“I am certain that when the Ahasferus family learn you are here to personally take part in the negotiations for your son’s marriage, they will want you to stay with them,” Kaliq said. He was at his most charming. “If you remain, I shall see you have a trunk of the proper garments for your stay. And I shall return you to Terah when you wish to go.”

“Paulina, I cannot leave Terah without my governance,” Dominus Cadarn said.

“Ohh, Caddie, just two days? Terah will not fall apart in two days,” Lady Paulina pleaded prettily. “And if this young noblewoman is to be our new daughter, we really should get to know her family.”

“Two days, but no more, and only so I may oversee Cadoc and my uncle’s negotiations for this marriage,” Cadarn responded sourly.

As husband and wife spoke back and forth Lara suddenly realized that her passion for this world, her desire to save it, was not as strong as it had previously been. Was Kaliq right? Of course he was right. She could not recall the last time, if ever, when he had been wrong.

The door to the guest chamber opened suddenly. “Mother! I was told that you had come, but I would not believe it until I saw you with my own eyes.” Kolgrim, the Twilight Lord, stepped into the room and, coming over to her, kissed her on both cheeks.

“I was unable to resist wishing you my felicitations,” Lara said drily.

Kolgrim laughed aloud.

“This is your son?” Lady Paulina twittered.

Kolgrim’s changeable gray eyes looked directly at Lara, waiting for her answer.

“Aye, this is my son,” Lara finally said.

“He is very handsome,” Lady Paulina replied. “How fortunate his bride.”

“And extremely wicked, are you not, Kolgrim?” Lara taunted him.

The gray eyes darkened slightly. “No one knows my character better than my dearest mother,” he agreed. “Is that not so, Mother? She felt so sorry for my betrothed, she stole her away and hid her from me. Only when I threatened to destroy my sister did she relent and return Nyura to me.”

Lady Paulina tittered nervously not knowing whether to believe him or not. “Oh, my lord,” she finally said. “You surely jest.”

“Not at all, Lady Paulina,” Kolgrim said, smiling at the woman.

Lady Paulina shuddered delicately, suddenly realizing this beautiful young man was a dangerous man. She reached out for her husband’s hand.

But the Twilight Lord had already turned away from her. She was pretty, but too old for his taste although he just might take pleasures with her when he brought Terah under his control. He could see that Cadarn would need to fully comprehend who the master was. He would take the woman before her husband, making him watch as he forced her to cry out with delight. Nothing broke a man more than seeing the woman he loved violated by another man…and enjoying it.

What evil are you contemplating? Lara silently asked.

He told her and watched as distaste flooded her beautiful face. Then he said, I am glad that you came, Mother. I could but wish my father were here to see my triumph.

There is no triumph yet, Kolgrim. You but wed Ulla’s descendant.

The child she bears me will be the greatest Twilight Lord ever born, Mother. The darkness will hold the world of Hetar in its grasp beyond time as even we of the magic kingdoms know it. And you cannot stop it this time. You will be forced to accept my rule as will everyone else, Kolgrim said.

We shall see, my son. We shall see, Lara responded coolly.

You must stand by my side when I wed today. It is Hetarian custom that the parents of the bride and groom be by their side to give them to each other.

He grinned mischievously at her, and Lara suddenly saw the boy he once was. The boy she had never known, or wanted to know. There was a poignancy in that knowledge, and then she felt Kaliq reach out to take her hand in his. He had understood, of course. You cannot give away what you never had, she told the young man before her. But I have come today, and so I will do you honor, Kolgrim, son of Kol. You will not be shamed before these people or before those who are your blood kin even without these marriages. For a brief moment she thought she saw a glimmer of tears in his eyes, but then the illusion was gone.

“I am pleased to see you all,” Kolgrim said jovially. “Now I must go and prepare for my wedding. But before I go I would tell you that I may have four witnesses of my own choosing at the defloration ceremony. I invite you, my lord Dominus and Domina, and you, Prince Kaliq and my dear mother, to be my witnesses. Will you accept?”

“Of course we will accept, my lord,” Prince Kaliq said, speaking for them all. “We are honored to have been asked.” He bowed toward Kolgrim.

Kolgrim flashed them a bright smile, and then was gone from the chamber.

“What in the name of the Great Creator is a defloration ceremony?” Cadarn wanted to know.

“Tell them,” Lara said, swallowing her laughter, for she knew when her great-grandson and his wife learned they would be horrified.

“The bride is a virgin, which as you know is quite rare in both Hetar and Terah. When a girl who has known no man before is wed here in Hetar, her virginity is taken before a group of chosen witnesses because it is thought to bring honor to her family. The bride’s family chooses four witnesses, and the groom chooses four,” Kaliq explained.

“That is barbaric!” Lady Paulina declared. She turned to her husband. “Caddie, we cannot do this! We cannot!”

“Of course we can,” Dominus Cadarn replied calmly. “The Twilight Lord has honored us, wife. If it is to be as my great-grandmother says, and I have no cause to disbelieve her now. We must keep on the good side of our kinsman Kolgrim.”

“I will not be party to such a thing,” Lady Paulina cried.

“You will do as you are told,” Cadarn said in a cold hard voice. “If you do not, if you embarrass me, embarrass Terah, we will return home immediately. And when we get there I will see you are beaten for your insolence. You will be imprisoned till you die in Great-grandmother’s old tower, which refuses to be destroyed. Then I will divorce you and take a younger, more obedient wife. You will never see your children, or your grandchildren again. Do you understand me, Paulina?”

