The Shadow Queen (17 page)

“Still,” Lothair said, “it was the Darkling who brought Zagiri across the Dream Plain. If the Darkling is the one who threatened Vilia in the first place why would she help her? There is more to this, brother.”

“The Darkling’s name is Ciarda,” Kaliq said.

“The word itself means
dark,
” Lothair remarked. “Is she beautiful?”

“Very,” Kaliq replied. “I should have enjoyed taking pleasures with her but that she is an enemy. Her aura is violet, and it shimmers around her. She told me that her sisters had given her their powers, and then she was gone.” He sighed. “I need to know more of this creature. I can scent wickedness in the very air, Lothair. It has penetrated even here to Shunnar. Gather those of our brothers who are strongest now, and go forth to seek any who would call himself the Hierarch. It is not like us to be caught off guard. Something evil is brewing, and I would know what it is.”

“Agreed,” Lothair said. Then he was gone from Kaliq’s presence.

The great Shadow Prince sat for some time considering his next move. He could sense that this was the most dangerous game he had played in some time. He drew his cloak tightly about him and in the silent language of magic he spoke the spell.
Take me to where the Darkling lies. Reveal me not before her eyes.
He found himself in a small room. Ciarda sat brushing her long dark hair. Her beautiful coloring reminded him of Lara’s youngest daughter, Marzina. And suddenly Kaliq knew. Ciarda was either a daughter or a sister of Kol, the imprisoned Twilight Lord.

Ciarda laid the hairbrush aside. She shrugged her diaphanous lavender robe aside, and said aloud, “Rolf, Rolf, hear my plea. Cease all else, and come to me.”

And a young Wolfyn appeared before Ciarda. Yanking her into his arms, he kissed her greedily while his paw hand kneaded at one of her breasts. “Prepare for me!” he growled, and when she fell upon her hands and knees he quickly mounted her, thrusting into the Darkling, leaning forward to bite her neck. Ciarda moaned with open pleasure.

Hidden in the shadows, Kaliq watched impassively. Wolfyn were more animal than anything else. The creature would not be long, and then perhaps Kaliq would overhear something of interest. The Darkling continued to whimper, her cries finally rising with her needy satisfaction, and finally the Wolfyn howled his satisfaction before releasing Ciarda. He was young, Kaliq noted, and handsome for his kind.

“How are my brothers?” Ciarda asked her lover.

“Their factions cannot keep from quarrelling and causing trouble,” Rolf replied. “You will have to return to the Dark Land, Ciarda, and correct this. Old Alfrigg has his hands full, and he just isn’t up to the job. Did you get the princess for the Lord High Ruler? Remember you promised me I might have her when we destroy Hetar.”

Ciarda drew on her robe again. “You will have her, Rolf,” she promised. “And yes, he has made her his wife. Zagiri is Lord Jonah’s weakness. He actually loves her. As for the girl, she is besotted by him, and so eager to please. She studies with two rather delicious sex slaves so she may give him the finest pleasures.”

Rolf licked his lips with his long tongue. “I shall look forward to having her one day,” he growled. “Let me see her, Ciarda! Please!”

Ciarda laughed, but she reached up and took down a small crystal globe from a shelf, handing it to him. “Gaze into it, and behold,” she said.

Rolf looked down into the ball cradled in his hands. He could see the beautiful golden princess as she made love to, and was given pleasures in return by, Lord Jonah. He licked his lips again several times imagining the softness of her skin, the scent of her. His male member twitched eagerly.

Seeing it, Ciarda snatched the crystal globe away from the young Wolfyn. She was in no mood to be plundered by him again tonight. “Tell Alfrigg that I want a meeting with my brothers, Rolf. The sooner the better. It is almost time for me to bring the Hierarch out into the open. It will cause a war between his followers, and those who follow Jonah. And then we will take Hetar with virtually no loss to ourselves. They will not triumph over the darkness this time.”

“Your father would be proud of you, Ciarda,” Rolf said.

“My father had no real use for any of his daughters,” she replied. “Only the birth of the next Twilight Lord was of interest to him. Then that damned faerie woman he insisted upon mating with caused us chaos by birthing twin sons. And when she escaped him he would not let it go. He had to invade her consciousness upon the Dream Plain. We all know how that turned out,” Ciarda said bitterly. “We are unable to release him, Rolf. The Shadow Princes have made it impossible. But I will complete what he began. The conquest of first Hetar, and then Terah.”

