“The queen is there now?” They murmured softly to one another so Kolgrim could not hear them, as he would have heard had they spoken in the silent language.

“All the good magic has gone from Hetar now but for you and me,” Kaliq said.

“Thank you for convincing Marzina to go,” Lara said, relieved.

THE FEASTING HAD GONE ON the day long. There had been many entertainers to amuse the guests. Oiled wrestlers both male and female had battled before them. Lithe dancers in translucent silks had woven their way about the trestle tables in the Great Hall. A troupe of gaily costumed dwarfs had danced and turned somersaults atop six black-and-white ponies, half of whom had black manes, and half who had white. And then an ancient bard had come into the hall, which grew silent.

His name was Knud, and he was famous throughout Terah. He sang songs of Terah’s past history. Then he concluded his entertainment by coming to stand before Lara while he sang of the beautiful faerie woman who had freed Terah from the curse of Usi the Sorcerer. Lara’s eyes were filled with tears when he had finished, for this same lay had been sung at her wedding to Magnus Hauk in this very hall well over a hundred years ago. The last notes of his lyre dying, Knud took Lara’s hand up in his and kissed it.

“Thank you,” she told him, nodding. “That was as beautiful as the first time I heard it. Thank you!”

The bard nodded his head in return. “My father taught it to me, Domina. It was he who sang it at your wedding. After today I shall not sing it or any other song again for the darkness is even now falling, and I shall die tonight. I am one hundred years old.” Then turning, Knud bowed to the Dominus and, walking slowly, left the hall, which was now wrapped in stunned silence.

The tension was broken with the entry of a magnificent cake of twelve tiers. It was covered in a purple sugar icing and gold leaf. This was a new innovation in Terah. Lara remembered her winter wedding to Magnus Hauk had concluded with baskets of winter fruits. Atop the cake were two naked sugar figures representing Vaclar and Yamka who stood facing one another. The male figure held a long rigid manhood in his hand that stuck straight out. The female stood, her hands pulling apart her nether lips, a coy smile upon her face. The cake was cut, and slices apportioned out to the guests, who devoured them eagerly. One fortunate among the guests would find a ruby in their slice. A shriek of delight erupted as a magnate’s wife from Hetar was the lucky one.

Dominus Cadarn now arose from his place at the center of the High Board. “It is now time, having watched the sun come up together on this auspicious day of Vaclar and Yamka’s wedding, to adjourn to the gardens to watch the sun set on the first day of their marriage. Please join us, my friends!” Then he and Domina Paulina led the guests from their Great Hall back outside.

The air was cooler now. The setting sun was every bit as beautiful as the rising sun had been. How many more days would it be? Lara wondered. And as the guests stood admiring the sunset sky Lara saw from the corner of her eye Vaclar and Yamka slipping off to their bridal chamber. Oddly they seemed well suited to each other, and were not unhappy with the dynastic match that had been made for them. Lara remembered how she and Magnus had remained with their guests for they were master and mistress of Terah then. And the entertainments had gone on long into the night. Finally Magnus had stood with Lara by his side. Together they had thanked their guests for coming, wishing them a safe journey home on the morrow.

How long ago had it been? One hundred and twenty or thirty years? Lara sighed with the memory. So much had happened since then. And yet little had changed. The sun still rose and set as it always had. She hoped that those Hetarians and Terahns who had come for this wedding would remember this day. Already some of them were beginning to return to The City through the corridor the magic had made for them. She felt Kaliq’s hand taking hers and, looking up at him, smiled, her faerie green eyes lighting with the deep and passionate love she felt for him.

“It is time to go,” he said to her, and she nodded.

Hearing them, Kolgrim turned. “But Marzina remains with me,” he said in a cold hard voice. His dark gray eyes danced with his triumph.

“Marzina is long gone, my lord,” Kaliq said softly. “Did you think I would let you use her to break your mother’s heart, to steal her magic?”

“Marzina stands there,” Kolgrim said, pointing to the figure of the beautiful young faerie woman who stood looking at the last bit of color as the sun disappeared beneath the purple horizon.

“’Tis but a shade of your sister,” Lara said, unable to keep the exultation from her voice. “Marzina is safe from you, Kolgrim. You will not have her magic or mine!” As she spoke the words she heard Andraste humming loudly within her scabbard.

“Curse you!” Kolgrim shouted angrily, and the remaining guests turned to look. Suddenly in the Twilight Lord’s hand was a large broadsword. Its pommel was shaped in the head of an ugly male with onyx eyes that glowed red as it spoke in a dark voice.

I am Jasha, the Supplanter, the sword shouted.

Andraste was shrieking to be freed from her scabbard, and Lara obliged her weapon, who answered, I am Andraste, and I will drink the blood of the supplanter! She almost leaped from Lara’s hand in her fury to do battle with Jasha. Lara’s eyes glittered dangerously. “Sheathe your sword, Kolgrim,” she told him, holding tight to her own weapon. “You do not want to do battle with me, boy.”

“Do you think I am afraid of you, Mother?” he drawled. “You cannot kill me. My fate is to rule this world, to grind it beneath my heel, to bring it into the darkness.”

“I killed before your coming was even written in the Book of Rule,” Lara warned him softly. “Perhaps I cannot kill you, Kolgrim, but you will not win in combat with me. If you wish to maintain your status with these poor foolish mortals, do not challenge me. Remember that I have a destiny, and it is not to be spitted upon your sword.”

“Can you be certain of that, Mother?” he demanded of her.

“Aye, I can,” Lara replied.

“Domina!” Cadarn cried. “Put that weapon away before you hurt yourself. My lord Kolgrim, I beg you remember where you are.”

