Lara

by Bertrice Small

  Lara looked anxiously toward her stepmother.

  “I will leave you after the meal,” Susanna promised. “I do not choose to hear of Lara’s mother,” she said. “But nothing you say, John, could make me stop loving you.”

  “You do not understand faerie magic, wife,” was his cryptic reply.

  Nels served them the meal Yera had prepared. They began with a delicate cold soup of pureed peaches and plums topped with sour cream. Next came a salad of baby lettuces and herbs to be followed by a juicy capon that had been roasted golden, and a platter of ham slices as well as fresh warm small breads that had been twisted into graceful shapes. There was sweet butter on the table and a small dish of salt. Salt had always been a rarity in the Quarter. When the fine pottery plates had been cleared away smaller plates were placed before them, and a bowl of fruit was set in the center of the table. Lara had never in her life seen fruit other than oranges. Fruits were reserved for the privileged classes. Nels, to his credit, had explained everything to them as they ate.

  The wine in their crystal goblets was sweet, and heady with the aroma of its grapes. Lara felt sleepy, but she forced herself back from the brink, remembering that Gaius Prospero’s people would come early for her, and she must speak with her father before she slept. “Da?” she said softly.

  John Swiftsword was looking at his nubile wife, and considering how much he was going to enjoy futtering her in that fine new bed in their bedchamber very shortly. His first act as a Crusader Knight would be to get Susanna with child again. Another son for the order. And then his daughter’s gentle voice pierced his consciousness. “I have not forgotten,” he told her.

  Susanna arose from the dining table. Walking around the table she kissed Lara tenderly. “Good night,” she said simply, and left the room. She could not bring herself to say goodbye.

  “Let us walk in the garden,” the new knight said to his daughter. “What I have to say is for your ears alone, daughter.” He led her not to the inner courtyard, where someone might have secreted themselves in the shadows of the portico, but rather out into the small walled garden with its apple tree. There they sat upon a rustic wooden bench. “Now tell me what it is you would know, Lara, and I will answer.”

  “Begin at the beginning,” she replied. “I would know all.”

  “There is really not that much,” her father answered her. “It was shortly after my fifteenth birthday. Midsummer’s Eve. My friends and I were gathered about our fire flirting with the girls we knew, dancing and drinking, and lying about our adventures with those same girls. And then, for the briefest moment, it seemed as if the whole world was frozen in time, and I saw Ilona, standing in the shadows at the edge of a woodland. I remember my mouth falling open. I had never in all my days seen such beauty. The long golden gilt hair. The eyes as green as new leaves in springtime. A body so tempting and lush that I knew she was magic, and I was afraid. Then she beckoned me, and I could not help but go to her. Suddenly I could hear my friends behind me calling me back. I could hear the crackle of the fire, but I could not for the life of me turn away from the vision who called me so sweetly and so silently.

  “I reached out to her, and she took my hand in hers, leading me away to her secret bower in the Forest. I should have been afraid, but I wasn’t. I knew the tales of those bewitched, and I had always wondered why they allowed themselves to be taken by the faerie folk. Now I knew. Ilona was utterly impossible to resist. I didn’t care what happened to me as long as I might be with her. You were conceived that very night, Lara. It amused her that I had never known a woman in the fullest sense before. At first she was tender and gentle with me. Then she began to teach me what pleased a lover. Later she said I was the best pupil she had ever had. It was because of my innocence that she let her guard down that night and conceived you.”

  “I don’t understand, Da,” Lara said to him.

  “Faerie women conceive children only when they want them, Lara. If they do not want them, they do not have them, unlike human women who conceive more often than not when their lovers mount them and spill their seed. Remember that, for I do not know if you have that ability of your mother’s. I pray that you do. I stayed with Ilona during the months in which she carried you. I thought not of the morrow, but only of how much I loved her-and I did, from the moment I laid my eyes on her. I love her still in spite of it all. But I love Susanna, too, and I am wise enough to know I shall never have a love like the one I had for Ilona again. So I content myself with my good wife, and am glad the matchmaker found her for me.

