His other appetites declined, as well. He was no longer interested in the rich foods he had always loved. The palace cooks did their best, but other than a forkful or two his meals were returned untouched. His desire for fine wine was gone. Gaius Prospero, always a man of grand proportions, grew thin and wan. His hair fell out. He suffered great pains in his joints. And now even his need for Razi left him, for when he drank it he no longer dreamed of glory but suffered from terrible head pains. And he continued to weep for his lovely young empress who had been the only creature in all his life that the emperor had loved. Then one stormy, moonless night, as his faithful slave woman Tania sat weeping softly by his side, Gaius Prospero died, his lost love’s name on his parched blue lips.
Lord Jonah knew first, for Tania, though heartbroken, was wise in the ways of her late master. She left her master’s dead body and hurried to find the emperor’s right hand. There were new alliances to be made now even for a slave. She was amazed when Lord Jonah told her that as the keeper of the emperor’s will, he knew its contents. Tania would now be free and given a small pension for her years of devoted and loyal service to Gaius Prospero.
Tania immediately knelt before Jonah. “Then it is as a free woman, my lord, that I offer your house my small services,” she said.
Jonah nodded. “And I accept them, Tania,” he told her. “You will watch over my wife for me, will you not?”
“Does Kigva not watch over the lady Vilia?” Tania said slowly.
“Indeed, Kigva is Vilia’s most loyal servant. But you, Tania, will be mine,” Jonah said meaningfully.
Tania arose from her subservient position before him and bowed from the waist. “As I loyally served my late master, Gaius Prospero, so will I loyally serve you, my lord Jonah,” she promised him, her face serious with her intent.
He gave her a nod of acknowledgment. “Go back and sit with the body so that no one else knows yet that he is dead. I will put my plans into motion.”
“Yes, my lord,” Tania said and hurried from his presence.
Kigva was crossing the far end of the broad hallway when she saw Tania coming from Lord Jonah’s library. She ran quickly to tell her mistress.
“The emperor must be dead,” Vilia said softly. “It is the only reason that Tania would go to my husband in the middle of the night. The clever creature is currying his favor. Quickly! I must send a faerie post to Lady Gillian. My husband must not be allowed to seize power. At least not until the women of Hetar have entrenched themselves in the ruling body. We will have no more of the men taking us into war and impoverishing our people. There must be change.”
Kigva brought her mistress her writing box and Vilia scrawled a message to Lady Gillian. The faerie post messenger, given the rolled parchment, dashed off to deliver the message. It had no sooner gone than Lord Jonah entered his wife’s apartments.
“Gaius Prospero is dead,” he told her without any preamble. “I am gathering my allies so that I may be given charge over Hetar before the High Council can meet to debate the issue to death and in the end do nothing.”
“You would be emperor then?” Vilia asked him.
“Nay, Gaius Prospero has given the title emperor a bad reputation. I would be called the Lord High Ruler of Hetar,” Jonah said.
“And I will be?” she pressed him.
“You are my wife,” he said to her. “You are the wife of the Lord High Ruler.”
“It is a great honor you do me,” Vilia murmured, but he did not, to her surprise, pick up on her sarcasm.
“Aye,” he muttered, his mind obviously somewhere else. “You have always been a perfect wife, Vilia. It is your forte.” Then he kissed her absently. “I must go, my love, there is much to do to cement my position. Of course, my first act once I am declared Lord High Ruler will be to plan a glorious funeral for my predecessor and beloved friend, Gaius Prospero. His contributions to the welfare of Hetar have been many.” He hurried off without another word to her.
For several long minutes Vilia stood silent and still. Once again she had been cut off from the power. Jonah had many times promised her that when he became emperor that she would be his empress. But now he would arrange a different title, Lord High Ruler, and she was again thwarted in her quest to rule. She would be relegated to nothing more than wife. Then Vilia laughed. Jonah was right. Love was for fools and she had been a fool for falling in love with him. He thought of her as all Hetarian men thought of all women. They were good for pleasures, for bearing children, but little else. Why had she believed he was different? Because until now he had treated her as his equal, but that had only been a ruse to help him climb the ladder of success.
Finally Kigva spoke. “What will you do now, my lady?” she asked softly.
