Bertrice Small - A Distant Tomorrow

“Nay, Magnus, you must not go. I will go, for I am protected from the evil that the tower will surely still contain. No mortal must be tainted by it,” Lara told him.

“I am the Dominus. I do not fear the shades of the past,” he replied.

“Then you are a fool, for I do. And you should. I will enter the tower quickly, closing the door behind me to keep the evil penned up all these years within it. Please trust me, Magnus. This is not about your position or your bravery,” Lara said.

“Tell my brother I beg him to heed your advice!” Sirvat said.

“Your sister agrees with me. She fears for your safety, Magnus,” Lara added.

“I fear for yours,” he told her.

“You need not, for I am protected,” Lara assured him. “And tonight in the dream world I will ask the Shadow Prince Kaliq to aid me in this endeavor.”

“I do not want another man in my bed,” the Dominus said.

“But I will not be in your bed, Magnus,” Lara replied, “and so you do not have to worry. I must sleep alone with no distractions.”

“You think me a distraction?” he said, a small grin touching his lips.

“Yes,” she told him. “You are a very great distraction to my concentration.” Their eyes met, and she blushed even while she smiled at him.

“Now that I have my women wed and gone, I must consider finding a husband for Sirvat. You will want no other woman of rank in the castle when we marry,” he said.

“Sirvat has chosen the man she desires, and I am not marrying you,” Lara responded.

“Yes, you are,” he said calmly. Then, “How is it that my sister has chosen a man she wishes to wed, and yet I know not who he is?”

“Must you tell him?” Sirvat cried, distressed. “What if he disapproves?”

“Sirvat fears you will not approve her choice, but I know you will,” Lara told the Dominus. “It is Corrado.”

Magnus Hauk turned to his sister. “I approve your choice, little sister. He is a good man, and our blood kin. When this matter is settled I will approach him. There is no other in his life, for his duties have kept him from all but casual women.”

Delighted, Sirvat threw her arms about her brother and kissed him on both cheeks.

“I believe she is thanking you, Magnus,” Lara said dryly.

He laughed. “I believe she is,” he agreed. “Go to bed now, Sirvat. I would speak with Lara privily.”

Sirvat released her hold on her brother and ran from the room.

“Come and sit with me,” he said, and took her two hands in his as they sat. “I do not like the idea of you being with another man. This Shadow Prince, was he your lover?”

“Yes,” she answered him honestly. “Once Kaliq and I were lovers. It is he who taught me to give and receive pleasures, for the Forest Lords surely did not. Since you are the recipient of his teaching, my lord Dominus, you should be grateful to him,” she teased him gently. “I owe much to Kaliq, Magnus, but you need not fear him. He is my mentor, nothing more, and he knows that. I need his counsel. I do not believe I can do what needs to be done without it. But if you prefer that the men of Terah continue on as you have been these five centuries past, Magnus, I will cease my efforts on your behalf.”

“And when this is over you will become my wife,” he said stubbornly.

“I have no desire to marry again,” she said. “And my children reside in the Outlands, Magnus.”

“We will bring them here,” he said.

“They are Fiacre, and my son may one day lead his people. I cannot take them from what is their destiny,” Lara said.

“Then I will give you other children,” he insisted.

“That choice is not yours to make, Magnus. You well know that faerie women only give children to those they love,” Lara said.

“You speak of your destiny, yet you are here in Terah. What if this is your destiny, Lara? I will not push you into marriage, but eventually you will marry me. I am your destiny. Terah is your destiny. Once we can hear the voices of our women again, who knows what we may accomplish? When this is finished, I want you to consider my words.”

“I will,” she said. “I promise you I will.” She leaned over and kissed him softly. “Good night, Magnus.” Then rising from the pillows, she left him. But she was already considering his words. What if it had all been leading to Terah? What if her destiny was to come here, and lift the curse from the men of Terah? Was it not a good destiny to do such a thing, and have the gratitude of a people for the rest of your life? Where could she go from here? Back to Hetar? To what? She had not lied when she said her children belonged to the Fiacre. They did. They had never been hers. They had been Vartan’s. Entering her chamber she mixed the sleeping potion she had brewed earlier into a cup of wine, and drank it. Then she lay down in her lonely bed to sleep. And to dream.

SHE WAS SURROUNDED at first by a soft silver-and-mauve haze. The ground beneath her bare feet was solid. Lara sensed something near her, but it was not Kaliq. Then she saw a wraith of dark smoke before her, and froze.

“You will not defeat me, faerie woman,” a malevolent voice snarled.

“Who are you?” Lara asked the dark umbra.

“You know who I am, faerie woman.”

“If you are Usi who cursed the Terahn men, I will do my best to subdue you!” Lara cried, but her heart was hammering fiercely in her chest. “I am Lara, daughter of Swiftsword and Queen Ilona of the Forest Faeries.” Her throat ached as she forced the defiant words from them.

“I will conquer you, faerie woman, and you will do my bidding,” Usi’s voice whispered. “Under my guidance your magic can restore me to life. If you do, I will reward you as you have never been rewarded. You will know the secret of life, and pleasure such as no mortal man can offer you. That knowledge alone can make you the most powerful woman in the world of Hetar. Even Gaius Prospero will be in fear of you. Does that not appeal to you, faerie woman? Does not the idea of destroying Gaius Prospero tempt you, Lara, daughter of Queen Ilona and Swiftsword of Hetar?”

“You have no powers left,” Lara mocked him, feeling the courage seeping back into her veins. “You are naught but a specter, Usi, who can live only in the dream world. Be gone from me!” She raised a single hand, pointing at the shade, and to her surprise a small flash of lightning sprang forth from her finger. The bolt exploded with a roar as it touched the darkness.

