Lara held out her arms to the handsome prince, and he came into them. His lips touched hers, and she was afire with restored lust. A new lover was always exciting. Lying in Kaliq’s arms, Lara’s hands slipped beneath her breasts, and she offered them up to Coilin. With a smile he lay on his side, and, taking one of her breasts, fondled it, caressing it with light touches, finally closing his lips over the nipple. The sweetness of the Umbras juice quickly roused him, but he continued to suckle her as he pressed two fingers into Lara’s sheath, moving them back and forth until she was writhing and eager for him. She whimpered her need.

Roll over, and kneel to me, he ordered her.

Lara complied, and sighed with pleasure as he thrust deep into her female passage. He continued to thrust until she had peaked twice, and her juices were flowing copiously. Only then did he release his own juices. Withdrawing from her, he thanked her for the pleasures she had given him and left.

Now it is our time to be together, my love, Kaliq said. There is no need for you to share yourself any further. He arose from the couch where they had been sprawled together. Come!

Where? Lara wanted to know.

Kaliq smiled, and took his long white cloak from the servant who had suddenly appeared with it. Wrapping it about them, he said aloud, “The Oasis of Zeroun, my love.”

Lara felt the faint rush of their transport, and then Kaliq threw back the silk cloak, and they were there. A wave of his hand and her pavillion appeared. “Oh, my lord Kaliq,” she said softly. Above them the moons of Hetar in their various phases beamed down upon them. “I would bathe,” she told him. “I do not want the scent of other men upon me when we take pleasures tonight.”

He led her into the water of the pool, and it was warm against her flesh. They swam together, and then Lara stood beneath the little waterfall for a few minutes before diving back into the water to join him. Kaliq took her into his arms, and kissed her a deep kiss that seemd to go on and on and on. Lara sighed, slipping her arms about his neck as he lifted her up, her body molding itself to his. Breast to chest. Belly to belly as they kissed again in the moonlight.

He carried her from the little pool, across a carpet of warm sand and into his tent. He dried their skin with a thick towel and brushed her long golden hair, which had long since come loose, shedding the filigreed jeweled chains plaited earlier into it. Taking a lock of her hair between two of his fingers, he kissed it. And when his sapphire eyes met Lara’s emerald ones a new understanding bloomed suddenly between them.

What is happening, my lord Kaliq? Lara asked him silently.

Even I am not certain, Lara, my love, he replied. The Celestial Actuary plays with us, I believe. Do not be afraid. We will follow our instincts. Putting the hairbrush down, he wrapped himself about her, kissing her shoulder first, the side of her neck and finally her ear, which he tongued teasingly, and then nipped the lobe.

Lara leaned back against him. His arms felt strong and comforting. She did not have to be strong with Kaliq. She could be merely female. Turning her head, her lips met his in another passionate kiss. The tip of his tongue encircled her lips. She followed his lead then surprised him by pushing her tongue into his mouth to find his and play with it. Their mouths were fused as he turned her so they were facing each other.

His hands fondled her breasts, tracing their shape with his fingers, tickling the nipples, which were now free of Umbra juice. Laying her back, his mouth closed over one of those tempting nipples, encircling its pointed nub with his tongue, then biting down gently upon it. Her fingers kneaded his neck as he did, her nails pressing into the flesh as his teeth scored her. “Faerie witch!” he groaned, taking her head between his hands, his fingers deep in her golden hair as he kissed her again.

Lara’s hands ran down his body. She petted him with skillful fingers until she felt him shudder with delight at her touch. Her hand stroked his love rod, moving gently up and down its length, slipping beneath it to cup his love sac in her warm palm. She fondled it, fingers playing with the two large seeds within. The sharp intake of his breath was audible. She tweaked the sac a final time, and returned to caressing his length once more. Then Lara lay back upon the pillows of the large bed, and spread herself open for him. “I have waited for you all this long night, Kaliq, for no one gives me pleasures as you have always done.”

“And I have waited for you, my love. Tonight for the first time I regretted our code of hospitality that requires me to share you with my brothers.”

“It was most pleasurable, but I could be content with only you, my lord Kaliq,” Lara told him. “Your brothers are skilled, but it is you I always want.”

“Do you?” he surprised her by asking.

“Aye, I should not say it were it not so,” Lara swore to him. “That bit of mortal blood that flows in my veins prevents me from being duplicitous with you, Kaliq. Certainly you knew that. I am not Ilona.”

His answer was to lean forward so he might run his tongue along her shadowed slit. Feeling her quiver beneath him, he pressed his tongue between her nether lips. Finding her love bud, he teased it unmercifully until she was writhing, and her juices were beginning to flow for him. Seeing it, tasting her, Kaliq mounted Lara and thrust deep. Her immediate cry of pleasure encouraged him to his best efforts. Her legs wrapped about his torso. Her sharp nails dug into his shoulders. As he drove deeper, rode her harder, her nails raked down his long back.

“Please don’t stop!” Lara begged him. “It is too delicious!”

“I cannot promise,” he groaned. His lust was high, and his genuine desire for this woman was great. “These pleasures may come quickly, but we have the night together, Lara, my love,” Kaliq told her as he pistoned her until she was crying out with the pleasures he was giving her, and he cried out with the pleasures she was giving him as the muscles of her sheath tightened about his thick rod. Finally he could restrain himself no more. Her body had quivered for him again and again, and her juices had flowed for him thrice. Now as they began a fourth journey he released his own juices into her with a shout of pleasure fulfilled.

