Belmair.”
The young couple turned to face their guests who responded with light clapping. At that very moment there was a clap of thunder, and the Yafir lord appeared before them, holding Sapphira by the hand. She was big with child. The guests gasped at this twin of their new queen, and stepped back.
“What think you of your Cinnia now, king of Belmair? She ripens nicely with my child.” Reaching out he patted the false Cinnia’s belly.
The wedding guests gasped, shocked.
“Perhaps I shall come and steal Sapphira from you one day. They are most alike, and it would be amusing to show them together,” Ahura Mazda said. Then he touched Sapphira’s cheek, and she was gone, but the Yafir lord remained. Boldly he walked among the guests. He bowed politely to Ilona and Lara, one magical being to another. He looked at Lara’s three daughters. “Which one? Which one?” he mused aloud, walking back and forth before the king’s sisters, a finger against his lips considering. “One is lovelier than the others. Two dark, one fair. Which one shall I have for myself.”
“They are all protected,” Dillon said.
“Perhaps I have a spell to overcome yours,” Ahura Mazda replied.
“If you did, my lord, you would already be gone,” Dillon answered. “Would you like to join us at the wedding feast, Ahura Mazda?”
The Yafir lord looked surprised by the invitation.
It was at that moment that the king’s little sister stepped away from her two older sisters.
“Marzina!” Lara was shocked by her child’s actions. “That was very rude. Sensible, but rude.” Behind her Lara heard Kaliq chuckle.
“I knew it!” Ilona crowed. “She has the magic in her blood! She must come to me in a few years. Oh, what I can teach her! At last a granddaughter worthy of our faerie blood!” She beamed, well pleased at Marzina.
“Now, Grandmother, you know you love us all,” Zagiri said. “And even if I am just plain mortal, Anoush has her special gifts of healing and sight.”
“And good gifts they are,” Ilona agreed. “But your little sister has just banished a creature back to from where he came. And she is only ten!”
Cinnia looked at the little girl, and she smiled. “Thank you, Sister,” she said. “His presence was beginning to spoil our festivities.”
“I thought so, too,” Marzina said softly. “He was distressing you.”
“You shall not attend another wedding like this one again,” Dillon said jovially to their guests. And nervous laughter broke out as the guests dispersed to the trestle tables that had been set up below the high board in the gardens. A great feast was served, and the day was spent in eating, dancing, games, music and other jovial pursuits.
Delighted by her discovery, Ilona was in rare form. Even her beloved son’s obvious attachment to Belmair’s Great Dragon could not distress her. Her grandson had his wife back. Her family had outwitted the Yafir lord and Ilona knew that Dillon would accomplish whatever it was he needed to accomplish. Ilona could not remember ever having seen a Yafir before. They had been gone from Hetar before her birth. She had to admit to herself that Ahura Mazda was handsome in a repellent sort of way. The silvery-blond hair and the azure eyes were very striking. She couldn’t help but wonder, surprising herself by the thought, what it would be like to take pleasures with him. She shuddered delicately. It was time to return to Hetar. Perhaps she would go tonight.
As the festivities celebrating the wedding of Belmair’s king began to come to an end, the guests began returning to their chambers, preparing for their departure on the morrow.
“I wish we could send Tullio and Margisia home tonight,” Cinnia said to Dillon as they cuddled together in their big bed.
“I asked them earlier, but they prefer to travel by sea in the manner in which they came,” he answered her.
“Sapphira did not look unhappy,” Cinnia noted. “I am happy for it. I hope she will give the Yafir lord his daughter. Her place in his heart and house will then be secure. And he will shower her with all manner of riches.”
“Why is it so important that she have a daughter? Most men desire a quiver full of sons,” Dillon noted.
“Do you not recall my telling you that? The Yafir men seem to breed up twenty sons for every daughter born. Arlais told me it is a phenomenon that only began occurring after they made their home in the sea. A daughter, even an ugly one, can bring her father great wealth, especially as there are fewer and fewer Belmairan women to steal. And now that our women are protected, a daughter will bring even more gold,” Cinnia said. Leaning forward, she kissed a nipple on his bare chest. “When do I get to have a child, my lord? The people will be very disappointed if their new queen does not conceive almost immediately.”
“You know I have wanted no child until the danger was past,” Dillon said slowly.
“Can you not protect our child as you have protected the women and the female infants?” she asked him.
“I have expended a great deal of power in those tasks,” he said.
“Let me speak with my father, and I will see what he advises,” Dillon told her.
“Speak with him soon,” Cinnia said softly, and she licked his chest with several strokes of her tongue. “While I enjoy taking pleasures with you, my lord, I want a child.”
“You enjoy taking pleasures with me?” he said teasingly. He reached out, and squeezed one of her round breasts. Then leaning forward, he licked at the nipple.
Her hand caressed his nape slowly. She would have sworn she could sense his rising excitement through her fingertips. Pulling his head down, she kissed him.
“I love you,” she whispered against his lips. “And I have not yet said thank-you for rescuing me. I thought there was no hope for me, and my heart had turned to stone within my chest, Dillon. But you came for me, and I am alive once more. Thank you.”
“You are my life,” he told her. “From the moment I laid eyes upon you, Cinnia, you had my heart. I want no other wife, no other love. Together we are complete. Apart we are lost souls. I love you.” Now it was he who kissed her.
It was a slow, hot kiss that left her feeling weak, and Cinnia sighed, closing her eyes. They were both delightfully naked, and the sensation of his skin upon hers was wonderful. She pulled him closer, shifting beneath him as she both felt and sensed his rising desire. This, Cinnia realized, was the tender passion she needed right now. When he entered her in a smooth glide of hard, throbbing flesh, she cried out softly with her happiness, wrapping herself about him. Together as they rocked back and forth in each other’s arms, they shared the deep love they realized was meant to be theirs.
He loved her so much that Dillon found it difficult to control his own nature. He desperately wanted to give her a child, but the war between Belmair and Ahura Mazda had only just begun. And the Yafir lord was a dangerous man who would obviously stop at nothing to gain his goal of total domination of Belmair. If Cinnia had a child then that child was at risk. He willed the life from his juices as they burst forth. And afterward he cradled her within the shelter of his arms while she slept, and he continued to consider what lay ahead for them all, for Belmair.
The war with Ahura Mazda, he realized he had thought. Not the war with the Yafir. He didn’t want to battle the Yafir. Dillon knew all too well the brutality and futility of war. He had lived through two wars in his youth, and he did not want to subject the peaceful Belmairans to such tragedy. But then he realized that the Yafir were no more warlike than the people of Belmair. The battle was to be fought within the magic realm, but it could still prove dangerous.
Dillon smiled to himself. The Yafir lord had been so long removed from the reality of the world that he had no idea how powerful Belmair’s king really was. And he did not fight in a traditional manner. Rules were all important in the magic realm, but Ahura Mazda appeared to care little for such niceties. His attacks, so sudden and harassing, were always unexpected. It was difficult to anticipate what he would do, and where he would strike next. He voiced these concerns the next day to Kaliq, Lara and Nidhug, who gathered together in the king’s library.
“He is erratic in his behavior,” Dillon said to them. “But I have come to realize it isn’t the Yafir we must contain. It is their wild lord.”
“Is he the one who made the decision to remain hidden in Belmair?” Lara wanted to know. “Is he that
