Lara (31 page)

“He has a wife and son now,” Lara said cruelly.

“Does he?” Ilona murmured.

“And he is a Crusader Knight,” she continued.

“Then his wife brought him the riches he needed to gain that goal. Oh, I am glad!” Ilona cried. “I offered him faerie gold, but he would not take it. Your father is a very proud man, but you know that.”

“My father sold me into slavery to gain his goal, but do not be angered. I agreed to it, Mother. There was nothing else for me, as we were always poor. No man would have me without a dowry portion despite my beauty. In fact, my faerie beauty frightened many. The Master of the Merchants purchased me, and meant to resell me into one of the City’s Pleasure Houses, but my beauty caused dissension among the Pleasure Mistresses. So I was consigned to a Taubyl Trader, and the Head Forester and his brother paid a small fortune for me because they believed the child of a half faerie girl would free them from Maeve’s curse, poor fools. Knowing naught of my faerie heritage, I did not realize that because I hated them, their seed would not flourish in my womb.”

“How did you learn of it?” Ilona asked quietly. Her daughter’s recitation was so bitter, and she could see Lara was angry.

“Og, the Forest giant, told me. It was he who aided me to escape. He now takes care of the prince’s horses,” Lara said.

“I had thought the Forest giants were extinct,” Ilona said softly. “We did not learn of their massacre until after it had happened.”

“He was in his mother’s womb. She fled only to be caught several years later when they slew her,” Lara replied. “The Foresters do not know that giant memory is passed on in the womb. They did not want the shame of Maeve’s curse made public.”

“No, they would not,” Ilona said. “The Foresters know nothing outside of their own world, nor do they want to know. I am sorry for what has happened.”

“According to my grandmother it is my fate, my destiny,” Lara responded sharply. “She blames my father, but I do not.”

“Nay, you shouldn’t. I know that your father loves you, and did what he believed was best for you. He might, however, have called upon me, and I would have aided him. He might have asked for my help. I would have given it, and surely he knew that. But your father was ever stubborn, yet had he really considered you at all, he could have called upon me. After all, you are my child, too. I am the one who carried you beneath my heart until your birth, and it was he who drove me away. If he had but asked, it could have been easier.” Then catching herself she said, “But John was always an over-proud man. Tell me of his wife?”

“Susanna is a good woman. She was kind to me, and we were friends. But I think she was jealous that you had first captured my father’s heart,” Lara said. “And I was a reminder of you. At least my grandmother was not there to remind her constantly of how I resemble you.”

“Ina is dead then?” Ilona did not sound grief-stricken.

“Several years now, yes.”

“Your father’s sword skills, of course, helped him win his matches at tournament time,” Ilona said. “So now he lives well with a new wife and a son. His daughter, his old life in the Quarter, is behind him. And you have begun your journey, Lara. It will not be an easy one, I fear.” She reached out, and touched the girl’s face. “Do not be angry with me, my daughter. I have never stopped loving you, and I left Ethne to protect you as best she might. Her powers are very limited, however, as you have learned.”

“What of my powers?” Lara wanted to know. “Do I have any?”

“Do you want them?” Ilona said.

“Yes! I want them because I never again want to be at any man’s mercy, Mother! I am not afraid of this journey, this destiny you all prattle about, but I must be as well-equipped as any soldier if I am to survive and triumph.”

Ilona waved her hand, and two goblets appeared, floating in the air before the women. The faerie reached out and, taking a goblet, offered it to Lara. “Let us sit and talk more,” Ilona said, and there was a bench in the mist where they had stood speaking. She drew her daughter down to sit beside her. “Tell me which of the Shadow Princes is your host?”

“Prince Kaliq,” Lara said.

“What has he taught you so far?”

“To enjoy passion. To control it so I remain the dominant,” Lara said. “I lost my virginity to Enda, brother of the Head Forester. While easier than Durga, he was still a beast. I despised them both. But with Kaliq it is different. I think I may even love him a little,” she admitted.

“Do not love him more than a little,” Ilona warned, but she smiled at her daughter.

Unable to help herself, Lara smiled back, feeling a sudden rush of warmth for this beautiful faerie who had given her life. “And Kaliq has brought me Master Bashkar, from whom I have learned the history of Hetar as well as its great literature and poetry.”

“Excellent,” Ilona said. “Now there remains but one thing for you to learn.”

“What is that, Mother?” Lara was curious.

“You must be taught how to fight, to protect yourself. When you have learned to defend yourself you will be ready to move on, and you must,” Ilona said. “You have a…”

“A destiny. A fate. I know! I know! But what is it?” Lara asked.

