“Good friends,” he said. “Several days ago I lost my beloved wife, Vilia, to death. Vilia was a good wife, a model of perfection. And so it was before she died she chose for me my new wife. I introduce to you Princess Zagiri of Terah.” Jonah drew the girl forward. “My bride. She is the daughter of our late friend Magnus Hauk, Dominus of Terah, and his wife, Lara, daughter of our own John Swiftsword. Her brother now rules in Terah, guided by the wisdom of his mother. Good friends, please greet Princess Zagiri, the First Lady of Hetar.”

A great cheer arose from those assembled, and they clapped wildly as Zagiri stood before them. The girl with a proud smile on her lovely face stared out into the crowd of guests, but her eyes focused briefly upon Prince Kaliq, who stood leaning against one of the marble pillars of the hall, an amused smile upon his face. What was he doing here? Why could no one else but her see him? She looked away, not daring to say anything to Jonah. If Kaliq wanted to speak to her he would find an opportunity. Then suddenly everyone in the hall froze before Zagiri’s startled eyes.

“What have you done, you foolish girl?” Kaliq asked her as he came forward.

“I have married a great ruler,” Zagiri said defiantly. “What is so wrong with that, my lord Prince? Jonah is a wonderful man, and I am proud to be his wife.”

“Your mother forbade this alliance, and yet you dared to go against her will,” the prince said sternly. “And just how did you get to Hetar?”

Zagiri laughed. “I was brought across the Dream Plain, my lord Prince. You and my mother aren’t the only ones to have magic.”

Kaliq shook his head at her. “You are such a mortal, Zagiri. You have no real idea what lives in the realm of magic. Or the power that some of us command. You think because you have grown up with a faerie mother, because your grandmother Ilona comes and goes in a puff of smoke that that is all there is of magic. Ask yourself why Jonah wanted you for a wife. Why he was so desperate to bring you to Hetar with all possible haste. Ask him if you dare.”

“Jonah loves me,” Zagiri said. “He calls me his golden girl, and says I will bring peace to Hetar,” the girl declared.

“Where is there discord in Hetar that peace is necessary? Hetar is at peace because the Dark Lands are tamed for the interim, and Terah wants nothing to do with Hetar,” Prince Kaliq said scornfully. “Jonah wants you for his wife because you bring him prestige and honor among his own people. And those people have become restless of late. It is said that the Hierarch’s coming is imminent. Jonah does not want to solve Hetar’s problems. He wants to distract the people so they will forget the problems that beset this land. What better distraction than a beautiful princess for a wife?”

“You are wrong!” Zagiri cried. “Lady Vilia chose me to follow in her footsteps, and Jonah fell in love with me at first sight.”

“Lady Vilia had to die because Jonah could not put such an openly loyal wife aside if he was to take you as a wife,” Prince Kaliq said.

“Lady Vilia died to save her child,” Zagiri told him. “I caught her essence in a bottle, and fed it to her son, Egon, who has for months been sickening. Within two days he was well again, my lord Prince! That good woman died so her child might live. And she picked a wife for Jonah who would follow in her footsteps. No matter what you say I will defend my husband, and stand by his side. I love him! Tell my mother that! Tell her I shall never return to Terah! That I rule a greater land than she does by the side of a husband who loves me!”

And Prince Kaliq was suddenly gone, and the hall noisy with congratulations again. Jonah looked down at his new wife and smiled. Zagiri smiled back at him. She was First Lady of Hetar now. She would not allow anyone to take that or this man away from her. Not all the magic in the world would part them.

LARA WEPT WHEN KALIQ returned and spoke with her. “She is not enchanted,” he said. “She knows exactly what she wants, and she knows what she is doing. What I want to know is who brought her across the Dream Plain, and I mean to find out. There is dark magic at work here, my love.”

“How did she look?” Lara asked him.

“Beautiful. Proud. Young,” he answered her.

“If Magnus were here…” Lara began. Then she put her head in her hands. “Oh, Kaliq! I have failed Magnus. Zagiri was our first child, and she was born out of great love. She has known nothing but love all her life. What will happen to her when she realizes that her husband is interested in preserving his own status, and has no heart despite his protestations to the contrary. Zagiri will soon feel the lack of love. It will destroy her, and I can do nothing to help.

“You tell me that my daughter has made this decision of her own free will. If indeed she did then how could I have known her so little? She is the first child I bore Magnus. She was created from our love, and yet now I find the child we loved and raised together is a stranger. Zagiri is gone from us now, from Terah. The daughter I knew, the sister her siblings knew never really existed.”

“What if she seeks your help for Hetar?” Kaliq asked Lara.

“I don’t know,” Lara said. “My instinct is to say Terah will not give Hetar any aid of any kind. We want nothing to do with them. But what if this Hierarch appears? What will he want? How will he accomplish his mission? I always thought the Hierarch was nothing more than a legend. And when Hetar learns that Terah will not help them what will happen to my child, Kaliq? What will happen to Zagiri?”

“I must return to Shunnar and consider this,” the prince told her. “Events both great and small happen for a reason, Lara. You know that is so. Now there are two questions I must answer. Who helped Jonah, and why is Zagiri so important to him? Where there are questions there are usually answers.” He reached out and drew her into his arms. “Sometimes I wish life were simpler, don’t you?”

Lara laughed weakly. “Aye,” she agreed, “I do, but life isn’t simple, Kaliq. For people like us it is convoluted, and ofttimes difficult.” With a sigh she closed her eyes, and accepted the gentle kiss he pressed upon her lips. Then she said, “Oh, Kaliq, do you think he loves her?”

