“I hear your words, my lord, but they make no sense to me. I don’t even know where I will go when I leave Shunnar, but I know I must go,” Lara said. “I sense my time with you is coming to an end, Kaliq. Part of me is saddened by that knowledge, yet part of me looks forward to leaving this peaceful haven you have provided me these past months. I cannot hide away from the world forever. I find to my surprise that I am curious to see all the wonders in all the lands Master Bashkar has described. I feel I am changing once again. It is both a little frightening, and yet very exciting.”
She was very confused by everything that had happened today. She had taken a life, and yet she felt absolutely no guilt over Durga’s death. Indeed she felt a strange pride in her skills at removing his head in a single swift stroke. “I wish Lothair had been there,” Lara said aloud.
Kaliq laughed, knowing what she had been thinking. “Yes,” he acknowledged, “he would have been very proud of you, and of himself, too, I think. He has been your instructor, but your skills, he tells me, come to you naturally. He says he has but refined them. Durga’s death was a far more merciful one than he deserved.”
“You say change is coming to Hetar. Tell me, I beg of you!” Lara pleaded.
He shook his head. “You have a destiny to live out, my love. You must follow your own path, not one that is set out for you. You will make errors, Lara, for that is part of the learning process, but you will survive. That much I will tell you. And you will triumph.”
“But where am I going?” Her look was distraught.
“Pick a direction, my love. You do not want to go back, for the Forest lies in that direction. So the Midlands and the City are forbidden to you for now. You can go toward the sea, or you can enter the Outlands. One way will serve to interrupt your journey. The other will bring you closer to your fate,” he told her. “Think carefully before you choose.” He took her small hand in his, comforting her confusion.
“Must I decide tonight?” she asked him.
“Yes,” he said, “for tomorrow you will be gone.”
Lara gasped. “So soon? Oh, please, my lord, a few more days with you!”
“No,” he said. “Your time here with me is over, Lara, so think on it for a few more minutes, and then tell me. Would you like Noss to make the decision with you?”
She nodded. “It is her destiny, too,” Lara said, and called for her friend to come and join them.
The prince explained the dilemma, then rising said, “I will leave you to discuss what you will do. Call me when you have decided, and I will return.” He bent and kissed Lara’s lips softly. “Choose carefully,” he repeated. Then he was gone.
“We go tomorrow,” Lara told Noss. “But where? To the sea, or to the Outlands? I do not know what to do.”
“If we’re free can’t we go back to the City, and live with your father? I will be your servant, Lara. I loved the City, and to live in luxury in the Garden District would be wonderful,” she sighed.
“We cannot go back, Noss. We need to go forward, but which direction shall we take? Did not Master Bashkar say that the Coastal Kings are the true aristocrats of Hetar? Yet Kaliq says one way will interrupt my journey while the other will move it forward. I think to go into another of Hetar’s provinces might put a halt to this destiny they all seem to believe I have. While we have never been there, either of us, it is still a place of civilization and order. Everything they tell us the Outlands is not.”
“But the Outlands are an unknown for us, Lara,” Noss noted. “If we are to be safe should we not go to the sea?”
“Noss, both you and I can well defend ourselves,” Lara replied.
“I heard what you did in the reception hall today,” Noss half whispered. “I do not think I could kill anyone, Lara. I think you were very brave.”
“I was never going to be free until Durga was dead,” Lara said. “He would not or he could not understand that no woman with faerie blood can be made to give a child to a man she does not love. He was determined to have me back. He could not be reasoned with, and I had no other choice but to slay him. And when I did, Andraste sang that she drank the blood of the unjust.”
“Did not Enda protest?” Noss asked.
Lara laughed. “I think he was too frightened to, and then the prince reminded him that if Durga had no male heirs, Enda was now the Head Forester. Kaliq gave him the thirty thousand pieces of gold the brothers had paid for me, and additional blood money for Durga.”
Now Noss laughed. “Then you are truly free, Lara! I am so glad!”
