“You are both extremely clever,” Prince Kaliq said, stepping from the shadows of Ilona’s privy chamber where the two women were sitting.

“We cannot let Hetar retreat into its past,” Lara said. “But the misery there now is terrible. If the population of The City should rise up against those who live in the Golden District, innocents could suffer.”

“You think of Zagiri,” Ilona said.

“Aye, I do,” Lara admitted. “Zagiri is Terahn. She should not have to suffer because she has been foolish enough to marry a Hetarian against my will.”

“We have not been able to get close enough to the Darkling,” Kaliq said, “but we know her basic plan. I will send my brothers among the people of Hetar to learn more about the Hierarch.”

“And I will approach Cam, for he is an ambitious man, and when he learns my powers are stronger than the Darkling’s powers I will be able to win him over,” Lara said.

“Will you keep Anoush sleeping for the interim?” Ilona asked.

Lara nodded. “I will. In matters like this she is an innocent. And I do not want Cam to have any advantage over me, or believe he has an advantage.”

“I will speak with the King of the Mountain Faeries, the Empress of the Meadow Faeries and the King of the Water Faeries to see if they will help,” Ilona said.

“And if they will not?” Kaliq asked her.

“If they choose not to aid us they will at least keep silent,” Lara said.

“Agreed!” Ilona replied. “Know, my daughter, that each of these monarchs owes me a favor. I will not force their compliance, but their silence is another matter.”

The trio dispersed. The Shadow Prince to Shunnar to speak with his brothers and bring them up to date. Lothair and Coilin joined them to tell them how things were progressing in Hetar

“There is talk,” Lothair, the elder of the two, said, “of taking ownership of the Pleasure Houses back from the Pleasure Mistresses, and putting them once again into the hands of male owners.”

“And of closing the new male Pleasures Houses that have been opened for women clients,” Coilin added.

“That will not bring prosperity back to Hetar,” Kaliq said. “The Pleasure Houses have flourished twice as well since the females took them over. And opening houses with male Pleasure Slaves for the women was a brilliant idea.”

“I know,” Coilin agreed. “Many young women are now celebrating their fourteenth birthday by taking pleasures for the first time in them. There is even one that caters to such birthdays. It has an excellent group of male sex slaves who specialize in the uninitiated. It is considered quite fashionable to say that you first took pleasures with one of these sex slaves.”

“We must work with those who are reasonable, and would modernize Hetar’s traditions without scorning them,” Kaliq said, and his brothers nodded in agreement.

“What is Queen Ilona doing to help in this matter?” Prince Eskil asked.

“See for yourself,” Kaliq said, offering Eskil a round crystal ball.

Taking it up, Eskil gazed into the sphere.

Ilona had chosen to visit Gwener, Empress of the Meadow Faeries, first. Every bit as beautiful as Ilona, Gwener had long red hair and dark green eyes. She had a smaller kingdom than the other faerie rulers, and had a tendency to be overproud and difficult. Ilona had sent ahead requesting an audience with Gwener, saying it was a most urgent matter. The empress sent back a message that she knew Ilona was involving herself in non-faerie matters, and that she was not interested in speaking with the Queen of the Forest Faeries. Ilona, however, persisted. She invited Gwener to visit her, saying that Annan of the Water Faeries and Laszlo of the Mountain Faeries would be there. Not wishing to be left out, Gwener came.

Ilona explained the situation to her fellow monarchs, concluding, “We must help these foolish mortals straighten out the chaos they have made of their lives, and protect them from the darkness.”

“You are certain the darkness threatens?” Laszlo of the Mountain Faeries asked.

“This Hierarch is currently being controlled by a Darkling called Ciarda,” Ilona answered. “She is one of Kol’s daughters, and she wishes to complete what he could not. She has already seduced one of her half brothers, and her very existence threatens the other one who, though it pains me to say it, is the better half.”

“They are your daughter’s children, are they not?” Gwener said cruelly.

“Not by choice!” Ilona snapped. “The Twilight Lord stole Lara from her family, gave her memories to the Munin to keep and impregnated her. You know well it was planned for this to happen. Lara’s memories restored, she turned the one child into two to cause chaos in the Dark Lands as we wanted. But now the darkness threatens to rise again, and all of us are needed to help stop it. How dare you criticize Lara!”

Gwener shrugged. “I was only refreshing the memories of our two fellow rulers,” she murmured.

“Nay, you were being a bitch, Gwener,” King Annan of the Water Faeries said. “You have always been jealous of Ilona, but this is not the time for your pettiness. Ilona is right. We have a serious problem.”

“Agreed,” King Laszlo said. “How can we help, Ilona?”

“We must all be vigilant and we must work together to enclose each of our kingdoms in a protective spell that will keep the darkness from us. Because it is our practice not to consort with mortals except now and again for pleasures, we are considered vulnerable. The darkness will attack us first, for we surround the mortal worlds. But if our own kingdoms are protected from the darkness it will give Lara and the Shadow Princes more time to turn the Hierarch from his Darkling mistress. If we foil her then she will return to her own lands. Let her brothers have to fight with her.”

The two kings nodded their heads in agreement.

“I must be protected first if you expect me to help you,” Gwener said.

“Of course,” Ilona answered her. “Your beautiful meadows would die if they were sunk in the darkness. Would you not agree, my lords?”

“Indeed,” King Annan replied.

“Yes, of course,” King Laszlo responded.

“Let us not delay, then,” Ilona said.

