“Would not her children be with her?” Jonah asked.

“Nay, they are not. After Vartan’s death, when she went to the Coastal Kingdom to visit Archeron she left them behind with their Fiacre clan family, Vartan’s people,” the emperor said. “Arcas told me.”

“Arcas lies,” Jonah noted. “First he claimed he had sold Lara into slavery. Then he said she was dead, fallen overboard from his vessel. Yet, my lord, here she was tonight, the wife of a man who claims to rule in another land. I attempted to solicit certain information from the lady Lara about this Terah, but she was not at all forthcoming, other than to say it was many weeks’ travel from Hetar’s farthest borders.”

“Then for now Terah would not appear to be a threat to Hetar,” Gaius Prospero said thoughtfully. “But where is it? And why is this Dominus not interested in being Hetar’s ally? Yet he was interested enough in Hetar to make his clandestine visit.”

“I think Arcas may know where Terah is,” Jonah said. “The Coastal Kings have many secrets they have not shared with you, my lord. For too long we have allowed them this isolation because of the luxury goods they constantly provide us, yet from where do those goods come? We have always assumed that the coastal folk fashioned them for us. But if that were so, my lord, why do the Coastal Kings have need of vessels to sail the sea they call Sagitta? Is it possible that these luxuries come from the place Lara calls Terah? And if they do, then the Coastal Kings are no better than the Taubyl Traders. They are middlemen. If we could trade directly with Terah, would not our costs be lower and our profits higher, my lord?”

A smile wreathed Gaius Prospero’s fat face. “Jonah, my dear Jonah,” he murmured pleased, “you are a treasure. How facile your mind is, and how it twists, and ferrets out the nuggets of information that will be useful to us. And to Hetar,” he added as an afterthought. “I could not do without your counsel.”

Jonah bowed his head in appreciation of the emperor’s words. “I am grateful to serve you, my lord,” he said flatteringly.

“Now let us get back to the beautiful Lara,” Gaius Prospero said. “What am I to do about her, Jonah?”

“Nothing for now, my lord,” Jonah advised. “Patience will prove to be a virtue in this matter, I assure you. You must not confuse yourself with too many projects at once. In another week we will begin our march into the Outlands through the Coastal province. Our Mercenary army and their Crusader Knight officers are already there. Think of the riches awaiting us, my lord. Slaves to be pressed into the service of Hetar. Beautiful women for the Pleasure Houses. Villages already built, and ready to be inhabited by those you have chosen, folk who will be loyal to you first because of your generosity. There are flocks and herds of animals that will make you richer than you could ever have imagined. The fields will be ripening with their crops, which we will harvest for ourselves at the proper time. The City’s markets will be full again with cheap produce. The people will laud you for it. And the mines will again be ours to work. With such an enlarged labor force at little cost to us we will increase our returns. Your coffers will overflow, my lord.”

“It is a dream come true,” Gaius Prospero gushed. “All I need to make it perfect is Lara by my side as my empress, and in my bed to share pleasures.”

“It will be so, my lord,” Jonah assured him. “But first we take the Outlands. Then we will force their secrets from the Coastal Kings. And when we do, the road to Terah will be open to us, my lord. We must proceed slowly and carefully if we are to succeed in this endeavor. And you will have Lara’s Fiacre children in your tender care so that the faerie woman will be more amenable to your wishes. A year, or two at the most, my lord, and everything you have ever wanted will be yours.”

“Yes!” Gaius Prospero breathed. “And in the meantime I have Vilia and Anora, each of them bending over backward to please me in the hopes I will make one of them my empress.” He laughed, and nodded well pleased. “Once more you have clarified the picture for me, Jonah. You must help me continue to be patient,” the emperor said.

“I am here for you, my lord. Only for you,” Jonah assured Gaius Prospero.

“I have kept Anora waiting long enough,” the emperor said. “Good night, Jonah. May the rest of your evening be as pleasant as mine is certain to be.” And he hurried off to where his second wife was anticipating his arrival.

On her large bed lay the gold wrist cuffs lined in lamb’s wool that were connected with a silver chain, a matching collar, a small dog whip, and a hazel switch as thick as her thumb. “You are late!” Anora snapped at him as Gaius Prospero entered the chamber. “Put on your collar, and get on your knees! Beg my forgiveness for your earlier behavior, and your tardiness,” she said reaching for the switch. “Display your bottom for me immediately, Gaius,” she commanded him as he hurried to obey her, smiling as she saw him wince at the sound of the hazel rod swishing through the air. “You are going to spend until dawn being punished, husband,” Anora told him. “Your buttocks will be well burnished by the time I have finished with you.”

“Yes, my sweet precious,” Gaius Prospero whimpered, eager for her to begin. Anora’s whippings always produced the most extraordinary results for him. He performed like a bull amid a herd of heifers afterwards. Vilia no longer aroused any passion in him at all. But Lara…The thought of her set his male member stirring, and then he yelped as Anora’s hazel switch began to sting and burn his flesh.

Listening outside Anora’s chamber Lady Vilia smiled with satisfaction. She hurried through the house, and then when she had almost reached the great hall a hand reached out, pulling her into the shadows. “Jonah!” she breathed.

His mouth found hers in a hard kiss. He forced her back against the wall with his lean body, pulling her gown up as he did. Her hands fumbled eagerly to push his own gown away. Then he was raising her up. Her legs were wrapping about him. He thrust hard into her wet heat. “Vilia,” he ground out. “I thought you were not coming.” His hips worked in sharp quick rhythm with hers. “You were ready for me, you wicked bitch, weren’t you?” Jonah groaned, burying his face between her big breasts.

