Bertrice Small - The Twilight Lord

“What outrageous effrontery!” her uncle snapped. “The wench is most sure of herself that she would demand such concessions from the emperor.”

“He has been besotted by her from the moment he saw her in the slave market,” Vilia admitted a bit sourly. “She is very beautiful and reminds me a bit of the faerie woman, Lara, except Shifra’s hair is red-gold.”

“Who is she?” Cubert Ahasferus demanded to know. “Who are her family? What connections does she have that can be useful?”

“She is a nobody and claims to have lived with her grandmother on the edge of the forest bordering the Midlands,” Vilia replied. “But I sent my own agents to find the grandmother and the hut in which she lived, and they learned nothing, nor could any in that region help them. No one seemed to know Shifra or her grandmother, Uncle. My agents searched all along the forest border but could find no trace of her relations at all.”

“Interesting,” Cubert Ahasferus mused.

“So then I sought out Lenya the slaver, who had sold her. He swears he found her where she claims he did. He even said he saw a small hut that Shifra said was her grandmother’s home. And he did see the old woman, but spoke not to her, for he feared she would refuse to sell Shifra to him. He simply made off with the girl. I am certain he was telling the truth.”

“Then who is this creature Gaius Prospero would crown?” Cubert Ahasferus wondered. “Is she magical? Can she protect him?”

“I doubt she is magical herself,” Vilia said. “She would appear to be just what she is. A beautiful, simple-minded girl, who exists solely to please Gaius. She really is his ideal woman.” Vilia laughed softly.

“Not so simple that she did not attempt to thwart your dignity,” her uncle noted.

“But she did not protest too greatly when she could not. She simply persuaded Gaius to have a gold and bejeweled footstool made for her instead,” Vilia replied. “I see no malice in her. A budding greed perhaps, but no malice, Uncle.” Leaning forward she kissed his cheek. “You must go now,” she said.

“Aye, I want those contracts drawn up by tomorrow. I will have them sent to you for any omissions or corrections.”

She nodded her understanding.

“Do your part well at the coronation ceremony,” Cubert Ahasferus advised her. “The family will all be there watching. I have had a great deal of difficulty calming them down over your divorce and the emperor’s decision to crown this young wife of his. I suspect that he had Anora disposed of although such a thing would be difficult to prove. I have told them we are fortunate he did not murder you, as well.”

“He never intended to, Uncle,” Vilia told him. “He simply wanted me out of his life. It was Jonah who warned me and told me what to ask for in the settlement.”

“While standing by to snap you up like a tasty morsel dropped from his master’s table,” Cubert Ahasferus remarked dryly.

“Uncle, he could not have had me had I not wanted him. We have been lovers for several years now,” she told her relation, who wore a look a complete surprise on his face.

“You were cuckolding Gaius Prospero, Vilia?” he gasped.

“It was very exciting, Uncle.” She laughed.

He looked at her now with something almost akin to admiration. “And he never knew or even came close to catching you? Well done, Vilia! Ah, what a pity you are not a man. You could rule the world!”

“And can a woman not rule the world, Uncle?” she responded softly.

His mouth fell open in surprise at her question.

“What difference should it make that I have a love sheath and a man has a manhood? Why is one considered more dominant than the other? How ridiculous,” Vilia told him, secretly amused by the different emotions drifting over his features.

“You are an interesting woman,” Cubert Ahasferus finally told his niece. “I can but hope this new husband of yours will appreciate you.” Then with a quick bow to her he departed.

Vilia chuckled. She had surprised her uncle and that was a good thing. She would allow her family to broker her marriage as was Hetarian custom, but she did not want him thinking that she was weak or foolish. She had been very young when they had seen her married to Gaius Prospero, but now she was well into her thirty-fourth year. She would rule through Jonah. But rule she would. Was not the faerie woman, Lara, now ruling in tandem with her husband, the Dominus of Terah? The daughter of a mercenary-well, a Crusader Knight now, Vilia allowed-and a faerie ruled a land vaster than Hetar.

Jonah had said that Terah was no threat to Hetar, but how could it not be? Perhaps not now, but eventually it would be. Primitive, Jonah said, but Lara had been raised in Hetar. How could she not miss the elegance of Hetar’s ways? Eventually she would want those ways for Terah and so it would begin. Terah would eventually become a danger to Hetar. Better it be conquered quickly before it turned the tables upon them all. Jonah would have to be convinced and she would convince him, Vilia decided.

But not yet. There was too much for them both to accomplish before they looked to Terah. A coronation, and here Vilia allowed her true feelings to surface briefly. How could Gaius Prospero dare to give her crown to that creature whose only accomplishment was to open her legs and give the fat fool pleasures? It was galling! He had refused her that crown which was rightfully hers, murdered Anora, oh yes, she knew he had, and then divorced her. She was fortunate, Vilia thought to herself, not to be dead.

Well, she would repay the fat fool in kind. She would dutifully carry Shifra’s train at her coronation in two days’ time. She would be gracious to all those who saw her and knew the crown should be on her head. Then she would marry Jonah and give him a son. Then when Hetar went off to war next spring she would pray to the Celestial Actuary that Terah wreak havoc on the Hetarians. She felt a small twinge of guilt at that thought but she pushed it aside. It had to be if Jonah was to overthrow Gaius Prospero.

And when he had, Vilia thought, she would be Hetar’s empress. Jonah loved her. He would not refuse to have her crowned. She would rule by his side and their son would one day be Hetar’s emperor. And Hetar would absorb Terah into its fold as it had absorbed the Outlands. Vilia’s hand went to her belly. I will carry a son, she promised herself. I will give my lord Jonah a son. She smiled. Everything was proceeding exactly as they had so carefully planned.

