Kaliq nodded, and, going to a cabinet, opened it to take out a beautiful crystal bowl, oblong in shape. Setting it upon a table, Kaliq raised his upturned palm slowly over the bowl, and it filled with a clear liquid. “Show me Kolbein,” he said. Immediately the liquid darkened then cleared. The Shadow Princes gathered around the bowl saw the Wolfyn’s hall. Uproarious laughter came to their ears and they saw the males of the Wolfyn pack gathered about a table where a female was bent over, her bare buttocks being whipped by a tall boy. They could hear the woman’s cries of distress.

Finally the boy threw aside the dog whip he had been plying. From his baggy trousers he pulled forth a manhood larger than any mortal his age would possess. Grasping the woman’s hips, his fingers digging into her soft flesh, the boy thrust himself into her, and then began to pump her hard. The woman screamed, which sent the men surrounding her into further bursts of hilarity.

“That’s it, Kolbein lad,” an older man encouraged the boy. “Stuff her full. Make the wench give you her pleasures. Go deeper, lad, and harder!”

“She isn’t a virgin,” the boy complained. “You promised me a virgin, Father Thorolf. The wench has a sheath that is wide as the open road and slack, too.” He pulled out of the female and pushed her away. “Go back to the kitchens,” he ordered her.

“But, my lord,” the woman said, clutching at his arm, “I did not give you pleasures.” She looked up anxiously at him.

“A creature like you could not give me pleasures,” the boy said sulkily. “Be gone!” His gray eyes were darkening with his irritation.

“Go!” Thorolf told the woman, and thrust her away. “Before he loses his temper and throttles you.”

“I want a virgin,” Kolbein said. “I want a virgin whose sheath is tight, and who will weep and beg me not to take her precious virtue away from her. I want a virgin I can thoroughly despoil, Father Thorolf. You found virgins for Wulfgar and Wulfram. Why will you not find one for me?”

“Your foster brothers found their own virgins, Kolbein. They hunted them down in their wolf forms. A Wolfyn can scent a virgin, but you are not Wolfyn, Kolbein. You were given to us to foster.”

“Who gave me to you?” the boy demanded to know.

Thorolf shook his head. “I am forbidden from telling you that until he comes himself to tell you. And that will be soon, I promise you.”

“Your promises are worthless.” The boy sneered. “You promised me a virgin, and then gave me a kitchen wench that every male in this house has futtered. Bah!” And the boy stormed from the hall angrily.

The liquid in the bowl darkened again before reverting to its original form.

“A lovely boy,” Kaliq murmured. “If it were my choice I would kill him where he stood right now.”

“It is amazing to realize that Lara birthed him,” Lothair said. “Can we have a look at Kolgrim now?”

“Show us Kolgrim,” Kaliq said, and the bowl clouded darkly, then cleared to reveal the hall of the Forest Giant. Arild sat at his High Board with his wives to his left, and three boys on his right. The boy on the end, while tall for a man, was small in comparison with the giants, but his hair was golden-blond and he was extremely handsome. “Kolgrim,” Kaliq murmured. “He can be no other.”

His companions nodded in agreement.

“The giants keep a better hall than the Wolfyn,” Eskil noted.

“Let us watch and see if this son of Kol is as vicious as his brother,” Terriss said.

But Kolgrim was pleasant and had good manners. He spoke respectfully to his foster parents and their elder son, the scholarly Vili. He joshed with the foster brother closest in age to him, Evert, as any normal mortal boy would do with a sibling.

“Wait,” Kaliq said. Then, looking into the bowl, he said, “Show me Kolgrim in his bed,” and the bowl clouded and cleared to reveal the boy with two buxom mortal servant girls. An insatiable and skillful lover, Kolgrim used both women until they were exhausted and begging for mercy.

