Crown of Destiny

by Small Bertrice

  “You look tired, Mother,” Lara said.

  “I am,” Ilona admitted. “This has been a terrible undertaking for me, and for Thanos. Your stepfather has exhausted himself seeing that the rare species of flora and fauna native to Hetar are removed to Belmair that they may continue to propagate. Too much darkness will kill much of what exists upon this world, for an endless Icy Season will set in. But let us not speak anymore on so unpleasant a subject.” Ilona waved her hands over the low table before them, producing two plates of faerie bread and cups of forest berry frine. She sighed, reaching for the faerie bread and tearing off a chunk. “I am ravenous of late with all this work. Umm! Roasted meat!”

  “Mine is capon,” Lara replied. “I do love faerie bread, Mother! I adore that it can be anything you want it to be.”

  When they had finished eating, they slept side by side on Ilona’s great bed. Lara awakened once during the night to find the moonlight streaming into the chamber across the bed. She arose and went to look out into the forest, seeing a small herd of does led by a great antlered buck grazing in the clearing of grass outside. Sadness overwhelmed her. The last Autumn would come soon, and then the Icy Season would be upon Hetar. But no spring would follow it. Eventually, much of what had been Hetar, mortal beings, creatures, the land, would suffer and die, or be changed forever. What would Kolgrim do when he had nothing but a dead world to rule? Or would he find a way of keeping his subjects alive, and at his mercy? And would the light come to Hetar again one day as Kaliq and her mother insisted it must? The tears began to slip down her face as Lara returned to the bed, sleeping fitfully until the dawn broke.

  Ilona was up first. She magicked a bowl of faerie bread for herself. This morning it tasted like roasted apples and porridge with a hint of sweet cinnamon. She saw the dried tears on the beautiful face so like her own. Lara had wept in the night, and briefly Ilona’s cold faerie heart felt sympathy for her firstborn child. One of the reasons Lara had been born was to save Hetar. The fact that she had been unable to weighed heavily upon her, for she did not quite understand that the magic world had always considered her success unlikely. They had planned a far greater destiny for her, which she would soon learn. Finished eating, Ilona arose and shook Lara awake. “Magick yourself something to eat so we may be on our way. We have much history to visit today,” the beautiful queen of the Forest Faeries told her now-half-awake daughter.

  Like a child, Lara did as she was bid while Ilona sent for Parvanah, and gave her her instructions for the day.

  When Parvanah had gone off, Lara asked her mother, “Why did you not ask Marzina to take on these tasks?”

  “Parvanah will succeed me after her father,” Ilona said. “Unless, of course, Cirillo steps aside from the succession, which he threatens to do every now and again. After all these years you would think the fires of his passion for Nidhug had banked. If anything it burns even brighter. My children, it seems, have a great capacity for love,” Ilona noted a trifle drily. “Parvanah needs to know how to rule, and the great responsibility being a queen entails. Marzina has another path to follow entirely. I love both of my granddaughters equally, but Parvanah will be queen. She needs me more than Marzina. Your daughter has had the advantage of learning not just from me, but from you and Kaliq, as well. Parvanah has only me.”

  Lara swallowed down the final sip of apricot nectar. “I am ready, Mother,” she said. Then she sighed. “It is a beautiful day in the forest. What shall we visit first?”

  “We begin, as I told you last night, with the fall of the Forest Lords,” Ilona replied. “Take my hand, Lara, and remember. No mortal eye can see us.” Then, catching her daughter’s hand in hers, Ilona uttered the silent spell.

  Take us back in time to see,

  This bit of faerie history.

  Suddenly they were in a clearing deep within the forest. A beautiful pale colored roe deer with a jeweled collar about its neck dashed into the clearing, panting. Lara could hear the baying of the dogs close by, and the shouts of huntsmen upon their horses crashing through the woodland. The deer stood gasping for breath, for she had led the hunters a merry chase the whole day long. Both dogs and horsemen burst into the clearing simultaneously. The dogs surrounded the deer, snapping and barking, while the mounted men quickly drew their bows, notching them with arrows.

