Bertrice Small - Crown of Destiny

“Of course,” she answered him. “But if you think you can keep Mother from retrieving me, you are mistaken. Her magic is far stronger than yours, my lord.”

“We shall see, little sister,” he told her. Then, bending, he kissed her cheek and was gone, closing the door behind him.

Marzina looked about her. The chamber was windowless. The floors were smooth stone as were the walls. It was more a dungeon cell but for the comfortable furnishings. There was a curtained bed draped in lavender velvet and covered in soft furs. Beneath it she noted a delicately painted chamber pot. At the foot of the bed was an iron-bound trunk. Lifting its rounded lid, Marzina was surprised to find it filled with beautiful robes made from a mixture of silk and fine soft wool. The colors, however, were mostly dark. Forest-green, deep blue, black, lavender and a rich purple. She let the lid fall shut and, going to the door, turned the handle. It opened, as Kolgrim had said it would. Marzina was surprised but pleased he had not lied to her.

Shutting the door, she continued her inspection of the chamber. It had a large fireplace that burned scented wood that perfumed and warmed the room. In the coals of the hearth was a dark bronze basin and pitcher of water for her bathing. There was a small round candle stand by the bed with a thick taper in a carved silver taperstick with its own snuffer attached by a delicate chain. A dark wood sideboard stood against one wall. Upon it was a silver tray with two decanters and a single silver cup. There was also a bowl of fresh fruit, and a little plate of honey cakes. Nothing was lacking within the room that a guest would need, Marzina thought.

Lying across the foot of the bed, a soft night garment of white cotton was ready for her. She wondered if she was being watched but then decided it didn’t matter. Before Marzina prepared herself for bed, however, she tried her spell once again. Return me now from whence I came. I do not choose to come again. But nothing happened. That was twice now she had caught Kolgrim in a truth. She would not have thought such a thing possible of a Twilight Lord.

With a sigh of resignation she took the basin and pitcher from the hearth, set them on the sideboard, poured the warm water into the vessel and bathed. When she was finished she was surprised to see the water drain away from the basin. With a little laugh she put them back, noting as she did that the pitcher was full again. Then Marzina took off her gown, donned the night garment that had been laid out for her and climbed into the bed. It was as comfortable as it looked, and deciding there was nothing else she could do, Marzina fell asleep. It had been a very long day.

Watching her in his reflecting bowl, Kolgrim smiled to himself. While love was not an emotion he usually experienced, he had come in the few short hours he had known her to adore this younger sister of his. When their mother released Nyura, he would keep his word and release Marzina to her. But he meant to win Marzina to the dark side. What an asset she would be to him. And it would certainly break their mother’s faerie heart. He smiled again.

“SHE IS GONE!” ILONA, QUEEN OF THE FOREST Faeries said to her daughter as she materialized in burst of purple mist.

Lara looked up. “Good morning, Mother,” she said. “Who is gone?”

“Marzina! Marzina is gone! I went to Fairevue to discuss some matters of great import with her, and she was gone, Lara. She was there two days ago her old body servant says, but then the next morning she was gone.”

“Kolgrim!” Lara said immediately. “Kolgrim has her. He knows how much I love her. He has taken her in exchange for Nyura.”

“To wed?” Ilona sounded scandalized.

“Nay, nay. The Book of Rule has chosen Nyura as his mate,” Lara said.

“Will he harm Marzina?” Ilona asked her daughter. “He does not know she is his sister, after all.”

“Alfrigg knew and has undoubtedly told the Twilight Lord the truth by now, which is why Kolgrim acted so swiftly to steal Marzina. Nay, he will not harm her,” Lara said. “But I can guarantee you, Mother, that he has some wicked plan in mind. He needs Nyura back quickly for the season of the mating frenzy is almost upon him. The fiercer the frenzy, the stronger the child he will spawn on Nyura. He cannot wait.”

“You must go to him at once!” Ilona said.

Lara could not help but laugh. “Did you believe I would wait. Aye, I will pay Kolgrim a visit to learn his terms and decide how we may delay him,” she said. “Tell Kaliq where I have gone. I will not linger long in the Dark Lands.” Then in a puff of lavender mist she was gone.

“Mother!” Kolgrim smiled toothily at her as she appeared in his hall. “How lovely of you to pay me a visit.” Stepping forward, he took up her hand and kissed it.

Lara glared at him. “Where is Marzina?” she demanded without any preamble.

“My little sister?” he said, smiling again at her.

Lara was silent a moment. There it was. Out in the open at last after all these years. “Aye, where is your sister?” she said wearily. “I know you have not harmed her, Kolgrim, but I also know that you have her.”

“She is a charming girl,” he said. “I mean to win her to the darkness. Her blood is equally divided, Mother. The decision is hers to make. She will be mine eventually.”

“Never!” Lara replied. “You will not blacken and steal her soul from her, Kolgrim. My daughter is filled with the light. She will always be.”

“My blood began as hers did, Mother. Equal parts light and dark, yet the dark triumphed in me. I am my father’s son. I might have been my mother’s son, but that you deserted me and destroyed my father in the process,” he accused her. “The Book of Rule had declared you his true mate, and he loved you.”

“Oh, Kolgrim, do you not yet understand that the Book of Rule was manipulated by the magic world, even as I was, in order that your father mate with me and give me his son. He stole my memories from me to accomplish this, and when the Shadow Princes saw my memories restored I did what I knew had to be done. I divided the child in my womb into two in order to cause chaos in the Dark Lands. And after I birthed those twins I fled back to my own world where the memories of that time here were hidden from me so I should not go mad. I was another man’s wife. I had other children who needed me.”

