“You understand that this is an honor. But if Lara is not amazed and delighted by her part in the Completion Ceremony I will have you both slain and fed to my dogs. Do I make myself clear? Macia? Anka? If my mate learns beforehand of her part, you will both die.”

“Yes, my lord!” the two women chorused.

“We will say naught,” Macia swore.

“Any of the lords?” Anka boldly asked.

“It will be your choice. You favor the Wolfyn, don’t you?” Kol chuckled. “You are a lustful creature, Anka.” Then he left them.

“The Wolfyn frighten me,” Macia said.

“Then whom do you favor?” Anka asked her.

“Perhaps a sturdy giant lord or mayhap two of the dwarf lords. Surely I may have two of them, as two equal one Darklander,” she said thoughtfully.

“How do you think the mistress will enjoy taking pleasures before the high lords?” Anka wondered. “She is a delicate creature. I suspect she will not like it at all, but if we do not tell her and obey our master, she will be well repaid for beating us, will she not, Macia?” And Anka laughed.

Macia laughed, too. She would not tell Lara what awaited her, either, but only because she feared the Twilight Lord more than she feared Lara. She did not doubt for a moment that he would kill them and she suspected it would be a nasty death.

Two nursemaids were found to watch over the twins. Several times a day they would bring their charges to Ema to nurse. Although Ema had unusually large breasts, the twins were voracious eaters and emptied each breast at each feeding. Lara realized that if Ema was to survive her nurslings she would have to set a firm schedule for the wet nurse’s comfort. She saw that the woman was fed six times a day so that she might keep her strength up. Ema was also to rest in between the feedings. Her only duty, Lara told her servants, was to feed the twins. She would be burdened with nothing else.

And each day of the first week of her sons’ life, Lara was bathed daily, her sexual organs treated with salves, and she was given herbal draughts to drink down several times a day. She was not unhappy to find herself completely healed so very quickly and feeling quite well by the sixth day. She began to consider when she would call out to Kaliq and make good her escape. But she sensed that she must wait until after the Completion Ceremony was celebrated lest she break any taboo that would render the twins’ birth irrelevant and permit Kol to seek another mate with whom to create another male heir.

And each morning the twins she had given Kol were brought to her. It was not difficult to be indifferent to them. They were oddly adult and a little frightening. Unlike most infants, who slept much of the first few months of their lives, Kolbein and Kolgrim were lively boys whose dark eyes were forever scanning everything in their view even in their first week of life. When they looked at her there was a certain knowing in their gaze that always surprised her. She did not like them. She and Kol had created them. She had carried them within her body and pushed them from it to give them life. But she did not like them.

The Completion Ceremony was to be celebrated on the seventh night after the twins’ birth. Lara was bathed and her hair dressed in several braids that were looped and curled about her head. Her gown was a deceptively simple violet silk robe sewn all over with tiny seeds of black onyx. On her feet were placed slippers of silk covered with thin sheets of beaten silver. A silver crown studded with amethysts and topped with a silver crescent moon was fitted over her head.

Macia and Anka had been given simple robes of dark purple silk and wore silver crescent moons in their hair. They had been designated to lead her into the ceremony. Both were trembling with their silent excitement at taking pleasures with the lords. Conceiving a child with one of those lords would give them the opportunity to be freed of their service and taken into the lord’s household as a concubine. It was a chance rarely offered to the lower orders.

“Where are we going?” Lara asked them as they ushered her from her apartments.

“We cannot tell you, mistress,” Macia said. “It is not permitted.”

Through the dim corridors they led her until finally before them a large silver door loomed. The double doors opened silently as they reached them and the three women entered a great domed chamber. Macia and Anka stepped back, allowing Lara to go forward to greet the Twilight Lord awaiting her in the room’s center. She had been told to take his hands in her hands, pressing them first to her forehead, next to her heart and finally to her lips as she knelt before him. She did. The Twilight Lord gave a cold smile of approval. Lara spoke the words she had been taught to say.

“I thank you, my lord Kol, for permitting me to nurture your powerful seed within my unworthy body and to safely bring forth from that body your sons. Praise to Krell!”

“Praise to Krell!” The voices of many erupted, and glancing up Lara saw that a great balcony encircled the whole chamber. It was filled to capacity with the Twilight Lord’s subjects. This was the first time she had seen anyone else but for the castle’s servants. Her quick peek showed her giants and other creatures she could not identify and through the open balusters she spied the faces of many dwarfs.

Remembering her part Lara continued, “Before your subjects, my lord Kol, I now stand ready to prove my worthiness as the mother of your sons. Command me as you will! All praise be to Krell!” His hands drew her to her feet again.

“All praise be to Krell!” the spectators shouted eagerly.

“Remove the garments I wear, my mate,” the Twilight Lord said and flung wide his arms to facilitate her efforts.

His words surprised her but Lara nonetheless unfastened his black robe, pushing it back to allow her two attendants to slide it down his sinewy arms. From this moment on she was not certain what would transpire. She knelt, slipped his silver slippers from his big feet. Then she stood again.

“Take her robe,” Kol commanded Macia and Anka.

Lara was not pleased to be rendered naked before a balcony full of bystanders, but it was obviously part of the ceremony and she could hardly protest. A sigh of obvious appreciation at her nudity arose and she felt her cheeks warming beneath the sound.

Then a deep voice called out loudly. “Show us your strength, my lord Kol! Show us the strength of your mate. Complete the cycle!”