Ilona sighed. “What little I know I cannot tell you, my daughter. You may change your fate slightly now and again as you move along life’s path. If I speak on it I could spoil it. Have I not already done you enough harm?”

It was then Lara began to weep softly. “I missed you,” she sobbed. “I needed you! Why did you go?”

“I was torn between two worlds, Lara. As my mother’s only surviving child, I was chosen to follow after her as queen. Your father could not understand that a woman’s duty is every bit as important as a man’s. It was the only time he and I ever fought with one another. I offered to take him with me into my mother’s kingdom, but he would not go. As proud as he was, as duty-bound, he had his own fate to follow, too, and he would not change it to permit me to follow mine. There was no choice but to separate, and so we did. I wanted you with me. He begged I leave you. In the end I realized it was better for both you and John that you stay. Perhaps I should not have listened to his pleas. Perhaps I should have taken you with me. But I did not. Even faeries make mistakes, Lara. Will you forgive me?” Her lovely green eyes scanned her daughter’s face.

“Yes,” Lara said simply. Her whole life she had wanted her mother. What a fool she would be to turn her away now. She embraced Ilona, and kissed her cheek. Then she sighed. “We will begin anew, Mother. Now you have cleverly avoided telling me of any powers I might have. But you must, I beg you.”

Ilona laughed. “Very well,” she agreed. “I can teach you how to draw people and objects to you. I can teach you to shift your shape as does your prince. I can show you potions and lotions of interest to the human world. I know now how to be queen. I shall remain with you for a short time. It cannot make up for the years we were separated, but it will give us an opportunity to know one another better. Will that suit you, daughter?”

“Yes!” Lara responded enthusiastically. “Yes, it will!” And she laughed happily.

Ilona laughed, too, and then she said, “We must return to Prince Kaliq’s banqueting hall. His heart would be quite broken if he thought I had taken you off forever. Besides, I must return my mother to her own home shortly. She is so weak, and soon she will be faded away entirely. She can barely transport herself any longer, and coming here tonight took a great deal out of her.”

“I am so glad that I had the opportunity to meet her,” Lara said. “Will I see her again, Mother?”

“If you wish. I know it would please her greatly,” Ilona said. She waved a graceful hand, and they were returned to the prince’s banqueting hall where Maeve eagerly awaited them, smiling happily to see her daughter and her granddaughter reconciled and reunited at long last. Now she could fade away in peace.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

L
ARA
BID
HER
GRANDMOTHER
, the great Maeve, farewell. “I will see you again,” she promised the old faerie.

Maeve shook her head. “Nay, my sweet child, you will not. I came tonight because Kaliq said you were with him, and out of the great friendship I have always had for the Shadow Princes, but I am too weak to come again.”

“Then I will come to you,” Lara said.

“Nay! I will not allow you in the Forest, Lara. The Foresters have sought for a hundred years in their feeble attempts to find me. We have eluded them for all that time, but I know there could come a time when they might discover us. I would not want you there to be retaken into bondage. I will never revoke the curse I placed upon them. They were ever an arrogant people, and for centuries we overlooked their bad behavior in order to keep the peace between us. Until Nixa was murdered. A foolish faerie woman, to be sure, but she did not deserve to die the way she did.”

“I will be free soon of the Foresters’ claim,” Lara said.

“Do you think, my child, that they will heed the law? They will not, especially if they find you in their realm. I have seen you now, and you have been reunited with your mother, which was my desire. I shall fade away happily, Lara.”

“But to lose you when I have only just found you?” she protested.

Maeve smiled. “It was never meant that I be a part of your destiny, Lara. Now give me a kiss, dear girl. It is time for me to go.”

Lara put her arms about the old faerie woman and hugged her, noticing that it was almost like hugging the air. She kissed Maeve’s cheeks several times. “Goodbye, grandmother, and thank you.” She felt the tears beginning to roll down her cheeks.

Reaching out, Maeve brushed the tears away, and then before Lara’s eyes she disappeared in a cloud of pale smoke. “Goodbye, Lara.” Her reedy voice echoed softly.

“You have made her very happy,” Ilona said to her daughter. “In a few weeks she will fade away completely, and I will be the new queen of the Forest Faeries. I will have to return then, and so we have little time together.”

“I know that faeries live for several centuries, but if I am your only child, Mother, who will follow you?” Lara asked Ilona.

Ilona sighed. “Once my mother has faded and I am crowned, I must take a mate who will sire a child on me. Son or daughter, it does not matter as long as I have an heir to follow. The Forest Faeries have been ruled since the beginning of time by our family. Because you are half-human you are not eligible to follow me, Lara. Our line must remain only faerie,” she explained.

“You preserve your purity as the Forest Lords once did, and continue to pretend they are doing,” Lara remarked with a small smile.