“I needed you!” he told her, anguished. It was the first honest emotion she had ever seen him exhibit and Lara was surprised.

“Your father wanted only one thing from me. An heir. I gave him two. But he could not leave me alone. He tugged at those hidden memories, until finally the Munin had to restore them all. Then I carried the burden of them, of those months with your father here in the Dark Lands, and it was painful beyond all else, Kolgrim,” Lara said.

“You put us from your thoughts,” Kolgrim accused.

“I did,” Lara said bluntly, “because had I not, I should have gone mad. I despised your father and what he did to me here, and afterward on the Dream Plain, but it did not negate the fact that I had borne two little boys, and then left them to a terrible fate. But your father would have never let either you or Kolbein go, and I could not remain.”

“Did you ever love us?” he asked pointedly.

“I could not allow myself to love you,” she answered him candidly.

He nodded. Then he said, “Return Nyura to me, and I will return Marzina to you. I will not promise you, however, not to take her from you.”

“You will try, but you will not succeed,” Lara told him. “Marzina is my child, and she is of the light, Kolgrim. As to Nyura, since I know you will not harm your sister I shall wait a while before returning your bride to you.”

His handsome face darkened. “You know I must mate her soon,” he said meaningfully. “The marriage must be celebrated soon. You know the reasons.”

“Aye, I do,” Lara told him with a small smile. “But a son is a son, Kolgrim. Don’t you think that is so?”

The young Twilight Lord shook his head ruefully. “Mother, dearest mother,” he began. “How little you must think of me. My powers lack a certain strength outside of the Dark Lands, it is true, though they are increasing each day. But here in my own castle my powers are strongest. Did you think it would be as simple as I have Marzina, you have Nyura and we will make a civilized exchange? Nay, it will not. If I return my sister to you before the wedding, you will find a way to conceal her while snatching Nyura from me once again. That will not happen. I will return Marzina to you after the wedding has been celebrated in Hetar. And the wedding will be celebrated in a few days’ time. Come,” he beckoned her. “Let me show you what will happen if you do not return Nyura to me in a timely manner. Marzina is sleeping now, and so she will not be frightened.”

Kolgrim led Lara from his hall, and after several turns they entered a long corridor lit by torches that were set in iron holders bolted to the stone wall. At the end of the corridor he stopped before a single small wood door. With a wave of his hand the wall before them became transparent so the chamber beyond was visible to their eyes. Looking into it, Lara thought it was very comfortably furnished, and she saw her daughter sleeping soundly in a fine high bed. Kolgrim pointed a single finger at the chamber, and suddenly all its walls and even its floor and ceiling were translucent.

“It is a glass cube,” he said, “attached firmly to my castle. It hangs over the endless canyon that separates this structure from my House of Women. If the magic holding this chamber is released then it will fall into the canyon.”

“You cannot harm her!” Lara cried softly. “She is your blood, not just by me, but by her sire as well, Kolgrim!”

He smiled sweetly at her. “She would not be harmed, but she would face eternity within a glass cube, falling deeper and deeper into a bottomless pit, mother dearest. I seriously doubt any magic-yours, mine, the Shadow Princes-could save her from her fate once the chamber began its descent. But of course you are welcome to attempt a rescue. Or you can return Nyura to me immediately. I am not an unreasonable man so I will give you a day in which to make your decision,” he said.

“You are a monster!” Lara cried, looking into his handsome face. Then she turned to look back at Marzina, but the wall had become stone once again.

Mother, return from whence you came. I’ll call when you must come again. Kolgrim spoke the spell silently.

“MY LOVE!” KALIQ CAUGHT HER as she literally fell into his arms, sobbing. “What has happened? What is the matter? Speak to me, Lara!”

“Lara, why do you weep so bitterly,” Ilona demanded.

“He is Kol’s son,” Lara sobbed, “and his father would be proud of him.”

“Does he have Marzina?” Kaliq asked. “But of course he does, and he wants Nyura in exchange. We can delay him, my love. He won’t hurt Marzina. You know it.”

Lara swallowed back her tears. She pushed back the fear he had engendered in her heart and soul. Then she told her mother and her life mate of her visit to Kolgrim. “He is ruthless. He will not hesitate to send my daughter into an agony of an eternity.”

“But can we trust him to return her once he has his way,” Ilona wondered aloud.

“What choice do we have?” Lara said. “But I do believe if he gets his way he will release Marzina to us. He wants the triumph of luring her to the dark side, of hurting me. He wants to win this new war he makes for Hetar. I must attempt to warn Palben. I must get him to listen to me.”

“He will not,” Kaliq said quietly. “Palben will take a second wife tomorrow. She is another of Grugyn Ahasferus’s granddaughters. Her name is Divsha. Your great-grandson is a clever man, my love. He will now be able to publicly claim a blood tie with the Twilight Lord for he does not know he already has one.”

“If Hetar and the Dark Lands are united by marriage, what will become of Terah?” Lara fretted. “Did not Grugyn Ahasferus have three granddaughters? What of the third girl? If she is not wed, then I can make a match with Terah. Cadarn’s oldest son is not wed. Did not Anoush predict that one day I would unite the worlds? And if the three are united and bound by familial ties then perhaps we can prevent Kolgrim from overwhelming all in his damnable darkness,” Lara said excitedly. “All three of them will be busy attempting to overcome the other two, and rule alone.”

“It is possible,” Ilona said slowly but her voice held little conviction.

Lara would not be content until she had accomplished it, Kaliq knew. But she would not change the fate assigned this world. Yet until Lara could be convinced that all was lost, she would not move forward and could not meet her destiny.