The Twilight Lord

The meeting began. Kigva was surprised to see the headmistress of the Pleasure Guild step forward, throw back her hood and address the gathering.

“Women of Hetar,” Gillian said, “it is past time that our voices were heard. For too long have we been silent and docile while our leaders have brought the people of Hetar to poverty. Meanwhile, they have grown richer. Now Gaius Prospero, whom I well know, claims that this land across the Sagitta is a danger to us. That we must attack them before they attack us. He lies! And we all know he has lied to us before. This is not to protect Hetar. It is to enrich the emperor and his friends. We must resist this latest assault on Hetarian families that will only weaken us.

“Terah is a peaceful land. For centuries the Coastal Kings have traded with them, but never have the Terahns allowed any Hetarian to put a foot on their soil or even sail within sight of their coast. And yet Gaius Prospero claims they are a danger to us? How? He would risk the lives of our men for a war that need not be fought. But the Crusader Knights and the Mercenary Guild grow restless and he fears them.

“Our emperor is also a greedy man. He seeks the wealth of Terah. Not for Hetar and its folk, but for himself and his cronies. Look how we were told that the Outlands posed a danger to Hetar. That if we would conquer it, its lands would be divided among our citizens and its people would give us cheap labor as slaves. Its herds, its flocks, its mountain wealth would be ours. But they are not ours. The clan families of the Outlands were gone. Their herds and flocks were gone. And Gaius Prospero and the magnates have taken the majority of the land for themselves.

“Now this emperor tells us that Terah is a threat to us, but we will conquer it and its lands, its people, and its wealth will be ours. I do not believe Terah is a threat to us, nor do I believe that its lands and wealth be ours if we conquer it. They will be Gaius Prospero’s and the magnates’.

“Many men will die in this attempt and there is no guarantee that Hetar will prevail over Terah. Our men must sail across the Sagitta, and they do not know what awaits them when they get to the other side. We know so little of Terah, my sisters. But I do know that if we attack this peaceful place they will resist. Whether we take it or not matters little. Our men will be killed. Who will take care of us when that happens?

“The other provinces are divided in this matter. The Shadow Princes will not aid us, nor will the Forest Lords. The Coastal Kings do not like Gaius Prospero, especially now he has taken their lands for himself and his friends and their vessels for this ill-advised venture. They cannot defy him openly, but they will do their best to thwart him. Only Squire Darah, the governor of the Midlands, sits in the emperor’s pocket.”

A woman stood up. “I am from the Midlands. Most of our sons have been conscripted to work in the factories of the Coastal Kingdom or as servants to the Mercenaries or the Crusader Knights. Our farms are old and the land tired. We were promised new lands, but few have been forthcoming for us. My brother and his family died last winter in the Outlands because they could not afford to keep the little house they built warm. Now my two oldest sons slave in the factories for the magnates and my younger one was recently taken to serve the Guild of Mercenaries as a servant lad. My daughters and I are left to work our land with my crippled husband. They would have taken him, too, but for his infirmity. Where is the justice in that?”

“There is no justice in Hetar any longer,” another woman said sadly.

“No, there is not,” Lady Gillian agreed. “Our once-proud country with its laws and its customs no longer exists. But why should we stand idly by as Hetar slides further into chaos?”

“We are but women,” came the answer. “It is not our duty to rule or to instruct our men in that manner. It is tradition in Hetar that women are the lesser.”

“Why should we be?” Lady Gillian asked her audience. “We manage the Pleasure Houses. We manage our families. Those of you wed to men of business more often than not are involved with your husbands’ work. We bear the children of Hetar and teach them. A life of pampered and privileged leisure may be fine for some, but even those women will lose all they have if we do not stop Gaius Prospero and his minions from forcing us into a war that need not be fought. Will those men care for Hetar’s widows and orphans? Have they done so in the past?” Lady Gillian looked out at the other women. “You know they have not. How many of you have taken in your sisters and their children? We do not need another war!”