  But the roe deer changed suddenly into a beautiful young faerie woman who laughed at the surprise upon the rough faces staring down at her. “How foolish you Forest Lords are,” she mocked them. “Did it not occur to you that a roe deer with a jeweled collar about its neck was of the magic world? Do you usually waste a day chasing after such creatures?” And she laughed again at them.

  Following their leader, a young man who was called Ubel, the men dismounted. The lust they had had for the hunt was dissolving into lust of another kind as they viewed the beautiful faerie woman, who was arrayed in sheer golden diaphanous garments, the jeweled collar twinkling about her slender white neck. They stared at her.

  Lara and Ilona both could feel the fear suddenly rising in the faerie woman who was called Nixa. Her powers had been exhausted keeping herself in the form of a roe deer, and leading the chase the day long. It was then Lara realized that had the Forest Lords not been so full of themselves that day, the history of Hetar might have been different. But the hunters were angry at the faerie woman who had made fools of them. And they would be forced to return home empty-handed.

  “You owe us a forfeit, faerie woman,” Ubel snarled at her.

  “I cannot change your stupidity into intelligence,” Nixa told him foolishly.

  The hunters surrounding her growled, fully understanding the insult directed at them. Instinctively they moved closer to her. Lara could smell the lust on them, and saw several cocks, Ubel’s among them, pressing an outline against their trousers. Then without warning the young man’s big hand shot out, catching at Nixa’s long blond hair.

  He flung her to the mossy earth. The faerie woman’s head hit a small rock rendering her too dizzy to defend herself as, standing over her, Ubel loosened his garments and fell to the ground, his knees pinioning her tightly. He tore her sheer clothing from her so that she was completely naked. Then, taking his cock in his hand, he positioned himself as she began to regain full consciousness. As her startled eyes met his, Ubel thrust himself hard into the faerie woman’s sheath, eliciting a single scream from her.

  What a beast he is, Lara said. Much like Durga who violated me.

  Each of these men violated Nixa not once but several times, Ilona replied. We need not watch it all. It is disturbing and painful. Here is how it ended.

  Nixa lay bloodied and battered upon the mossy forest floor. Some of the hunters had not only ravaged her, they had beaten her, as well. Satisfying himself for the third time, Ubel ripped the jeweled collar from the faerie woman’s neck. Then, taking his knife from its sheath, he slowly slit her throat, taking pleasure as the deep slash he inflicted filled up with bright blood. He noted it was tinged with streaks of green. Then, rising, he straightened his garments and signaled his men to mount their horses.

  As the sound of the hooves disappeared, Ilona said in their silent language, Now let us go to the hall of the Head Forester, Ruggero, and see how he dealt with the Queen of the Forest Faeries, my mother, your grandmother, Maeve.

  And with those words Lara found herself and her mother observers in a familiar chamber, the hall of the Head Forester. She shivered, for though it had been decades since she had been in that hall as a captive, the memory was yet unpleasant. The Forest Lords sat eating and drinking. There was much laughter that night, and Lara saw that the Head Forester’s wife now wore the bejeweled collar that had belonged to Nixa.

  There was a thunderclap, a burst of violet smoke, and Lara saw her late grandmother, Maeve, Queen of the Forest Faeries appear before the High Board of the Head Forester. Lara had only known her maternal grandmother briefly in the time before she faded away, when she was so delicate and frail she could bar
ely been seen clearly at times. This Maeve, however, was powerful and filled with life. She was tall with hair so gold it glittered and bright faerie green eyes. Dressed in the colors of the autumn forest, red and gold, she pointed an elegant finger at Ruggero.

  “For centuries we have lived in peace together sharing the forest, my lord. Today, however, your men committed rapine and murder. For that you owe the Forest Faeries a forfeit, though whatever you may give us will not make up for the cruel death of the faerie woman Nixa,” Maeve said. Her anger was palpable, but she restrained it for the alliance between her people and these mortals had been a long one.

