“I will be careful of her,” Kigva promised. “I will not reveal your secrets, my lady, and one day you will fulfill your ancestress’s prophecy. I know that you will!”
Vilia smiled again. “Yes, I will,” she said.
17
“THE EMPEROR IS dead,” Lara told her husband.
“It is as you said it would be,” Magnus Hauk replied. He was no longer interested in Hetar. The danger had been nipped in the bud, and everything was back to normal. The Twilight Lord was penned in his castle in the Dark Lands. The giants were now allies of Terah. The Wolfyn had been decimated. And as Lara had predicted, the dwarf nation was not about to go to war for Kol. Their task was to protect the two heirs to the Dark Lands.
“Jonah has managed to get himself elected something called Lord High Ruler,” she continued. “How quickly he has distanced himself from everything having to do with Gaius Prospero,” Lara said. “He has even managed to relegate Vilia to a place of unimportance. I doubt she is pleased with that. Once again, a husband has betrayed her.”
“We need not be concerned with Hetar or its convoluted politics,” Magnus Hauk said. “It has naught to do with us, my love.” He lavished a warm and loving smile on her. On her swelling belly where his son now resided.
“There is no escaping Hetar, my lord,” Lara told him. She had felt his thoughts, and frankly found herself irritated. This child in her belly had come from her love for Magnus Hauk, but suddenly he was behaving like a typical man and not the man she loved. “There can be no pretending that everything will return to what it was before our lands knew one another. Everything has changed, Magnus.”
“Aye, we know one another, but praise the Great Creator that an ocean separates us. The rules for trade between our nations have not changed. To all intents and purposes Hetar does not exist for us,” the Dominus said.
Lara sighed deeply. “Magnus,” she said, “Hetar very much exists for Terah. Do you think that Jonah will be content to leave things as they are, knowing that we are here? We will gain some respite from him while he rebuilds his power base, but then we will have no choice but to deal with him and with Hetar.”
“But for now they are out of our lives, and we don’t have to,” he replied. “You must not distress yourself, my love.” His hand reached out to touch her growing belly.
Angered by his refusal to see or understand, and furious that he was treating her like some prized breeding animal, Lara abruptly got up and left him. Going to the stables she saddled Dasras and rode out from the castle. “Fly,” she told the great stallion. “I need to get away from my husband, who is behaving like a perfect fool. If I remain I may say something I should not.”
Dasras unfolded his great white wings and took to the skies above. “Where should we go?” he asked her. “And if he is concerned by your condition I must tell you that I agree with him. A mare in foal should be treated carefully.”
Lara sniffed irritably at him. “Just fly up the fjord,” she instructed him. “No! Take me to the Temple of the Daughters of the Great Creator. I shall visit with Kemina.”
“Perhaps the high priestess can talk some sense into you,” Dasras muttered.
“You are becoming a worse old woman than Magnus,” Lara snapped at him.
The great golden stallion said nothing more. When they were within a few miles of the temple Dasras touched down as was his custom and galloped the remainder of the way, finally trotting into the courtyard where a young priestess came forward to take his bridle as he came to a stop. The bell announcing visitors was already being rung to herald her arrival. Recognizing the horse and its rider, the priestess bowed as Lara slid from Dasras’s back.
“Where is Lady Kemina?” she asked.
“You will find her in the small garden of her house, my lady Domina,” the young priestess said to Lara.
With a nod of thanks Lara hurried off to find the high priestess while Dasras was led off to be fed and watered.
Kemina had heard the visitor’s bell and was already coming from her garden to greet Lara. Her deep blue eyes were welcoming as the two women embraced. Setting Lara back, she looked at her sharply. “You are with child,” she said.
“I am giving Magnus his son,” Lara told her.
“How lovely of you to come and tell me yourself,” Kemina replied. “I suppose the Dominus is behaving like a perfect fool, attempting to keep you encased in cotton wool,” she chuckled. “I know how you dislike it when he treats you like a child.”
Lara laughed. “I had to get away from him or this babe would have been fatherless,” she admitted. “May I remain with you for a few days?”
“Does he know where you are?” Kemina asked softly.
“Nay,” Lara answered. “I simply went to the stables, saddled Dasras myself and came. It is not like this is my first child, Kemina, yet he persists in behaving like I am some fragile creature who will shatter if breathed upon.”
“But it is more than that,” Kemina noted wisely.
“Is it that obvious?” Lara said.
Kemina smiled. “Aye, it is. What else has he done?”
“He thinks because the forces of the Twilight Lord have been beaten back that all is well. He thinks that everything is now back to the way it was, but of course it isn’t! He actually believes that we will never have to be bothered with Hetar again because an ocean separates us. He has said nothing about my slaying the Wolfyn commander, Hrolleif. You would think the battle between us had never happened, Kemina.”
“Come and sit with me in my garden,” Kemina said and she took Lara by the hand to lead her to a comfortable chair. “The lavender and the camomile are very soothing today as their fragrances are being released in the warmth. Soon it will be autumn again. I do love the autumn.” She sat in a chair opposite Lara. “My child, have you considered that this battle you fought with the Wolfyn commander frightened Magnus? He is Terahn in his heart and soul, and until you came into his life neither he nor any male born in Terahn had ever heard the sound of a woman’s voice. Women were thought to be helpless and so in need of protection that few ever even left their own homes. But you lifted Usi’s curse and now women are once again beginning to regain the place they once held in our society. But Terahn women were never warriors. I can but imagine his fear when you took on the Wolfyn, Lara.”
“But I am a warrior without peer,” she said. “The Shadow Princes taught me to fight, Kemina. And with Andraste in my hands I fear no one and certainly not death. The Wolfyn commander was more bluster than skill.”
Kemina laughed. “You are a beautiful creature, and although I know the Dominus understands your power on one level, seeing his delicate wife battling a great vicious creature with a wolf’s head must have frightened him to death. He does not discuss it because he can’t without wanting to shout at you for taking such a chance, especially when you are carrying his son,” Kemina explained. “Please do not be angry with him over it, Lara. He loves you so deeply.”
“He loves the delicate golden creature,” Lara replied. “I am more than that and I cannot be what I am not. I will never be content to sit quietly at my loom while my children play about my feet, Kemina. I yet have a destiny unfulfilled.”
“What more can you do, my child, that you have not already done?” the high priestess wondered. “You have lifted a terrible curse from us, vanquished the shade of an evil sorcerer, saved the people of the Outland nation from annihilation and found them a new home. You have prevented a terrible war from destroying Hetar and kept it from our shores entirely. I am certain the Great Creator is more than satisfied with you, Lara.”
“There is more to do,” Lara told her. “What, I do not yet know. But I know I have not completed all that it is meant that I do.”