With a horrific shriek Usi disappeared from the dream plane, his mumbled curses ringing in her ears as he fled.

“Very nicely done, Lara,” she heard Kaliq say, and then she sensed him by her side, but she could not see him.

“I was afraid at first,” she admitted. “He startled me, and the evil emanating from him was quite terrifying. Now show yourself to me, you wretched Shadow Prince!”

He laughed, and as he did he materialized before her eyes. “Greetings, my love. You are as beautiful as ever. What think you of Terah?”

“It’s beautiful, and I have never seen a land so green. What lies beyond it?”

“On its far side is another great salt sea,” he told her.

“And on the other side of that sea?” she wanted to know.

“Our desert,” he said with a small smile.

“The land of the Shadow Princes?” Lara was astounded. “How is that possible? I had heard of the Sea of Sagitta that lay between Hetar and Terah, but never another sea between Terah and your desert.”

“You know the Hetarians, Lara. They know what they know, and seek to know no more than that. The Taubyl Traders crossing our desert never travel near that sea, which is called the Obscura. And the Terahns never venture beyond their villages and their fjords. They sail only into the middle of Sagitta, and no farther.”

“There is a great deal of empty land here, isn’t there, Kaliq?” Lara questioned.

He smiled. “Aye. Far more than the peoples of these two worlds could inhabit, my love. You are considering a scheme of great proportions, aren’t you?”

“Not yet, Kaliq. First I need to find the sorcerer’s book of spells. But to do so I must enter his apartments in the northwest tower of the Dominus’s castle. It was obviously sealed after he was killed,” Lara told the Shadow Prince. “Here on the dream plane his aura was dark but weak. Will it not be darker and stronger in the place he once inhabited? I need your help and your protection if I am to succeed, Kaliq.”

The prince nodded. “Aye, you will need my aid.”

“His private place was at the top of the tower, but the window in that chamber has been sealed shut. It must be opened quickly to allow the light in,” Lara said. “Then I must search the room for the book of spells, and take it from the tower to study it. When I have found the spell Usi used to stop up the ears of the Terahn men, then I must work a spell that will reverse the curse that they may hear again,” Lara explained.

“What says your Dominus regarding the situation?” Kaliq asked.

“He is not my Dominus,” she replied.

Kaliq laughed knowingly. “Perhaps you are not ready to accept him as such, but he is. Is he not a satisfactory lover, Lara?”

“He is a most excellent lover,” she admitted blushing, “but I do not want another husband, Kaliq. Remember my destiny.”

“Why did you come to Terah?” he asked her.

“Because it was meant that I come,” she answered without hesitation.

“Why?” he persisted.

“Obviously I was meant to help the Terahns, Kaliq,” Lara replied.

“Help them what?” he demanded.

“Be freed from Usi’s curse. When both men and women here could communicate the Terahns did great things. But since the men have been unable to hear their women they have remained stuck in place. By reversing the spell Usi placed upon them I will be able to free them,” she concluded.

“And then what?” Kaliq asked her. “Will you return to Hetar, to the Outlands? Perhaps to my palace of Shunnar?”

“No,” Lara said slowly, “I do not believe Hetar will ever again be my home.”

“So you will remain here in Terah. Doing what? As what? The Dominus’s lover, and the Wise Woman of this land?” Kaliq said.

“I do not know,” Lara admitted. “But please do not insult me by telling me that my destiny is as wife to the Dominus and mother to his children, Kaliq.”

“Why should becoming his wife mean an end to your destiny?” Kaliq asked her.

“This man is not easy as was Vartan,” Lara told him. “When the call comes, I shall not be able to leave him as I did my lord of the Fiacre.”

Kaliq chuckled. “So,” he said, almost gloating, “you have met your match, Lara.”

“He is a man, nothing more,” Lara insisted. “Well,” she amended, “perhaps more stubborn and set in his ways than others I have encountered.”

Kaliq roared with laugher. Then he grew more sober. “We cannot have you going astray, Lara, and so I will tell you this much. Your destiny will play itself out from Terah. And the Dominus will not stand in your way even if you are his wife. And as his wife, you will gain the power you need to do what you must.”

“He will want an heir right away,” Lara said.

“Not if you tell him the price of marrying you is to wait, but eventually guarantee him the son he desires of you,” Kaliq replied. “He will agree, my love, for he recognizes in you the Domina he must have, that he needs. And he loves you, Lara.”

She sighed. “But first things first, Kaliq. I need to get in and out of that tower safely. Usi’s ghost will be there lying in wait for me, you may be sure.”

“But I will be there too, guiding you,” Kaliq promised. “Do not, however, allow the Dominus to enter the tower with you. He is too human, and could be harmed – or worse, Usi might try to inhabit him in order to regain a body.”

“I will warn him,” Lara promised. “And so our visit is done, Kaliq.”

“Stay a while with me, and I will tell you what is happening in Hetar,” he tempted her, and Lara succumbed without protest to his invitation.

“How are my children?” she asked him.

Reaching into his white robes the Shadow Prince brought forth a crystal sphere and invited Lara to peer into it.

There was Dillon. He had surely grown taller, Lara thought. And there was Noss, chasing after a laughing girl with tumbling dark mahogany curls who toddled away from Lara’s former companion as fast as her little legs would carry her. Anoush! Lara felt her heart contract at the sight of her daughter. It had been easier to leave her son, for Dillon was old enough to know who she was. “Put your crystal away,” Lara said with a sigh. “I have seen what I needed to see. My children are well and safe.”

“The loss of your daughter pains you most,” Kaliq said quietly.