The Sorceress of Belmair

by Bertrice Small

  Cinnia put her small hand within that of the ancient Shadow Prince, and looked up into his startlingly bright blue eyes. Her own eyes widened as she experienced what felt like a heated bolt of energy flowing from his hand into hers.

  “All you need do,” he told her, still holding her hand, “is place each star in the front of each Yafir’s left shoulder. They will feel a tiny surge of the energy I am giving to you. The star will adhere to their skin, and cannot be removed. Upon their death the star will dissolve into their flesh to be burned with their body,” Cronan explained. He released his hold upon Cinnia’s hand.

  She swayed slightly. “Oh, my!” she exclaimed. “Your power is overwhelming, my lord Cronan.”

  Dillon put an arm about his wife. “Are you all right?” he asked her.

  “I will be in a moment. I am so filled with power, and I am not used to it,” Cinnia responded to his concern.

  “Do not fear, young king,” the ancient Shadow Prince said. “Your wife is stronger than you can possibly imagine. Perhaps one day she will be your equal.”

  “You are old, Cronan,” Kaliq chided his friend. “Do not promise what you may not be able to give.”

  “Old I may be, but not powerless by any means, Kaliq. I think you are jealous for your son.” Cronan chuckled. “Or is it for yourself? You have grown used to being the most powerful among the powerful.”

  “My lords, cease this bickering,” Dillon said. “If Cinnia were indeed as powerful as she might be think of all the good we could accomplish here in Belmair.”

  “The young king is wise,” Cronan said.

  “Shall we send for Cirillo and Nidhug to join us?” Cinnia asked them.

  “Aye,” Dillon said. “We will need their help, as well. Cirillo’s magic can also help to sustain each bubble as we work to integrate the Yafir. Nidhug will aid Cinnia.”

  “Britto,” Cinnia called to her steward. “Send for Prince Cirillo and the dragon. They will join us for our evening meal. Tell cook to prepare for Nidhug’s appetite.”

  “At once, my queen,” Britto said, and hurried off.

  As the day finally came to an end, the faerie prince and his lover, the dragon, joined them in the family hall. There they learned all that had transpired this day.

  “You have everything well in hand,” Cirillo said.

  “But we need you and Nidhug, as well,” Cinnia told him. “Nidhug will, of course, help me while I transfer the stars to each Yafir. You must help to sustain the bubble until all are protected.”

  “Gladly,” Cirillo said. “And then I shall make each village appear to be newly constructed with painted shutters and doors, as well as dooryard gardens. The villages’ beauty should match the province’s beauty.”

  “Oh, thank you!” Cinnia exclaimed. “I want the Yafir to feel welcomed.”

  The meal was a trifle late in coming, for learning that the dragon would be joining them, the cook had had to roast a lamb over the hearth spit, and stuck a dozen more capons into the oven. She took a pan of artichokes from her pantry, brushed them with oil and set them to baking. Then, knowing Nidhug’s sweet tooth, she sent to Sarabeth at the dragon’s castle for the desserts. Finally the meal was served up, and well appreciated by the guests. The dragon ate daintily, Cirillo popping whole capons into her wide mouth and wiping the juices from her jaw.

  Kaliq watched, fascinated by the pair. He was a man for whom love was all, and he could not help but wonder what the attraction between a faerie and a dragon was like. Finally the meal was concluded. Servants brought basins of scented water, and small linen towels so the diners might wash their hands and faces free of any traces of the meal.

  The clock on the hall’s hearth mantel chimed twenty-two, and the young king arose from his place at the high board. “It is time,” he said. “Are you all ready?”

  And as one the other heads in the hall nodded.

  “We are ready,” Cinnia said, “to begin a new chapter in Belmair’s history.”

  Chapter 18

  AHURA MAZDA WALKED back and forth in the circular common room of his wives. In his arms he cradled his week-old daughter, Gemma. “Is she not perfect?” he asked for what was surely the fiftieth time. “She is pure Yafir, are you not, my darling?” he cooed at the baby. “Look at that hair! Silver! Do you know how rare it is nowadays for a Yafir female to have silver hair? And her eyes are already the clearest aquamarine.” He turned to Gemma’s mother. “Thank you, my precious Cinnia.”

  “I am not Cinnia, and I am tired of being called by her name,” Sapphira said loudly. “I want my daughter to know who I am, and the true heritage she has on my side.” She was tired of being ignored, and Ahura Mazda had not been nearly as generous with her as she had hoped he would be. She wanted her own apartments in which to raise her daughter. She wanted to keep nursing the child, and not turn her over to a wet nurse. She did not want to sit about with these other women waiting for the Yafir lord to pay her a visit. Sapphira was not happy at all right now, and her behavior became foolishly rash.

  The other women looked up, surprised, all but Arlais who waited for the explosion to come. Sapphira was a truly stupid creature. Did she not understand that her value was in her ability to give their husband a daughter, which she had, but also in being Cinnia, daughter of Fflergant, and queen of Belmair? Sapphira had only one value. Her daughter, and there were five other women who could raise that child.

  “What do you mean you are not Cinnia?” Ahura Mazda demanded.