Prince Eskil set the crystal globe aside. “Ilona has gathered her fellow monarchs, and they are doing what they need to do. Now we must infiltrate The City and learn all we can about what the Hierarch is doing, and what he proposes to do. Then we must turn the people’s hearts to what is right.”

The other princes nodded.

“And Lara?” Prince Nasim asked.

“She will have the most difficult task of all,” Prince Kaliq said. “She must convince Cam that he really is the Hierarch, and that his purpose is for good not evil.”

“Given his bloodline that will not be an easy job,” Lothair noted. “But if anyone can do this, Lara can. And, Kaliq, remember, you must allow her to do this on her own. We all know that you love her, but do not interfere with her destiny, my brother.”

Kaliq nodded slowly.

“Love is painful, isn’t it?” Lothair said. “It skews the judgment.”

“I am not a youth that I lack judgment or self-discipline,” Kaliq snapped irritably.

The other princes laughed aloud, and Kaliq flushed, but then he laughed, for he knew they were right. His love for the faerie woman was both bitter and sweet. But he had never really loved any female as he loved her, and he knew he would never again love another as he loved her.

“She will be fine,” Prince Nasim said.

If Lara had heard his words she might not have agreed, for suddenly she was faced with having to deal with her instinctive feelings of dislike and distrust for Cam, the son of her first husband’s murderers. Was it possible to overcome these intense feelings? And as for Cam, she knew he hated her. How could he not hold her responsible for the deaths of his parents? She had taken up her sword, Andraste, and slain them within moments of Vartan’s murder. It had been her right to do so. But in doing so she had orphaned Cam. He had grown up with a grandmother who had been in the hall that terrible day, and had been driven mad by what she saw.

The Lady Bera had been unable to face all that she had seen. Her younger son had murdered her older son in cold blood. All she could recall of that hour was that Lara had cried out to her sword, Andraste, which had flown into her hand from its place above the hearth. The sword was already singing in its deep and deadly voice as Lara grasped its hilt in both of her small hands, and then took revenge for herself and her children by decapitating both Adon and his wife, Elin. Elin, it was later learned, had been bribed by Hetar, and had in turn encouraged her husband to murder. But from the look on Elin’s face that day, and her screams of encouragement to her husband, Lara had known that she was equally responsible.

But Cam had lost both of his parents that day, and then been put in the care of a madwoman who did nothing but rail against her surviving daughter-in-law. It was then that a terrible darkness came over the child. It took hold of him, driving him to wickedness against other children, including Lara’s son and daughter, Dillon and Anoush. Finally Cam had been removed from his grandmother’s care, and sent to the headwoman Sholeh of Rivalen village. A widow had been put into the Lady Bera’s house to watch over her, and several years later she died a peaceful death, the names of her sons the last words upon her lips.

Sholeh had taken charge of raising Cam, the son of her kinsman. And he had seemed to change outwardly. But Lara had also sensed that darkness still possessed Cam’s heart and soul. How was she going to be able to appeal to him? His weaknesses, of course, were his hunger for wealth and power. Could she use those weaknesses to exorcise the evil in him? And did he really love Anoush, or was Lara’s daughter just a means to an end? Had he attempted to use Anoush as Jonah was using the besotted Zagiri?

These were all things Lara needed to know. And there was only one way to find out. She had to deal with Cam face-to-face, which meant she would have to go to Hetar. But first she must speak with her son Taj. He needed to understand what was happening. He was young, but he was also very intelligent. She found him in the castle hall playing a game of Herder with his friend Gare. She watched them for a while, but then, seeing the game would take a while, she put a hand on Taj’s shoulder.

The young Dominus looked up, smiling at her.

“When you are finished with your game come and speak with me,” Lara said.

“It may be a while,” Taj told her. “Gare has gotten very good at this game.”

“I was always very good at it,” Gare said, grinning. “That you realize you are having difficulty beating me indicates you have improved your skills at Herder. I used to be able to beat you before you even realized what was happening.”

Lara laughed. Gare and Sinon’s companionship had kept Taj from losing touch with reality. It would have been easy for the fourteen-year-old Dominus, ruler of a kingdom and catered to by all, to forget that he was just a growing boy. If they would remain with him for the next few years she would be grateful. Terahn boys would have treated Taj far differently because he was the Dominus, which would, of course, defeat the whole purpose. Lara patted her son’s shoulder, and left him to his game.

Taj came to his mother’s apartments an hour later. Lara greeted him with a kiss upon his cheek, and then drew him down to sit next to her on the cushioned couch. “I am going to have to go away for a time,” she began, “and I want you to understand why. Terah must be protected and kept safe from the darkness, as must Hetar.”

“Are you going to Hetar?” he asked her.

Lara nodded.

“For Zagiri’s sake?”

“Nay, for Terah’s sake. You have youth, courage and honesty with which to fight against the darkness, my son, but it is not enough. Especially when other mortals, in their quest for power and wealth, give themselves over to evil in exchange.”

“You speak of the one known as the Hierarch, do you not, Mother?”

“The man claiming that title is the son of those who slew Vartan of the Fiacre, Taj. Anoush’s father. He is manipulated by a beautiful Darkling who uses his hate for her own purposes. The Darkling’s father is the Twilight Lord, Kol. She desires, like her sire, to bring darkness to our worlds. And she uses Cam, for that is his name, to help her accomplish this.”

“Why do you go to Hetar, then, Mother?” Taj asked her.

“I must know if Cam can be turned back into the light,” Lara said. “If he can then we can use him for the good, and defeat the darkness, send the Darkling Ciarda back to the Dark Lands where she belongs, and where the darkness is held and thrives.”