“I am so tired,” Lara said, slumping against him for a moment.

“I know,” he told her. “It was a difficult climb, my love, but you must find the sorcerer’s book of spells before you give in to exhaustion.”

“And then this tower must be destroyed,” Lara replied, straightening. “It is the only way the spirits of those imprisoned and tortured here will be free again. I will plant a garden here in their memory,” she told him.

“The book,” he repeated.

“Help me look,” she said, and together they began to search. The book of spells was finally discovered in the rear of a high shelf. There was no other book at all in the chamber. Only vials, and jars of herbs, and seeds, and various animal parts. Lara opened the volume and began going through the pages.

“Yes, this is his book of spells,” she confirmed.

“Is the hex he used on the Terahn men there?” Kaliq asked.

Lara continued to thumb through the book. Then she began to chuckle. “I have found it,” she said. She pointed to a page.

Kaliq looked down, and silently read the words. Ears that heed a woman’s call, shall close and hear her not at all. The Shadow Prince began to laugh. “It is very simple,” he said. “Clever, and ridiculously simple.”

“But it has been very effective for over five hundred years,” Lara reminded him.

“And the reverse of the curse would be?” he asked her.

“Let us leave the tower and try my spell on Magnus, to see if he can hear his sister,” Lara suggested. She picked up the book and gave it to him. “I promised the High Priest that it would be destroyed. When I am certain my spell works, will you burn it?”

He shook his head. “No. You and the Dominus must do the deed. I will, however, take the ashes, and dispose of them in several places so that the book may never be mended and used again.”

Together they descended the three flights of stairs to the bottom of the tower. There they discovered that the door which had closed behind Lara was now wide-open. Retracing Lara’s steps they returned to the apartments of the Dominus where Magnus Hauk awaited Lara. He was pale with obvious worry, but Lara made no mention of it.

“I believe I can remove the curse,” she said. “Let us find your sister, and see if I am right,” Lara said to him.

The Dominus sent a servant to fetch Sirvat, who came on a run. She looked anxiously at her brother, and then at Lara. Her eyes widened with admiration as she saw the Shadow Prince. Kaliq saw her regard and favored the girl with a smile. She was a pretty creature.

“I believe I can reverse the curse,” Lara told Sirvat. “I need you here. When I have spoken the words I want you to speak to Magnus.”

Sirvat nodded.

“Ears that once heeded woman’s call, shall open again and hear them all,” Lara said, quietly but firmly.

For a moment afterwards no one said a thing, and then Sirvat ventured, “Magnus, Brother, do you hear me?”

“You have a voice like tinkling bells, little sister,” the Dominus replied, and Sirvat burst into tears of happiness, flinging herself into his arms. “You can hear me!” she sobbed. “Oh all praise to the Great Creator, you can hear me!”

Magnus Hauk’s face was wreathed in smiles. His eyes met Lara’s. “Thank you.”

“It worked upon you. Now I must make it work on all your realm, my lord Dominus.” She turned to the Shadow Prince. “How? I cannot go from village to village, Kaliq. There has to be an easy way to do this.”

“Gather all the men here in the castle, and see if you can undo the spell for them,” the Dominus said, and Kaliq nodded in agreement.

When every man in the castle from the highest to the lowest had been brought together in the Great Hall the Dominus spoke to them.

“The faerie woman, Lara of Hetar, daughter of Swiftsword and Ilona, queen of the Forest Faeries, has bravely gone into the tower once inhabited by Usi the Sorcerer to retrieve his book of spells. Finding it, she has reversed the curse that was laid upon us five centuries ago. We believed our women could not speak all these years, but it was our ears that had been stopped from hearing them. Lara has spoken her spell to me, and I now hear my sister, and the women servants in my house. Now we will see if she can reverse the plague that has affected the men of Terah for over five hundred years. Be silent for her words!”

Looking down upon the men in the hall Lara could see the questions, and the disbelief, in their eyes. Drawing a breath she intoned loudly, “Ears that once heeded woman’s call, shall open again and hear them all!”

The room remained silent, and then Sirvat said, “Good men of Terah, has your hearing been restored once more?”

There was a collective gasp, and then the men began to babble excitedly, crying that they could hear the voice of the lady Sirvat.

“It still isn’t good enough,” Lara grumbled. “What of the rest of Terah? Even if I went from village to village it would take me forever to reverse the hex on all the men of Terah. Kaliq, what say you?”

“Dasras has the ability to fly when he chooses. He can take two upon his back. If you and Magnus traveled from fjord to fjord it would take you only a week or two to visit each village. Any not there when you came could come to the castle later. But most of the men of Terah would be able to hear again in a relatively short time,” Sirvat said.

“And we must go to the temple as well,” Lara said.

“We will go to the temple last,” Magnus Hauk said. “My uncle may be forward thinking, but many of his priests still adhere to Aslak’s belief that all magic is wicked. Let us prove them wrong first, and then release them from the curse last.”

“He is very wise for a mortal,” Kaliq noted softly to Lara. Then he said, “My lord Dominus, I am no longer needed here. But there is one gift I will give you before I depart. The northwest tower must be destroyed quickly. While Lara has banished the specter of Usi forever, the tower remains haunted by the souls tortured there. They cannot be freed until the tower is gone. With your permission, I will commence my own magic now.”

“I would be grateful if you would,” Magnus Hauk said.

“I would make a garden there eventually,” Lara told the Dominus.

“How will you destroy the tower?” the Dominus wanted to know.

