Dillon explained the situation facing both the Belmairans and the Yafir, telling the ancient Shadow Prince, “I wish to bring our peoples together, to live in harmony once again. It has reached the point where neither of us can survive without the other.”

“This is a great undertaking,” Cronan replied. “And it will not be easy, young king of Belmair. You will have opposition from some, and that opposition will be led by Dreng of Beltran here in Belmair, and by Ahura Mazda himself for the Yafir. Would you start a civil war, young king?”

“Nay! But if we do not unite as one people we stand in danger of losing both of our races,” Dillon said passionately.

“Perhaps that is what is meant to be,” Cronan responded.

“Nay! I was not chosen to come from the world of Hetar to oversee the destruction of Belmair’s world,” Dillon told Cronan firmly. “I was called to unite it.”

“He has your confidence, Kaliq,” Cronan remarked drily. “I well remember your youth, and teaching you. But he is young yet.”

“He is young,” Kaliq agreed, “but I believe he can do this, Cronan.”

The ancient Shadow Prince nodded. “Very well,” he said. “I will help you. The Yafir lord took the knowledge he has from one of the books here. It is called A Compendium of Time Manipulation. When that fool, Napier IX, banished the Yafir, and Ahura Mazda was so desperate to save his people I turned a blind eye to him when he entered this place. I let him roam at will, and that is the information he sought and took.”

“Can time be maneuvered to protect the Yafir when they come up from the sea?” Dillon asked Cronan. “I would not harm them in any way. I am thinking mostly of those mortals, and those with mixed blood who have lived there the longest.”

“It is possible, but it will take a thorough knowledge of time itself, and a very strong magic to make this all happen. You will need that before you can treat with the Yafir,” Cronan said sagely. “Those who would return will want to do so immediately once they learn the option is open to them. You will not want to delay for the best way to thwart Ahura Mazda is to destroy his power base, or at least weaken it severely.”

“And in the days we are learning about time, and fashioning our spell,” Dillon noted, “we can also work toward helping our Belmairans accept what is to happen.”

“That, I suspect, will be the most difficult thing of all,” Cronan said.

“Duke Alban, I believe, will be open to these changes,” Dillon told the ancient.

“Alban descends from the family of the lady Arlais,” Cronan remarked. “She was to wed a duke of Belia, but when she was stolen on her wedding day it was her younger sister who wed that duke instead.”

“I think it would be a good thing to learn which families lost women to the Yafir, and then bring these two sides, Belmairan and Yafir together eventually,” Cinnia suggested boldly. “It might help us in trying to reconcile both folk.”

“An excellent idea!” Cronan agreed.

“Do you know where the compendium is?” Dillon asked the ancient.

Cronan smiled. “You must look for it,” he said with a small, wicked smile. “Let yourselves out when you are finished. Use your father’s spell whenever you wish to enter here. You will be welcome.” Then he turned to Kaliq. “Will you join me, my old friend? We have much to catch up on, I think.”

Kaliq nodded, and the two Shadow Princes disappeared.

“How did he get here, I wonder?” Cinnia said.

“Perhaps he will tell Kaliq, although Kaliq will not necessarily tell us,” Dillon answered her. “Now we had best seek out the compendium.”

Together they searched the little library for the next several hours. Each volume upon each shelf was checked for both title and content. Dillon was growing irritated, for the truth was that Cronan probably knew exactly where the book was, and could have told them. He smiled to himself. It was just the sort of thing Kaliq used to do to him when he wanted a lesson firmly imprinted upon his pupil.

Then Cinnia cried out, “Here it is!” She brandished a small leather-bound tome.

Dillon took it from her, and thumbed through it. “I’ll take it to read,” he said aloud, and he tucked the little book in a pocket within his robes. Putting an arm about Cinnia he returned them to their apartments in their castle. As their personal servants were nowhere to be seen Dillon turned Cinnia to him, and touched her lips with his. “Will you take pleasures with me now, my love?” He caressed her face with a finger. “I missed you last night, Cinnia. Did you miss me?”

“Aye, I missed you,” she told him. “How much did you miss me, my lord?”

“Come into our bedchamber, and I will show you,” he replied, nuzzling her ear.

Taking his hand she led him from their shared dayroom, and he closed the door behind them, slamming the bolt firmly so they would maintain their privacy while they played. The sun cast dappled shadows upon the stone floor of the chamber and its colorful rugs. He pointed a finger at her, and her gown dissolved. She pointed one at him, and his robes were gone.

Her gaze dropped, and then she said, “I cannot see that you missed me greatly, my lord. Perhaps you were mistaken as to the depth of your affections,” Cinnia teased.

Reaching out, he took one of her soft, round breasts in his hand and fondled it. The ball of his thumb rubbed her nipple, which tightened in response.

“Kneel before me,” Cinnia said to him, and he did. “Raise your head up, and remember you may not touch me with your hands unless I give you leave. Open your mouth, but do nothing more until I tell you that you may.”

He lifted his head, his eyes dancing with delight at the game she was playing with him. He parted his lips for her. Leaning forward Cinnia placed the nipple he had played with into his open mouth. He remained perfectly still, his hands at his side. She remained silent. He longed to tug upon that nipple, but in obedience to her wishes he did nothing, but he could feel his cock beginning to respond very strongly to this torture.

After a few minutes she said, “You may suckle upon me, my lord.” And then she gasped as he pulled strongly upon the tender flesh, mouth, tongue and teeth all working at her. She could see his hands clenching and unclenching themselves.

