She slipped her slender arms about his neck. “I love you, too,” she told him. “I did not believe I would love again after Vartan’s death, Magnus. It is difficult for faerie women to love at all, but I have mortal blood, too, and I suppose where love is concerned I am weak.” Lara sighed softly. “When you look at me as you are looking now I find my knees grow weak, the fire within me burns hot, and there is little I would deny you. But I don’t want to make love in the water tonight. I want to be in our bedchamber.” She took his hand and they stepped up from the bathing pool.

Taking a large towel from the pile upon a bench she began to dry his magnificent body off. Kneeling she rubbed each of his long legs free of water both front and back. She took each of his two feet, pushing the toweling in between the toes. She dried his hard buttocks. Then Lara stood, and taking another towel rubbed it across his back, his shoulders and his chest. She dried his belly, and gently patted his genitalia free of moisture. He was already hard with her delicate touch. His burnished gold hair was half-dry, and so she gave it but a cursory rub of the towel.

The Dominus now took up a fresh towel, and lifting her onto the marble bench holding the drying cloths began to dry Lara’s lush body. His fingers seemed inclined to stray from the fabric, brushing down the insides of her thighs, along the shadowed indentation separating her buttocks, across her nipples which puckered in response. He pushed the towel between her thighs, and suddenly two of his fingers were burying themselves deep inside of her, deliberately taunting her.

“Magnus!” Her voice was tight.

“You are ready, my love, and there is no time left for niceties,” he told her, withdrawing the wicked digits and laying her down upon the bench. “We will attend to them afterwards.” Towering over her he sucked upon the two fingers, a look of bliss lighting his face. Then sitting between her legs he pulled them up and over his shoulders, entering her body in a single smooth stroke.

Lara’s eyes closed of their own volition. She felt him within her, hot and throbbing as he forced the walls of her love sheath to expand to accommodate his incredible denseness. Every fiber of her being was attuned to him. The tip of her tongue moistened her lips. And then he began to move in her, grinding himself into her body, slowly, slowly, withdrawing only to thrust back in again. He was deeper inside her than he had ever been, and she trembled with the pleasure that was starting to overcome her. “Magnus!” she gasped. Her head spun with the exquisite sensations that were overwhelming her. “Oh, the Creator, I do love you, my darling!”

He was almost insensible with the wildness and passion overwhelming him as he ploughed her deeply. His rod burned. It was swollen to the bursting point, and yet he was not ready. Immersed as far within her as he could go, he leaned back slightly, and with the tip of a single finger began to skillfully rub the little jewel so cunningly set between her moist nether lips. The nub, already swollen to twice its size, quivered beneath his touch. Lara began to moan, her body bucking as she struggled to reach her bliss. “Just a minute more, my love,” he murmured, and then they took their pleasure together, their bodies trembling as their love juices erupted and mingled together. A last shudder and he gathered her into his embrace, whispering words of eternal love and devotion to this faerie woman who was his adored wife.

They sat clinging to each other for some minutes. His manhood was still buried within her, but quiet for now until they were strong enough to make love again. Reluctantly he finally withdrew from her, and taking her hand they stood up. He led them to a basin set within the marble walls of the bath, and taking up a sea sponge bathed Lara’s sex even as she bathed his. They did not speak. What had just transpired between them was beyond speech.

Together they left the bath and walked naked through the short hall between it and their bedchamber. There they fell into bed exhausted, and slept for several hours until they awoke to make love again. And they remained within their apartments for the next few days indulging their passions for one another. Magnus Hauk was not needed. There was peace in his lands, unless, of course, you counted Sirvat, who wanted to know why her husband had been sent so precipitously to sea.

“You have to speak to her,” Lara told her husband after four days had passed. “You don’t want to upset a woman who is with child.”

“Very well,” he agreed. “Tell Mila to go and fetch my sister. I will get dressed.”

Sirvat came immediately, and looking at Lara said, “Have you done anything except take pleasures these past few days? Have you eaten? You look exhausted.”

“Your brother’s passions have been all consuming,” Lara responded with a smile. “I like your belly. Being with child suits you, Sirvat. You have never looked lovelier.”

Sirvat colored, pleased with the compliment. “I am going to have a boy,” she said. “I just know it!”

“You will have what the Great Creator wills you to have,” her brother said entering the sunny day room. “What do you want, Sirvat? I have been very busy since my return from the new Outlands.” Magnus Hauk attempted to look stern.

“You have been busy taking pleasures with your wife, Brother, and I know it. Why did you send Corrado away, and when will he return?”

“I did not send him away. But since he was planning to go I asked him to go immediately. He should be back in another three or four days, Sirvat. I have great plans for Terah, and I am going to need your husband’s good counsel.”

“It could not wait long enough for Corrado to bid me farewell?” Sirvat sniffed.

“No,” Magnus Hauk said bluntly, “it could not. I won’t discuss it with you, little sister. When Corrado returns you will know what it is I am doing. And do not attempt to wheedle Lara into telling you, for she will not.”

“I don’t want Corrado going to sea any longer like a common captain,” Sirvat said. “He is your captain of captains, Magnus, and should remain ashore to guide the other captains. Besides, he is to be a father. I don’t want him several days away from me when I birth his son next year.”

“I will not tell Corrado he cannot go to sea, Sirvat. If that is what you desire of him then you must speak with him yourself. You are a woman grown now,” the Dominus said impatiently.

“Do you love Corrado, Sirvat?” Lara asked her friend.