“I am not satisfied yet,” he told them. “Neither of you has succeeded in pleasuring me. Until you do you will have no rest.” When one girl was foolish enough to protest he slapped her several times, bringing tears to her eyes. “Aah, I am beginning to be aroused by you,” he told her, slapping her face and then her breasts. “Yes, you are starting to amuse me.” He turned the girl over onto his lap, and smacked her plump bottom again and again until she was begging him to cease.

“Interesting,” Nasim observed. “They both seem to have large appetites for pleasures, but both require pain to obtain it.”

“Both parents have great appetites,” Kaliq said quietly. “Passion doubled is a difficult burden to bear. Bowl clear!”

“Lara will have to observe more than we have in order to make a decision,” Lothair said. “Kolbein looks like his father as does Kolgrim but for the golden hair.”

“When will she begin her observations?” Gaszi asked. “Is she still here in Shunnar? Was she not magnificent last night? Such beauty! Such passion! Such perfect trust in us not to harm her.” He sighed gustily. “When her lips closed about my rod I felt like a boy experiencing that pleasure for the very first time.”

“Mind yourself, Geszi,” Lothair teased. “You know how Kaliq feels about her.”

“I love her,” Kaliq said quietly.

There was a shocked silence.

“We do not give our hearts, brother,” Eskil said sympathetically.

“Nay, I have never given my heart before in all the millenia that we have walked this world, but she is meant to be mine, brothers,” Kaliq told them. “Not yet, but one day.” He smiled at them. “Do not look so concerned, brothers.”

“Indeed it is rare that we love for eternity,” Nasim said, “but it has happened before, and will happen again as long as we exist upon this world. Kaliq will never allow his love for the faerie woman to keep him from his duties. I wish him good fortune!”

“And I,” Lothair said, and the others echoed their best wishes. Then the Shadow Princes left Kaliq. They had done their duty this day.

For a moment he sat quietly enjoying the silence. The bowl with its clear liquid looked innocent enough now. Lara would not be pleased to see the twin sons she had borne the Twilight Lord Kol those many years ago, but she would not be particularly surprised that despite the lack of their natural father they had become quite like him. He called out to her in the silent language. Domina, hear my plea. Cease all else and come to me.

She appeared in an instant. “What have you learned?” she asked him.

“Come, and see for yourself. We have found Kolbein in the family of a Wolfyn lord called Thorolf. He has your golden hair, but looks exactly like his twin otherwise.”

“They both had dark hair when they were born,” Lara noted. “Have they any redeeming qualities, or are they totally Kol’s get?”

“Their sire would be proud of them,” Kaliq said dryly, “although Kolgrim does have beautiful manners. Both of them seem to enjoy painful passions.”

Lara walked to the table containing the bowl. “Show me Kolgrim,” she said. Then she peered into the crystal as the liquid darkened, then cleared. The boy who slept amid the tangle of bed-clothing, the two young women curled next to him, was beautiful, but he did have his father’s features despite his golden hair. “Show me Kolbein,” Lara said, and then she shuddered. This boy who also slept with two women was, with his ebony hair, Kol’s image. He lay upon his back, his manhood flaccid now, the second manhood hidden beneath the dominant one. His mouth had a spoiled twist to it, and Lara saw one of the young women slept with a dildo still embedded within her. That alone bespoke his cruelty. “I can make no judgments now,” Lara said.

Kaliq put a comforting arm about her. “Nay, you cannot. You need to see far more than you have seen, my love. But the Darkling Ciarda has plans for her half brothers. We have set a watch upon her so she does not trump us.”

“Will the bowl let me see her?” Lara asked.

He nodded. “Show us Ciarda,” Kaliq said.

The liquid revealed a beautiful young woman with long ebony hair that fell to her hips. She sat before a mirror brushing her long tresses. The face was Kol’s in female form. It was intelligent, and when she stared deeply into the glass Lara saw that she had black eyes just like her father. Suddenly the girl looked directly into her mirror, and smiled a small, knowing smile.

