Crown of Destiny

by Bertrice Small

  “You did nothing wrong,” he said to her. “Why do you believe you have?”

  “Should I not have been able to hold the powers of darkness off longer?” Lara said. “Why did you all tell me I must wait for my destiny? If you had told me what was involved in the first place, perhaps I could have overcome the evil now encroaching upon Hetar and Terah. I am young, I know, but with each year I grow stronger. Why was my birth not planned sooner, Kaliq? If I had been born earlier then I should have had the time I needed.”

  “Our warrior had to be born of a specific bloodline, Lara. It was not by chance your faerie mother mated with John Swiftsword, a man thought to be mortal by his fellow Hetarians, but who was actually more faerie. You know that in mortals the bloodline weakens with passing generations, but in the faerie world it strengthens. Your great-grandmother, your father’s grandmother, bore her faerie lover a son that was believed to be her husband’s child. She kept the secret, but it was known in our world and set down in the Book of the Faerie Record. That son bore your father, and you were the third generation born of the line of Lord Rufus and his Hetarian lover, Thea. We had to wait. We had no chance if we did not. And it had to be a female child.”

  “Why?” Lara wanted to know.

  “While the mortal world considers its females weak, we in the magic world know better,” Kaliq said. “We did not choose to confront the Twilight Lord head-on. A woman has not only her intelligence but her sensuality with which to work. We wanted a female warrior who would be able to sow confusion in the Dark Lands, and you did. It was a great triumph, my love. Never believe your life has been worthless. You gave Hetar more than a century in which to correct itself. For a time after our battle with Ciarda and her false Hierarch, I thought we had turned the tide of Hetar’s fate.”

  “But we did not,” Lara said.

  “Nay, we did not, and now it is too late.”

  “I cannot shake off the feeling that I have failed, Kaliq, and that if I just had a little more time I might turn the tide,” Lara told him.

  “That is your son’s influence, Lara, attempting to deceive and beguile you into believing that if you stay just a little while longer you can change Hetar’s fate. You cannot. Come, I would show you something, my love.” Enfolding her within his cloak, he brought them to the oasis of Zeroun, which was one of Lara’s favorite places. He flung back the cape so she might step forth.

  Lara looked about her, puzzled. “Where are we, Kaliq?” she asked him. They stood in a desolate and sandy place. She saw the tumbled stone ruins of what looked to have been a well, and the rotting trunks of what had been palm trees. The sand beneath her sandaled feet, and for as far as her eye could see, was bloodred.

  “This is Zeroun, Lara. A month ago, the desert sands turn crimson. The waters of the oasis dried up overnight, the well collapsed and the trees and other greenery that once flourished here died in a span of two days. Kolgrim destroyed it because he knows you love it, and he sent to me to tell me what he had done.”

  Lara’s face mirrored astonishment. “To destroy such beauty,” she said softly.

  Kaliq nodded, and wrapping her again in his cloak, transported them back to Shunnar. “Look down into our valley,” he said.

  When she did Lara saw it was empty of the horse herds of the Shadow Princes. “Where are the animals? Where is Og?”

  “They have gone to Belmair for safety. We opened a Golden tunnel to some fine meadows outside of Dillon’s castle, and drove them through several days ago. Kolgrim wants your magic, Lara. He wants all the magic belonging to Hetar, and next to mine, yours is the most powerful. He is wickedly clever, this young Twilight Lord. He seeks to entrap you with Marzina, and me with you.”

  “Then we must leave very soon,” Lara said.

  “Aye, we must. But because Kolgrim has to believe we are still unaware of his plans for us, we must attend the wedding of Yamka and Vaclar.”

  “I don’t want to go,” Lara said.

  “You must,” he told her.

  “I never want to see The City again,” Lara said. “Besides that wedding is but for Grugyn Ahasferus. He would display this third granddaughter’s great marriage to the other magnates and all of Hetar. If he were younger I would think he was planning a coup against Palben. Now I believe he simply wishes to be more powerful and important than Hetar’s Lord High Ruler. He has no idea the beast he has invited into his house.”

