That is great magic. The magic my nephew has is simply different. With his natural talents, and the blood of both faerie and Shadow running in his veins, he should be a strong sorcerer.”
“Old Cronan was quite overcome,” Nidhug said, her tone concerned.
“It will take more than helping to create a new province in Belmair to send him off into the next life,” Cirillo noted. “While you were gone I popped home to tell mother what was happening. She told me Cronan’s history. Even among the Shadow Princes he was considered eccentric, she says. She thinks he may be the last of the original Shadow lords, but is not certain. She believes Kaliq would know the answer to that.”
“I imagine when the king and his companions are recovered he will want to meet to discuss the next steps we must take,” Nidhug observed.
Cirillo nodded. “I expect Cinnia will have to go to the Dream Plain again,” he said. “It will be easier for her this time, I imagine. She will not be afraid.”
Cinnia was already preparing herself for another visit to the Dream Plain. Dillon had returned tired, but enthusiastic over their day’s work. He had taken a reflecting bowl and filled it with water. Then with a soft word and a wave of his hand he had shown her the new province of Belbuoy.
“You have made it more like this land than like the others,” Cinnia noted. “I shall tell Arlais, and she can tell her sons. It will be a good place for the Yafir, and allow our own Belmairans to grow used to them again especially if some of them settle among us to begin with rather than living on Belbuoy. There is so little physical difference between us, Dillon. The males still seem to possess the silvery hair and aquamarine-blue eyes no matter their bloodlines, but few among the women have such coloring.”
“Have you seen enough?” he asked, and when she nodded that she had, he emptied the reflecting bowl of its water, and returned it to its place upon a shelf. “Do not go to the Dream Plain tonight,” he told her. “I would be near when you do, and I need to rest now to restore my own strength. Come and lie with me, Cinnia. Tomorrow we will speak with Kaliq and Cronan. The plans we make must be foolproof if we are to succeed.”
Cinnia took her husband by the hand, and together they lay upon their bed. She wrapped her arms about him, cradling him tenderly, and they slept the night through. When the new day dawned Dillon was refreshed, and his strength had returned. He ate a hearty breakfast, and then in the company of his wife they met with the others.
The great map of Belmair was spread again upon the library table, and with a flick of a finger the new province of Belbuoy appeared upon the parchment. It was then agreed that Cinnia would meet again upon the Dream Plain with Arlais this coming night. Nothing else could be accomplished until then.
“What of dwellings for the Yafir?” Cinnia asked.
“We could do what Lara did when she removed the clan families from the Outlands into the New Outlands,” Kaliq suggested.
“I think it too dangerous to move people and dwellings through the sea that same way,” Dillon said.
“Move the entire bubble,” Cronan told them. “It will protect them, and all within it. Then once it is upon Belbuoy I will remove the bubble.”
“But what if all within the bubble do not wish to come?” Cinnia said.
“That is a problem that must be decided among the Yafir,” Cronan replied.
Dillon nodded. “If we wish to break Ahura Mazda’s hold upon the Yafir they must be given a choice, something they have not had in centuries.”
“Then I will go to the Dream Plain tonight,” Cinnia told them.
“Take this for Arlais and her sons,” Kaliq said, and reaching into his robes he drew forth a small crystal globe. “Tell Arlais that the crystal will show Belbuoy to any who request to see it.” He handed the globe to Cinnia.
“But how…?” she began.
“Hold it in your hand as you fall into sleep, Cinnia,” Kaliq instructed her. “Because it is magic it will come with you as you journey, and Arlais will be able to carry it back with her when she awakens. That way she can show it to her sons.”
Cinnia took the globe, and slipped it into the pocket of her own robes.
“Now we must wait,” Dillon said, “and see what will transpire after tonight.”
“Then I shall sleep until I am needed again,” Cronan said.
“And I will return to Shunnar,” Kaliq announced.
“And I will return to my mother’s realm then,” Cirillo said.
“When it is time to act, call me.” He turned to the dragon. “Come, my dear,” he said to her. “We must talk before I leave you.”
“Of course, my lord,” Nidhug said, and she fluttered her heavy eyelashes at him as together they left the hall, and began to stroll slowly across the garden.
“There is more between us than just pleasures and passion,” the faerie prince said to the dragon as they walked.
“There can be nothing more,” Nidhug told him. “You are faerie. I am dragon.”
“Knowing the calling of your own heart, do you truly believe that?” Cirillo asked her quietly. “I know that I love you, my lady dragon.”
“You are young, Cirillo. You have not even lived a half century yet. I have lived for several centuries now,” she told him.
“Age means nothing to those of us in the magic realm, Nidhug. It is nought but a number.
“Aye, I am cruel. I have a cold faerie heart, and yet it seems to warm for you, and only you. Tell me that you do not love me, Nidhug.”
“I cannot,” she replied, several large tears slipping down her snout. “I do love you, and it is a most impossible situation, my beautiful faerie prince.”
“Nay, it is not. We are magic, Nidhug. If it pleased you I would be that blue-and-gold dragon for as long as we both live,” he declared passionately.
“Foolish prince,” the dragon replied. “You cannot. You are your mother’s only heir. You will one day rule the Forest Faeries, and you must take a faerie wife so you may have an heir to follow you. That is why this is so impossible, Cirillo.”
“That time is far in the future, and when that time comes I will do my duty, but my mother has barely reached her prime,” Cirillo said. “You are the mate I would have. I will not always be true to you for that is my faerie nature, but I will love no other, Nidhug, but you. You are the keeper of my heart, my darling dragon.”
And then the faerie prince took his dragon’s form, and together the two soared into the skies above the twin castles. They flew over the sparkling afternoon sea to Belia where they took pleasures together in Nidhug’s cave high above the province. Their cries of satisfaction as they mated were so loud that their roars sounded like thunder, and Belia’s folk looking to the skies were puzzled by the lack of rain clouds or rain. Finally the two dragons slept until the early evening when they returned to Nidhug’s castle. It was there that Cirillo took leave of his lover and returned to Hetar’s forests where his mother was awaiting him.
“The scent of lust is upon you,” Ilona greeted her son.
Cirillo laughed, but said nothing.
“How goes it in Belmair?” she asked him.
Cirillo told his mother in careful detail, for detail was important to the faerie kingdoms. Detail helped with spells, and other magic to be performed.
“And old Cronan is still useful?” Ilona sounded amazed.
“Did you ever meet him?” Cirillo asked her.
Ilona shook her head. “I know him only by reputation. I wonder what the Shadow Princes will think when Kaliq tells them that he lives.”
“I do not know if he will,” Cirillo said.
“Aha! Clever creature that he is, aye! Kaliq would keep such information for his own advantage. Well, let him. Had Cronan ever picked a successor it would have undoubtedly been Kaliq or so rumor would have it,” Ilona said. Then she turned to her son. “When this is over there will be no need for you to return to Belmair.”