Cowed, she bowed her head. “Yes, my lord,” she said meekly.

“Do not feel sorry for the bride, Lady Nyura,” Lara said to her great-grandson’s wife. “She is aware of this custom. She chose to keep her innocence until she wed. I do not believe she knows it, but it has something to do with the powers she possesses. They would have been weakened by her sexual activity if she had indulged herself prior to marriage. Whether she sensed it, or the shade of her ancestress led her, we will never know. And she is pleased to bring honor to her family by her sacrifice.”

“Every virgin screams the first time,” Cadarn said in matter-of-fact tones.

“But to be taken before witnesses,” Lady Paulina said weakly.

“There will be no intimacy between them prior to the defloration,” Lara explained. “Their passion is not for our eyes. We are there to attest to the honesty and the value of the bride who saved her virginity for her bridegroom. Kolgrim’s cock will be stimulated by several skilled Pleasure Women while at the same time Nyura is brought to a state of readiness by several equally skilled sex slaves purchased for just this occasion. When bride and groom have been properly prepared, they are brought together and complete the defloration with the aid of the Pleasure Women and the male sex slaves. It’s actually a very civilized ceremony. If everyone involved does their job properly it will be over quickly. Then Kolgrim and his bride will disappear behind closed doors. The sheet upon which the deed was done is then brought back to the hall to be displayed to all the wedding guests. Then our part in the ceremony is over.”

“Did you really steal his bride away and hide her?” Cadarn asked Lara.

“I did,” Lara admitted. “I would have been very happy to keep Kolgrim from this marriage to Nyura Ahasferus, but it was not to be.”

“What did you hope to accomplish by such an act?” Cadarn asked.

“This girl he is to wed was not chosen casually,” Lara said. Then she explained to them about the Book of Rule, and how its pages wrote themselves, directing each Twilight Lord in his behavior. “I hoped to stop this marriage in order to save Hetar, but Kolgrim charmed my youngest daughter, Marzina, and menaced her.”

“I thought he did not kill blood kin,” Cadarn said.

“He did not intend killing her. What he planned was far worse. She was in a room of glass that Kolgrim threatened to release into a bottomless cavern outside of his castle. Marzina would have been trapped, unable to escape, and condemned for eternity. As I have a particular fondness for this daughter,” Lara told Cadarn, “I gave him back his betrothed wife, and he gave me back my child.”

“How cruel!” Lady Paulina said softly. “I could see the evil in his eyes. The poor maiden who is to be his wife.”

“Oh, she is quite delighted with her fate,” Lara said. “Do not grieve for Nyura.”

“Let us make ourselves comfortable until we are called to the wedding,” Prince Kaliq said, seating himself upon a velvet couch, drawing Lara down beside him.

“Indeed,” Cadarn agreed. “If this wedding is like all weddings, it will be a busy day.” He sat himself upon another velvet couch, patting the cushion by his side.

Lady Paulina accepted his invitation.

Let silence reign among us all and quiet be until the call, Prince Kaliq silently murmured the small enchantment. At once Cadarn and his wife fell asleep where they sat. “There has been enough talk,” he said by way of explanation to Lara.

“Agreed,” she replied. “They won’t listen anyway. They do try, but they are so quickly led astray. They are beginning to sound more like Hetarians than Terahns. I can only imagine what Magnus would say.”

“I think he would be very surprised to see what is happening in Terah. His son should have never allowed the Hetarian trading vessels to come to Terah. The kingdom was safer when the Terahn ships met the Hetarian ones at sea and transferred the cargo,” Kaliq noted. “I will never understand why Taj did not listen to you in the matter.”

“He was seventeen,” Lara remembered, “and determined to escape the influence of his mother, the Shadow Queen. His grandmother, Lady Persis, persisted in irritating him about my position. She simply could not stomach a woman in a locus of power. And so to prove to her that he was Dominus and my authority was nonexistent, he allowed the Hetarian trading vessels to dock in Terah. Then he cajoled his uncles into declaring him old enough to rule alone, and that was the end of it. He had no respect for my advice after that, although he loved me. And then Persis died, and begged him on her deathbed to choose a traditional Terahn wife. His swore it, and his aunts acted swiftly.” Lara laughed ruefully. “After that my power among the Terahns began to wane. There was nothing I could do.”

Kaliq shook his head. “These mortal folk are determined to go their own way, and now here in the world of Hetar we must let them do just that. I am only sorry for the hurt they did you, Lara, my love. And now today we must watch as this marriage brings them closer to the edge of destruction. They will eat and dance and celebrate, not knowing until it is too late just what they have done.”

11

THE DOOR TO THE CHAMBER OPENED AGAIN, AND a servant in splendid red-and-gold livery standing in the portal announced, “My lords and my ladies. The litters to take you to the wedding await you. If you will follow me, please.” And he bowed to them.

Awaken refreshed! Kaliq released the Terahn ruler and his wife from the spell he had set upon them earlier.

“Must have dozed off,” Cadarn said. “Nothing like a little nap to refresh one.”

His wife nodded in agreement as she stood brushing nonexistent wrinkles from her beautiful gown. Then she took her husband’s arm and they followed the servant.

Lara and Kaliq came behind them, smiling at each other with amusement.

As they came out into the great entry foyer Lara remembered the first time she had been in this place. Strangely it did not seem so very impressive now as it had then. As they exited the palace into the late-morning light they found two magnificent litters awaiting them. Large enough to comfortably carry two adults, they were of carved ebony decorated with pure gold designs, upholstered with soft golden leather and hung with gold-colored and spangled silk gauze draperies.