“I suppose we do,” Ilona replied. “I never thought of it that way. But if faerie blood becomes too thin the magic disappears as well. We are pleased to mate with humans, but my heir must be all faerie.”

“Do you have someone in mind?” Lara asked her mother, curious.

Ilona nodded. “His name is Thanos. He has been my faithful suitor for many years. Since before I knew your father. He has been patient in his waiting.” She smiled. “We are friends as well as lovers now. I will make him my consort.”

“Not your king?” Lara was surprised.

“If he were king, he would take precedence over me,” Ilona said. “Nay, he will not be king. Learn from me, my daughter. You were taught by your grandmother, Ina, a good but foolish woman, to be subservient to menfolk. That is the way of it in the world of Hetar. In the faerie world, women are the equals of their men, and ofttimes their superior. Let no man tell you that you must give way to him. If you choose not to, you do not have to give way in love, or war, or anything else, Lara. This is your first lesson.”

“Will you teach your daughter faerie ways then, Ilona?” Kaliq asked, hearing her words. He smiled to see them together, so beautiful, so alike.

“Yes, prince, I will. And I will beg hospitality from you for a short time as well,” Ilona replied. “Who is your best warrior?”

“Lothair,” Kaliq said.

“I want him to begin teaching Lara how to use a bow, a sword and a staff,” Ilona told him. “She must have the ability to defend herself in this world. Her path will take her to dangerous places. I will provide her with the staff myself.”

“I hope it is like Master Bashkar’s staff, Llyr,” Lara said with a smile. “It is always scolding, and complaining, but when Llyr praises you, you know you have done not just well, but very well.”

“Aye, it is a staff with a spirit. It is called Verica, and when it speaks it gives you the advantage of surprise against your enemies,” Ilona told her daughter. “But first you will learn to fight with just a plain pole so that you come to depend on yourself alone, and not another. Prince Kaliq can tell you that warring is a hard business, whether you war for a cause within a great army, or simply for yourself against the world.”

“I will inform Lothair of your wishes, my lady Ilona, and it will be done,” the prince told her.

In the weeks that followed Lara had scarcely any time at all to herself. The days were taken up with lessons from Master Bashkar in the mornings, and from Lothair in the afternoons. Lara invited Noss to join her in learning the martial arts as well as her other studies, and Noss, to everyone’s surprise, turned out to be an archer of the first rank.

“Usually such skills are faerie,” Ilona noted.

Lara preferred the broadsword and the staff, and soon excelled with both. Each evening mother and daughter would forswear the hall, and Ilona would teach Lara how to make certain potions, how to bring objects to her when she extended her hand, and most important of all, how to change her shape. This was the faerie skill that most fascinated Lara, and the first time she was successful at it she was astounded to find herself in the shape of a cat.

Ilona laughed as the small yellow feline jumped nervously. “Is that what you meant to be, daughter?” she asked.

“Yes,” the cat replied. “I just didn’t think I could really do it.”

“Change back,” Ilona said, and Lara stood once again before her mother. “Excellent! You have a good strong mind, daughter. Now, become a bird.”

“What kind?” Lara asked.

“A songbird?” Ilona suggested.

Lara contemplated a nightingale. “Aral go!” she said, and becoming the bird she flew about the garden before lighting again upon a marble bench and saying, “Lara return! Mother, this is amazing! Can anyone do it?”

“Nay,” Ilona told her. “This is your faerie blood that now sings in your veins.”

“How long can I remain in a different shape?” Lara asked her.

“As long as you choose,” Ilona said. “But allow few to know you are capable of this magic, Lara. And only those you completely trust.”

“Just Kaliq for now,” Lara replied.

Ilona laughed. “I will not ask why,” she said, “but your secret is safe with the prince.”

That same night a faerie man appeared suddenly in Prince Kaliq’s hall as they dined.

“Thanos!” Ilona was immediately on her feet.

The faerie man, tall and handsome with golden hair and bright blue eyes, bowed to her, and then knelt. “Greetings, Queen Ilona,” he said. “I have come to bring you home, for Queen Maeve is near gone and will not last the night. You must be there to claim your heritage as all queens and kings before you have been.” His gaze went to Lara, and his lips twitched in a small smile.

Ilona nodded. Then she turned, embracing her daughter. “I must go now, Lara. The Celestial Actuary keep you safe in your journey. When you need me, you have but to ask Ethne. She will find me.”

“Mother, I beg one final boon of you,” Lara said. “Let me be there when you take Thanos for your consort.”

Ilona shook her head. “Nay, your grandmother is right. We must keep you safe from the Foresters. You cannot come into the woodlands again while they seek you.”

