The Twilight Lord (3 page)

“May I go now and tell Noss that I am sorry, Mother?” Anoush said.

“Give me a kiss first, my daughter,” Lara said, wrapping her arms about the child and hugging her. “I will try not to leave you again, Anoush, but know wherever I am that I love you with all of my heart.” She kissed her daughter’s cheek as Anoush rose from her seat and then, giving her a little push, sent her off to find Noss.

Dillon appeared from out of the afternoon shadows and came to sit at Lara’s feet.

“How much did you hear?” Lara asked her son.

“Only the end,” he said. “Do not be lulled by her acquiescence, Mother. Anoush is a very willful girl. It is not Grandmother you need worry about—it is Cam. He will not like it that she is no longer available to him. When I found them today, they were in the grass and my cousin had his hand on my sister’s in a most proprietary manner.”

“I think Cam must be sent to our Sholeh in New Rivalen,” Lara answered her son calmly. “He is old enough to work in the fields until it is time for the Gathering. I had intended to remain in the New Outlands until after it concluded, but I think now I must take you both home sooner. Bera may protest the loss of Cam at first but then she will be silent. I shall ask this of Liam when he comes home today. You will tell him what you saw and he will do this for me. Where is Zagiri?”

“She fell asleep and so Noss laid her down for a nap,” the boy answered.

“Have you released Dasras into the meadows?”

“Aye, and he immediately found Sakiri and their latest foal,” Dillon said.

“After he has sated himself with her company he will fly off to the Aghy,” Lara chuckled. “He is of a mind to visit Roan’s new young mares.”

“His offspring have increased the stamina and beauty of the Horse Lord’s herds,” Dillon remarked. “Will I like Terah, Mother?”

“It will be different for you,” Lara said, “but aye, I believe you will like it. And there is so much that you can learn. You will need to know everything that you can absorb, Dillon, before you go Prince Kaliq to study the magical arts. I am frankly surprised by your talents, my son, for you are but a quarter faerie.”

“I don’t know if what I possess is so much magic as it is intuitiveness. I see things that others do not, Mother. And I sense things, too—like I knew you were coming today. You had sent no faerie post, but I knew.”

“This is a great gift, Dillon,” his mother said. “And Kaliq will help you to refine your gift and use it for the good.”

“Anoush has a gift, too, Mother,” Dillon told her.

“Does she?” Lara was surprised. “And what is it, my son?”

“She is clever with plants and herbs. It is not magic of course, but I believe if her interest continues she might become an excellent healer,” the boy said.

“I offered her a garden,” Lara replied thoughtfully. “She seemed pleased by the notion she might have one of her own. Thank you, Dillon. This will be the means by which I win her back and bind her to the light.”

“I am so glad that you have come, Mother,” he told her.

Liam, lord of the Fiacre, came now from the kitchen. “Welcome, Domina,” he greeted her with a smile. He was holding a pitcher in one hand and refilled her cup with frine as he sat down to join her, sipping from his own cup. “Noss tells me you would take your children with you when you return home. We will miss them.”

“I will return them to the Fiacre each summer, and if they choose they may remain through the Gathering time,” Lara responded. “But it is now time for them to be with Magnus and me. They both know their parentage and their history.”

He nodded in understanding. “The children of Vartan will always be welcome here among their Fiacre kinsmen and women.”

Reaching down, Lara drew her son to his feet. “Go and stay with your sisters, for I must speak with Liam privately,” she told him and Dillon immediately left them.

“What is it?” Liam asked her. “Is there trouble coming of some sort?”

Lara laughed. “Nay, not any of which I am aware. I need a favor from you, lord of the Fiacre. I want to send Cam away while I am here with my children. Both he and Bera have been filling Anoush’s little head with all manner of lies. Had I not come when I did today they might very well have stolen my daughter and dragged her into their dark world. Once the children are in Terah, neither Bera nor Cam can harm them. We will not be able to keep Anoush from running off to find Cam if he is here. We cannot watch her constantly. As for Bera we must find a good woman to live with her and care for her.”

“Where will you send the lad?” Liam asked. “I can certainly think of a few places,” he added with a chuckle.

“To Sholeh in New Rivalen. She is kin to you both and as headwoman of her village, she has both authority and strength. Cam could be put to work in the fields until the harvest. That should keep him busy and out of trouble,” Lara said.

