A Distant Tomorrow (50 page)

Chapter 17

M
AGNUS
H
AUK
watched his wife
playing a board game with Prince Kaliq, and he was jealous. He knew he had absolutely no reason to be, but he was. That in itself added to his anger. He knew the look of intensity on Lara’s beautiful face was brought about by her concentration on the game, yet he found himself wondering if that was all she thought about.

The prince reached out with a single finger, and touched the tip of Lara’s nose. “Make your move,” he said softly, a hint of a smile upon his lips.

“Do not rush me, Kaliq,” Lara responded as she studied the pieces. “You always do that when you think you might lose,” she chuckled.

“I do not!” he denied it.

Lara laughed, and moved her game piece. “Aye, you do.”

“I think you have devised some manner of cheating that I have not yet figured out,” he said. “You have always been wickedly clever.”

Again she laughed. “I am just better at Herder than you are,” Lara told him. “Vartan and I played regularly.”

“Did he beat you?” Kaliq wanted to know.

“Now and again,” Lara admitted, “but women are really better at these games than men are, my prince. We are willing to wait for our reward, and are not so greedy.”

Kaliq moved his next piece on the board.

“Oh dear,” Lara murmured.

“What?” he demanded nervously.

“I should not have done that if I were you,” Lara said, and then she moved her final piece from the board. “I win.”

He grimaced. “I thought I had that piece blocked,” he grumbled.

“Would you like to play another game?” Lara inquired sweetly.

“And be humbled again? Nay, my love, I believe once a night is more than enough for me,” the Prince said ruefully.

“As you wish, my lord Prince,” Lara replied.

“It is late,” Magnus Hauk said loudly. They had been speaking as if he were not even there. “We should get some rest. I have been considering that it is past time we went home to Terah. I have been gone far too long.”

“Yes,” Lara agreed, not recognizing his pique. “I should pay a visit to the new Outlands to see how they are all getting on there. The rest of Hetar can wait.”

“You have other duties, Domina,” Magnus said sharply. “There is the small matter of an heir for Terah that should come before anything else.”

“I told you that I would give you an heir when I deemed the time right,” Lara responded. “I am not some brood animal, my lord Dominus.”

Kaliq felt sympathy for Magnus Hauk. He was hopelessly in love with Lara, but he was also filled with jealousy. Until he could gain a mastery of himself he was going to have difficulty with her. And Lara, the Prince thought, also needed to consider that for now, and perhaps for always, she was this man’s wife. Her destiny had not yet been fulfilled entirely, but neither was it going to be any time soon.

Lara,
he spoke to her in her thoughts.
He is jealous, poor mortal. While you and I know he has no reason to be, he does not know that. Be patient with him.

She looked directly at the Prince, and a flick of an eyelash told him she had heard. Rising from the game table she walked over to her husband. “You are right, Magnus, it is time we returned home to Terah. But a babe takes time to make. Before we set to work at such a pleasant duty I really should visit the new Outlands to be certain all is well. It is not just for myself, but it is for Terah. I have convinced you to introduce these new folk into your lands. I must be sure they have resettled well, and will be no bother to you, for that is what I promised you, Magnus, my husband. And, too, I have Vartan’s children to see. I need to know all is well with them.” She put a gentle hand on his muscled arm, and gave him a small smile. “I promised you a son, and I will give him to you in due time.”

Kaliq could sense the jealousy draining from the Dominus’s heart. His turquoise-blue eyes grew misty as they looked down at Lara. His stern features softened. Kaliq almost laughed aloud, but he kept his own handsome features blank. Lara was indeed magical, especially in her ability to cajole an angry man. But Magnus Hauk had a strength that she was going to need in the times to come. She might be cleverer, and more aware where the world around them was concerned, but Kaliq could see that the Dominus of Terah was learning quickly.

Lara turned back to the prince. “We bid you a good night, Kaliq,” she said.