“She knows she is being observed. Bowl clear!” Lara said. “Her magic is strong, Kaliq. Let us hope she does not know who it was who watched her just now.”

“You did not linger, but left her quickly enough,” Kaliq said. “She will think it was her imagination, a momentary sensation. She is a highly excitable creature. We will be more careful next time and use a shielding spell.”

“How long do I have to make my decision?” Lara asked him.

“Until Alfrigg visits each family. He believes he but goes to observe the twins, and make a decision as to which will serve the Dark Lands best. But both of the boys have recently become curious about their heritage, and have asked their foster parents to reveal their true heritage. The Wolfyn lord and his giant counterpart have told their fosterling almost the same thing. That when the chancellor visits he will reveal the truth to them about their parentage.”

“If he does it will cause civil strife in the Dark Lands, which usually would be to our advantage, but not now,” Lara replied.

“He has no intention of telling them until he chooses Kol’s successor,” Kaliq said. “One boy was to learn who his parents were. The other would be lied to by the chancellor, and given a false parentage so that he be satisfied, and the plot could move forward. Ciarda, however, has become an ingredient that this stew did not need.”

“Have you learned what she means to do?” Lara was frankly curious.

“She means to reveal the truth to the twins, and set them against one another. She plans to mate with the victor, have the son he must create and then do away with him.”

“And she will rule for her son even as I rule for mine,” Lara said. “What an interesting juxtaposition of fate. But the twins are her blood, Kaliq.”

“It is unusual, but not unheard of for half siblings to mate,” he replied.

“I can but imagine the child of such a mating,” Lara said with a shudder. “Give me your bowl, Kaliq. I must go home. I will observe the twins for the next few days, and see if I can make a decision in this matter.”

“You will not stay?” He looked disappointed.

“I have a kingdom to rule, my lord,” Lara told him softly.

With a reluctant sigh the Shadow Prince put his hand, palm down, over the oblong bowl and said, “Bowl empty.” Then he handed the vessel to her with one hand while drawing her to him for a kiss with the other.

His lips on hers were both tender and passionate. Lara kissed him back. Then before he might say another word she evaporated from his arms, and was gone. She reappeared in a small windowless room within her castle where she came to work on spells and other magical pursuits. Carefully she set the bowl upon a shelf. It would not be disturbed for the door to her chamber always locked behind her, and would open to no hand but hers. As she walked toward her own apartments she could see the sun had already set, and she was glad. It had been an exhausting few days.

Taj was waiting for her. “Where have you been, Mother? I was worried,” he said.

“I had business to discuss with Prince Kaliq,” she answered.

“You are always with him,” the young Dominus replied, and she heard the jealousy in his voice.

“Kaliq is my mentor, and has been for many years,” Lara said quietly.

“What business did you discuss?” he demanded to know.

“Magical business, my son, of which you are unfamiliar,” Lara replied. “And of which you will remain unfamiliar. I may have birthed you, Taj, but you are pure mortal as was your father. I am glad of it. Being magical is a great burden to bear.”

“I hate being alone,” Taj told her, and they sat together. “I miss my sisters!”

“You always complained about your sisters,” Lara said with a small smile. “You said Anoush was too dreamy, Zagiri too vain and Marzina too magical.”

“They were!” Taj insisted. “But they were here, Mother. If my head hurt Anoush always had a remedy for it. And Zagiri always helped me when my lessons were too hard. And my twin sister could make me laugh with her magic when she would turn a servant into some creature, and then turn it back again. The creatures always looked like the person, too, Mother. I miss her.”

“I know, Taj. The castle seems empty to me, too, now, but Anoush wanted to remain with her father’s people for she is happiest with them. And Zagiri ran away from us, and it was time for Marzina to go to your grandmother Ilona. It was necessary she learn the strict discipline that someone with great magical powers needs. It is those magical beings who have not that discipline who fall into the darkness,” Lara told him.