“You say that this Terah is not a threat to us,” a voice came from the crowd. “But how do you know that for certain? Do the men who are our leaders not know better than you?”

“Nay, they do not,” came the quick reply. And then Lady Gillian held out her hand to a shrouded figure who had been standing near her. “I bring you proof positive, women of Hetar. I bring you the Domina of Terah herself. Lara, daughter of Swiftsword and Ilona, queen of the Forest Faeries. She is a child of Hetar as are we all.”

Stepping forward, Lara pushed back the hood on her cloak, smiling at the gasp from the large group of women crowded into the feather merchant’s house. “I come in peace, my sisters, and bring you greetings from my husband and dear lord, Magnus Hauk, Dominus of Terah. As Lady Gillian has told you, Terah is a peaceful place. We wish no war with Hetar. If the truth be known the Terahns desire nothing more than to be left alone to pursue their crafts, which have been sold here in Hetar for several centuries. We are not a warlike nation, but we will protect ourselves if we are attacked.”

“You say you are of Hetar, yet you speak for Terah,” said a woman.

“I was born in Hetar and lived my early years here, but I am now the wife of Terah’s ruler, and it is fitting that I take his land for my own.”

“You have magic,” another voice said.

“I do,” Lara replied, “else I should not be here tonight to greet you all and answer your questions. My magic has grown stronger over the years, but I have used it only for good-except once when I used it to punish someone who was most wicked.”

“You say Terah is a peaceful place and means Hetar no harm,” a woman near the front said. “Why should we believe you? It is said you betrayed Hetar.”

“And who tells you that?” Lara said with a small chuckle. “Gaius Prospero? Do you know why he speaks ill of me, my sisters? Because he lusted after me and I refused him. Now he would lead the men of Hetar into a war as he led them into the Winter War. Do you recall the seven carts piled high with the dead that were driven to his door when that debacle concluded? There are surely some of you in this room tonight who lost loved ones then.”

A murmur of assent arose from among the crowd.

“It is said your magic caused those deaths,” a woman finally said.

“I used no magic in the Winter War,” Lara told them quietly. “But I did fight by the side of my then-husband, Vartan of the Fiacre, who was later murdered in a plot fostered by Gaius Prospero. Hetar invaded the Outlands and tried to enslave two of the clan families. Gaius Prospero believed they were weak and disunited, but they were not. The five other clan families came to the aid of their brothers and sisters and drove Hetar from their lands.”

“You fought by your husband’s side?” a voice asked, disbelieving.

“She lies! The clan families are a myth. There was no one in the Outlands when we reclaimed it. It was empty and fertile land,” another voice cried out.

“Land confiscated by Gaius Prospero and his friends,” a third voice said.

Lara shrugged off her long enveloping dark cloak. She was garbed in the leather pants and the cream silk shirt she had once favored. “I do not lie,” she told the gathering. Then reaching back over her shoulder she withdrew Andraste, her sword, from her scabbard and swung it over and around her head. “Sing, Andraste!” she commanded the sword. “Sing for the women of Hetar, I pray you!”

It was then that the women saw in the exquisitely decorated hilt of the sword the head of a woman whose emerald eyes opened and fixed them all with a fierce stare. Then the sword began to sing in a deep and dark voice. “I am Andraste! I will drink the blood of the invader, and the unjust as is my right! Let Gaius Prospero and those who follow him beware my sting!”

Lara placed the sword before her, Andraste’s stern face looking out at the women. “I was taught to use this weapon by Lothair, a Shadow Prince,” she explained. “I am a woman first, but when I must be I am a warrior. As for the lies told you about the Outlands, it was my magic that removed the clan families to a place of safety from the danger Hetar posed for them. They, too, were peaceful folk, content to care for their flocks and herds, their gardens and mines.” Lara did not mention the Shadow Princes’ part in taking the clan families to the New Outlands. If the women believed that she alone was responsible for the rescue they would believe her magic even stronger than it was, and that was not a bad thing.

A deep silence enveloped the room as the women took in all Lara had said to them.