  “When I was with your mother, everything I did, every thought I had, was for her and her alone. She consumed me entirely and I did not care what happened to me as long as I was with her. And then you were born. She birthed you quickly and easily, and once she had seen you she lost interest in you. I was stunned, for from the moment you entered the world I loved you. But for Ilona the mystery and the excitement was over. And she began to lose interest in me.”

  “Where did you live during this time, Da?” Lara asked her father.

  “In her bower in the woodland,” he said. “I can’t really describe it to you, for it seemed to have no walls or roof, but we were warm in the winter and the rain never touched us. Our bed was made of moss and covered in a downy quilt. You slept in a cradle that I made you, which hung from a tree branch.”

  “If my mother ignored me, how did I survive? Who fed me? What did I eat?” Lara wondered.

  “Your mother bewitched a young girl she found lost in the wood one day, and by magic put her milk in the girl’s breasts. She fed you several times a day, and then would fall into an enchanted slumber. But as the next Midsummer’s Eve approached I saw your mother less and less. She began to wander. I no longer held her interest. In desperation I told her I intended to take you and return to my family. ‘Oh,’ she said, ‘you understand, don’t you? You are truly the most unique human I have ever had as a lover, John. Thank you! Yes! Yes! Go, and take Lara with you, for she will not be accepted in my faerie world. You have my blessing, which will one day bring you good fortune, and Lara will have my blessing as well. I have loved you both.’ And then I found myself growing weary, and when I awoke I was on the edge of the woodlands, and you were carefully and neatly swaddled, and lying next to me. You were but three months of age.” He paused, and wiped a tear from his eye.

  “So my mother abandoned us both, Da,” Lara said. “If she loved me, but then she didn’t love me. Not really. Not the way Susanna loves Mikhail.”

  “I am sorry to hurt you,” her father said, “but you would know all. Shall I go on?”

  Lara nodded. “Aye please, Da.”

  “It was early morning,” he continued. “The grass and flowers were wet with dew, yet we were not, nor was the ground beneath us. There had been a midsummer bonfire nearby in almost the exact same place as the previous year. I recognized several of my friends asleep about its warm embers. I picked you up, and walked past them back to our farm. The first person I saw was your grandmother. She was drawing water from the well, and seeing me she dropped her bucket to come running. When she saw you she knew immediately who your mother was, and she wept.”

  “Why, Da?”

  “Because you were a faerie’s daughter. You would not be accepted by my family. She brought us into the farmhouse and sat me down to learn the whole story of my disappearance. And when I had related all to her, she told me my father had died in the winter, and my oldest brother was now the head of the family. Dorjan has never been an easy man. He is the first of my parents’ children. I was the last. We had seven sisters between us. He was already grown when I was born. I was scarcely a welcome addition in his world. The first words I ever recall him saying to me were ‘the farm is mine.’

  “That morning when he discovered I had returned he was not pleased at all, and when he learned I had brought my half faerie child with me he grew angry and accused me of drawing disaster onto his house. I would have to go, he said, and take my faerie
brat with me. It was then your grandmother spoke up. Indeed, she said, I would have to go to the City and join the Guild of Mercenaries to earn my living, but first she would have me rest myself a few days, for my sojourn in the woodland would have weakened me. And her granddaughter would remain with her after I departed for the City.

  “‘Your brother can scarce apply for the Guild carrying a child in one arm. Lara stays with me, and I will care for her,’ your grandmother said. ‘When John is settled, then his daughter shall join him.’ ‘And who shall care for the babe in the City?’ my brother, Dorjan, demanded to know. ‘I will,’ your grandmother replied. My brother was astounded, but she went on, ‘You have a wife who has resented my presence since the day your father died. Now she will be sole mistress of this house.’ It was then my brother, who often spoke before he thought a matter through said, ‘If you leave my house, Mother, you will not be welcome back. If you leave you choose the faerie over your real grandchildren. I cannot abide such a thing.’