“Complete the cycle!” came the shout.

Kol waved his hand and the floor beneath them rose to make a dais. A double couch with one open end and one rolled end appeared. Kol took Lara’s hand and led her to the couch. “Lay back upon it,” he said softly.

Lara realized that she had no choice. The twins’ legitimacy must not be questioned. She suspected now what was coming and was not pleased, but it had to be done. She positioned herself in the middle of the couch and lay back. Almost at once Macia and Anka came to stand on either side of their mistress, each taking one of Lara’s feet in their hands. At a flick of Kol’s eyelash they slowly raised Lara’s legs up, moving back until her limbs were practically over her shoulders and she was spread wide for all to view. Above her she could see the eager faces of the spectators waiting. Lara now understood that as the creation of Kolbein and Kolgrim had come about because she and Kol took pleasures with each other, their first week of life would end with their parents taking pleasures together for the first time since that moment. The Completion.

Kol knelt between Lara’s outstretched legs and leaning forward began to lick at her sweet flesh with his forked tongue. She knew her response to him this night must be one that brought him more respect than he had ever had of his subjects. Closing her eyes Lara released all thought of dismay and displeasure at her current situation, and sighed audibly. The flickering tongue poked and prodded at her, touching her lust orb, making it tingle with excitement. She moaned with appreciation, a little cry escaping her as the tongue slipped into her love sheath to tease her more. Slowly, for Lara understood that this was a moment that must be savored by the spectators, she let her juices begin to pearl and then she screamed as his teeth nibbled upon her aching lust orb, causing it to burst forth with a sweetness that sent a shudder through her body. The spectators cheered this event, and cried out, “All praise to Krell!”

Kol stood up and posed before the balcony. His great dominant rod sprang forth to enthusiastic clapping and more cries of “All praise to Krell!” He strutted about the dais, allowing them all a long look at his mighty rod. Lara held out her arms to him as if pleading. The look in his eyes told her that her act pleased him. And then cheers and more clapping as the thin and pointed lesser rod appeared, glistening with its silver sheen. The females accompanying the lords screamed with excitement and once again the cry, “All praise to Krell!” was shouted enthusiastically.

Kol preened once more before his subjects and then turning his attention to his mate he slipped onto the couch and began to slowly impale her on both of his great rods. Open-mouthed, the spectators in the balcony watched as Kol’s enormous dominant rod slid into Lara’s waiting sheath even as the pointed tip of his lesser rod pierced her rose hole. Then, both rods fully sheathed, his dominant rod began to pump her with slow, majestic movements while the lesser rod remained throbbing within her narrower passage and the spectators leaned forward to gaze upon the strength and magnificence of the Twilight Lord and his beautiful faerie mate. Macia and Anka struggled to maintain their place. Both women were near to swooning with their own lust as they watched their master and mistress perform before their subjects.

Kol’s movements began to quicken and then his dominant rod was flashing fiercely in and out of the hot, tight love sheath that had been so perfectly prepared over the last week to receive him once again. He bent forward and suckled and bit her breasts. Lara screamed with delight and her nails clawed at his back, going deep, drawing blood. The crowd roared its approval. Their lord’s mate was no weak female to be easily overcome by her master. When he finally triumphed over her it would only be after a great battle had been fought between them.

For over an hour the two lovers writhed upon the couch as above them their subjects watched with favor as Kol’s strength and that of his mate was more than proven to them. And then Lara reached around her lover and two of her fingers found their way between his buttocks to caress his hidden flesh. Kol howled with surprise and delight. His two rods, but a small wall of flesh separating them, sought together for that tiny spot that when touched would send Lara into a paroxym of joy. He found it. The two rods caressed it from either side and her pleasure began to peak. Lara shrieked with her satisfaction as the tremors began to race over her. Her head spun. Stars exploded behind her closed eyelids into a myriad of dazzling colors while around her the roar of the crowd grew louder and louder. And then blackness. Silence.

Kol arose from the unconscious body of his mate. “All praise be to Krell!” he shouted and they shouted it back at him. “Am I strong enough to rule you?” he demanded of them. “Does my mate meet with your approval?”

“Yes!” the spectators roared with one voice. “All hail to our lord Kol! All praise be to Krell!”

“Lower her legs,” Kol ordered the two women. “You are free to choose whom you will from among my lords.” The Lustlings appeared and began to cleanse the tired sexual organs of the Twilight Lord and his mate. When they had finished he picked up his robe, wrapped himself in it and then lifted Lara from the couch that they had shared. Leaving the rotunda the Twilight Lord carried his mate back to her bedchamber and lay her upon the bed. The rest of the night would be spent in a carnal celebration by his lords and the women who accompanied them. He would eventually join them in the banquet hall, but not quite yet. He lay down next to Lara and gathered her into his arms.

It was almost a full hour before she began to stir. As she came once more to her senses Lara smelled his fragrance and opening her eyes saw he was cradling her. “Did we please the lords?” she asked him softly.

“We pleased them well. As I left the rotunda with you many of them were already rodding their women. I gave Macia and Anka leave to stay and seek pleasures if they chose. Anka is a very lustful creature and sought immediately for a Wolfyn lord. I think Macia had finally decided upon a giant. Let us hope her lover does not split her in two.” He chuckled. “You were magnificent. You have an innate understanding of how to deal with the lower orders, my precious.” He began to caress her breasts.