Bertrice Small - A Distant Tomorrow

“How poetic,” she said to him. “I like to have my hair brushed.”

“Have other men brushed it?” he asked, an edge to his voice.

“Yes,” she answered him simply.

“Who?” he demanded to know.

“Magnus,” Lara told him gently, “it is too soon for you to want every detail of my history. And right now I am not of a mind to relate that history. I will tell you that both my father and Gaius Prospero considered me born to give pleasure. But what they did not consider was that my destiny has nothing to do with either my beauty, or my proficiency for passion.” She stood up, and took the brush from his hand smiling into his turquoise eyes. “Are you weary, my lord Dominus? I know that I am. It has been a very long day, and I am tired.”

Taking his hand she led him to the bed that they would share.

“I am the ruler of a vast land,” he said to her, “and yet you do not fear me, my faerie love. Should you not?”

“Why?” she asked him with a smile, and drew him down into her embrace.

He laughed softly. “I shall never really tame you, Lara, will I?”

“You are clever to understand that so quickly, Magnus.”

He could see she was indeed tired, and their earlier bout of passion had taken the edge off his appetite for her. He shifted himself so that she was now in his arms, her head upon his broad chest. “Go to sleep, my faerie love,” he told her. The morning would be soon enough, the Dominus thought, and it was always a fine way to begin a day.

But when he awoke the sun was already streaming through the windows of the bedchamber, and Lara was gone. Where? he wondered, his feet hitting the floor. She was not in the bath. He looked into the outer chamber where they had eaten last night and saw her sitting silently at the table as a servant offered her fresh fruit, cheese and bread. She was already dressed in her pants, shirt and vest, her long hair fashioned in a single braid. Dressing quickly, he joined her, kissing her cheek in greeting, but saying nothing directly to her.

“Ask my uncle to attend me when he is able,” he told the hovering servant. “The lady Lara will see to my needs as the food is here.”

“Yes, my lord Dominus,” the servant said, and hurried out of the guest house.

“Are we alone otherwise?” Magnus Hauk asked his companion.

She nodded, but said nothing, putting her fingers to her lips in a warning, her eyes going to the left. Outside on the colonnaded porch he saw another servant sweeping.

“Good girl!” he approved her astuteness, and her caution.

Lara smiled, and began to serve him his meal. He ate swiftly, more to finish the meal than enjoy it. He was as anxious as she probably was to begin reviewing the books of Terah held by the temple. Finally Arik Hauk arrived.

“I am sorry,” he said. “The High Priest had many instructions for me this morning. I believe he seeks to impress upon you that he is still competent to do his job.”

“It is not my right to remove him even if he wasn’t,” the Dominus said.

“He has some moments of confusion although overall his wits remain sharp and clear. Still, he is one hundred and fifty. He has not many years left, Nephew, and he has been a good High Priest. May I be as excellent.”

“I do not fear for the brotherhood in your hands, Uncle,” Magnus Hauk said. “Now, the books. Will we view them here, or in the library?”

“I thought both,” Arik Hauk said. “That way it will appear natural. The Dominus is reviewing the books of Terah for himself while he visits. You were considered a scholar in your youth, Magnus, and that is well-known. When you are in the library, for Lara cannot go there, I will bring her a book to peruse here.”

For the next few days the Dominus, Arik and Lara read through the holy books of Terah, which were never finished, for each succeeding generation added to them. They reached the era in which Usi the Sorcerer had entered the brotherhood as a novice. They read of his progress as he made an assent through the various levels of the religious order. And then there came the first mention of difficulty with Usi, and the realization, too late, that he had turned from the light to the darkness. And the darkness brought Usi incredible power even after he had been expelled from the brotherhood. The sorcerer built a large army for himself, and overthrew the ruling royal family, systematically murdering them as he found them. But some escaped the sorcerer’s vigilance, going into hiding.

Usi had a fierce appetite for female flesh. He kept a great house of women for both his salacious pleasure, and to torture, for he gained more pleasure from inflicting pain than from merely copulating with a female. The Terahns began to hide their women in an attempt to protect them, but families caught shielding their wives, daughters, sisters and others were subject to great public humiliation. The women were publicly raped multiple times while their men were whipped until their backs were raw. Virgins were taken to the sorcerer for his delectation. Eventually the resistance ceased, and families took the chance that Usi would not take one of their women if they were discreet, and did not venture out too often.

All the profits from the trade with Hetar went into Usi’s pocket until one of his braver aides ventured that the craftsmen and women needed something if they were to continue in their work. Tools needed to be replaced, looms and spinning wheels repaired, and nothing could be had for free. Grudgingly the sorcerer gave a minute portion of his profits to the villages, threatening them with slow painful deaths if the quality of their goods grew shoddy. It was a time of terrible unhappiness, the books of Terah recalled in great and graphic detail.

And then one brave woman, a distant relation of the former ruling family, decided that Usi’s reign of terror must end. She convinced a brother to accept a place that had been offered him in Usi’s court. And to her brother’s apparent distress the woman, whose name was Geltruda, allowed herself to be innocently seen on several occasions by the sorcerer. But always her mien was virtuous and meek. Fascinated by Geltruda’s beauty and modesty, Usi approached the woman, but eyes lowered, she demurred and rejected his invitations in such a manner that he was not in the least offended. Indeed he was intrigued by her air of fearful respect for him while maintaining her unworthiness to be even considered for his bed.