He nodded, and bowed formally to them both. “When you are ready tomorrow to be transported I shall be happy to oblige you both,” he told her, and then watched as they left him. Kaliq sighed. Tomorrow he would tell them what his spies in the City had reported to the Shadow Princes today. The emperor had forced the foolish Arcas into telling him about Terah. He wanted Jonah to be transported to Terah by the Princes in order to open up direct trade negotiations. Thanks to Arcas, the Coastal Kings had now lost their monopoly on the trade with Terah.

When the next day dawned hot over the desert outside of the cliff palaces, he saw that Magnus Hauk was in a much better frame of mind. Obviously Lara had spent the night pleasuring him, and restoring his good humor. They joined him for the first meal of the day in his small private garden. The silent servants brought in bowls of ripened golden apricots, pale green grapes, and tiny yellow bananas along with individual cups of fresh yogurt. The delicate round loaf of bread with its crisp crust was fresh from the ovens and filled with berries and raisins. A dainty silver dish held sweet butter. Another contained honey in its comb. In deference to the Dominus, who ate a heartier first meal of the day, there were hard-boiled eggs in a bowl set by his place along with a plate of meat. The servants filled the goblets with fresh mixed juice.

When the meal was well underway the Shadow Prince told them of what they had learned from their informants in the City. “What do you want us to do?” he asked Magnus Hauk.

“Can you refuse to transport them?” the Dominus asked.

“The more you refuse Gaius Prospero the more he will want to come,” Lara said. “We cannot hazard that they discover the Sea of Obscura on the edge of this desert. Hetarians are not explorers by nature, but we cannot take the chance. You do not want them coming at us through the new Outlands.”

“What do you suggest?” the Shadow Prince asked her.

Lara turned to her husband. “This is your decision, Magnus, but now that they know more than we were willing to tell them, they will come. But we are still in a position to control their coming.”

The Dominus considered for several long minutes. Then turning to Kaliq he said, “What if you told them we knew that they were coming in the next year, but that we wanted them to come across the sea? To send word to us through the Coastal Kings when their ambassador was ready so we might meet his vessel, and escort it with due honor to Terah. Do you think Gaius Prospero would honor our request?”

“Aye, he very well might,” Kaliq responded. “For now he cannot go to war with you, for he is too busy in the Outlands. And he has also discovered how much land is unused within the Coastal province. He intends confiscating it for his own cultivation, I have not a doubt. That way he can control the price of food in the markets.”

“And by controlling the price of food he can control the people,” Lara murmured.

“So his only interest in Terah for the interim is to open a negotiation with us,” the Dominus said. “He’s a wily fellow, and in the end we shall have to deal with him.”

“But for now,” the Shadow Prince said, “you have time to prepare your people and your defenses against Hetar.”

“Could we not create a vacuum within the leadership of Hetar if Gaius Prospero were no longer there?” Lara wondered aloud.

“The difficulty with Gaius Prospero’s ambitions is that they have roused the ambitions of others as well,” Kaliq responded. “As long as each province was governed by its leaders and all had an equal say in the High Council, Hetar could remain at peace. But nothing remains the same forever, my friends. Ambition rises with the changing times. Hetar is overpopulated in the City and the Midlands. The rest of us have remained isolated, the Foresters because of their foolish insistence for their racial purity, the Coastal Kings because of their great distance. And we because of our magical abilities, which are not for the common folk. But all that is changing now, and we must change with it. Hetar believes it is the only world here, but it is not. And it will soon learn otherwise. Terah has known better for centuries, but there is even more here than Terah can imagine,” Kaliq told them. “It is Lara who is bringing about these changes, whether she realizes it or not. Your wife, Magnus Hauk, is very important in the scheme of things.”

“What is she to do?” the Dominus asked, curious.

“Exactly what she is doing,” Kaliq replied, and Magnus looked confused.

Lara laughed. “It is the Prince’s duty to be oblique, Husband,” she told him.

