They stared at the golden-red orb as it pushed its way above the horizon into the palette of colors flooding the blue sky. All around them the sun’s entrance into the New Outlands was greeted by a profound silence. It seemed as if every living thing was perfectly still for that brief moment. Mother and son stood silently in quiet admiration.

“I love this time of day,” Lara said softly. “I love the warmth and light of the sun. I should die if I were forced to live in a world without the sun.”

“Is there such a world?” Dillon asked.

“I don’t know,” his mother answered, “but if there is I hope never to go there.”

They walked back together to the hall. With the sun now risen the chatter of birdsong filled the air. By the looks of the baggage carts before each house it would appear that the citizens of Camdene were just about ready to depart for the Gathering. She thought the date was on the morrow. She must transport Magnus today so he might join the trek with the Fiacre. Perhaps next year they would travel with the Felan clan. Lara didn’t want to give the impression that she favored the Fiacre. As mentor to the clan families she needed to remain impartial. Entering the hall, she was greeted by Noss.

“Sholeh has just sent a faerie post,” Noss said. “She wants to know if they should allow Cam to come to the Gathering or leave him behind with those too infirm to travel?”

“As much as I don’t want to see him or have him see Anoush,” Lara replied, “it is best they bring him with them. At least they have a better chance of knowing where he is, and what he is doing. Sholeh must never leave him on his own. Do you want to bring him back with the Fiacre when the Gathering is over? Or leave him with her for a few more weeks?” She sat down at the high board with Noss, saying to Dillon as she did, “Go and wake your sisters. It is far too beautiful a day to be lying in bed and soon enough the Icy Season will be on us.”

Dillon ran off.

“Nay,” Noss said to her, “we might as well bring him back with us, as you originally planned when you sent him to Sholeh. It is almost time for learning again and with Pakwa tending to Bera and Anoush gone, he is well isolated, though it saddens me.”

“Watch him carefully. He will always seek to make allies among the other children. One or two is all he really needs, Noss, to cause trouble. Cam must be carefully observed at all times and his friends, as well. No child is to be told not to associate with him for then that is the one thing they will desire above all. The children will soon learn that Cam is not be trusted. They will eventually shun him without being told,” Lara said quietly.

“He is just a boy,” Noss remarked sympathetically.

“He is the son of Adon and Elin,” Lara replied. And then she reached for the freshly baked bread that had just been put upon the table and tore off a piece to butter.

“When is Magnus coming?” Noss wanted to know. “We leave tomorrow.”

“I’ll transport him later today,” Lara answered. “I’ve missed him and I do not think I can stay away from him so long again. I’ve been here with you for over a month.”

Noss grinned. “You just miss taking pleasures with your husband,” she teased. “I do believe you are considering giving him a son, aren’t you? After all, Zagiri is now four years old. And Dillon will soon be gone to Prince Kaliq to be trained in your magic ways. Terah does need an heir to follow Magnus.”

“Aye,” Lara agreed with her best friend. “I think it is now time to give the Dominus a son. It is probably past time,” she smiled, “and I have always been a woman for doing her duty. Yes, today is a good day to bring Magnus to me.” Her eyes twinkled.

Noss laughed aloud.

Dillon returned to the hall with his sisters trailing in his wake. Lara directed her children to the lower end of the high board to eat their morning meal. She was tired and realized that her night had been a restless one although she could not recall dreaming at all. She missed Magnus. She would send the children out to play with their cousins and friends, and then take a little nap. And when she awoke, Lara decided, she would bring Magnus to her. She smiled. It seemed a good plan.

Dillon, Anoush and Zagiri all ran out into the sunshine. Like the rest of the village children they would not be seen for the remainder of the day, for these last days of summer were precious. Having asked Noss if there were anything she might do and receiving an answer in the negative, Lara returned to her chamber and lay down to sleep. When she awoke the long shadows of afternoon were streaming into the room. She was quickly alert and rising, washed her hands and face in the little basin on the table. She took up her hairbrush and unbraided her long hair, brushed it, then replaited it neatly. It was time. Standing in the middle of the chamber she chanted. “Come to me, my love, my life. Come and now be with your wife.”

Magnus Hauk appeared in a puff of white smoke. He shook himself impatiently. “You might at least warn me when you are going to do things like that, Lara,” he said.

“Have you not missed me these past few weeks?” she pouted at him.

The Dominus of Terah grinned. “I have missed you very much, my darling,” he told her. Then he took her into his arms and their lips met in a burning kiss. When they broke off the embrace he said to her, “Bar the chamber door, Lara, and I will show you just how much I have missed you.” His turquoise-blue eyes met her green ones.

Lara did as she had been bid. Then she returned to the warmth of her husband’s arms. “Show me now,” she whispered to him, her hand caressing his strong face with a delicate graze of her knuckles. A single finger traced a path down the bridge of his long nose and then dragged across his lips. Reaching up she ruffled his dark gold hair. “Just how much have you missed me, my lord Dominus?” she teased him, pressing herself against his hard, masculine body. “Tell me!”

“Obviously as much as you have missed me,” he teased her, reaching up to fondle her plump breast. His thumb and his forefinger found the nipple and pinched it suggestively, sending a bolt of pure lust through her.

Reaching down she found his manhood beneath his long robe. She began to draw his robe up so she might take him in her hand. He took her hand away and in response pulled his robe off first and then hers. Then he removed his camise and her chemise. Lara began to giggle, her eyes dancing with mirth. Magnus Hauk looked puzzled and said to her, “What do you find so amusing in the midst of our mutual seduction, my darling?”