“Aye, he is old enough,” Liam agreed. “We will have to send a faerie post to Sholeh and request her aid in this matter.”

“Nay, I will go myself, for we are asking a great favor of her and it is in my interests that we need her help,” Lara said. She stood up from the table. “Would you mind if I went now, Liam?”

“Shall I have Dasras caught and saddled?” the lord of the Fiacre asked her.

“Nay,” Lara told him, and with a delicate wave of her hand she disappeared in a faint cloud of mauve smoke.

Liam stared and then he laughed weakly. How long had he known her, and still Lara’s growing magic always surprised him.

But he was no more surprised than Sholeh, the headwoman of New Rivalen, who jumped back as Lara suddenly appeared before her in her chamber. “Gracious!” She jumped to her feet, dropping the brush in her hand for she had been in the middle of brushing her long auburn hair. “Lara! Is it really you?” She immediately embraced her visitor.

“Aye, ’tis me, Sholeh,” Lara said.

“How can I serve you, Domina?” Sholeh was suddenly very formal for she was more than aware Lara’s visit was hardly a casual one.

“I have come to ask a great favor of you,” Lara began.

“Anything!” Sholeh responded.

Lara laughed. “Wait until I have told you what it is I want,” she said. Then she explained what Bera and Cam had been doing to her little daughter. “I came to the New Outlands with the express purpose of visiting and then returning with both of Vartan’s children to Terah. It is time they were with me again.”

Sholeh nodded her agreement and then listened as Lara continued.

“It would be too difficult and cause great dissension between my daughter and me if I had to keep her from Cam. I can only keep them apart if Cam is not there. I would have you take the boy until the Gathering. He is young, but he can be put to work in the fields, and herding cattle. Keep him busy. Hopefully that will keep him from getting into trouble. He will be so charming and polite with you that you will wonder to yourself why I sent him away. But believe me when I say that Cam, son of Adon, is filled to overflowing with wickedness,” Lara said.

“I know he is,” Sholeh responded. “I saw him with his grandmother as he twisted poor Bera’s words and thoughts. I am not fooled by his soft-spoken demeanor, Lara. Aye, I will take him and keep him tightly reined. You will want him gone quickly, I assume. What will you do with Bera?”

“We will find a good woman to live with her for she really is no longer capable of caring for herself. The woman will remain when Cam returns home after the Gathering,” Lara told Sholeh. “Will you return with me now to New Camdene?”

“I suppose we will be transported by means of your magic,” Sholeh said nervously. “Well, no matter. Come into the hall with me, and we will tell the servants so they do not worry when I am suddenly gone.”

The two women left the chamber and went into the hall where, seeing Lara, the servants greeted her with smiles.

“I am going to take your mistress with me to New Camdene,” she said. “I will return her on the morrow.” Then with a wave of her hand they were gone from before the servants’ startled eyes.

As they rematerialized beneath the pergola in Liam’s hall, Lara said, “There now, Sholeh, that didn’t hurt at all, did it?” And she laughed.

Sholeh laughed, too. “It is a convenient mode of transport, I will admit, but it still makes me nervous and you know I fear nothing.”

“It is getting cool out here and the sun is setting,” Lara remarked. “Let us go into the hall. I smell food and if there is one thing about me that is solely mortal it is my appetite. I am ravenous, Sholeh, and could eat an entire side of one of Liam’s cows.”

Warned by her husband, Noss showed no surprise when the two women entered her hall. She greeted Sholeh respectfully as an elder of the clan family and as headwoman of New Rivalen. Then she beckoned the two to be seated at her high board. There were only the four adults, Noss’s children and Lara’s having been fed earlier. They had already gone back outside to play in the long summer twilight.

“Sholeh has agreed to take Cam until the Gathering time,” Lara told Liam and Noss. “I will transport them back to New Rivalen in the morning.”

“And I know just the woman to care for Bera,” said Noss. “She is newly widowed, and her son would like to wed but what woman will come into a house with another woman in it? This will solve both of their problems and when Bera has departed this life we will give the woman her own cottage.”

“Make certain she you have chosen is not easily deluded by Bera—and later, Cam. I do not want the history of Vartan’s life destroyed by their lies,” Lara said.