“Tomorrow we will leave Shunnar for the Outlands,” Lara said in sure tones. “To remain within our orderly civilization is not my way, Noss. The Outlands are where I need to be.” She touched the crystal about her neck. “Ethne? Do I choose well?”
The flame within the crystal flickered, and she heard Ethne say but a single word to her. Aye.
Lara looked at Noss. “You can stay if you are afraid. I would understand.”
“No,” Noss said. “We have been bound together since we traveled in the caravan of Rolf Fairplay. I sense it. Aye, I am afraid, but where you go, Lara, I will follow. That, it would seem, is my destiny.”
And so it was that they found themselves the following morning bidding the prince and Og a final farewell. Kaliq had not touched Lara as a lover that last night.
“I must learn to live without you,” he said quietly, and she realized she understood.
In the morning he brought her a pair of soft medium-brown leather trousers lined in silk, a natural-colored silk shirt with wide sleeves and a V neckline as well as a pair of fine brown leather boots with a matching vest. He brushed her hair himself, braiding it into a single plait and covering her shining head with a dark green kerchief. Last, he strapped her sword and scabbard across her chest and back.
“Do not,” he advised her seriously, “allow your beauty to detract from your journey. Dress plainly. Keep your hair hidden from strangers as much as you can, lest they realize you have faerie blood and be afraid unnecessarily. You are capable of defending yourself, and you must do so. If you are threatened, act immediately, as you did with Durga. You are not afraid, are you?”
“I am not,” she said, “and yet I am. You have taught me the difference between passion and lust. You have taught me to enjoy and revel in my pleasure as well as that of my lover. Lothair has taught me weaponry. Master Bashkar has taught me about Hetar, so that I am no longer woefully ignorant of our land. Knowing that my mother did not leave me willingly, and that she loves me, has both strengthened and gladdened my heart, although I am saddened by my father’s portion in the deception that kept us apart. Still, he did what he believed best. I thought I was ready before yesterday when Durga came. Yet at the moment I slew him, I realized that I had not really been free to move forward. I want no one protecting me, thinking for me. I want to live my own life, on my own terms.” She put her arms about the prince’s neck. “My time with you, Kaliq, has given me all of this, and for that I thank you.” She kissed his cheek, and then drew away smiling at him. “Now I must go.”
He nodded. “There is one thing I was not permitted to give you, Lara. That privilege belongs to another. I was not allowed to give you my love. But one day you will meet the man who will. I hope you are able to love him back.” And having said those words, the Shadow Prince led Lara and Noss down to the stables. He had quietly secreted her pearwood brush in the pocket of his robes, but within her pack she would find a delicately made gold one to replace it.
In the stables, Og awaited them, holding two horses. Lara was mounted upon a small golden stallion with a creamy mane and tail, Noss upon a white mare with a black mane and tail. Each of the animals had full saddle and water bags. Then to Lara’s surprise, Og took the reins of the two horses. She looked to the prince for an explanation.
“Your decision necessitates you depart a different way from that which you came,” he said. “Og will set you on the right path. The horses are my gift to you and
Noss. May the Celestial Actuary guide you well, and keep you both safe,” Prince Kaliq said. Then he bowed to them, and Og led them from the stables.
Lara looked quickly back, but Kaliq had disappeared into the shadows, as was his custom. She turned to look ahead, and was surprised to see Og leading them out into the valley. The horses increased their speed, but he easily kept up. She looked up and was amazed by the height of the great gray stone cliffs surrounding the valley. From the balustrade of the palace they had not seemed so very tall. Before them the herds of mares, many now with their foals, scattered as Og shooed them out of the way. The valley was far wider than she had thought, Lara decided. Finally they reached the other side, and Og began to lead the horses parallel to the steep face of the rock. Then he stopped.
“We are here,” he said.
“Where?” Lara asked, searching the cliff for an opening.
Og grinned. “Here!” he repeated, and with a wave of his hand an opening appeared in the dark rock.
“How on earth did you do that?” she demanded of him.