  “Very well,” Kaliq agreed. “It matters not if we offend Grugyn Ahasferus by not appearing at the Hetarian portion of this wedding. We will be at the Terahn one, and in evidence at the feasting afterward, my love.”

  “Have you heard from Marzina?” Lara wanted to know.

  “I assume she is still at Fairevue.”

  “My mother was to speak with her,” Lara said. “I hope she has. Oh, Kaliq, I must see her. I need to know she is safe from Kolgrim.”

  “Then call her, Lara,” he told her quietly. He disliked seeing her so distressed.

  Marzina! Marzina, hear my plea. Cease all else and come to me! Lara said.

  Almost immediately, and much to Kaliq’s relief, Marzina appeared.

  “What is it, Mother? Are you all right?” the young faerie woman asked anxiously.

  “I had not heard from you…” Lara began. “I wondered if you were going to your kinsman Vaclar’s wedding to Yamka Ahasferus.”

  “Aye, I am. Nyura cannot come for she is with child,” Marzina began.

  “You know? How do you know?” Lara asked, trying to keep the irritation from her voice. “Have you been to the Dark Lands of late?”

  “Nay, nay, but Kolgrim came to me to tell me that I will soon have a nephew,” Marzina said with a smile. “It will be nice to have a baby for a nephew for a change.” She laughed. “All of Taj’s and Zagiri’s children, and even their children, are long grown.”

  Lara bit her lip so hard it began to bleed. “We may not be here when the child is born,” she said, unable to help herself, and praying Marzina would not take offense.

  “Oh,” Marzina replied. “Aye, you are right, Mother. I had forgotten we must leave Hetar for good soon. I haven’t told Kolgrim.”

  “Don’t!” Lara said.

  “Of course not,” Marzina replied. “I spoke with Grandmother yesterday. She wants me to come with her, Thanos and my cousin Parvanah to Belmair. Dillon has offered them a wonderful refuge, and there is even a forested mountain where I may rebuild Fairevue. My faerie servants have already gone in the first group of Forest Faeries who left today. Grandmother thought it best to send them a few at a time over several days so our exit causes no stirring in the air to attract Kolgrim.”

  “Your brother knows the good magic is departing Hetar,” Lara said softly.

  “Aye, he does, but no good can come from rubbing it in his handsome face,” Marzina responded. “He believes he may entrap some of the magic before it can escape him. That’s why I will go to the wedding as his companion since Nyura cannot. I even suggested it,” she said, pleased with her own cleverness. “He was delighted.”

  “Oh, Marzina,” Lara said. “You play a dangerous game. Your brother is evil incarnate for all his charm. You must beware of him. I cannot ever remember being afraid, although surely there was a time when I must have been. But now I am frightened for you, my daughter.”

  Marzina flung her arms about Lara. “Do not fear for me, Mother. I know the darkness that runs through my blood, but there is light, too, and I was raised in the light. I understand Kolgrim, and he is indeed evil. But I feel sorry for him, too, for he is so eager not just to conquer the world of Hetar, but to be loved, truly loved, as well. His blood is like mine, but that he was raised in the dark.”

  “Do not think you can change him, Marzina,” Lara said, stroking her daughter’s cheek. “You cannot. And do not believe you can trust him. You cannot. He killed his half sister without hesitation. He may kill Nyura one day. And if he believes you are in his way, or attempting to thwart him in any manner, he will
kill you, too.”

  “I know,” Marzina replied. “He is quite frightening, Mother, isn’t he?”

  “I do not understand you,” Lara said low.

  “I know you don’t,” Marzina laughed. “But is it not that way with all mothers and daughters? One day in the future we shall both come to understand one another. But now is not that time.” She kissed Lara’s cheek. “Will I see you at the wedding in a few days, Mother?”

  “We will be there,” Lara answered her. “Not in The City, but in Terah.”

  “Goodbye then,” Marzina said, and she was gone in a puff of violet smoke.

  “Are you satisfied now?” Kaliq asked Lara quietly.