“I tell you again, Ciarda, that your father would be very pleased with you. It is unfortunate that you are a female. You would make a great ruler,” Rolf said.

She smiled at him. “Thank you,” she said, and with a wave of her hand she sent him back to his own time and place.

Kaliq had heard enough. He willed himself back to his palace in Shunnar. So the Darkling was the daughter of Kol. Kaliq chuckled to himself. He had seen the quick look on Ciarda’s face when the young Wolfyn had said she would be a great ruler. There was no doubt in the Shadow Prince’s mind that that was exactly what the girl meant to do. She would use her twin brothers’ forces to take Hetar after they had been weakened by their own civil war. The brothers would perish before it was all over, and the beautiful Darkling would attempt a coup. She would probably succeed, too. Kaliq chuckled again. Ciarda was worthy of his admiration. It was a very clever plan. The trick, of course, would be to keep Ciarda bottled up in the Dark Lands.

Oddly her observation about Jonah and Zagiri was, he considered, good news. Lara might not think it so, but the fact that the Lord High Ruler of Hetar, an ambitious and ruthless scoundrel, loved Zagiri was encouraging. Not that Kaliq believed that the girl’s love for Jonah would change him. It wouldn’t. But unless Zagiri grew disillusioned with her husband and rebelled against him, she would be safe, for Jonah would protect her. He would attempt to convince Lara of that fact, but his beloved faerie woman retained a mortal’s emotions where her children were concerned. She had lost her firstborn to Belmair, her second to the New Outlands.

To lose the first of the children she had borne Magnus Hauk so soon after the other two was difficult for her, especially as she had promised Marzina that she might go to her grandmother in the Forest Kingdom when the Icy Season came. Now she would not want to allow Marzina to leave, Kaliq knew, but he must convince her otherwise. Marzina, like her mother, was extraordinarily magically talented, and, like her mother, would certainly have a destiny to live out. As the Shadow Prince had anticipated, Lara was not happy with the news he brought her.

“How can she be happy with
that
man, Kaliq?
How?
Jonah is a vicious snake!” Lara’s beautiful gilt-colored hair swirled about her as she paced back and forth.

“I cannot disagree with you regarding Jonah’s character,” Kaliq said quietly. “But Zagiri has fallen madly in love with him, and he is utterly besotted by her. There is no enchantment here. Hetar suits your daughter. She appears to adore the many luxuries it offers her, and Lady Farah has seen her trained to both give and receive pleasures. Her passions, like yours, my love, run very deep. She is content, and she is safe.”

“For now,” Lara answered him. “What else have you learned, my lord?”

Kaliq told her about Ciarda, and the plans she had.

“Indeed,” Lara said softly. “So Kol sired a daughter before his sons.”

“Several, it would appear, though how many I do not know. I would have thought him more prudent,” the Shadow Prince observed.

“And so he may have been,” Lara responded. “Ciarda probably lied to you, but then again there might be others. And this Darkling would kill Kol’s sons, would she? Interesting, my lord. Is it possible that we can alert Alfrigg to her plotting?”

“Not yet, my love,” Kaliq said. “I am not certain if he sides with one of the twins, or if he has decided to support Ciarda.”

“Alfrigg is a man who believes strongly in the traditions of the Dark Lands,” Lara told Kaliq. “I do not think he would favor Kol’s daughter over one of his sons. He probably has not chosen a side at all. He will remain neutral until one of Kol’s sons triumphs over the other. Then he will declare his loyalty to the victor.”

“They are your sons, too,” Kaliq reminded Lara. “Have you no feeling for them at all, my love?”

“None!” Lara told him. “Kol forced his spawn upon me. Turning the one into two was the only way I managed to triumph over the darkness for us all. And I could not have done it without your help, Kaliq. ’Twas you who got the Munin to return my memories to me, else I should have perished in the Dark Lands.”

“It matters not to you that your sons will be murdered by the Darkling in her attempt to grasp her father’s power?” Kaliq asked quietly.

Lara shook her head stubbornly. “Do not ask me to care about them, Kaliq. I do not know them, nor they me. They are their father’s sons, not mine. And as Kol’s sons it will take more than a Darkling to destroy them. Remember their birth was meant to cause chaos in the Dark Lands.”

