happened. Cinnia has changed, and she is more amenable to our husband, more accepting of him, of our world.”
They came to believe that that was what had happened, for the Cinnia they had known for a good year had indeed changed. She was no longer interested in her gardens or her apothecary. Her passion was for more beautiful garments and jewelry with which Ahura Mazda was delighted to gift her. She was imperious and disrespectful of the other women; spoke sharply to the servants, but the Yafir lord would not reprimand her. He was more besotted with her than ever before. He spent several nights a week in her bed, causing annoyance among the other wives who were not pleased to be ignored. And when she began to swell with child she became over proud and even more difficult.
“Have you forgotten about Belmair and King Dillon then?” Arlais asked her as the wives all sat together one afternoon in their shared dayroom.
Sapphira looked lazily up. “Our lord husband is my reason for living now.”
“Not your child?” Minau murmured wickedly.
“Of course,” Sapphira said, her tone now slightly irritated. “My daughter is most important to me. She will be a princess.”
“How can you be so certain it is a daughter you carry?” Volupia said. “We have all prayed for daughters and been denied. Our husband, it seems, can only throw male children, I fear. Most Yafir do, which is why it is necessary to steal women from Belmair for wives, although now we are unable to ever since an enchantment was put upon them. You are a sorceress, Cinnia. Can you not undo what was done?”
“No,” Sapphira said bluntly. “I no longer choose to practice my small magic.”
“But if it is not magic, what is it that makes you certain you carry a daughter?” Volupia persisted.
“I just know,” Cinnia said. Then she looked to the servant paring her toenails. “Be careful, you clumsy creature! Are you trying to cut my toe off?”
Arlais listened, and suddenly she knew that the girl carrying Ahura Mazda’s child was not Cinnia, daughter of Fflergant. Who was she then? Arlais searched her memory, and then she recalled that after they had found her in the gardens the girl had at first insisted that her name was Sapphira. A small smile touched Arlais’s lips. She did not know how, but she realized that King Dillon had finally found a way to retrieve his wife, Cinnia, leaving his mistress, Sapphira, behind in her place. It had been masterfully done.
Of all of Ahura Mazda’s wives it was Arlais who was the highest born, although Minau also came from a noble family. But Arlais had been the bride of a duke of Belia. She had been stolen on her wedding day. She understood better than the others the political machinations of Belmair. Ahura Mazda had told her that King Dillon sought peace between the two races. While her husband was a kind man by nature, he had never forgiven the Belmairans for their betrayal of the Yafir, and in his bitterness scorned the young king’s desire to reunite the two factions.
Then he had deliberately stolen Cinnia away from the king in an effort to taunt him. And Ahura Mazda had laughed himself sick as the young king had in his pain and despair looked high and low for his wife and for the Yafir. The Yafir lord knew that the Belmairans would never consider looking beneath the vast sea of Belmair. Yet King Dillon had finally sought beneath the seas, and he had obviously found them. What great magic the young king must possess, Arlais thought, to have been able to regain possession of his wife, replacing her with his mistress who was her duplicate.
And Ahura Mazda had not discovered it. Indeed this Cinnia made him happy. She did not want to escape Yafirdom. She was more than content with her place as his wife, and as the expectant mother of his child. It was to be hoped that time would mellow her difficult nature. The birth of one’s first child always made certain changes in a woman’s demeanor.
She considered the generations that had been born beneath the sea. Was it not past time for them to return to the land? Sometimes, if she concentrated very hard, Arlais could conjure up the fragrance of the freshly ploughed land on her father’s estate in a small valley between the mountains in Belia. She wondered if after these several hundred years that estate was still there, and still in her family. She considered if she would ever know the answer to her questions. And if Ahura Mazda scorned any future overtures by King Dillon? Well, Arlais thought, she had born him several sons over the centuries, and she knew that while they said nothing to their father, that they had spoken with her about returning to the land.
Many of the bubbles were getting overcrowded, and it took every bit of male Yafir magic to keep what existed safe for them. Soon they would have no choice but to leave the sea, and if Belmair would not take them back, the Yafir would once again be forced to wander. Arlais wished she had a means of communicating with Belmair, but she did not. She would wait for King Dillon to approach Ahura Mazda once more, and when he did she would use what small influence she possessed with her husband to get him to at least consider what the king had to say. She hoped the real Cinnia was happy once again, safe with her beloved husband.
But Cinnia was not happy. While part of her was glad to have been rescued, her Belmairan conscience worried her terribly. She had been raised to believe that the Yafir were unclean and wicked. That a respectable Belmairan woman touched by them was no longer pure or worthy of the name Belmairan. And while she played the part of Sapphira for love of Dillon, she would not allow him in her bed.
“You’re supposed to be my mistress,” he said low to her one day as they rode out from the castle and into the hills of Belmair.
“From what Tamary and Anke tell me, you hadn’t visited her bed in at least two months, my lord,” Cinnia said as softly. “No one sees anything different. You are obviously tiring of Sapphira. End it soon, my lord. Give Sapphira a small home into which to retire, and an allowance. Then find a new wife.”
“I cannot do that,” Dillon told her. “The agreement between Sapphira’s family and me says that if I do not wed with Sapphira and I tire of her, a wealthy husband will be found, and I will pay a generous dower.”
“Tell Duke Tullio I do not want a husband. That my love for you is so great I prefer to remain celibate if you will not have me,” Cinnia replied.
“Tullio will not accept such a decision on your part. It is his right to marry Sapphira off to someone who can be an advantage to his family. You know this is how marriages among the nobility are arranged. A woman’s value to her kin is in the husband she has,” Dillon responded, “and the children she bears him. I cannot flout the law.”
“You flouted the law when you came after me,” Cinnia reminded him tartly.
“The law had been changed when I came after you,” he countered.
“Then why not tell all of Belmair?” she demanded wickedly.
“You know the answer to that,” he said. He was beginning to get angry.
“Aye, I do,” Cinnia said. “You may have changed the law, but you cannot change what has been in the hearts of Belmairans for hundreds of years. They will not accept me, Dillon. And Tullio would probably kill you, or at least attempt to kill you if he learned you had substituted his niece for me in Ahura Mazda’s bed.”
“Then I shall make Tullio supremely happy by marrying Sapphira, and making her my queen,” Dillon replied. “When we return to the castle I shall make the announcement, and you will have until our wedding night to make peace with your narrow little Belmairan heart and mind. We will be husband and wife again, Cinnia.” Then he surprised her by putting his horse into a canter and riding away from her.
Cinnia drew her mount to a stop, thinking that she should have been the one to ride off in a temper. Then she laughed. It was the first time she could recall really laughing in many months. Dillon was simply too clever for her. He did nothing he did not carefully consider beforehand. But she was still troubled. How did she put away hundreds of years of ingrained thought? Turning her animal about, Cinnia rode to Nidhug’s castle.
Over the few months since her return the dragon had pretended to come around to accepting Sapphira. So it was not considered odd that the king’s mistress would visit with Belmair’s great guardian. Entering the castle courtyard she dismounted, hardly looking at the groomsman who came to take her horse. She hurried into the small castle and sought out Nidhug who was in her privy chamber reading. Meeting Tavey along the way, Cinnia said to him, “Bring refreshments. Your mistress will shortly need them.”
“Nidhug!” Cinnia greeted the dragon as she entered the room.
“Ah, my darling girl, how lovely that you have come to see me,” the dragon responded. “You have news! I can