“Do you want to touch me?” she taunted him.

His eyes, hot with desire, gazed silently up at her as he sucked upon her breast.

“You may fondle my buttocks if you so desire,” Cinnia finally told him. “But you will release my nipple if you do so. You must not be too greedy for my flesh, my lord.”

His mouth tugged upon her for a short while more, and then nipping fiercely upon the nipple a final time he released it, his hands going immediately to her buttocks, which he kneaded strongly as he slowly, slowly, drew her forward. And when she was exactly where he wanted her, he ran his tongue down her shadowed slip.

“I did not say you could do that!” Cinnia cried. “Oh!”

Dillon’s tongue pushed between her nether lips, and with unerring aim found her pleasure jewel. He teased at it, and she let him. Her juices were beginning to flow when he released his hold upon her bottom, and swiftly thrust two fingers into her sheath all the while working the sentient nub of swollen flesh beneath his tongue. The fingers moved rhythmically back and forth within her sheath, and she found herself pushing down upon them as she sought to get him deeper.

He laughed. “You’re greedy as always.”

“You’re too good, as always,” she managed to murmur.

“Do you want me deep inside of you, my love?”

“Aye! Hurry!” she pleaded with him.

He pulled her down to her knees, and then lay her back, pushing her legs high. “Do you think I am showing you my need now, my love?” he asked, brandishing his manhood, which was now quite swollen and lengthy.

In answer she moaned with her need.

He answered her in a single hard thrust. Then he began to ride her until she was weeping with her delight.

Cinnia felt the length of him plunging forward until he was practically entering the mouth of her womb. He was so hard, and his flesh burned her with his lust. With her legs raised high he could fill her with his full length, and she loved it. She tightened and released, tightened and released the muscles of her wet sheath around him, and he groaned with his delight as, kneeling between her upraised legs, he pleasured her until her head was spinning and she was soaring into the skies above. “Oh, Dillon!” she cried.

And the sound of her sweet voice so filled with ecstasy broke his control. His manhood quivered violently and then exploded his love juices into her. It seemed to him as if his juices would never stop flowing, but finally his big body jerked hard several times, and he collapsed with a gusty sigh. “Cinnia, Cinnia! None has even pleasured me like you do,” he told her as he moved to take her into his arms.

“Even she who is said to be my double?” Cinnia asked him wickedly.

“Not even she,” he told her honestly.

Hearing the truth in his voice, Cinnia smiled contentedly. “I am glad for that,” she said, “though Arlais tells me Sapphira pleases Ahura Mazda well.” Then she grew serious. “What will happen to her when he is no more, Dillon? Will Tullio accept her and her child back in Beldane, or will they make them outcasts?”

“I do not know the answer to that,” Dillon said. “I cannot be certain if Tullio will accept the changes to come. I know Alban will, and Dreng won’t. But I am not certain of Tullio. Only time will give us the answer to that, my love.”

Duke Tullio, however, had suffered a great tragedy on his return home. His vessel had been caught in a terrible storm within sight of his own coastline. It had sunk, and only the duke, and four of the sailors aboard had survived to reach the shore. His sister, Margisia, along with everyone else aboard, had drowned. Tullio was devastated, for he had been deeply fond of his only sister. It was the son-in-law who had been designated his heir who had sent word to the king and the queen of the terrible calamity. And because Cinnia was thought to be Sapphira it was necessary for her to put on the mourning white for her mother. Perhaps now, she thought, if Tullio ever learned what had become of Sapphira, he would welcome her return. Did Sapphira even know of her mother’s terrible end, Cinnia wondered?

She did. Ahura Mazda had learned of the disaster, and considering it a blow against Dillon, trumpeted the news within his own hall. Arlais saw the false Cinnia go pale, and moving discreetly to her side she caught her hand in hers and murmured low.

“Do not show your distress. You can only mourn in secret, my dear.”

“Do not speak, I beg you,” Sapphira replied, her soft voice trembling.

“I know who you really are, but you make our husband happy, and that is enough for me,” Arlais responded.

Sapphira nodded silently, and their eyes met in understanding.

Poor girl, Arlais thought. She is arrogant, rude and selfish, yet I pity her. And what will happen to her when the changes come? Arlais had spoken to her two eldest sons, Behrooz and Sohrab. They were cautious, but open to her tale of meeting the young queen of Belmair upon the Dream Plain.

“We will not betray our father,” they said as one.

“Neither will I,” Arlais answered them, “but he will not change. There have been peoples throughout history who have split and gone in different directions when they could no longer live beneath a single rule. Belmair sent those who changed to Hetar. But before any decision is made, before you even speak with your families and adherents, we must learn if we can still survive upon the land. The sorceress has not called me again, but she will when the time is right. We must wait.”

It was a difficult time for those looking to change the world. While he studied the small book on time manipulation Dillon also made it his business to speak with the ordinary folk regarding the Yafir. In his own district of Belmair he found the attitudes were mixed. Some were not averse to sharing Belmair with the Yafir again. Others were strongly opposed to it. The citizens of Belia, like their duke, were more than willing to share their province with the magic folk. The people living in the Beldane sector like those of the Belmair sector were divided while Dreng of Beltran and his people were diametrically opposed to the Yafir.

“This will take longer than I had anticipated,” Dillon said to Kaliq and Cronan one evening as they sat together in the little hall. The ancient Shadow Prince had taken to joining them, and the young king enjoyed his company. It was interesting to see the great Kaliq deferring to another.