Kolgrim turned to look briefly at Marzina. The shade faded away before his eyes. He turned back to Lara. “You cannot keep her from me,” he said in a deadly voice. Sister Marzina, hear my plea. Cease all else and come to me!

But Marzina did not appear.

Lara shook her head. You are pitiful, Kolgrim. Whatever you think you must do you will do without my daughter or her magic.

She is my sister! he said angrily. We share the same blood, a mother, a father. You have no right to keep her from me.

Cadarn looked to Prince Kaliq. “Why are they just standing there, my lord?” he asked the Shadow Prince.

“They converse in the silent language of magic,” Kaliq replied.

“Sheathe your weapon,” Lara repeated aloud so that the witnesses to this scene would hear her and know it was she who was being provoked.

Instead he leaped forward, the blade of Jasha meeting Andraste as Lara moved to defend herself. The sound the two swords made was loud and ferocious. Kolgrim was almost weeping with his frustration.

“He will kill her!” Palben shouted, but he made no move to help.

“Neither of them will kill the other,” Kaliq said quietly. “They cannot.”

“Then why does she fight him?” Cadarn wanted to know. “She is but a delicate woman.”

Kaliq laughed aloud. “She is a great swordswoman and a great warrior. If you had accepted your own history instead of rewriting it to suit your narrow ideology, my lord Dominus, you would know that. Now watch her, and learn that evil can be defeated.”

The remaining wedding guests had unconsciously moved back to form an open space in which the two combatants now slowly circled each other. Lara’s eyes never left her opponent as she waited for him to make his next move. Unnerved by her calm, Kolgrim flailed out with Jasha, his blow once again blocked by Andraste.

Kolgrim, walk away. You will lose to me, and then these mortals will know that you can be beaten despite your powerful magic, Lara taunted.

In reply the Twilight Lord began to rain blows with his sword upon his mother’s sword, but she blocked him again and again. If I could really be beaten, you and your kind would not be planning to flee Hetar. I will catch some of your magic before it goes, he said to her stubbornly.

Lara deliberately kept her mind a blank. She was a consummate warrior, and always had been. She would give Kol’s son a lesson he would not soon forget. Andraste was quivering within her grip to do battle. She raised the weapon, and began to fight him seriously, each blow deliberately and carefully planned, for it was she and not Kolgrim who was in charge of this game. Metal clanged on metal as they fought. Kolgrim was soon winded as Lara parried and thrust, parried and thrust, wearing him down.

Then Andraste began to sing in her deep dark voice. I am Andraste, slayer of evil! And the great blade delivered a ferocious blow to Kolgrim’s Jasha, severing it in two pieces, which fell to the earth. And I taste the blood of the Twilight Lord, she continued as she nicked Kolgrim’s sword arm, and he cried out in pain.

15

THE CROWD OF HETARIANS AND TERAHNS HAD watched and howled excitedly during the match between the two combatants. Now they grew suddenly silent as Kolgrim dropped the damaged sword, and his hand reached out to touch the small wound that Lara had given him on his other arm. Seeing his fingers covered in his own blood, he looked horrified. He looked up at Lara. You have blooded me, Mother.

I warned you not to battle me, Kolgrim. Lothair, sword master of the Shadow Princes, was my teacher. If you intend picking quarrels with warriors in the future, I would suggest you get better instruction than you have had, Lara said drily.

“Kinsman, let me have my physician attend to your wound,” Cadarn said.

“Nay, come back with me to Hetar, and my physician will see to it,” Palben insisted while his two wives nodded vigorously in unison.

With a smothered curse Kolgrim bent to pick up the pommel of the now-destroyed Jasha. Then he disappeared from their sight in a clap of black thunder. The remaining guests were suddenly very silent.

“Those of you from Hetar,” Lara said in a commanding voice, “go quickly through the corridor for we are going to close it up. Palben, remain. We will see you home safely. The rest of you go now!” She returned Andraste to her scabbard.

The Hetarians ran for the exit, and when the last of them had dashed through, Kaliq closed the Golden tunnel between Hetar and Terah. It would never open again.

“Send the rest of your guests home, Cadarn,” Lara told him.

The Dominus did not question her. “I thank you all for coming this day,” he said to those remaining, “but it is past time for you to return to your homes.”

“Come with me now to Magnus Hauk’s library,” Lara said to the two rulers, and with Kaliq by her side she made her way back into the castle down familiar hallways to the chamber she sought. Entering it, she saw the room was exactly as it had been when her Terahn husband had been living. It was obvious that no one used the room. A memorial to Magnus but little more, she thought wryly. “Sit down,” she told Cadarn and Palben and they did so without question. She could see the grudging respect in their eyes, and realized she should have never relinquished her control over her mortal family to mortals. They were but the weaker for it.

“Listen to me, and listen well,” Lara began. “It is unlikely that after today you will ever see me again. All the magic that is good has departed your world. The darkness is upon you. You and your peoples are now in the hands of the Twilight Lord. You will find him a cruel master, but you have brought this upon yourselves by refusing to change your ways, by not learning from your history, but rather rewriting it to suit your own purposes and actions.

“You are a society totally involved with yourselves, your acquisitions, your pleasures, all of it to the detriment of others not as fortunate. Once Hetar offered opportunity to those who strived to better themselves. You no longer offer those chances to your citizens. You have made them weak by feeding, housing and entertaining them without asking anything in return. They have no education, no skills. They are no better than mindless slaves! And you have done this, not out of kindness, but to maintain your own positions, retain your ridiculous wealth and seek endless pleasures. May the Celestial Actuary help you now for the magic world will not.