  “I look like her, don’t I?” Sapphira said with a giggle. “I certainly fooled you, didn’t I? You never realized that King Dillon retrieved his wife months ago, putting me in her place. I am Sapphira of Beldane, who was his mistress. I meant to be queen of Belmair, but instead woke up to find myself in your household, and believed to be Cinnia. Since there was nothing I could do about it I decided to be Cinnia, especially since you are such a vigorous lover to me.”

  Ahura Mazda handed his daughter to Arlais. He walked across the chamber and looked into Sapphira’s face. “You are not Cinnia?” he said in a hard voice.

  “No, I am Sapphira, niece of Duke Tullio,” she replied.

  “Who else knows this?” he demanded of her. His eyes were cold.

  “Arlais guessed,” Sapphira said.

  Ahura Mazda turned to look at Arlais angrily.

  “Aye, I knew,” Arlais said, “but I would not hurt you, my lord, by telling you, for I love you. And, too, my lord, you have been happy with this woman. She is your equal in passion, and she has given you your precious daughter. It is likely she will give you more daughters if you want them.”

  “The king of Belmair bested me, and you did not tell me,” Ahura Mazda said.

  “Of course he bested you,” Sapphira said. “He is a very powerful man with a faerie mother and a Shadow Prince father. You are only a Yafir.”

  Will she not shut her silly mouth? Arlais thought wearily.

  Ahura Mazda whirled back to face Sapphira. His hand reached out to grasp her long black hair. Yanking her to him he forced her to her knees and slapped her face hard. “Belmairan whore, be silent! You yet live only because of your child.”

  And finally Sapphira realized the extent of her own foolishness. Her strong instinct for her own survival was awakened. She wrapped her arms about his legs, and began to weep. “Do not hate me because I wanted you to love me, and not her!” she whimpered piteously. “You are my beloved, and I but sought to he
ar my name upon your lips when you made love to me, and not hers. Forgive me the deception I have played upon you, but remember I did say I was Sapphira in the beginning, but none would listen to me. And then after I had lain in your arms the thought of being sent away was too terrible to even contemplate, my lord. Forgive me, I beg of you!”

  “I should have you taken to the castle square, bound and spread wide. I should invite any man who wants to to take pleasures with you to do so. You should be left there to be publicly used for a week and a day,” Ahura Mazda growled.

  The women in the room paled at his words.

  “My lord, I beg you, pardon Sapphira’s errors in judgment,” Arlais said.

  “Instead,” Ahura Mazda continued, ignoring his first wife, “I will beat you myself as punishment for your lies. And you shall not have my company for pleasures for three, no, for six months. But each night you shall watch for one hour while I take pleasures with my other wives. And when the six months are up you will service my lusts for seven days after which time you had best find yourself with child again. I will require another daughter from you before you are completely forgiven, Sapphira, my precious. Now, kiss my feet, and thank me for my kindness to you.”

  She did not hesitate, lowering herself to kiss the velvet slippers he wore. “Thank you, my lord, thank you!” she half sobbed. Then gasped as he yanked her up by her long hair, and seeing the anger still upon his face she trembled.

  “Fetch the Chastizer, Arlais,” the Yafir lord commanded, and Arlais hurried to obey him, returning with a slender, flexible rod. “Ready her,” he said in a cold voice.

  Arlais handed the baby she had been holding to Volupia. Then she and Minau tore the back of Sapphira’s gown open, pulled her forward into a bent position, and held her firmly between them. The room was soon filled with Sapphira’s cries as the Yafir lord plied his rod across her back and her buttocks. When he had finished with her punishment he flung the Chastizer aside, and taking Tyne by the hand led her to her bedchamber, closing the door behind them.

  Sapphira was sobbing with the pain that had been inflicted upon her person. “I hate him! I hate him!” she whimpered.

  “Best he not hear you say it,” Arlais remarked as she helped Sapphira up. “You are fortunate he did not kill you, stupid girl. His delight in you was that you were the wife of Belmair’s king, and he had stolen you thereby besting that king. Now he knows he did not triumph over Dillon, and he will be looking for a way to get back at him. There are two things of supreme worth to every man, Sapphira. One is his self-esteem, and the other his cock. You have hurt our husband’s self-worth. Be glad you still appeal to his cock. It is what has saved you. Any of us could have raised little Gemma.”

  Sapphira grew even paler than she normally was.

  “Just keep telling him how much you love him, and how fine a lover he is,” Minau advised.

  “Let us get you cleaned up now, and put some salve on your welts,” Arlais said. “Volupia, take the baby to her nursemaid. Then let us all retire for the night. Who knows what the morrow will bring us.”

  “It will bring the same thing every new day brings,” Minau said drily.

  But Minau was wrong. She awoke the following day to bright sunlight streaming in through her bedchamber windows. Startled, she arose and went to peer outside. She could see the walls of the bubble but beyond it there were…trees! Hills! Fields! Sights she had not seen in centuries. Was she dreaming? If she was she had not had such dreams in years because she had long given up hope of ever living upon the land again.