“Seek me? They are seeking me?” Lara was astounded. Almost a year had passed since her escape. “Why would they bother after all this time?”

“Because they still believe a faerie’s child can help them break Maeve’s curse on them, and they have not found another to take your place,” Ilona told Lara. “You must soon leave Shunnar, my daughter.”

Lara turned to Kaliq. “You knew?”

“Only recently,” he replied. “I will explain later, my love.”

Thanos had now risen to his feet. He put a proprietary arm about Ilona. “We must go,” he said in a low, urgent voice.

Ilona pushed his arm away, giving him a sharp look. Then she embraced her daughter a final time. “I will give Thanos a son,” she whispered to Lara. “I want no other daughter, for you are everything I could ever have desired in a female child. I ask your forgiveness for the years we have been apart.”

“You have it, Mother!” Lara said generously, and kissed Ilona’s cheek.

The faerie woman reached out and touched the girl’s face in a tender gesture. Then she was gone in a puff of deep purple smoke, and the faerie man, a surprised look upon his handsome face, quickly followed her in a deep lavender essence of his own.

Lara laughed softly. “She will be a grand queen,” she remarked.

“And he her king?” Kaliq asked curious.

“She will not make him king, but merely her consort,” Lara answered.

“The women of your family seem to be independent creatures,” Kaliq said. “Do you desire to be an independent woman also, my love?”

“I must be,” Lara told him, “for if I am not I shall be conquered by those who seek to break my spirit. I shall never allow that to happen, Kaliq. And you would not want it either, my lord, would you?”

“Nay, I would not,” he said. Then he led her back to the dining couch, and they returned to their meal. “You have become a stronger woman in your months here at Shunnar, Lara, but you will soon have to leave me. Your fate lies beyond our Desert kingdom, but the skills we have taught you, and those your mother has taught you, will serve you well, and help you to survive.”

“I must ask Og if he will travel with me,” Lara said.

“You may take Noss as well. She would be heartbroken if you left her behind,” Kaliq told her.

“I will give her the choice, my lord, for Noss is yet a fearful creature. Here at Shunnar she would be safe and cared for, but with me, who knows the adventures I will encounter? Og is of more value to me.”

“Noss has gained confidence with her abilities as an archer,” the prince noted. “She could be a valuable traveling companion.” He reached out, and ran a finger from her shoulder down her arm.

She smiled seductively at him. “The meal is not yet over, my lord.”

“It will be soon, and you are the sweet I desire above all. The nights when you have remained closeted with your mother have been difficult for me,” he told her. “And soon you will be gone from me, Lara. Few women have I truly cared for in my long lifetime, but when you leave me, my love, my heart will be most sore.” He leaned forward and brushed her lips with his.

“Ah, Kaliq, my prince,” she replied, “were it not for you, I should not know how sweet the loving between a man and a woman can be. For that I shall always be grateful.”

And she kissed him back gently. “You will always have a part of my heart, and you will remain in my memory until my spirit fades away entirely like my faerie relatives,” Lara told him with a sweet smile. “Let us make love here and now among the others, as we have previously done, my lord.”

Her words seemed to echo throughout the banqueting hall. She was suddenly surrounded by the other princely guests. Kaliq held her out to them, and they drew her gown away from her. Her long lovely gilt hair was unbound, to be admired by them all. The princes caressed her with soft hands, and admiring glances. They covered her body with gentle kisses until she grew weak, and her legs gave way beneath her. But Kaliq held her in a firm grip as their tongues bathed her body, touching her intimately, and mouths suckled upon her breasts. She was enveloped in the most incredible cloud of sensation when they finally lay her back upon the dining couch, and Kaliq covered her body with his own, entering her in a single smooth action. Two of the princes pulled her legs up, and over her shoulders to allow her lover the deepest penetration of her body. They murmured encouragement, and when her eyes began to glaze with her rising passion, the last thing Lara saw clearly was their smiling faces. She had never felt more loved or cherished in all her life. And then she cried out with her fulfillment as Kaliq groaned with satisfaction, and she remembered nothing more except the thundering of her heart and the feeling of total and utter bliss that seemed to go on and on and on.

When she finally awoke she was in her own bed, Kaliq sleeping by her side. She wondered how long they had been there. Turning her head, she saw that it was still night outside, and suddenly she remembered the words that had chilled her bones earlier. Durga and Enda were looking for her. Would she ever be free of them? She would die before she let them take her again! But at least now she was no longer a helpless girl. She could fight them with sword and staff. She could fly away from them as a bird if she had to, or better yet she could take a cat’s form, and claw their eyes out of their big heads. She actually shuddered with the pleasure her thoughts gave her.