As the weeks went by Usi’s lust for Geltruda grew, but to everyone’s surprise the sorcerer was patient in his quest for this woman. Finally she admitted to him that while he was her ruler, and she very much wanted to obey him, her brother must give his permission for Geltruda to go to Usi’s bed. To no one’s surprise the brother agreed. But what neither Usi nor his court was aware of was that Geltruda and her brother had planned it all. Usi had no heirs. The Hauk family, Terah’s rightful rulers, would be restored if all went as Geltruda had planned. And it would if her brother would just play his part, and be brave.

On the night Geltruda chose to give in to Usi’s lusts, her entire body, even her hair, was bathed in a fatal poison. It would take several hours for the poison to kill Geltruda, and by that time Usi would also be dead. Smelling of night-blooming lilies she entered his private chamber shyly, admiring the sorcerer’s physique, worrying that his manhood might be too large for so dainty a woman as she. The sorcerer could not contain his burning desire for Geltruda, but he was a master of seduction nonetheless, and took his time with her. His lips kissed every inch of the woman’s trembling body. He suckled her breasts greedily. His tongue licked and caressed her with fiery ardor. Then, mounting her, he used her enthusiastically unaware that even as his crisis approached he was dying.

And then Usi became aware all too late of what was happening to him. “What have you done, woman?”

“I have, with my brother’s help, freed Terah!” Geltruda gasped, near her end. Then the pupils of her eyes dilated, and she died.

With his own dying breath, Usi the Sorcerer laid a curse upon the people of Terah.

“Is it written there?” Magnus Hauk asked Lara, who had been reading the tale. It was evening, and they were alone.

Lara shook her head. “The curse is not here,” she said.

“We are confounded then,” the Dominus said.

“Not necessarily,” Lara replied.

“Why do you think that?” he asked her.

“The sorcerer was not here when Geltruda killed Usi. Where was he? Most likely in the castle. Usi’s private chamber is mentioned several times in the text. Where is that chamber, Magnus? That is where he would have kept his book of spells. I should have considered that before. The book would not be here at the temple, nor would those spells be written down in the books of Terah for all to see and use. No! He would have kept the book hidden in his own rooms. And a spell so potent would have had to be written before he could use it. We must return to the castle as soon as possible, and search those rooms.”

“But no one will know where Usi lay his head after all this time,” the Dominus said. “We will have to search every chamber in the castle, and there are many.”

“Given Usi’s delight in torture, his secret chamber would be someplace a woman’s cries could not be easily heard,” Lara observed.

“The old dungeons, perhaps?” the Dominus suggested.

“I think not. Too many of Usi’s ordinary prisoners would be close by, to overhear. More than likely a tower room, where he could easily vanish if enemies approached.”

“Would he not be trapped there?”

“He undoubtedly had the power of shape-shifting as many magic folk do,” Lara replied. “He could always become a mouse, and slip through a crack, or a bird, and fly from the window, Magnus.”

“Do you have such power?” the Dominus asked her curiously.

“Yes,” she answered him. “I rarely use the talent, for it is difficult.”

“Sometimes I think I should be frightened of you, Lara,” he told her.

“No,” she responded. “You need not fear me. I told you that my magic is used only for good.”

“And you do not fear the darkness?” he asked her.

“No. I need not, for I am the very essence of light, my lord Dominus.”

“I will find my uncle and tell him we will leave at first light,” he said.

“Yes,” Lara agreed. “I am anxious to return to your castle and seek out this hidden place. Usi’s book of spells will be there. I am certain!”

“The High Priest wanted to see you before we left. I must honor that request. I will speak with Arik and arrange for it tonight before we sleep,” Magnus said. He arose from the table where they had been seated. “I will be back for you shortly.”

When he had gone from the guest house Lara dug into her saddlebag and retrieved a carved and gilded wooden peach. Opening it, she drew out a simple gown of pale green silk with long flowing sleeves, a straight skirt and a modestly draped neckline. She had no sandals, but her bare feet would not be considered untoward on a summer’s night. Lara quickly put on the gown, brushed her hair, and rebraided it into a single plait. Then she draped a long matching veil over her head. There was no mirror in the guest house, but Lara knew she looked every inch the proper woman.

Returning the Dominus was surprised to find her so modestly garbed. “I did not know you had such a gown with you,” he said.

“Would you have me appear before your High Priest garbed as a warrior woman, my lord Dominus?” she countered.

“Your look is deceptively innocent,” he remarked.

She smiled mischievously. “I believe the High Priest will find me quite suitable,” she told him. “Now let us go, my lord Dominus.”

Taking her arm he led her from the guest house.

THE HIGH PRIEST of the Brotherhood of the Great Creator peered sharply at Lara with his rheumy old eyes. He was pleased to see that both her demeanor and her dress were modest. He had never been to Hetar, and he knew little about it. But stories he had heard in his youth declared that Hetar was a venal and licentious world. The woman before him seemed pleasant enough, but something fretted him about her. When she met his gaze for a brief moment, her emerald eyes to his clouded ones, he knew exactly what it was.

“She is faerie!” he declared in a hard and shaking voice.

“Yes, the Coastal King said she was half-faerie,” the Dominus said.

“She will have magic, and magic is evil. It cannot be tolerated here in Terah,” the High Priest replied. “Kill her, Magnus Hauk, and her magic will be destroyed. Hetar has sent her to harm us, I am certain of it. If you will not slay her I will have my guards do it before she infects you with her evil – if she has not already done so.” He now glared at Lara with disdain.