  But they were certainly upon the land now! Minau ran to her door, and opening it saw Arlais and Orea were awake, as well.

  “What has happened?” she asked them.

  They shook their heads.

  Volupia came sleepily from her chamber. “What is going on?” she asked.

  “Someone fetch Sapphira,” Arlais said, and Orea ran off returning a few minutes later with the girl. “Where is our husband?”

  “Still with Tyne,” came the answer.

  “Fetch Tyne,” Arlais said, “but if he is not awake do not waken him yet.”

  Tyne came. She looked worn. “He exhausted himself, and will sleep long,” she told them. “What has happened?”

  “Show yourselves,” Arlais called softly.

  Her companions gasped as suddenly Cinnia and Nidhug appeared.

  “This is the queen of Belmair,” Arlais said, “and our Great Dragon. They will explain, but first the queen has a gift for each of us.”

  “Magic has created a new province to be named Belbuoy,” Cinnia began. “It is here that the Yafir will make their home. Some of you may decide to return to the other provinces, and that is permissible. Belmairan and Yafir are to be one now. As soon as we have protected all within your castle we will dissolve the bubble. Please step forward one by one,” she told them.

  “From what do you protect us?” Minau asked.

  “You have lived beneath the sea for aeons, and there you have been protected from time. Without magical protection you would all die but for Sapphira and her child, and any other who has been in Yafirdom too long,” Cinnia said.

  “I will go first,” Arlais said.

  “Bare your shoulder for me,” the young queen said.

  Arlais did as she was bid, watching as Cinnia drew forth from a velvet bag held by the dragon a small red-gold star. The young queen pressed the star against the front of Arlais’s shoulder, and Arlais felt the cool metal melting into her skin as Cinnia intoned the spell that had been devised.

  “This magic star will keep you free,

  From your years beneath the sea.

  Time be twisted, turn away,

  From the Yafir from this day.

  Age from now as you will,

  Let none this spell turn ill.

  This Shadow-faerie lord has spoken,

  And this spell shall ne’er be broken.”

  Cinnia stepped back. “There,” she said. “Who will be next?”

  Each of Ahura Mazda’s wives came and received the star with its magic spell. Sapphira, however, did not need such protection for the time in which she now stood was her own. Standing before Cinnia, she asked her, “Does my uncle know the truth of all of this?”

  “Nay,” Cinnia replied. “Do you want him to know?”

  Sapphira considered, and then she said, “How will it affect you?”

  “In very much the same way it will affect you,” Cinnia replied. “The law has been changed, but changing a law and changing people’s hearts and minds are two different things, Sapphira. But we have both been wronged. I, by Ahura Mazda, and you by King Dillon. I will gladly do whatever you want me to do.”

  Sapphira was silent, and then she said, “For the sake of Belmair and its people I think it best we leave things as they are. As I have lived among those who are called Yafir, I can see no real differences among us. But it will take time for all of Belmair to come to that same conclusion.” She glanced at their surprised faces. “I am sure you are all surprised by this change that has overcome me.” She smiled wryly. “Circumstances and my fellow wives are the good influences my poor mother never was.”

  “Be warned,” Arlais told Cinnia, “that Ahura Mazda now knows the truth, for Sapphira told him last night. If I know our husband, and I do, he will eventually seek revenge although when he awakens to find us now on dry land once more that will be his main concern, and take most of his thoughts and energy.”

 
“I understand,” Cinnia responded. “Now, will you come with me so I may protect the rest of the castle’s inhabitants? Those others living within this bubble, the villagers, the servants who live away from the castle have already been given their star and their enchantment.”

  “What of Ahura Mazda?” Arlais asked softly as she led Cinnia and Nidhug from the common room. “Will he be given a star to protect him?”

  “Your husband is pure Yafir. He is magic, and does not need our protection,” Cinnia said. “That is why his coming and going from our world never affected him. There were not many Yafir of pure blood left when they fled to their world beneath the sea. Those centuries there will not have aged them any more than if they had been here.”

  Arlais nodded, and took Cinnia and the dragon to the Great Hall where all the servants and other inhabitants in the castle had been assembled. There the young Belmairan queen and Nidhug worked the magic of Dillon’s spell and Cinnia’s stars for each person in the room. Many wept with joy to be once again in Belmair, upon the land. They kissed Cinnia’s hands, and bowed to the Great Dragon, thanking them.

  Then Arlais went outside with her guests, and Cinnia looked up and said, “Shadow Princes, all is well. Would you please remove the spell?”

  To Arlais’s amazement and delight, the bubble that had shielded them for so many centuries slowly dissolved in a final rainbow burst of color. A soft breeze touched her rosy cheek, and Ahura Mazda’s first wife herself wept as the warm air caressed her face. “Ah,” she said softly, “never did I think to feel the wind again. Thank you, my queen!” And catching Cinnia’s two hands up in her own she kissed them reverently.

  “Your queen, aye,” Cinnia replied, “but your friend, too, Arlais. In the time I spent in your household you were kind, and thoughtful. And when you realized the deception played upon the Yafir lord, you did not expose it. I have had time and peace with my own beloved husband, and for that I thank you.”