Vilia laughed and then she turned to Kigva with a brilliant smile. “Let him be made Lord High Ruler if he can indeed manage it,” she told her serving woman. “Becoming it and remaining it are two different things, my girl. I have said it is time for the women of Hetar to speak up and indeed it is. Thanks to Gaius Prospero’s wars we are now the majority. We must now speak up for our rights and the rights of the generation of women to come.”
“Not all women will support you, my lady,” Kigva replied.
“More will than won’t,” Vilia answered. “I will not be pushed aside any longer because of my sex. Besides, women are wiser than men. It is not simply Lady Lara’s magic that makes the Domina of Terah respected by her husband and her people. It is her wisdom.”
“Would you rule Hetar, mistress?” Kigva queried.
“I will rule Hetar one day,” Vilia responded. “It is my fate as the twelfth generation of the descendants of Ulla, the favored concubine of a great sorcerer. It is said that before she died she said that the twelfth generation of her descendants would rule Hetar. I am the only descendant in the twelfth generation. I once believed that it was my lot to be Gaius Prospero’s empress, but it was not. And then Jonah promised me that I would be his empress, but now he makes himself Lord High Ruler and tries to relegate me to a subservient position. Is it not obvious to you, Kigva, that if I am to rule Hetar that I will do it in my name and not a man’s?”
Kigva nodded.
“Then you will help me to work toward that goal,” Vilia told her serving woman. “And you will continue to keep my secrets, will you not?” She smiled at the younger woman. “I am quite certain that Tania, the late emperor’s slave woman, will offer her services to my lord Jonah. She probably already has. She is a clever woman, and quick to watch for every advantage. Do not trust her, Kigva. She will attempt to worm her way into your confidence, but beware of her no matter what she says.”
“If she is a slave, can she not be sold away?” Kigva asked.
Vilia shook her head. “The emperor will have freed her with his death. He was always most fond of her and she was totally loyal to him.”
“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. His son! He could hardly wait to hold the boy in his arms. He loved Lara’s children and he loved their daughter, Zagiri, but a man needed a son to carry on his name. This child would be his heir. This child would be the father of generations of Terahn rulers to come.
“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.”
Kemina shook her snow-white head in wonderment. “It seems to me that a great deal of responsibility has been loaded upon your shoulders,” she said. “Let me suggest that you forget about your destiny until it calls to you once again, Lara. Just enjoy the good life you have been given. Your husband. Your children. Your home and the child that is to come in a few months. You have done this before. You need not stand guard awaiting your destiny’s next call.”
Lara sighed. “You are right,” she said. “These last months have been so frenzied I have forgotten how to enjoy my life.”
The high priestess took Lara’s slim hand in her own. “I understand how the responsibility that we bear for others can do that, my child.”
Lara laughed now. “Aye, I imagine that you can, Kemina. Now I know I was right in coming to the temple. A few days of prayer and meditation with you and your priestesses will soothe and calm my frantic spirit.”
“We will send a faerie post to Magnus so he knows where you are,” Kemina said.
The Dominus was not happy that his wife had taken Dasras and gone off without telling him. But as he read the hig
h priestess’s message his irritation eased. He remembered his faerie wife’s independent spirit. He could never confine it and he had to remember that she was not a frail creature who needed his protection. She was a strong woman, and while he wasn’t certain that he would ever get used to having such a wife he knew he loved her beyond all else. And so he would learn to be content.
When Lara returned from the temple several days later, her restless spirit seemed to have quieted. When he saw her coming from the stables he held out his arms to her and without any hesitation she walked straight into them. “I missed you, my lord,” she told him.
“I missed you more,” he told her softly, kissing her brow.
“Then perhaps, Magnus,” she murmured low, “we should find a quiet place and there you can show me just how much you missed me.” Her fingers brushed his groin.
“Can we…” he began. But he was already hard for her.
“I would not say it if we couldn’t,” Lara told him as her tongue traced the shape of his ear both inside and out. “I have a great longing for you, my lord. Surely you would not deny the woman who will give you your son.” Her hand slipped beneath his long gown and she cupped him in her warm palm a brief moment before stroking his manhood. Her slender fingers slid the length of him, once, twice, a third time.
The Dominus let a hiss of excitement escape him. “You are a shameless faerie woman,” he told her. His lust for her was boiling. His heart beat rapidly.
“I am joyously shameless with you, my lord,” she whispered hotly in the ear she had been teasing so delicately. “And you are eager for me, I can see. Let us find our bed, for it is past time we indulged our senses in each other.”
The Twilight Lord Page 42