“But if their lives are taken, and Ciarda can make good her ambition to rule in her father’s place, both Hetar and Terah once again stand in danger from the darkness,” Kaliq said. “You know we cannot let that happen, my love.”

“Then what would you have us do, my lord?” Lara demanded of him.

“First,” he said, “Marzina must go to Ilona, for only her grandmother can protect her from what may come. Your daughter will be needed in the future.”

“I have lost my three oldest children, Kaliq, and now you would have me part with my youngest?”

He laughed aloud at her outrage. “Think, beloved! Do not let that tiny bit of you that is mortal rule your cold faerie heart. Marzina longs to go to her grandmother to learn all that Ilona can teach her about magic, and you promised her that she could. Perhaps after you have returned from The Gathering rather than waiting for the Icy Season,” he suggested. “Then we only have Taj to protect. As both of us will be going back and forth to manage this situation, one boy is easier to manage than three children. And there is the matter of the Hierarch. I do not know enough yet about him, and he represents a danger to Hetar.”

“I will speak to Taj and Marzina,” Lara agreed finally, sitting down next to him. “How can you be so calm about all of this, Kaliq?”

The Shadow Prince chuckled. “These past few years have been quiet, my love. Are you not ready for a few more adventures? Has your life not been just a bit dull while you played at being a wife and a mother to your five children?”

“I never played at being either a wife or a mother. I loved being Magnus’s wife. I loved mothering my children,” Lara said softly.

“And you almost forgot that fate has a destiny planned for you,” Kaliq told her.

“Every step of my life has been a part of my destiny,” Lara responded.

“You have been but marking time,” the Shadow Prince said. “Now the wheel of life has begun to move again for you.”

She sighed deeply. “I know. I sense the changes coming. I will not be allowed to simply live quietly like a mortal.” She reached up, and touched the crystal star she had worn about her neck her entire life. “I can feel Ethne, my guardian spirit, growing restless within her crystal. And Andraste has of late begun to hum above the hearth in the Great Hall where she waits for me,” Lara said. “When Magnus was killed I knew the time was near when my life would begin to shift once more. Yet I hoped it was not so. I have been so happy in Terah, Kaliq.”

“If you choose, Terah can always be your home, my love,” he said to her. “I had hoped that you would consider Shunnar your home.”

Lara looked sharply at him. “That you still love me after all these years,” she said. “I have let two mortal men into my cold faerie heart, Kaliq. Both are dead too soon.”

“But I am a Shadow Prince, and I have lived forever,” he replied with a small smile. He leaned forward to kiss her lush mouth.

Lara melted into the kiss. No one had ever kissed her quite like Kaliq, and she sighed happily. She had never really been able to resist him. He was the ultimate in pure magic. They broke off their embrace, and her green eyes looked into his blue ones.

“One day,” he told her.

“One day what?” she queried him.

“One day you will be mine forever, my love,” he answered her.

“Did you not once tell me that such a thing was not meant to be?” Lara said.

“I also told you I could not father children,” he replied with a wicked smile. “Yet we have a son who rules in Belmair, do we not? If I had not lied to you then you should not have gone forth from Shunnar as you were meant to do. You were so very young then, Lara, filled with both passion and idealism. You would have never discovered your greatness as it was intended you do, nor accomplished all you have accomplished. I could not allow you to stay, and so I lied to you then. Now, however, is a different time.”

“And now,” she answered him, “I am not quite so idealistic, my lord Kaliq. As the truth of my heritage has been revealed I have become more faerie with but a touch of mortal. I do not know if I have it in me to love again as I have in the past.”

“You love me now,” he said with just a hint of arrogance in his voice. “One day you will admit it, Lara, my love. And then you will make Shunnar your home again.”

She laughed, for suddenly she felt as if she were almost on an equal footing with the great Shadow Prince. “But until that time I may take lovers,” she said.

He shrugged. “As will I,” he returned playfully. Then he grew more serious. “I must set my brothers in Hetar to seek out all they can learn about the Hierarch.”

“Aye, for if we can stop him before a civil war is begun we can stop Ciarda from moving out of the Dark Lands and into Hetar,” Lara said.

“You might have to choose sides in the Dark Lands,” Kaliq told her.

“Why?” Lara wanted to know.