Closing her eyes briefly to regain her focus, Cinnia concentrated. Within her mind’s eye she saw Arlais in a pale green gown, her heavy, thick braids looped up about her face. “Arlais,” Cinnia called. “Come to me upon the Dream Plain, Arlais.” She opened her eyes. The mists were thick about her, yet continued to swirl silently. “Arlais, wife to the Yafir lord, come to Cinnia, the sorceress of Belmair. Come to me!”
The mists began to thin until they cleared away to reveal Arlais walking toward her in her pale green gown. When she reached the spot where Cinnia stood, Arlais said, “I knew it! It really is
16
“AYE, IT IS,” Cinnia answered the woman. “But you will not tell him, will you?”
Arlais shook her head. “Nay, I will not. He would be shamed to have been outwitted by the king of Belmair. But how?” Arlais was amazed to be standing here in this strange place actually speaking with Cinnia. The magic involved awed her.
“That is not important,” Cinnia said. “Ahura Mazda does not understand that my husband is a great sorcerer. Dillon did not act sooner because he could not find me. When he did, however, the switch was made. And Sapphira, being the ambitious girl she is, quickly figured out what had happened, and has obviously decided to be content.”
Arlais nodded. “She protested at first, but everyone believed it was a blow to her head that had rendered her memory faulty. Once she had spent a night in his arms she was fully content. They are well matched. Both insatiable for pleasures, and lustful beyond measure. He has high hopes for her child.”
“I think he will get his wish,” Cinnia advised Arlais.
“Why have you called me here?” Arlais asked quietly, still daunted by this magical place.
“My husband truly wants peace between our two peoples,” Cinnia began. “But the Yafir lord’s bitterness seems unending.”
“It is,” Arlais replied. “He will never forgive Belmair.”
“But is his attitude that of all the Yafir?” Cinnia asked softly.
Arlais was silent for a long moment as she debated with herself what to tell the young queen of Belmair. Finally she said, “Nay, it is not. The bubbles are overcrowded. The population of women is shrinking, and the men are stopped from stealing others now. There is grumbling, and discontent beginning to arise. But Ahura Mazda hears it not.”
“Neither the king nor I seek to foment discontent,” Cinnia said, “but is there perhaps a way for us to resolve this that you can consider?”
“What is it that the king seeks to do?” Arlais asked.
“It has been many centuries since the Yafir were told to depart Belmair. In that time the blood of the Yafir has been well mixed with that of the Belmairans. While there are some who will object to those calling themselves Yafir rejoining our society, this is what Dillon wants. He wants us to be one people. We may all hold on to our customs, and sing of our heritage, but we should all be called by one name. Belmairan,” Cinnia said. “Your men cannot produce daughters except rarely, living beneath the sea. And both of our societies need female children. Our races are both dying from lack of them.”
“Can your people not produce females, either?” Arlais inquired.
“So many females have been taken over the centuries that we have fewer and fewer left each year. Now, of course, Dillon has enchanted our women to keep them safe, but it still does not solve our problem. Nor yours. We need to join together and be one,” Cinnia told her companion. “If Ahura Mazda will not listen, is there not someone who will? Is there not some way in which we can save both of our peoples?”
“My sons, Behrooz and Sohrab, would return to Belmair if they could. And there are others like them,” Arlais admitted. “But we have been protected from the centuries beneath the sea. We do not know what will happen to us if we return.”
“Then this is the beginning of our dialogue,” Cinnia said. “Shall we meet again in a few days here upon the Dream Plain? We are both protected here from harm.”
Arlais nodded. “Yes, let us meet again. If your husband is the great sorcerer you say he is, then ask him if he knows what will happen to us if we return to Belmair after our centuries in the sea. Will the transition destroy us? What will happen?”
“I will indeed ask him,” Cinnia said. “Goodbye.” And the mists began to swirl about her once more. She could actually feel herself slipping away as the echo of Arlais’s farewell reached her. Cinnia opened her eyes, fully awake.
“Good morning,” her husband said, and focusing, she saw the faces about her.
She sat up. “It was amazing,” Cinnia declared. “I spoke with Arlais.”
Kaliq smiled, as did Lara.
“I wish I could go to the Dream Plain,” Marzina said.
“You are too young,” her mother told her.
“There is hope,” Anoush said softly. They turned to her and could see that her eyes were glazed over with a vision. “But first there will be strife, not war, but strife among the Yafir, and danger for my brother, Dillon. He is determined! He does not seek change! He will attempt to kill the king! You must stop him!” And then she slumped against her mother, trembling.
Lara put a firm arm about her eldest daughter’s shoulders, supporting her.
“One day those visions will kill her,” Ilona said, low. “She is too fragile.”
Anoush opened her blue eyes. “Nay, Grandmother, they will not destroy me. I look fragile, but I am strong of heart.” She smiled weakly.
“Tell us what happened,” Dillon said to Cinnia.
The young queen of Belmair repeated the conversation she had had with Arlais.
“It is difficult for her,” Cinnia explained. “She understands there must be a change if we are all to survive. Yet she would not betray Ahura Mazda. It is her two older sons, I think, who will probably aid us. But Arlais has asked a serious question, and you, my lord Kaliq, are probably the one to answer her query.”
“Why do you think that?” Kaliq said with a small smile.
“Because you are the most powerful being that I know,” Cinnia said candidly.
He smiled again. “Ask your question,” Kaliq said.
“Arlais wonders what will happen to the Yafir after centuries beneath the sea. If they return to the land will they become ancient and die? Remember that those who have been returned previously have suffered that fate. How can Belmair make peace with a people who will perish if they come back to our world? But how can we make peace if they remain below the sea, hostile to us? Ahura Mazda promises his folk that he will bring them back, but he has not the magic needed to do such a thing on such a grand scale, and if his people die attempting to live upon the land again then what has been accomplished but the destruction of the Yafir?”
“A most interesting query,” Kaliq said slowly. “I must think upon it, Cinnia. It is indeed possible that Ahura Mazda has stopped time because of the mortal blood now flowing with that of the Yafir. How old is Arlais? Do you know?”
“She told me she was twenty-seven,” Cinnia said. “And she certainly looks like a young woman in her twenties.”
“Could we not create a spell that would allow the Yafir to begin their lives upon the land once more at the age at which they were stolen?” Dillon said aloud.
“What of the children born to them? How do they age?” Lara wanted to know.
“Everyone looks as if they are in their twenties and thirties,” Cinnia said. “They seem to age just so far and no more. I saw no ancients at all, even among the servants.”
“Fascinating,” Kaliq mused. “Yes, Ahura Mazda has some small control over time beneath the sea, but he will not be able to exercise that control upon the land. I wonder if he knows it? It is unusual for a Yafir to have that kind of knowledge. I am curious as to where he obtained it.”