“We princes of the shadows have the ability to manipulate the weather. Even now, outside your hall a storm is gathering. When the storm has passed the tower will be no more. Let the ground there rest free of its evil burden for a year, and then Lara may plant her garden.” He turned to face Lara. “Burn the book now, and I will take the ashes with me to dispose of as we discussed.”

She nodded, spoke a few words, and a large covered jar appeared on the hall’s high board. Placing the sorcerer’s book of spells within the jar Lara covered it. She put her hand on the jar. “Book burn. Never return.” she said quietly. The jar glowed deep red with an unnatural heat, but after a few minutes the color faded away. “It is done now,” Lara said, and she handed the jar to Kaliq.

The men in the hall were beginning to disperse back to their tasks. Outside they heard the strong rumble of thunder, and the fierce cracking of lightning.

“I will leave you now, Magnus Hauk, lord Dominus of Terah. Treat her well, for I love her dearly,” Kaliq said, and he turned to Lara. “Until we meet again, my love, farewell!” Then, the jar in his hands, he evaporated in a cloud of shadows, and was gone.

“I know I should be jealous of him,” Magnus muttered.

“Nay, I said not,” Lara reminded him, slipping her hand into his.

“I want to see Usi’s tower destroyed,” Sirvat said excitedly. “There is a spot in your apartments where we may watch the destruction. Come!”

“I see I have much to learn about you, little sister,” Magnus said. “You are quite a bloodthirsty creature, aren’t you?” he chuckled. But, Lara’s hand in his, he followed after Sirvat who led them up a flight of stairs to a large tower room.

The chamber had two windows close together, and peering out of them they saw that the beautiful morning had degenerated into roiling clouds, heavy thunder and wild lightning that seemed to concentrate itself about the northwest tower. Torrents of rain poured down, obscuring everything beyond the windows but for Usi’s tower, which seemed to stand out bathed in a strange light. The lightning grew fiercer, crackling and glowing with an odd greenish tint. And then suddenly it began to strike out at the structure, which crumbled and disintegrated, collapsing slowly before their eyes. A great wind came up, blowing so hard it actually shook the castle. Then, as suddenly as it had come, the storm vanished and the beautiful summer’s day was restored to them. Where the tower of Usi had stood, nothing remained, not a brick, or a stone, or even a shard of mortar. The ground lay barren before them.

“I should rather have your mentor, Kaliq, as a friend than an enemy,” Magnus remarked dryly as he looked out upon where the earliest portion of his castle had once stood. “He has done a most thorough job of it, hasn’t he?”

“I thought he was very handsome,” Sirvat said with a sigh.

“Oh,” her brother remarked mischievously, “the vessel docked below is Corrado’s. Shall we have Lara unstop his ears, little sister, so you may tell him of your deep devotion to him?” And Magnus chuckled wickedly.

“Of course I want him to be able to hear me!” Sirvat cried, “but Magnus, if you dare say anything to him…”

“You mean you don’t want me to propose a match between our two families, little sister?”

“Magnus!” Sirvat’s pretty voice now bore a decidedly aggravated tone.

Lara laughed. “Being able to hear each other has changed your relationship, I fear,” she said. “Sirvat, he is a great teaser. Do not allow yourself to be taunted. Magnus, tell her you will speak properly to Corrado about a marriage between them.”

He chuckled. “I see now that women stick together. Sister, I will not embarrass you. And I will suggest to Corrado that you would make him a fine wife. But first Lara must unstop his ears so he may hear your pretty voice.”

A woman servant now came to tell her master that the captain in question was waiting in his day room. Magnus noted with interest that not all women’s voices were the same. “Come with me,” he said to them, and they descended from the tower into the Dominus’s apartments where Captain Corrado awaited them. There Magnus Hauk told his friend what had transpired since he had last departed on his voyage.

Corrado looked to Lara. “You can lift the curse? Then do so, lady, I beg you!”

Lara spoke her spell.

“Corrado,” Sirvat said as soon as the words had died within the room, “I love you, and I want you for my husband.”

Lara began to giggle. The look of total and utter surprise upon the faces of the two men was one she would not soon forget.

Finally Corrado spoke. “We need your brother’s permission,” he said weakly.

“If it pleases you as much as it does my sister, Corrado, then you have it,” Magnus Hauk spoke. He looked to Sirvat. “I thought you wanted me to speak to him?”

“I did,” Sirvat told her brother, “but then I thought the first words Corrado ever heard from me should be memorable ones.”

“Will you always be this unpredictable?” the captain wanted to know.

“Are you going to wed me or not?” Sirvat countered.

He grinned at her. “I must think on it,” he said.

“Think quickly, Captain, for I am not a patient woman. Be warned, however, that if you refuse me I shall of course be forced to kill you,” Sirvat told him sweetly.

Magnus Hauk continued to look thunderstruck, and Lara was barely controlling her laughter.

“Then I must accept your proposal, lady,” he said. “But first let us see how well you kiss.” He yanked her into his arms, and kissed Sirvat soundly. “Yes,” Corrado said. “You will do very nicely, little one.”

“You have loved her all along,” Lara accused him.

The captain gave her a wink, but neither denied nor confirmed her words. Then he said to the Dominus, “You know I have no family other than my old father and brother, so this matter is between us alone. Where would you have us live?”

“I have already chosen apartments in the southeast section of the castle,” Sirvat said. “One day we may have our own home, but for now I find it convenient to remain in my brother’s castle, don’t you?”

Before the captain could speak Magnus Hauk agreed with his sister. “Aye, I think Sirvat is right. You are my captain of captains, Corrado, and too valuable to me not to be near. It will be your own home, but here. One day I will give you lands for your own.”

“If you are content, my lord Dominus, then I am content,” Corrado said.