  “For now but I worry about her friendship with Kolgrim. Her lips say what she wants me to hear, but Marzina is fascinated by him. And he is fascinating, Kaliq.”

  “Be satisfied that she has agreed to go with her cousin and her grandparents to Belmair. I have told you before that Marzina has her own fate to follow. You cannot stop her, and you should not stop her. I understand you want to protect her, but you cannot and should not lest you alter the fate meant for her.”

  “What do you know of her fate?” Lara demanded of him.

  “I know it is not yours to follow, my love. You have only begun to meet your destiny, Lara. There is more to come, and Marzina will not be a part of it. That is all I will say on the matter. You have always trusted me, my love. Trust me now.”

  She did trust him. He had always had her best interests at heart even when he wouldn’t tell her. And he was right when he said that Kolgrim sought to snare her by taking Marzina, and trap Kaliq by taking her. And that could not happen. Her destiny was now tied to that of the Shadow Prince. Lara sensed whatever it was, it would be great, and it would be magical beyond anything either of them had ever done. Their powers combined would be unstoppable. And she wasn’t going to allow her maternal fears to prevent them from doing whatever it was she had to do. “I think it is time,” she said, “that my son be reminded of just who I am.”

  Kaliq began to chuckle. He had not heard Lara use that particular tone of voice in some time. “And by that,” he said, “you mean to…?”

  “I believe that rather than going to the wedding garbed in a beautiful gown I shall go as the faerie woman warrior that I have been in the past. None of these mortals now living have ever see me as such. Nor have they heard Andraste sing. I think that they should.”

  “You will frighten them,” Kaliq told her.

  “But perhaps they will take me and what I say more seriously. I know I cannot stop Kolgrim at this time, but let Hetar and Terah remember me as the warrior, not just a beautiful woman concerned for her family. That image fits what they would believe. My mistake was in letting the warrior hide behind that woman. I will do it no more.”

  “Aye,” Kaliq said, agreeing with her. “Perhaps it is better that they remember you as the warrior who saved them several times in the past. The Hetarians and Terahns of today did not know that faerie woman. They only know a beautiful woman who does not age, and makes them uncomfortable. After the deaths of your children you sought to put them at ease by making yourself appear mortal, though you are not. They lost their belief in magic. Now they will suffer for it.” He laughed again. “Aye, appear at the wedding in your leather trousers with Andraste, her jeweled eyes glaring, strapped upon your back.”

  “And you, my lord? How will you garb yourself?” Lara asked him.

  “As I always do,” he said. “I should not like to take away from the shock you will give the wedding guests.” He grinned. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her passionately. “Soon, my beautiful faerie woman, we shall embark together upon a grand new adventure. We will not dally long in Belmair, Lara, for destiny awaits us, my love!”

  “You make it sound so exciting, Kaliq!” Lara told him. She caressed his cheek.

  His bright blue eyes looked down into her upturned face. “It will be,” he promised her. Then his lips touched her again. “To spend forever with you is more than I could have ever hoped, Lara.” His lips met hers again in a deep and potent kiss. Then he released her, smiling into her faerie green eyes.

  “Why is it so quiet?” Lara asked him, suddenly aware of the deep silence.

  “The Shadow Princes have gone from Hetar,” Kaliq answered her. “We are the only ones left in Shunnar, my love.”

  “Where have they gone?” Lara wanted to know. “Will we ever see them again, Kaliq? Lothair did not say goodbye, nor Nasim, nor Coilen, nor any of the others.”

  “They have gone into the Cosmos to seek another home for us,” Kaliq said. “We will not make a new home on Belmair. It is too small a world for us,” he said. “We will rejoin them eventually, Lara, but not yet.”

  “How will we know how to find them?” she asked.

  “We will know,” he promised.

  She nodded. “Does Kolgrim know?”

  Kaliq shook his head. “Nay. My presence leads him to believe that everything is as it has always been in Shunnar. The High Council has not yet reconvened after its summer recess, and so our representatives are not yet missed.”

  “What of the faerie post? Surely we will not leave them behind,” Lara said.