  “Come, Maeve, and be reasonable. If she had teased the hunting party but briefly and then disappeared, there would have been no ill feeling toward her. But she taunted my men the day long. We are deep into Autumn, and every day we lose is food lost for the Icy Season to come.”

  “Justice demands a life for a life,” Maeve said in a cold hard voice. “I want five of the hunters who ravaged and killed poor Nixa in exchange for her life. Our value in the Cosmos is greater than yours, though you will not understand that. It is fair.”

  “She got what she deserved, and it should stand as a lesson to your faerie folk to cease their teasing of our foresters. You call it playfulness, but it is not. Your young faeries torment us, and it must now cease.”

  Lara could see her grandmother was holding back her anger. “Return Nixa’s jeweled collar to me then, Ruggero,” she said.

  The Head Forester’s wife tugged his sleeve and Ruggero said, “Nay, Queen Maeve. It will serve as a forfeit for my hunters’ wasted day.”

  “A final time I ask you for justice, Ruggero of the Forest Lords. If you will not give me five of your hunters then give me the leader of this pack of wild dogs you set upon one of my people. And I will have the collar returned,” Maeve said. “I will give you a month’s time to reconsider your decision.”

  “No amount of time will ever make me turn over any of my people to you, Queen Maeve! What is done is done, and you must abide by it.”

  As Lara watched she could see her grandmother’s fury and outrage burst forth even as Og had said when he had first told her the story.

  Maeve now raised her left hand. “I curse the Forest Lords, Ruggero. You who are so proud of your pure heritage, who call yourselves the oldest race in Hetar. From this day forward, the women of your kind will never bear children. Neither sons nor daughters. If you wish to propagate yourselves, you will have to mate with outsiders. Your bloodlines will be tainted, and in a few generations it will cease to dominate. All traces of what you were will disappear. The daughters you create with these outsiders will be infertile, or only capable of bearing daughters. Those of your women now carrying babies will miscarry, or the children will be born dead. Your name, Ruggero, will be cursed, for your unwillingness to render me justice has brought this upon you and your kind.”

  Then Maeve pointed a long finger at the wife of the Head Forester, and the jeweled collar about her neck tightened until the woman was strangled to death. There wasn’t a sound in the hall for the Forest Lords and their women had been rendered silent with the terrible fear suddenly engulfing them. Maeve held out her hand, and the jeweled collar flew into it. “Farewell, Ruggero!” she said coldly and disappeared in another clap of thunder and violet smoke as a great wailing arose from those present.

  It’s even more dramatic than when Og first told me, Lara said to her mother. Grandmother Maeve was most impressive and at the height of her powers.

  She was, Ilona agreed. But of course when the Forest Lords realized the reality of her curse they sought the Forest Faeries out and burned our halls. We did not always live so deep in the woodlands. Afterward it was said we should have and not consorted at all with the mortal races. Let us look at more of our history.

  Suddenly the hall of the Head Forester was gone, and Lara found herself watching as her parents met. She recognized her father at once, even though she could not remember him being quite so young. His adoration of her mother, and Ilona’s love for him touched Lara. Then the scene faded, and they were again in the palace of the faerie queen, but it was not Ilona’s palace. It was Maeve’s, and Lara’s grandmother was speaking with Ilona, who was weeping.

  “Cease this foolishness, Ilona,” Maeve said. “You knew when you chose this mortal for a lover that his only use was his seed, and the need to create your daughter.”

  “But I love him, Mother!” Ilona cried out in a desperate voice.

  “Love? Pah!” Maeve said scornfully. “Faeries do not love, and those who are foolish enough to do so suffer the consequences, Ilona. You are my heir. And it is time you returned home to take up your duties and to learn from me what you will one day need to know when your time to rule comes.”