“My destiny seems to unfold slowly like a bolt of heavy rich cloth. If you have told us all we need to know, Kaliq, then perhaps it is time for Magnus and me to go home to Terah.”

The Shadow Prince turned to the Dominus. “When we are requested to transport Hetar’s emissary to Terah we will refuse, and suggest the more formal route you have presented to us. The emperor will be impatient and irritated by the delay, but we will see he acquiesces for if the truth be known he has no other choice. And we will warn you well in advance of their request and their coming,” he told them.

“Keep them from your desert, Kaliq,” Lara said. “They have already encroached along its scrublands, I am told.”

“No longer,” he replied. “They found it too inhospitable, and besides now they have the Outlands in which to expand. It is a far more pleasant land,” Kaliq chuckled. “We seemed to have an unusual number of sandstorms and ferocious heat waves in the scrubland in recent months. Those poor Midlanders could not take it. They fled back to the overcrowded farms of their families very quickly. The emperor then sent a delegation at the request of the Squire. They came back declaring the scrubland useless and uninhabitable even for goats and scorpions. The emperor will not intrude upon us again. He sees no profit in our desert, and believes we spend all our time tending to the horses we sell into Hetar. He told me himself it must be difficult work, given the sandstorms and the lack of useful vegetation.”

“Does he not know of your palaces, and that magnificent fertile valley between the cliffs?” Magnus Hauk asked, surprised. “Where does he imagine you live?”

“Few in Hetar know of our valley,” the prince said. “Those who have traveled our province believe we reside in the tent encampments they see scattered about the desert.”

“What of the Taubyl Traders?” Lara wondered.

“We conduct our negotiations with them from magnificent tents below the cliffs,” he told them. “Few strangers have ever entered our palaces, or seen our valley. And those few who have are relieved of the memory of it before we send them back. And to those to whom we have given sanctuary, like the Mercenary, Wilmot, and his old mother, Dame Mildred, they do not go out into the world again. It would not be safe for them.”

“How are they?” Lara asked him.

“Wilmot was a bit restless until your giant, Og, asked him for his aid with the horses. As for Dame Mildred she is most content, and spends her time with Og’s wife and children. You did not see them, did you?”

Lara shook her head. “Nay. I did not want to answer all the questions that Wilmot would surely have for me.”

“Then it is time for you to go,” Kaliq said.

“Transport me to the new Outlands,” Lara said.

“Wife!” the Dominus protested.

“It is easier,” Lara told him, “if I go now. It is the time of the Gathering, Magnus. I will be able to see them all, hear and soothe complaints and see my children. And Dasras is there. I shall ride him home to you within just a few weeks’ time. Please let me do this. Come if you will, but let me go.”

“I need to get back to the castle,” he said. Then he sighed. “Very well, Lara, go to that great fertile plain you call the new Outlands, and reassure yourself that all is well, but then return to me.”

“Before I do I would have you come to your new subjects so that they may render their tribute to you for the year,” she said.

He nodded. “I will come when you want me, my faerie love.”

She smiled at him, and then going to Kaliq, put her arms about his neck and kissed his cheek. “Thank you, dear friend,” she said.

The Shadow Prince saw the fire blaze up in Magnus Hauk’s eyes. He returned Lara’s kiss and then set her back. “I shall set you down in the middle of Rendor’s hall,” he said, and with a quick wave of his hand he transported her.

Rendor of the Felan started as Lara materialized before his high board. Rahil, his wife gave a little scream of surprise.

“Greetings, old friends,” Lara said to them.

Rendor stood up, and coming forward embraced Lara. “I know I should not be so startled, but your method of entrance always amazes me. Welcome, Lara! Come up to the board, and have some wine.”

“It is morning in the palace of Prince Kaliq,” Lara said. She accepted the goblet he offered her, and drank deeply of it. “Rahil, you are looking well. Now tell me how has this relocation gone for the clan families?”