  “They will disappear tomorrow when all of The City is involved in Yamka Ahasferus’s wedding celebration. Remember we must use our magic to make it possible for the two worlds to move easily back and forth between Hetar and Terah,” he reminded her. “’Twas a clever way to end the stalemate between the two sides over the wedding.”

  “It is not difficult,” Lara said. “We simply open a short Golden tunnel between Hetar and Terah, but of course we will have to see it looks like a well-lit and beautifully decorated corridor so the wedding guests are not frightened by it. The bridal couple will be the first to pass through it, and the others will follow.”

  “Going from night to dawn will astound the Hetarians,” Kaliq remarked. “They have no real concept of anyone or anything but themselves.”

  “The Terahns are little better,” Lara agreed, “but few of them will go to the Hetarian ceremony. Vaclar’s father and mother, of course. His uncle and great-uncle, perhaps. But simple Terahns are little interested in Hetar even today, although they have certainly embraced certain Hetarian customs and ways that the trading vessels and their sailors brought,” Lara noted disapprovingly. “I remember Terah as I first saw it, and it was glorious, Kaliq. Now with that ridiculous imitation of The City on the plain before the castle…” She shook her head. “Dasras and I loved riding over that plain. But those times are gone, and they cannot be retrieved, more’s the pity.”

  “Seeing something you love die is always difficult, my love, but we have a new life awaiting us in the Cosmos,” Kaliq said.

  “But first the wedding, a visit to Belmair, and then…”

  “And then new adventures,” he replied. “We will gallop together, you and I, upon Dasras’s back amid the stars of the Cosmos, my darling. There are so many worlds out there, Lara, and new ones being born every day.”

  He sounded so happy, Lara thought. She had not heard that tone in his voice in years. It was boyish, excited. He was eager to move on now, and so was she. They had done their best for Hetar, but they were only magic, and magic could not correct all mortal ills. And sometimes it made them worse. Perhaps protecting Hetar from itself had been an error, and the magic should have left long ago.

  As the servants had been sent from Shunnar, Lara fed them that night with faerie bread, and Kaliq conjured up a decanter of forest berry frine for them to drink. She did not know that he placed a strong protection spell about Shunnar that night, for he sensed the darkness reaching out with curious fingers. They must not be taken. He hoped that Kolgrim would keep the peace between them for the wedding, but he did not trust to it. Kaliq knew that, like a greedy child, Kolgrim was already tasting his victory, and was more than eager to have it all.

  THE MORNING CAME. The bloodred sun rising into a dun-colored sk
y. They ate their final meal in their garden. Lara noticed that the flowers were drooping, and the sound of birdsong was gone. They hardly spoke, either with voice or in the silent language of their race. They ate, and then they bathed. The silence surrounding them had become almost eerie. Only the soft sound of the water soothed them.

  Kaliq dressed himself in his white silk trousers and tunic. The tunic was simple, but its high collar and the cuffs of its sleeves were sewn with gold threads in a geometric design and tiny diamonds. On his feet were deep blue leather slippers. Atop his dark head he had a small turban centered with a large diamond. His long white silk cloak was lined with cloth-of-gold. He looked handsomer than Lara could ever remember. He was both powerful and impressive in appearance, and she told him so.

  Lara, however, had done as she had promised him. She wore fawn-colored fitted leather trousers, a forest-green silk vest over a full-sleeved cream-colored silk shirt, which was open to reveal her thin gold chain with its sparkling crystal star. Within the star her guardian spirit, Ethne, resided. Ethne had been silent of late, but suddenly she spoke.

  Be careful today, my child.

  Do you sense danger? Lara asked her.

  The Twilight Lord will challenge you this day, Ethne answered.

  I give him Hetar willingly, Lara replied.

  Hetar is but part of his plan. He wants you, for he believes you are an important part of Hetar. He will try to strike you in your heart to gain his way. Be wary of all he says, and all he does, no matter how innocent he pretends to be. He will not keep the peace between you this day, my child. Ethne’s light dimmed slightly, and she grew silent.