“You are wearing your boots,” Lara told him.

“Then take them off,” he told her.

“Can you not take off your own boots?” she demanded of him.

“I like it better when you take them off,” he leered at her suggestively. “I love seeing your perfect little bottom when you bend to pull my footwear off.” He sat down on the big bed.

“You are a most lustful man,” she told him, but turning her back, she took one shod foot between her two legs and drew the boot off and then she took the other. All the while his two big hands fondled her buttocks, squeezing. When both boots had been removed along with his foot coverings Lara made to stand, but her husband pulled her back into his lap, his hands sliding around her torso to capture her two plump breasts. She squealed with surprise, but then feeling his manhood beneath her wiggled against it, teasing him as he was now teasing her. His breath was hot in her ear.

“I am a lustful man,” he agreed with her cheerfully. “And I have kept my lust well in check these past few weeks you have been here in the New Outlands. But now I am here. And you are here. And I find no reason to restrain myself. Do you, Wife?” His lips found the nape of her neck and he began to nibble and kiss it. The warm fresh scent of her was intoxicating to his aroused senses.

“Nay, my lord,” Lara replied amiably, closing her eyes and enjoying the feel of his big hands on her breasts, his lips on her neck. The hardness beneath her was very exciting, and she was almost embarrassed at how eager she was to have him sheathed within her. The past few weeks had been lonely without him. Whatever had possessed her to spend time in the New Outlands? Now that Dillon and Anoush were living with her it really wasn’t necessary. The children could come next year if they wanted but she was not going to leave Magnus Hauk again.

He took her nipples between his fingers, pulling and pinching at them. Lara leaned back, her head resting against his shoulder. “I love your breasts,” he murmured in her ear as he licked the curl of flesh, then blew warm breath upon it.

“I love seeing your hands on my breasts,” she told him breathlessly.

His big strong hands slipped from her bosom and caressed her belly. “I want the son you promised me,” he told her.

“I am ready to give you that son, my lord and my love,” she answered him.

He reached down and touched her mons, sliding a finger between her nether lips to find the center of her. She was already creamy with her need for him. She sighed as his finger played with her, and the longing in the sound made him turn her about so that they were facing one another. He lay back and she sat atop him licking her lips in anticipation of the passion to come. His manhood stood straight and tall before her.

Reaching out Lara caressed it first with delicate fingers that trailed down the thick pillar of hard flesh. Then she grasped him in her two little hands and slowly, slowly, pushed his foreskin down and then up again several times. The ruby head of his manhood glowed like a beacon and when a small pearl of his juices appeared Lara bent herself over him and lapped it up with her tongue. Then her tongue carefully encircled the tip several times before she took him in her mouth to suck upon him.

Magnus Hauk groaned, and for just the briefest moment he thought that his head was going to explode along with his manhood. “I won’t spill my juices down your greedy maw,” he told her in a tight voice. “My seed is strong and we can create a son with it.”

Lara immediately released him, looking to him for direction.

“I have to taste you,” he told her as he lifted her up and lay her on her back. “I need the taste of you flooding my senses.” He yanked at several pillows upon the bed and pushed them beneath her so that her hips were elevated high. Then he pushed her legs apart and put his head between her shapely thighs. She drew her nether lips apart for him and he began to lick eagerly at her. His tongue moved slowly over the insides of her nether lips. It found her center, her jewel, and he nibbled at it. Then taking it into his mouth he sucked hard upon it and Lara’s body spasmed beneath him as her juices flowed copiously. “I can’t wait,” he apologized as he mounted her.

“Neither can I,” she said softly and then gasped with delight as he filled her heated body with his throbbing manhood. Lara wrapped her legs about her husband’s torso, clinging to him as he began to piston her with long, slow strokes, which quickened and grew more powerful in intensity. Her nails raked down his back, and raising her head she bit down on his shoulder hard.

“Vixen!” he growled at her and then he groaned as his pulsing manhood felt her sheath tightening about him, as he sensed the climax of their lust beginning to quiver within her. He waited, waited, and then released his juices, shuddering as they attained pleasure together in each other’s arms. “I love you, my faerie wife!” he told her.

“And I love you, my mortal husband,” Lara murmured, reluctant to allow the pleasures to fade away as they eventually must.

A knocking came upon the door as they lay recovering in each other’s arms.

“Mama! Let us in,” they heard Zagiri calling. “I want to see Papa!”

Magnus began to laugh and Lara called out, “Papa and I are busy, Zagiri. We will see you later.” She struggled not to giggle.

“No, Mama! Now!” Zagiri shouted.

“Zagiri,” they heard Anoush say, “come away. They are taking pleasures now and do not want to be disturbed. Come with me, Little Sister.”

“What are pleasures?” Zagiri demanded to know.

But whatever Anoush told Zagiri they did not hear. It was obvious the two girls had moved away from the bed chamber door.

Lara’s eyes were brimming with her mirth.

“What can Anoush possibly know about pleasures?” Magnus demanded of his wife. “She is still a little girl. And Zagiri is certainly too young to understand.”

Lara laughed softly. “Aye, Anoush is a little girl but in the summer months she runs with all the village children. Some are older and some younger. And they all listen to adult conversations because adults speak carelessly before children, not believing that the children could be possibly interested. That is how they pick up knowledge of things beyond their ken,” she explained.