“SO GAIUS PROSPERO HAS had his young wife crowned empress of Hetar,” Lara said.

“And Lord Jonah has wed the cast-off Vilia,” Magnus Hauk replied.

They were seated in their small family dining room with Lara’s mother, Ilona, queen of the Forest Faeries, who had materialized in her usual mauve cloud several minutes prior to bring them the news.

“It was disgraceful,” Ilona said, her beautiful face showing her distaste. “Never among mortals have I seen such a show of gaudy and expensive waste. What is the matter with Hetarians that they did not rise up in anger over both of these celebrations? The ordinary folk grow poorer while the magnates grow richer, especially with Hetar’s acquisition of the Outlands.”

“I thought the land was suppose to have been distributed to those willing to work it,” Lara remarked. “Was it not?”

“They gave small plots to those who asked, but then those gaining such land were forced to borrow in order to build shelters and purchase seed and equipment. Vast tracts, however, were parceled out among the wealthy. They have planted large vineyards and produce fine wines. They graze cattle upon it not for milk, but for food, which is then sold at outrageous prices in the markets of The City.”

“Who works the land?” Magnus Hauk asked. “They gained no slaves from their hollow conquest of the Outlands.”

“They have transported thousands of poor from The City,” Ilona said. “They give them shelter and food, both scant I might add, in exchange for their labors. The death rate is high, but the magnates care not, for The City is filled with those willing to toil for food and shelter from the elements.” Ilona’s leaf-green eyes grew misty. “Even I cannot help but feel pity for Hetar’s poor,” she said. “There are so many of them now, my children. Even the forest is being affected by conditions in Hetar.”

“They cannot just bring the poor in to till, plant and harvest,” Lara said.

“Those from the Midlands, from families no longer able to sustain them, are employed to supervise the workers. They are treated just slightly better in that they are paid a small wage,” Ilona replied.

“And those working the fields are not?” Lara was shocked.

“Aye, they are given a wage, but then what they eat and the shelter in which they live is deducted from that wage. Little, if anything remains after that.”

“Then they are slaves,” Lara said.

“Nay, they have the right to walk away,” Ilona responded, “but if they do, then they have naught. They are not even returned to The City. They are driven from the large farms where they have toiled with only the clothes on their back. And the small plot holders will not take them in for they cannot afford to feed them or pay them to work for they are so burdened with debt themselves. Most eventually die on their own and unless someone finds them they are left to rot where they fall.”

Lara’s eyes filled with tears. “Once Hetar was a place of laws and fairness. It was an orderly world. Each citizen had his place in it. The quarter where I grew up was peopled by the Guild of Mercenaries. We were not rich, but our hovels were kept in good repair. We were kept warm in the cold and we always had enough to eat even if our food was not the choicest of viands. When Magnus and I were last there I saw homelessness and true poverty, Mother. And those awful kiosks selling Razi so cheaply that even the poorest could purchase it. And those drinking it, even the children, felt neither cold nor hunger. They would fall into a stupor and just dream. I found it horrifying. And now they transport the poor to slave their short lives away in the Outlands.” She sighed sadly. “What do the magnates do with all the profit they make? Why has Hetar’s society grown so greedy and venal that it cares nothing for those who cannot care for themselves? Given learning, skills and opportunity most people will gladly work. Everyone needs a purpose in life. Everyone needs to be useful.”

“Yet there will always be those among the mortal races who lack good fortune,” Ilona pointed out, “and who will always be poor.”

“But they should not be penalized for it,” Lara said. “I do not suggest coddling those who are lazy, but those who are genuinely helpless need to be cared for, and once Hetar did so. This lack of charity is shocking.”

“And now, having crowned an empress and seen to Jonah’s marriage, Gaius Prospero thinks to sail across the seas and attack Terah,” Magnus Hauk said. His handsome face was dark with his anger. “I am a peaceful man by nature, but I will resist Hetar and if I must I will destroy it. Why does the fat fool do this, Ilona?”

“While in part his greed drives him,” Ilona told her son-in-law, “it is more from fear. You see, my dear Magnus, you possess what he does not-my daughter, Lara. Gaius Prospero and his minions have spent months convincing Hetarians that Terah is dangerous because Lara is its Domina. That her magic is certain to reach out and strike at them, and so Hetar must strike first. That Lara, Hetarian by birth, must be returned to Hetar, and her power used for Hetar and not Terah.” Ilona could not help but smile at the look of outrage on her daughter’s face.

“If Kaliq had not given that fat fool back his abilities to enjoy pleasures,” she grumbled, “this should have never happened. He was a broken man when I put my spell upon him. Now look what has happened. I am no danger to Hetar and Gaius Prospero well knows it, but let them come to Terah with conquest upon their minds and I will be!”

“The young empress is a creation of the Shadow Princes and was generated by them to distract the emperor. When the time is right the princes will remove her from him,” Ilona said. “There is a greater purpose here.”

“Can you tell us?” Magnus Hauk asked her.

Ilona nodded slowly.

“What!” Lara teased her mother. “You will actually tell us? But you will couch your words in mystery, of course, and we shall have to discover their meaning for ourselves, won’t we?”

Ilona laughed. “Nay,” she told them. “I will not cloak my words in hidden meanings. Magnus, I am sorry, but Hetar and Terah must struggle against one another until one of you overcomes the other. This world that you both inhabit must be made one world for the sake of peace. I will tell you things now that you have never known-but you must know if you are to survive.”