“Aye, I do!” Sirvat cried.

“You love the man he is?” Lara persisted.

“Aye!” Sirvat repeated.

“Then why do you seek to change him?” Lara said quietly. “You married a man who captains a ship. A man who guides and oversees all of Terah’s captains. This is who and what Corrado is, Sirvat. If you truly love him, then you must accept this.”

A tear slipped down Sirvat’s cheek. “But I miss him when he is away!” she sobbed piteously.

“Of course you do, but the tears you now shed are the tears every woman with child sheds over the least little thing. It will pass, Sister,” Lara promised. “Why don’t you go to the stables, and visit with Dasras? He always enjoys your company, and it will help pass the time for you. Corrado will be home shortly.”

When Sirvat had departed Magnus Hauk said to his wife, “You are wise, Domina. You comforted Sirvat nicely. Had I been alone I might have shouted at her.”

“Women carrying the unborn in their bellies have a tendency to become very emotional, Magnus. One day I will, and you had best not shout at me,” Lara warned him.

He chuckled. She pleased him. Everything about her pleased him. He had never loved any woman as he loved his faerie wife. “If I shouted at you,” he said, “you would only shout back at me, Lara. I thank you for taking Sirvat’s woes upon yourself and freeing me from them. But she had best speak to Corrado when he returns.”

Three nights later the Dominus was awakened from his slumber when Corrado returned, and came immediately to speak with him as he had been instructed.

“We caught a fresh breeze and got into the fjord before the tide turned,” he told his overlord. “I bring you a letter from King Archeron, my lord Dominus.” He handed the rolled parchment to Magnus Hauk. “Good evening, my lady Domina,” he greeted Lara who wrapping a robe about her had joined the two men.

“You saw Archeron?” she asked.

Corrado shook his head. “Nay. The Hetarian Coastal King we met carried the missive to be given to me and then to the Dominus.”

Magnus Hauk had broken the seal on the message, and unrolled it. When he had finished reading it he handled it to Lara to read. “Your wife has missed you. Go and be with her,” he told his brother-in-law. “Come and see me in the morning two hours before the noon day, Corrado. I will tell you what is in the letter then.”

Lara’s eyes quickly scanned the letter from King Archeron. Arcas, as she had known he would, had betrayed the Coastal Kings. Gaius Prospero was now aware that the luxury goods Hetar so craved did not come from them but from Terah. The emperor had turned the Coastal Kingdom into a province. Archeron, however, had been chosen by the emperor to be its governor. My son thought to have this position, Archeron wrote, but Gaius Prospero is wise enough to know he cannot trust the man who betrayed us into his greedy hands. But he trusts me for two reasons. The first is that I have never locked horns with him, and the second is that Arcas tried to murder me. Lara smiled. She could almost hear King Archeron chortling. The Coastal King went on to write that Hetar had now taken over the province’s beautiful empty lands, and was settling people on them.

As for the Outlands, they had not proved as profitable as Gaius Prospero had promised they would be. The Hetarians transported there for the purpose of settlement were having difficulty erecting their villages and shelters before the winter set in. There wasn’t enough livestock or poultry to stock the new farms. There wasn’t enough lumber for the buildings, or even food to eat. The settlers were being forced to send two-thirds of what the newly opened fields produced to the City. What remained had to feed the settlers in the Outlands, and little was being stored for winter. It was an unfortunate situation.

Now the Forest Lords were demanding control over the forests of the Purple Mountains, and Squire Darah of the Midlands, now its governor, was insisting that the farmlands of the Outlands should really be under his control. The Shadow Princes had withdrawn from the High Council, and warned the emperor that any incursion into their lands would result in disaster for Hetar. But Gaius Prospero has no idea the riches the desert kingdom holds, and so is content to ignore what he considers a wasteland, Archeron wrote.

The mines he has opened have yielded next to nothing. Those poor in the City without means or important friends are being swept up into slavery to make up for the clan families who disappeared from the Outlands before the invasion. I don’t suppose Lara would know anything about that? Be warned, Archeron went on, that Gaius Prospero is growing desperate, and probably dangerous. Arcas has told him what little we know of Terah, and it is indeed possible that despite the situation in Hetar, which is spiraling out of control, the emperor may attempt to send someone to Terah to investigate your riches. I have warned you not because I am disloyal to Hetar, but because I am horrified by what has been happening. It is too dangerous for me to write again. I am sending this letter by my late wife’s brother who captains one of our vessels. I know he is trustworthy. The Celestial Actuary protect us all in these perilous times.

Lara set the letter aside. “Archeron is an honorable man,” she said. “He thought long and hard about sending you this message, Magnus. Now do you truly understand our need for a military force to protect Terah?”

The Dominus nodded. “I will speak to Corrado first,” he said. “And then I will send to the headmen of all the fjord villages. We have seven named fjords. And there are many villages. This meeting must take place before the Icy Season sets in for it will be too difficult to gather everyone once it does.”

“You have no governing body?” Lara asked her husband.

He shook his head. “I am the Dominus. It has always been this way in Terah. Once a High Council was proposed, but it was believed that a council would be likely to get caught up in debates, and then nothing would get done. Members of a council would also be open to bribery and coercion. There are greedy and ambitious among us, too, Lara. It is better that each village has its headman, who is responsible to me. I make the decisions based upon what they tell me. I do what is right for Terah,” Magnus Hauk said. “It has worked well for centuries, except for the time in which Usi ruled over Terah.”