“I had to…ahh. Make certain…ohh, Jonah!…that Anora would…don’t stop, you devil!…keep him the night. Ohh, that is so good! I adore…sharing pleasures…with you, Jonah, my love.”

He used her vigorously. Gaius Prospero hadn’t been in her bed in several years, but Jonah knew it would infuriate him to know that his former slave was even now pumping his love juices into Vilia. He had considered seducing her, but she had taken the initiative with him even before he had bought his freedom. She was a deliciously lusty woman, and would make him a fine empress one day. A man could have many beautiful women with whom to share pleasures, but a woman like Vilia, intelligent and ambitious, was rare. Gaius Prospero was a fool to consider tossing her aside for the beautiful faerie Lara. But I will encourage his folly, Jonah thought as Vilia began to moan with her crisis. He kissed her again to stifle the cries, feeling her lush body shudder with release.

Her legs fell away from him. “Oh, that was good!” she half groaned.

“Was she whipping his fat bottom?” Jonah asked.

“She had just begun,” Vilia laughed softly. “He cannot, it seems, become aroused anymore unless she does. But once he is stiff he works her vigorously.”

“Leaving me the leisure to work you even more vigorously,” Jonah said in her ear.

He took her by the hand. “Come,” he said. “We will go to my chamber.”

“You could have a house of your own,” Vilia said to him. “Why do you persist in remaining in that tiny cubicle here in this house?”

“To be near you, of course,” he told her.

“Liar,” she said. “But flattering. Now the truth, Jonah.”

“If I am in the house then no one else can get to him without my knowing it,” Jonah said. “You and I must be his only influences, Vilia.”

“Agreed,” Vilia answered. “Now what was tonight all about, Jonah?”

“He was curious. Your son saw Lara in the marketplace today and came to him with the news. We tracked her to the Garden District, and an inn near the City’s main gate. He desires her, but then you always knew that. But it is the man she travels with, and this land of Terah, that is of more interest to us. For now I have convinced him to keep his energies focused upon the Outlands invasion.”

“Yes,” Vilia said. “There is much wealth for the taking there, and it is time we put those savages under our thumbs.”

They had reached Jonah’s small chamber, and entering it fell in a tangle of arms and legs to the bed, pulling off each other’s garments.

“What is to be done about Lara?” Vilia asked him.

“Nothing for now,” Jonah said. “In time we will deal with her. She might even make us a good ally, for her magic has grown strong. But for now I think she will be surprised that we have left her alone, and perhaps it will gain us her goodwill at some time in the future.”

And Lara was indeed surprised that nothing more came of the dinner with Gaius Prospero. She had set Verica to guarding their door, but they slept undisturbed. And the following morning a messenger arrived from the emperor with papers giving them free access to any part of the City. “They want something,” she said suspiciously.

“What?” Magnus asked her amused.

“For one thing, that snake, Jonah, wanted to know where Terah was,” Lara said.

“What did you tell him?” What had she told him? She had been edgy, and extremely cautious since last night.

“That it is was many weeks’ journey from Hetar’s farthest borders,” Lara replied. “If he considers my words, he will have to wonder which borders. Jonah is a shrewd and clever man, Magnus. He will eventually find us if he seeks us.”

“I think for now their invasion of the Outlands will consume them,” the Dominus said wisely. “I am looking forward to meeting King Archeron at Kaliq’s palace. Shall we leave the City today?”

“Nay,” she said. “If we are no more seen then Gaius Prospero is foolish enough to believe we are afraid of him. He has sent us safe passage, and so I will show you more of the City today. And before we depart I will take you to the tournament field where my father won his admittance into the Crusader Knights.”

“Will you see John Swiftsword again?” Magnus asked his wife.

Lara sighed. “I do not know,” she said. “I am still upset that my brothers do not know of my existence. What point is there to seeing my father again?”

“Perhaps it would comfort him to know that you truly hold no malice toward him for all that has happened to you over these last years. Your words yesterday appeared to give him food for thought. And I do not believe he is a man who often thinks beyond what he has been told by those he accepts as authority.”

“I will send a message to him,” Lara said. “If he would see me before we leave then I will go to him.”

To her surprise her father came himself to the inn that afternoon just as they had returned from walking about the City. Honored to have such a fabled member of the Crusader Knights in his house, the innkeeper invited them into his garden, bringing wine and other refreshments of a much better quality than they had previously seen. Then he reluctantly withdrew.

“What does Gaius Prospero want of you, Daughter?” Lara’s father asked.

“Nothing, it would seem. He was simply curious,” she answered.

John Swiftsword nodded. “Tell me in detail what happened to you from the morning you were taken from my house,” he said to her.

“Very well,” Lara answered him, and then she began to speak.

“You were very brave,” her father noted as she told of her escape from the Forest Kingdom. “And clever to make a friend of the giant.”

“I became friends with him because we were both outsiders,” Lara said. “In the beginning I despaired of ever knowing happiness again. It was only when Og told me how my grandmother had cursed the forest folk, and what it was they wanted of me, that I thought to flee.” She continued on with her tale, and he listened.

“The Shadow Princes are a part of Hetar, and yet they go their own way,” John Swiftsword observed as she told him of her time in the desert.

“They are men of great ethic and intellect,” Lara replied. “And their magic is wondrous. I believe those who rule Hetar respect that, and they are wise to do so.”

“And they reunited you with your mother?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“She told you all?” he queried.

“Yes,” Lara replied.