“I do not know,” the Shadow Prince answered, “but she believes he does, and she loves him, Lara. Right now she will not leave him willingly, but you can be comforted knowing that she is safe. Zagiri possesses your passion, and your loyalty. Whatever Jonah really wants of her he does not have it yet.”

“I am only just realizing that my daughter is recklessly ambitious,” Lara responded slowly. “That will be Lady Persis’s influence, but the old woman always spoiled Zagiri far more than her siblings. She will be heartbroken when she learns what has happened to her favorite grandchild.”

“Let me leave you now, my love. We need to learn what is behind all of this,” Kaliq told Lara. Giving her a quick kiss, he disappeared to reappear in his own palace of Shunnar where he found his brother Lothair waiting for him in his privy chamber.

“You have been with Lara?” he asked. “How is she?”

“Devastated, angry,” Kaliq answered. “We must learn why the Lord High Ruler was so determined to have Lara’s daughter as his wife. It certainly goes beyond his desire to gain Terah as an ally. Zagiri told me she was transported across the Dream Plain. Only magic could accomplish that, and as no one in Hetar has to my knowledge that kind of magic we must learn who did this great favor for the Lord High Ruler, and why. And, having granted such a boon to Jonah, they, whoever they are, will expect payment in kind,” Kaliq said. “I thought we had closed off the darkness.”

“Kaliq, Kaliq, there is always darkness lurking, and seeking to wreak havoc,” Lothair responded. “Your concern for Lara clouds your vision, my brother.”

“You are probably right,” Kaliq admitted ruefully. “Now tell me what you have heard of the one they call the Hierarch.”

“It’s a legend that has no basis in fact,” Lothair said. “But belief among the poor and the desperate often defies fact. It is said that when Hetar comes into its darkest days the Hierarch will appear to lead them back into the right path, and that path will bring Hetar back to prosperity and greatness. I cannot learn where this legend originally sprang from, but I believe we must know the source if we are to dispell it. I must go back into the history of Hetar to learn the truth.”

“Go then, my brother,” Kaliq said with a nod. “And while you take that direction I shall take another. I will seek out the magic that has been used here.”

With a flourish of his white cape Lothair disappeared into the shadows.

Kaliq sat down at a large wooden table he used as a desk. Leaning back, he closed his blue eyes, and began to consider the possibilities. Who would have had the power to transport a mortal girl from one realm to another using the Dream Plain? No faerie from any of the kingdoms would have taken Ilona’s granddaughter. The Queen of the Forest Faeries was not a being to be trifled with under any circumstances. The giants were not clever enough, and besides, Lara had no quarrel with any among them. Who then was responsible for this mischief? It came to him suddenly!

Only a Darkling could do what had been done, but Darklings were few and usually kept to the Dark Lands where they were under the control of the Twilight Lord. But Kol, the Twilight Lord, was imprisoned for his crimes against Hetar, Terah and Lara herself. And the twin sons Lara had borne him were hidden away by the factions that had grown up about them and now fought an endless civil war over which of these two young men would rule in his father’s place. They would be fifteen now, Kaliq realized, surprised. The time had gone much too quickly. He should have been looking toward that realm. The darkness was obviously beginning to rear its head again.

Kaliq reached out, saying the words of a spell as he did. “Darkling, Darkling, come to me. Though you would rather hidden be. A Shadow Prince calls you his way, and you cannot help but obey.” He felt the creature struggling to evade him. “Appear or suffer my wrath!” Kaliq said harshly. “Now!”

There was a small flash, and a beautiful woman appeared before him. “My lord Prince,” she said in a smoky voice, and she swept him a mock bow. Her hair was as black as a moonless night. Her eyes were purple, and her skin milky-white. She was tall and slender. “What is it you want of me?” she said.

“Tell me your name,” Kaliq answered.

The Darkling laughed. “If I tell you my name you will have power over me.”

“I already have power over you,” he said, “so tell me your name, Darkling.”

“Why have you called me to you?” she countered.

“Your name, or shall I drag it from you,” Kaliq replied.

“I had heard that you were masterful, my lord Prince,” she taunted him. “How will you impel me to reveal what I choose not to reveal? Will you impale me upon your great lance forcing me to pleasures?” Her smile was wicked, and her breasts swelled just slightly over the low neckline of her violet silk gown.

“You are beautiful, and I should certainly enjoy sharing pleasures with you, but I never make love to a woman I cannot address by name,” he told her, amused at her blatant attempt to seduce him.

The Darkling stamped her foot. “You mock me!” she cried out. “Yet I am worthy of your respect, for I can cause such havoc in Hetar and in Terah as has never been seen.”

“Why would you do that?” he inquired of her.

“Because I can!” she responded childishly.

She was young, he realized then. “Tell me your name, Darkling,” he said with a small smile. “You know mine.”

Now the Darkling smiled an arch almost coquettish smile at him. “My name is Ciarda,” she said. Then she clapped her hand over her mouth. “I did not mean to say it!”

“I told you I should have your name from you,” Kaliq told her.

“How did you do it?” she wanted to know. “I should like to learn how to do such a thing.”

“You are too young for such knowledge,” Kaliq told her. “But tell me, Ciarda, why did you bring the Princess Zagiri to Hetar?”

“Because the Lord High Ruler wanted her,” Ciarda responded. “The Hierarch is coming soon, and the Terahn girl will be necessary to help him keep his place as ruler.”

“Indeed,” Kaliq remarked dryly. “Your powers are great for one so young.”

“I have been given the loan of all my sisters’ powers,” Ciarda said, proudly tossing her head so that her long ebony hair moved gracefully.

She was lying, and he knew it, Kaliq thought. “Why do you seek to harm Hetar?” he asked her.