He let her sleep then for she had partaken of pleasures much this evening, but when the morning came he was awakened by her mouth upon his rod encouraging it to new delights. Happily, Kaliq complied, driving her passions to heated heights until Lara laughingly cried her surrender. “No one,” he told her afterward as they kissed and cuddled together, “can rouse me as you do, my love. And no one has ever actually tired me out as you do. Had you not given over now I should have had to,” Kaliq admitted.

Reaching up, she caressed his handsome face with a gentle hand. “Be careful today, my lord, when you travel the Dark Lands. Bring word to me when you return.”

“Will you remain at Shunnar?” he asked as he reclothed them with a snap of his fingers.

“No. I must return to the New Outlands else they worry. Ever since that summer the Twilight Lord kidnapped me they fret if I am gone more than a day or two,” Lara explained to him. “Put me back in my chamber in Liam’s house in New Camdene.”

“With the Horse Lord?” Kaliq said dryly.

Lara laughed. “Stop being jealous, but if it will satisfy you I am through with Roan. He was beginning to become possessive of me. If he is still in Liam’s hall I will send him back to his own hall and his eight wives.”

“I will admit that that would please me, my love,” Kaliq said.

Lara laughed softly. “Oh, Kaliq, you must not let me be your weakness,” she told him. “Remember I have a cold faerie heart, my lord.”

“Then I appeal to that bit of mortal within you,” he teased her. “Now I must send you back, my love, before I give in to my desire to take pleasures with you again.”

“You must return to your own hall, and meet up with your brothers,” she reminded him. Then she quickly kissed his lips. “Until later, my lord,” she said, and disappeared in a puff of green haze.

He laughed. She had taken herself off before he might send her back. Sometimes her beauty caused him to forget that she had powerful magic, too. Not as powerful as his, but her powers were great. With a swirl of his cloak he returned himself to his own privy chamber. The sun was rising over the Desert Kingdom, and it was time to go into the Dark Lands to find Kolbein, son of Kol, before the Darkling Ciarda could cause any serious damage to their worlds.

9

THE DARKLING KNOWN AS Ciarda had made her home in a stone castle her father had erected long ago in the Valley of the Penumbras. It was small, for those for whom he had brought this castle into existence didn’t need a great deal of space. It was cold, but that suited Ciarda’s icy nature although her two servants were always whining about it. She had finally given them permission to keep a hot fire in the kitchen where they slept. The fires that burned above the stairs in her hall and elsewhere were cold fire, and gave off no heat and but dim light.

The Darkling sat at her High Board staring out into her hall and considering her next move. She must set her twin half brothers against one another. Whichever of them survived she would take as a mate. She would force him to give her his male heir, for, having been raised with no knowledge of his heritage, he would know no better. Then she would encourage him to a thoroughly debauched life that would soon kill him.

And when he was dead she would take power in the name of her son. As for that son, she would see he was encouraged from the moment of his birth to indulge himself in every way. Nothing would ever be denied him, and, used to having his own way, he would find ruling a tedious bore, and leave it to his dear mother, who would do whatever necessary to keep her boy happy. Ciarda laughed at the picture she was painting. She would complete her father’s dream to conquer Hetar and even Terah when the power was all hers. Patience, however, had never been her strong suit.

Irritatable now, she called to her Wolfyn lover, who lay by the fire in his animal form. Springing up, he took on a more human appearance, and walked over to the High Board where she now sat. “Pleasure me,” she said in a cold, hard voice.

From the shadows where he stood Kaliq watched, amused for a brief moment, and then he returned to his privy chamber where he found Gaszi and Eskil already awaiting him. “No luck?” he said to them.

“None,” Eskil replied. “Their manner of living is disgusting, by the way.”

Gaszi nodded in agreement. “To put a child with creatures like that,” he said, shaking his head. “The Wolfyn clan you visited?”

“The boy was not there, either. I did check on Ciarda, and listened to her thoughts. She is quite devious and clever. She means to set her brothers against one another for starters, marry the survivor, mother his heir and kill her mate off. Kol would be very proud of her,” Kaliq remarked dryly. “She is ruthless, dangerous and completely without mercy. But she is also extraordinarily beautiful and has a vast appetite for pleasures. Her Wolfyn lover was doing his best to sate her when I left. His youth and his endurance are his only advantages. I actually felt sorry for him.”

Lothair, Terriss and Nasim suddenly materialized within the privy chamber.

“I believe I have found him, brothers,” Terriss said excitedly.

“Did you see him?” Kaliq demanded to know.

“Nay. He was with his foster father and brothers in the forest. But the women of the household spoke of Chancellor Alfrigg’s impending visit,” Terriss responded. “I could only surmise that meant the boy was a member of the household.”

“That would seem a reasonable assumption,” Kaliq said. “Did they say when the chancellor was expected?”

“Nay, but it seemed as if it would be very soon as the women in the household were busy cleaning and scouring,” Terriss replied.

“Their hundred-year cleaning undoubtedly,” Eskil murmured. “There were bones all over the floor of the house I visited.” He shuddered.

“We will set a watch on Alfrigg, and on the Darkling Ciarda,” Kaliq said. “And Lara must now begin to observe the sons she bore Kol.” He looked to Terriss. “Did you leave the crystal where it would not be found as you were instructed?”

“I did,” his brother replied. “You will be able to observe Kolbein wherever he is now. Shall we see if the token is working?”