well. You will leave something in the castle garden when you retrieve my wife.” He smiled wickedly and chuckled.
“I will send for Duke Alban, and he will send to you, when my daughter returns again, Majesty,” Agenor said.
Dillon nodded, and then standing with Alban he threw his cloak about them, and they were gone. Agenor shook his head in wonder, and then he noticed that where there had been two large silk cushions there were now two baskets of pineapples. He smiled broadly. In the end his aid would cost more than fresh fruit, but then the king was aware of that, he knew.
“WE HAVE FOUND HER,” Dillon told his father, his uncle and Nidhug as they spoke within a sealed room inside his castle. He had immediately sent for Kaliq and Cirillo when he returned from Duke Alban’s. “Agenor has come up with a plan to rescue her.” And he explained carefully.
“When Ahura Mazda finds her gone he will come here to retrieve her,” Cirillo said. “And then you will have the difficulty of the Belmairans wanting to reject her.”
“He will not come if he does not realize that he has not lost her,” Dillon said slyly.
They looked at one another and finally to Dillon, confused.
And then the great Shadow Prince began to smile. “It is brilliant!” he said.
“What is brilliant?” Nidhug asked.
“Of course!” Cirillo exclaimed.
“Of course what?” Nidhug demanded to know.
“We will substitute Sapphira for Cinnia,” Dillon said.
“He will see through it at once. For one thing her eyes are darker than the queen’s,” the dragon pointed out. “And she will protest, and tell the Yafir who she is.”
“I can change the color of her eyes with my magic,” Dillon said. “And I will release her womb from my infertility charm while placing a confusion spell upon her. She will not be certain who she really is at all, and her temporary loss of memories will be put down to the fall she will appear to have taken in the gardens. Sapphira’s lustful nature will delight Ahura Mazda, and he will impregnate her. Then he will cosset and spoil her as is his nature with his women when their bellies swell. And he shall have his heart’s desire of her. A daughter! Her memories of who she really is will return then, but I suspect she will not care at that point.”
“It is a daring plan,” Kaliq said. “And it is well thought out. But you need to do more in this matter than just rescue your wife.”
“I am aware of that,” Dillon replied. “When I regain possession of my wife I will announce that I am taking Sapphira in marriage. We will plan a great wedding feast for all the kingdom. The false Sapphira will announce she is changing her name to Cinnia in honor of my first wife.”
“And you will not set Belmairan against Belmairan over the matter of you taking your old wife back. As far as all of Belmair will be concerned, Cinnia, daughter of Fflergant, was kidnapped by the Yafir, and is lost to you. And King Dillon has taken Sapphira, niece of Tullio of Beldane, as his new wife. Sapphira in a grand gesture to honor her predecessor takes her name. Aye, it is wickedly clever,” Nidhug approved.
“The mix of Shadow and faerie blood, it would seem, is a good one,” Cirillo noted.
“When I tell Mother she will be so proud.”
“I do not mean to allow this incident to thwart my plans to bring Belmairan and Yafir together again as one people,” Dillon said. “Ahura Mazda is too filled with bitterness to help me attain my goal. We will have to find another Yafir to become lord. He cannot be the only one capable of negotiation for his people.”
“Cinnia may be able to help us when she returns,” Nidhug said.
“She has been with them for just over a year now, and has surely learned a great deal about them.”
“And what is to become of Ahura Mazda?” Kaliq said. “He does not appear to be a man who will step aside for another, even blood kin. We will see he loses favor with the Yafir, and when he has, factions will arise to depose him. When that happens we will choose he who will be the next lord, and see that he gains his people’s favor.”
“I mean to see him dead,” Dillon answered in a cold, deadly voice. “He has taken my wife from me, used her body for his pleasure, stolen a year of our lives from us. For this he will forfeit his life. He will be no loss to either Belmair or Yafirdom.”
“He will deserve whatever you give him, Majesty,” the dragon said.
Dillon smiled at her. “I have known wickeder,” he replied. “The difficulty with Ahura Mazda is that he is resistant to change. Nor will he accept change from others. Actually he is much like Dreng. I honestly do not know if I can ever forgive what he has done to Cinnia, but it is his obdurate nature that will cost him his life. He will always cause dissent, and that dissent can prevent the union of our peoples. Whether or not Ahura Mazda or Dreng likes it, we must share this world. Better we share it in peace. We are different in many ways, alike in many ways. Imagine what we may accomplish united,” Dillon said enthusiastically.
“Indeed Belmair can flourish with a great sorcerer as its leader,” the dragon said with equal zeal.
“Nothing will prosper for Belmair as it should without its sorceress,” Dillon replied. “Cinnia must be restored to her rightful place.”
The others murmured their agreement.
“For now we must await word from Agenor,” Kaliq reminded them.
“And our plans must be kept secret from all,” Nidhug said. “But how will we get to the spot Agenor’s Merfolk located without attracting attention?”
“On the day appointed, Sapphira and I will go for a sail. I will transport the vessel by means of my magic to the proper site where Agenor will await me. Sapphira will have already been rendered unconscious, and dressed in a garb matching the one Cinnia will be wearing. The Merfolk will tuck their magical seaweed in her pocket, and take her below the sea to the castle comb where Cinnia should be awaiting. The switch will be made, the seaweed put in Cinnia’s pocket, and she will be brought to the surface, where I will await her. I will then bring our little vessel back to our own harbor, explaining to my wife as we travel what has happened, how we have accomplished it and what she must now do to pretend she is Sapphira so none will ever know that we have outwitted the Yafir lord,” Dillon explained.
“Will not some be suspicious?” Cirillo asked.
“Perhaps,” Dillon said. “But on what will they base their doubts?”
“I will give Cinnia Sapphira’s memories up to the day she came to the castle,” Kaliq said. “I do not think she would appreciate knowing those memories she gained after arriving,” he concluded with a small smile.
Dillon chuckled. “Nay, she would not,” he agreed.
“And we can blur the eyes of Sapphira’s mother and uncle each time they see her so she appears to them as she has always been,” Cirillo added.
“So now we wait for word from Agenor,” Dillon said.
“You feel no pity for Sapphira?” Kaliq asked the young king.
Dillon paused, and then he sighed. “Aye, I do,” he admitted. “But she will not be harmed by Ahura Mazda. Indeed he will love her above all of his other wives, for she will give him the daughter he so desperately desires.