“The prince taught me. Not only am I in charge of his stables, I am his gatekeeper as well. Each of the Shadow Princes has a gatekeeper whose duty it is to offer admittance to the valley. It is a magic skill rarely used, however. Now listen to me, Lara. You will enter a tunnel through this opening. It is well-lit, and safe. Each torch you pass will dim itself as you and Noss go by, for the only way open to you is forward. When you exit the tunnel it will close behind you. You will be in the Outlands then. Your packs contain clothing, food and water. There are no valuables to be stolen. Your sword is on your back, and you know how to use it. Verica rides in his own leather holder by your right hand. Noss, you carry your bow and quiver on your person. Your dagger is at your waist. You, too, know how to use your weapons. Be always watchful, and trust no one but yourselves. The Outlands are not the provinces.” He handed each of them a small leather bag that jingled. “Not enough to draw attention, but it will get you by. Lara, you will find a gold piece sewn into each of your vest pockets. May the Celestial Actuary keep you safe, my dear friend.”
Lara leaned forward, and standing in her stirrups stood to kiss his cheek. “Be happy, dear Og. I owe you my life, and one day I hope to repay the debt,” she said.
“Do not make me weep like a child,” he groused at her. “You owe me naught. We saved each other. I am proud to have played a part in your life, Lara. Go now.” And he slapped the rump of the golden horse who moved forward into the tunnel, the white horse behind him.
When Lara turned to look back, the cliff wall had already closed behind them. For a brief moment she felt the stirrings of panic. Then taking a deep breath, she turned her face forward. They rode for a time in silence, the only sound in their ears that of the horses’ hooves on the smooth rock pathway they traveled. Behind them each torch they passed hissed out with a snap, as Og had said they would. It was eerie, and yet they both felt safe.
Finally Noss spoke. “How much farther do you think it is?” she wondered.
“I don’t know,” Lara replied. “But at least here I know we’re safe. Who knows what will happen when we exit into the Outlands? Are you afraid, Noss?”
“A little,” the girl admitted, “but I suppose I’d be a fool if I weren’t,” she concluded with a small chuckle. “I wonder what we’ll find. And if we want to get back to the provinces, how will we ever find our way?”
Lara shrugged. “I don’t know,” she admitted, and they both grew silent again.
The passage went on and on for what seemed a very long time, but the horses plodded on, sure-footed and steady in their pace. Finally they saw the tiniest pinpoint of daylight up ahead. It grew larger and brighter as they moved toward it, revealing itself at last as an opening at the end of the tunnel. They stopped and stared as one, and then Lara drew a deep noisy breath and they forged forward into the daylight. Behind them the last torch dimmed, and the opening in the rock wall closed with a soft rumble. Lara didn’t dare to turn about for she was afraid that she would cry if she did, and she suspected that Noss would, too. This was no time for histrionics.
They stared ahead. Before them a green plain stretched as far as the eye could see. In the distance they saw a range of hazy purple mountains lying on the horizon. But there was no sign of civilization. The land was more beautiful than anything else she had ever seen, Lara thought. Pristine. Untouched.
“Which way do we go?” Noss whispered, stunned by what her eyes beheld.
“Straight ahead,” Lara answered, and her laughter echoed in the clear air. “There has to be someone, or something to be found eventually.” She spurred the golden stallion into a gallop. They had been penned up in that tunnel forever, it seemed. She heard Noss’s white mare coming behind her, and laughed again as the wind hit her face, and the tiny tendrils of hair escaping from her bandana blew about her face. It was wonderful! She had never felt so free in all of her days. Or more at home, she was startled to realize. At last, the horses slowed to a stop. Looking back Lara saw the cliffs had vanished, and realized the magic that had been involved in bringing her into the Outlands.
Noss was openmouthed. “The cliffs, Lara. Where did they go?” she managed to stammer. “We have not ridden that far, for the mountains are still a forever ways away.”
“Prince Kaliq has performed a great magical feat for us,” Lara said. “I do not know how, but we are obviously just where we are meant to be, Noss.” She laughed again. “Isn’t it wonderful?”
