His hands tightened just imperceptibly about her hips. “Tell me what you feel, Cinnia, my queen. And tell me what you want.”

“I feel you, and you are so hard and so deep. You pulse with your need for me, but you will not satisfy your desires. Why?” she asked of him.

“Because just the sensation of being joined with you gives me pleasure,” he said. “And the thoughts of greater pleasure to come make my lusts burgeon. You must learn to enjoy every bit of our intimacy, my queen, not just race to fulfill your needs. When those needs are satisfied so quickly you have lost much of that which you might have gained simply by exercising a little patience.” Leaning forward he placed a hot kiss on the small of her back.

Cinnia shuddered, and felt her release. “Oh!” she cried, distressed. “I have lost it!”

He laughed softly. “Nay, my queen, we have only just begun to exercise our passions for each other.” He thrust gently within her with several long, smooth strokes.

“Oh!” Her voice was suddenly joyful. “It is still there!”

“Aye, it is. Now let us begin your lesson in patience, my queen,” Dillon said as he began to move himself within Cinnia’s ripe, young body. When she began to evince signs of pleasure he drew back, remaining still within her silken sheath. Reaching out and forward with one hand he found one of her breasts and eased it from the neckline of her gown. He fondled the tender flesh, pulling and then pinching the nipple until she was trembling with her excitement. Then knowing his own patience was slowly waning Dillon sought for and found her pleasure center and began to use it. His manhood moved back and forth, thrusting hard and fast until Cinnia was sobbing with her desperate need to find release, but he wanted her to have as much pleasure as he could give her. And then she cried out, and her body shook as they reached perfection together in an explosion of passion that would leave them both weak for several minutes to come.

Gazing down on them from a window overlooking the gardens, Kaliq of the Shadows smiled to himself. He had taught his son well. The girl was lost in a swirl of ecstasy such as she would have never known with another man. And Dillon had the perfect partner and the perfect wife in Cinnia. “They are an excellent match,” he told his companion.

“Agreed,” Nidhug said. “I was not certain you just wished a kingdom for your son, Kaliq, when you first came to me. I ask your pardon for doubting you, great prince. Dillon is very much the equal to my own darling Cinnia. And they have already begun to decipher the mystery, but I will leave it to them to tell you what they have discovered.”

“Then they have actually found something of worth,” Kaliq replied.

The dragon nodded. Then she turned back to the window. “Oh, how sweet he is. He has taken her in his arms, and is comforting her. He did ride her hard, and in the gardens, too, the naughty boy,” she tittered.

“Let them have their moments together,” Kaliq said. “Cirillo is as always late. He is either arguing with his mother about coming, or some pretty creature has caught his fancy and is keeping him from us.”

A small puff of dark smoke tinged with scarlet came from the dragon’s nostrils, but she said nothing in response.

Kaliq, however, had seen it. Why, Nidhug is jealous, he thought, surprised. Then he wondered if the dragon actually cared for the faerie prince. He hoped not for she would be doomed to disappointment. “You do remember that faeries have hard hearts,” he murmured. “They rarely, if ever, give them to another.”

The dragon sighed. “I know,” she replied. “But he is such an incredible lover in whatever form he takes. I cannot help myself. It has been at least a thousand years since I took a lover I actually liked. He amuses me with his irreverent faerie ways, and he is so young, Kaliq. His energy is as boundless as his charm. I know better than to fall in love with him even though I will admit that I am a little in love with him. But just a little, Kaliq. Enough to make the whole experience a tiny bit more piquant,” Nidhug said.

“Take care, my dear,” he advised her. “Your magic is nowhere near as strong as his is. And it is a kinder magic that you possess that fills this world with beauty and peace. Cirillo is like most of his race. Beautiful, charming and totally selfish, with an inborn ability to cause trouble even without meaning to do so.”

At that very moment the subject of their conversation appeared. “Hallo,” Cirillo said brightly. “Have I missed anything?”

“Only Dillon and Cinnia in delightful and energetic conjunction in the gardens below,” the Shadow Prince said.

Cirillo flew to the windows. “Where are they?” he asked. “There is no one down there at all. Just flowers, birds and butterflies.”

“Ah, then,” Nidhug said, “they are probably on their way into the castle now. Britto!” she called to the castle’s steward, and he hurried into the chamber from the corridor where he had been awaiting their summons.

“Yes, my lady dragon? How may I serve you?” the steward asked.

“Tell the king and queen that we are here awaiting them,” Nidhug said.

“At once!” Britto replied, and bustled away.

“You have not greeted me,” Cirillo pouted to Nidhug.

“You did not greet me, and you should have,” the dragon said. “This is my world, Cirillo of the Forest Faeries, not yours. Where are your manners?”

“I said hallo,” Cirillo replied.

“Hallo?” The dragon looked sharply at the faerie. “Hallo? There are two of us in the chamber, my dear boy. And I do not answer to a general hallo. However if you would like to greet me nicely now, I will forgive you.”

Kaliq looked amused. Perhaps he need not worry about the dragon’s liaison with the young faerie prince.

Cirillo offered Nidhug his best and most courtly bow. Reaching for a scarlet tipped paw he kissed the sea-blue and spring-green scales. “I greet you, Nidhug of Belmair,” he said. And I am going to fuck the scales off of you tonight, he told her in the silent, magical language.

“I greet you, Cirillo of the Forest Faeries,” Nidhug answered him. And I will suck your faerie cock so hard it will break off was her silent reply as she retrieved her paw.