“You can speak with the woman yourself and make the decision tomorrow,” Liam suggested. “It was bad enough when they poisoned little Anoush’s mind, but we cannot have their prevarications harming our people. There are always those who are quick to believe the worst or who enjoy blackening the reputations of heroes. It is five years since Vartan’s death. His legend remains but his influence has faded from the Fiacre. And there are those, too, who never trusted you, Lara, because of your Hetarian birth, although they have certainly profited by your faerie nature. Any rumor begun among us will eventually spread to the other clan families. We cannot allow divisions to separate us now that we are relatively safe once again.”

“Thank you, Liam,” Lara said to him. “Your friendship is precious to me. You are as safe as any peoples here, but I am concerned not just with Hetar but with the Dark Lands to our north. Hetar is an ocean away. But the other…” She sighed. “Does anyone know of the people who inhabit that place? It seems to be all mountains.”

“None of our folk have ventured north,” Liam said. “Those mountains, unlike the Emerald Range that separates us from Terah proper, seem threatening. All the clan families have enough lands where we are. Our territories are at least twice as large as those we held previously. Why do the Dark Lands concern you, Lara?”

“I am not certain, but I sense a threat from them,” she answered. “The first time I saw them, I was on Dasras’s back and observing the sea creatures frolicking in the sea we call Obscura. Those mountains drew my eye, and I was almost overwhelmed by the aura of darkness that emanated from them.”

“We have never seen any signs of life from them,” Liam told her. “I wonder if they are even inhabited. They certainly appear to be inhospitable.”

“Aye,” Lara replied slowly. Then she shook off the feeling of gloom that had come over her when she spoke of the Dark Lands.

Dillon came into the hall and went to his mother. “Anoush has gone to our grandmother’s house,” he told her.

“I will fetch her,” Sholeh said standing up. “I want to see how Bera is faring.”

She hurried from the hall with Dillon by her side.

“You see how it is?” Lara said to Liam.

“Cam will be gone on the morrow,” Noss soothed, “and you will not have to see him again. Frankly I’ll be glad to have him out of the village. Whenever he ventures out he always manages to cause trouble among the other children. There are several who are fascinated by him, but then there are always those who cannot help being drawn by the darkness and then into it.”

“You are such a tattletale,” Anoush complained to her brother as they returned together to the hall.

“You were told not to go back there,” he countered.

“You are not my master, Brother. I do what pleases me,” Anoush snapped.

“You are not old enough to do as you please,” he replied.

“I am six,” Anoush answered, “and that is old enough.”

“Ah, children, here you are,” Lara came toward them smiling. “I believe it is time for you to go to bed, Anoush.” She took her daughter by her hand and led her away.

Dillon grinned after them. “My mother is surely the cleverest woman alive,” he said with a chuckle.

“And you are much too wise for a boy so young,” Noss told him, ruffling his hair.

“My soul, I think, is as old as time itself, dearest Noss,” he answered.

“You will do well one day with the Shadow Princes,” Noss said.

“My mother says I am not yet ready,” he replied sadly.

“Do not stop trusting your mother now, Dillon,” Noss advised. “She has never failed any of us. If she says you must wait, then accept her decision and be patient.”

“I will,” he told her but his tone was reluctant.

“Go and fetch the boys for me,” she said. “It is time they went to bed, too.”

With a quick smile he ran off to do her bidding.

Noss looked out over the darkening landscape. A warm summer breeze touched her cheek and pushed at a loose strand of her hair. It sometimes seemed only yesterday she was a frightened girl from The City sold into slavery by her parents. So much had happened in the years that had passed. She often wondered if her parents still lived, and considered what they would think of the good fortune that had given her a wonderful noble husband, three healthy sons and a respected place in her community.

And Lara. Without Lara she might have ended up a concubine to a Forest Lord, only to be killed when she had delivered a healthy son for her master. She shivered and shook off the black thought. She was the lady Noss, wife to the lord of the Fiacre. She was loved, and she was safe. There was peace and they were far from Hetar. It was enough, she thought as she rubbed her distended belly and felt the child within move lustily. “I am going to call you Mildri,” she whispered softly to herself, smiling. And then her three sons came running toward her and Noss laughed with her happiness.