  “I can still remember the cold smile that touched your grandmother’s lips at his words. But she said nothing, and he, foolish man, did not know what he had done. I did, though. I knew that the day she left her comfortable farmhouse to live in a mercenary’s hovel in the City, she would never return. She was mistress of that great farmhouse. Dorjan’s wife was a meek creature who harbored all manner of resentments, but was lazy. She might be annoyed having her mother-in-law as mistress of the house, but my mother kept that house in perfect order. I can but imagine what happened when your grandmother left them to come to the City.” He chuckled. “Dorjan’s wife was no housekeeper.”

  “So you came to the City and joined the Mercenary Guild,” Lara said. “How did you become so proficient with the sword?”

  “A young fellow joining the guild is sent to training school, which is one reason I couldn’t send for you as quickly as I would have wanted,” John explained. “The old swordmaster running the school saw I had a knack for the sword for I had begun to learn its use from a retired mercenary at home. The swordmaster drilled me mercilessly in its proper use. He had been famous in his day. When I finally beat him in a mock combat he said he could teach me no more, that I was better than he had ever been. It was quite a compliment.

  “On his recommendation I was hired to fight in several small wars between local bandits and the Province rulers. My reputation grew. I have escorted caravans of Taubyl Traders from the City into all the other provinces, for once I gained my reputation as a ruthless warrior few would take me on. I know how to impose Hetarian order, Lara. As a society we cannot allow discord to disrupt our lives.”

  “Why did my uncle not come when grandmother died?” Lara asked.

  “My brother is a stubborn man, daughter,” John Swiftsword said. “He never forgave her for leaving him, for leaving his house. For a time she kept in touch with old friends in the Midlands, but eventually there was no point in it. He always blamed me for stealing her from him. He said I brought back faerie magic with me, and used it against him. It was never true, of course.”

  “Did you ever see Ilona again?” Lara asked her father.

  “Once,” he replied. “When I came to take you and my mother to the City I went first to the edge of the woodland and called her. I was not certain at all she would appear, but to my surprise she did. I told her what had happened, and how I was now a mercenary, and would be taking you into the City.”

  “Did she ask about me?” Lara wondered hopefully.

  Her father shook his head. “She gave you life, child, and for her it was enough. I told her how you possessed her beauty, and she smiled for she always enjoyed a compliment. I told her I would probably not see her again, and she laughed. That is up to me, she said. I might marry, I replied. Do not, she said, ever discuss our love, or our time together with another woman you love but for our daughter. If she asks you one day, you may tell her of me, and our life that year. But no other, or bad fortune shall befall you. And then we parted, Lara. I have not seen her since. I have watched as you grew into her image, and sometimes it hurts me to look at you, for you are so like Ilona.”

  “Then it is a good thing I am going,” Lara responded softly. “You have been a good father to me, and I would not hurt you, Da. The world of the Crusader Knights is where you belong, and now you have entered it. Susanna is happy.” Lara giggled. “She told me she cannot wait to brag on your latest accomplishment to her sisters who were always mean to her, and mocked her for marrying a poor man. Perhaps in that way your own brother and his family will learn of it, too, and you will have a small revenge.”

  John Swiftsword chuckled. “That is something your mother would have said. She did not easily tolerate a fault she felt was directed at her.”

  “Is that all, Da?” Lara looked closely into her father’s face.

  “Aye, that is all, daughter. There is no more to tell you. From the time you were six months of age you grew up in the City.”

  “The necklace I wear around my neck, Da. My mother gave it to me, grandmother once said.”

  “She put it about your neck the day you were born, Lara,” he responded.

  “Do you know that the chain has grown in length as I have grown?” she asked.

  He nodded his head. “There is magic in the chain and pendant, but of what kind I do not know, Lara. All I can tell you is that your mother said it would always protect and guide you.”

  “What if it is taken from me?” Lara fretted.