Kaliq, who had heard both exchanges, struggled to keep a straight face. Aye, he thought, Dillon and Cinnia were a perfect match. Now he was beginning to seriously wonder if Nidhug and Cirillo were not a match, too. He wondered if the young faerie had mentioned the dragon to his mother. The Shadow Prince actually shivered thinking of what Ilona, the beautiful and powerful queen of the Forest Faeries, would think if she knew her son was involved with a female dragon.

Dillon and Cinnia entered the chamber, now filled with late-afternoon light.

“Welcome back to Belmair!” they greeted Kaliq and Cirillo with one voice. They laughed, turning their faces to one another and smiling.

Ah, they have fallen in love, Kaliq thought to himself, and he was glad. He wanted his only child happy, and it would appear that he was.

It is good, my friend, he heard the dragon say.

Turning to look at Nidhug, the Shadow Prince smiled at her and nodded. Then he said in a brisk voice, “Tell us, my children, what you have discovered.”

7

“I HAVE FOUND EVIDENCE that the Yafir are indeed also known as the wicked ones, my lord,” Cinnia began. “They were banished several thousand years ago from Belmair, but whether they went or not is the question.”

“Why were they exiled?” Kaliq wanted to know.

“No reason was given, but as I have explained to Dillon the reason would not have been important for our historians. The king declared it so, and therefore that would be all the explanation needed, for the king’s word is law in Belmair,” Cinnia explained.

“So all we know is that the Yafir existed, were here in Belmair and were banished because the king wanted it.” The Shadow Prince was intrigued. “And there is no proof that they either remained or departed?”

“None that we can find,” Cinnia said.

“Exactly when did young women begin to disappear?” Kaliq asked her.

“About a thousand years ago, but it was not particularly noticeable until about three hundred years ago when they began disappearing in greater numbers, and now in the last hundred years it has escalated to the point where there aren’t enough females born to serve as mothers to the next generation, which means our population is shrinking. At first the girls taken were sixteen and older. Now they disappear as young as twelve.”

“You need to learn if the Yafir are still here,” Cirillo said.

“You are faerie, Uncle,” Dillon remarked. “Could you not ferret them out so we might speak with them? Perhaps if we could learn why they are stealing these females we might be able to stop the practice.”

“I could try to find them,” Cirillo agreed. “The question is where to begin.”

“Can they be called forth?” Kaliq considered slowly. “Let me think a minute to see if I can remember the hierarchy of the Yafir so we may call their leader to us.”

“Without a name?” Cirillo said. “We need the power of name magic to reach out to them. You know that, Kaliq. Without a name the quest is hopeless.”

“I may have a way,” the great Shadow Prince said. “I must leave you briefly, but I will be back by sunset,” he promised, and hurried from the chamber. He sought out a deep shadow, and stepping into it stepped back out in his own palace of Shunnar. He was in his private chamber. Going to a cabinet, he took out a beautiful carved metal bowl and set it upon a pale wood table. Reaching for an earthenware pitcher that was filled with water, Kaliq poured it slowly and carefully into the metal bowl. He waited for the surface of the water to calm and clear. When it had he looked down into it, and said, “Satordi, lord of the Munin, come to me.”

The water in the basin darkened, and then the surface became as luminous as a mirror. It reflected a long gray face that looked up at the Shadow Prince. “Greetings, Kaliq of the Shadows,” Satordi said. “It has been some time since you have called upon the Munin for aid. How may I serve you?”

“I need the name of a Yafir high lord who hides himself in Belmair,” Kaliq said.

“An interesting request,” Satordi remarked. “Were the Yafir not sent from Belmair aeons ago? Those are memories that I know are kept by my brothers and me.”

“Exiled, aye, but whether they went is another thing entirely. Do you retain memories past the time of their exile?” Kaliq inquired.

The Munin lord thought long and carefully. “We have no real record of them after Belmair,” he noted. He grew silent again, probing the collective memory banks of his race. “An occasional snippet of passion, a bit of revelry, but nothing to indicate where they are or why we do not have their discarded memories, my lord Kaliq.”

“You, or one of your brothers, will have among the memories you keep the name of the high lord of the Yafir from that time. If he was not an ancient then it is probable that he still holds that office, for the Yafir like most of the faerie races live very long lives. Find that name for me, Satordi. Find it quickly!”

“I shall return to you within the hour,” the Munin lord said, and his visage vanished from the surface of the water in the basin.

Kaliq sat down in a large, comfortable chair, leaning back to rest his dark head, easing the ache in the back of his neck. He closed his eyes and willed himself to relax. He knew instinctively without being told that the Yafir had not left Belmair. But until he had a name to call forth it would be difficult to learn much more than that. The scent of Damask roses drifted in from his gardens on the warm air. It surrounded him, teasing at his nostrils and lulling him into a light sleep. He sat up fully awake when he realized that the Munin lord had returned. He walked over to the table and gazed down into the carved metal basin as Satordi’s face appeared to him.

“The name you seek is Ahura Mazda,” the Munin lord told him. “He had only been high lord of the Yafir for fifty years when they were told to leave Belmair. He is likely to still be their leader for the memories we retain of him are of a young and vibrant man, stubborn, proud and oft times difficult. Is there anything else?”

“Nay, there is not,” Kaliq replied. “I thank you and your brothers, Satordi.”

“To serve you, great Shadow Prince, is our pleasure,” the Munin lord responded, and then he faded away in the waters of the reflecting bowl.

Kaliq moved away from the table and back into the shadows of the chamber. He stepped out again into the room where Dillon, Cinnia, Cirillo and the dragon had been.