  “If I must give up John then at least let me bring Lara with me, Mother!” Ilona pleaded. “You know what will happen to her if she is left among the mortals. Hetarians disdain and look down upon children with faerie blood.”

  “Lara must grow up Hetarian,” Maeve said in a stony voice. “How can she understand mortals if she does not. Nay, Lara will remain with her father. Bid your lover farewell, Ilona, if you must, but it is now time for you to begin your training.”

  The scene was gone, to be followed by a short one in which Lara saw her mother touching the gold chain with the crystal star containing her guardian spirit about the neck of an infant girl. Ilona was weeping softly. Then both she and the scene disappeared.

  Oh, Mother, Lara said. I never really understood how difficult that was for you.

  It was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done, Ilona admitted. Even leaving your father was not as bad. He never knew it, but I blessed him with the ability to wield a sword. And with the proper training it allowed him to become the greatest swordsman Hetar had ever known. There was none before him, nor after him. He was unique in Hetar’s history, although his name has now been forgotten by those wretched mortals.

  Lara patted her mother’s hand in an attempt to comfort her. What shall we see next? she asked her mother in an attempt to distract her from the sadness.

  I will show you the Forest Lords as they are today, Ilona responded.

  And they were suddenly in the forest again. Lara saw at once the ruins of the great homes that had been built high in the enormous trees of the woodland. The village beneath the trees with its wooden, thatched-roof cottages that blended into the greenery of the forest was half in ruins. Those cottages still standing were in ill repair. The only well-kept structure in this particular village was a tavern. There had been no tavern in Lara’s time. Men lay drunk and in half stupors on the benches before the building.

  Lara’s eyes swept the square. The stone fountain was badly damaged, the once-clear water it offered was now cloudy and murky. Slovenly women were even now dipping their buckets into the water and filling them up for it was the main source of water for this village. The women, Lara noted, did not have the proud look of the Forest. Maeve’s curse had obviously come full circle, she realized.

  At the end of the village there had been a square stone building, which had been a bathhouse. It was now completely in ruins. The stone benches were gone, but the outline of the stone bathing pool was still visible, though it was filled with rubble and other garbage. Lara shook her head sadly. They are no longer what they once were. I am shocked to see such deterioration. They appear to have forgotten their heritage and their customs, Mother. Let us move on. Certainly I was not happy here, but what it has all become is very tragic to behold.

  It is, but they brought it upon themselves, Ilona replied. Then she magicked them back to her own palace in the deep forest.

  “You did not show me the Forest Giants’ fate,” Lara said when they were once again settled comfortably with cups of mint tea and a bowl of little sugar cones. She picked up a cone, dipped it into her cup and quickly ate it.

  “The end history of Og’s people was too tragic to behold,” Ilona told her da
ughter. “You knew the brutality and cruelty of the Forest Lords for yourself. I did not need to show you more of it. But they have greatly contributed to the downfall of Hetar.”

  “The City seemed peaceful enough when we visited for Kolgrim’s wedding,” Lara noted. “But then the magnates learned one thing from the Hierarch. They learned to take care of the people. Everyone I am told is housed, fed and clothed. No one goes without.”

  “What the High Council of Hetar has done is both good and evil,” Ilona told her daughter. “Aye, no citizen wants for anything, but they are virtually idle now. Each family is given an allotment of paper money each month. With this paper they buy whatever they need or want. The Council has made it the legal tender of the land. And the magnates continue to hoard their gold, their silver, their jewels. But few of the people still possess this coin. All the merchants and shopkeepers are required to accept this paper they call money. The Council did this because there was no work any longer for the majority of the population in The City. In the Midlands and Outlands the farms and vineyards are worked as always. But in The City there is no work. The paper is legal tender, and accepted even in the Coastal Kingdom. Even Terah accepts it. Did you not know that, my daughter?”

  Lara shook her head. “As Magnus Hauk’s widow there was nothing I did not have,” she said. Then she sighed. “How out of touch I became, Mother.”