  “Gaius Prospero has promised it will not be,” he reassured her. Then he arose, drawing her up with him. He kissed her on the forehead. “I have told you all I can now, Lara, and I would go to bed. Good night, my daughter, and a final time my thanks for all you have done for me, and for my family. You are to be collected early, and I will not see you again. May the Celestial Actuary guard and guide you.” He kissed her a final time, and then, turning, left her in the garden.

  Lara stood quietly in the still night air. Everything was silent. A sliver of the new pale blue moon hung in the dark skies. Hetar had four moons, one for each province, and the only place they could all be viewed at once was in the Outlands. She wondered what the four moons would look like together, but she was unlikely to ever know. In just a few hours Gaius Prospero’s people would come to get her, and her new master had promised that tomorrow would be a very exciting day. Lara hurried back into the house and, going to the guest chamber, took off her clothing and lay down to sleep. But before she fell into her slumber she touched the crystal star about her neck, and the tiny flame within flickered encouragingly.

  Chapter 4

  THE SLAVE WOMAN, Yera, woke her just before dawn. “A faeriepost has just arrived from the gate, young mistress,” she said. “Your transportation has just arrived, and will be here shortly. Come with me to the kitchen. I have fresh bread and milk for you before you go.”

  Lara arose sleepily, and Yera pulled a chamber pot from beneath the bed.

  “There is water to wash with, and I will be in the kitchen,” the slave woman said. “Do not dally. They will be here soon and will not want to wait.”

  Finishing her ablutions, Lara hurried to dress, then went to the kitchens where Yera gave her a cup of fresh milk and a slab of buttered bread just warm from the ovens. There was also a dish of cut-up fruit. Lara ate it all down.

  “You have a good appetite on you for such a slender girl,” Yera noted dryly.

  “So my grandmother always said,” Lara replied with a smile.

  “The conveyance is here.” Nels had come into the kitchen.

  Lara arose. “Thank you for your kindness,” she told Yera and then turning, she followed the male slave.

  He led her to the front door of the house, beyond which she could see a beautiful litter, well curtained. Drawing a deep breath Lara walked outside, waiting while Nels drew the draperies aside, and then helped her into her transport. As he closed the curtains with a snap Lara called out, “Thank you, Nels.” The litter was lifted up, an
d she was finally on her way. She was sorry she had not seen her father, or Susanna or little Mikhail before she left, but she knew they had done her a kindness in saying their goodbyes the previous evening. It really was better this way, and she could be strong for whatever lay ahead. Reaching down, she raised her star pendant to her lips and kissed it. The tiny flame flickered for a brief moment. She was safe. Had her faerie mother not said the necklace would always keep her safe? Her father had told her so, and Lara believed him. The bearers moved quickly, and before she knew it she heard the hail of the guard at the gate to the Golden District. He opened the curtains a moment, winked at her and then closed them. The litter moved off again, finally stopping for good. The curtains were opened gently and fully.

  “Welcome, Lara, welcome!” Gaius Prospero’s fat hand helped her from the litter. “We have a busy day ahead of us. Have you eaten yet?”

  She nodded. “My father’s slave woman fed me,” she told him.

  “Excellent!” He beamed his approval. “Then come with me, my dear. There is much to do, and you must get started. The northern wing of my house is for the special slaves that pass through my hands. Tania is waiting there for you. She will prepare you for this evening. I am giving a dinner for the owners of the finest Pleasure Houses in the City, and the Pleasure Mistresses who manage these houses. Many began as you will, as simple Pleasure Women. You are to be the final course of the meal, the sweet if you will,” he chuckled, well pleased with himself. “I will display you to them so they may inspect you thoroughly. The bids on your person must be brought to me in writing between sunrise and sunset tomorrow. This permits me to weed out the serious buyers from those who do not have the wealth it will require to purchase you. There will then be one more viewing of you at which point those remaining may bid on you in a formal auction. At its conclusion you will be consigned to your new owner, and I shall have you delivered to his premises. Do you understand?”