“It’s big,” Noss observed. “Very big. Where are the farms? A village or two? Where are the people and the herds? I can see naught but this plain all around us.”
“And a stream of water,” Lara said pointing to the animal’s feet. She loosed the reins so her beast might drink. “I must name my horse, for Og did not tell me what to call him,” said Lara.
The horse raised his head, and turning said to her, “I already have a name, mistress. I am Dasras. It means handsome, and as you will have noted I am very handsome. The mare is Sakari. She also has the ability to speak, but she is shy.”
Lara was speechless for a moment but then she said, “Thank you, Dasras. Noss, did you hear? Your mare is Sakari. We thank you both for carrying us so safely. Refresh yourselves while you may, for we shall travel onward until dark.”
The stallion turned back to his drinking, the mare joining him.
“A horse that talks? I never knew a horse that talked!” Noss exclaimed. “I rather like the idea. As long as Sakari and I are together I will have someone to chat with, Lara. Isn’t that nice?” She looked quite pleased.
Lara refrained from giggling. “Are you ready to move on?” she asked. “We may have to camp in the open tonight.”
But as they moved on, the plain that had seemed to go on forever began to roll gently, and they discovered it was not as flat as they had thought. As the day wore on, and the sun began slowly to sink, Lara searched for a place they might shelter for the night. Finally, ahead of them, she saw a pleasant grove of trees with another narrow stream flowing through it. She led them to it, and dismounting said, “I think we should be safe here.”
“We have seen neither man nor beast all day,” Noss said nervously. “What will the night bring? Should we light a fire to keep away savage beasts? Yet a fire could draw bandits to us.”
“If we had a better shelter,” Lara said, “we could avoid a fire, but Dasras and Sakari must be protected. We’ll make a small fire. Others have camped here before us, Noss. See the little ring of blackened stones, and the bits of burned fuel? Let us look for some wood, but we will not start our fire until near dark.”
“Do not unload us,” Dasras said. “The weight we carry is not heavy, and if you must depart quickly you do not want to lose your few precious supplies. And set your staff in the ground with a view of the plain that he may watch for us. We will graze at our leisure just beyond the trees.”
“You offer good advice for one so young,” Lara replied.
“My father was a great campaigner with the Shadow Princes long ago. He has taught me all that I know,” the stallion answered.
Lara pulled Verica from his place on her saddle. “Wake up!” she said to him, and his eyes flashed open. “You must keep watch for us this night, Verica.” She drove the staff into the ground on the edge of the trees.
“Are we looking for anything in particular?” Verica asked dryly.
“Savage animals. Hostile riders,” Lara replied, a small smile tugging at her lips.
“In other words it is up to me to save you from disaster,” Verica said.
“Exactly!” Lara agreed, now grinning. “We have to light a fire which will serve to keep the four-footed beasts away, but not necessarily the two-footed ones.”
Verica chuckled as Lara turned away to gather firewood. She and Noss set up a conical pile within the ring of stones. The sky was now aflame with the sunset, and the darkness came quickly afterward, surprising them. There had been virtually no twilight. Using the faerie magic her mother had taught her, Lara pointed to the stone enclosure and said, “Fire, light!” Immediately a flame sprang up within the cone. “Low,” Lara commanded it, and the fire burned low.
“Well don’t that beat flint, stone and dried grass,” Noss said admiringly.
“I’ll call the horses,” Lara said. “We had best see what we have in those packs to feed us.” She whistled for Dasras and Sakari, who trotted back into their encampment. Rifling through the saddlebags she drew forth a carefully wrapped packet. Opening it, she exclaimed, “Faerie bread!”
“What’s faerie bread?” Noss asked, taking the piece handed her and looking at it suspiciously. She sniffed at it.
“It will satisfy your hunger,” Lara said. Ilona had introduced her to faerie bread. “Take a bite of it,” Lara told her.
Noss bit into the chunk, and suddenly a beatific smile lit her face. “It’s good!” she said.
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