“I understand,” Cinnia told her, returning the smile.
“I will remain,” Anoush said softly. “If necessary I may be able to help.”
“Well,” Ilona said pithily, “I suppose three out of five is not a bad tally.”
“Mother!” Lara looked askance at her faerie parent who shrugged.
“The chamber has been prepared,” Dillon said. “Shall we go?”
Together they exited the family hall where they had eaten their meal. Dillon led them to a chamber high in a tower. The walls were whitewashed, and a large casement window with leaded panes opened to the night sky where Belmair’s twin moons, crescents tonight, were just coming into view. Cinnia had stopped in the apartment she shared with her husband just long enough to allow Tamary and Anke to remove her garments, and help her into a plain white silk sleep garment. Entering the chamber, Cinnia saw it had but a single piece of furniture, a bed, the mattress encased in a sheet, a coverlet atop it.
Dillon stepped up before his wife, and opening his raised hand, allowed a gold chain with a golden charm to drop from his closed fist. The charm was fashioned like a tree in full leaf, and each of the leaves was enameled in a slightly different shade of green. He slipped the chain about Cinnia’s neck. “The tree of life will keep you safe upon the Dream Plain. Do you know what to expect there?”
She nodded. “Mists which will clear to reveal she whom I seek,” Cinnia said.
“You must concentrate upon Arlais, and no other,” Dillon warned her. “Think only of her, and call her name. She will come.”
“Here,” Lara said as she conjured a goblet from the air. “This is frine, and it will aid you in your efforts to sleep. Drink it, my daughter.”
Cinnia took the cup, and drank it all. Then she made herself comfortable upon the bed, which was indeed the most cozy upon which she had ever lain. She looked at the faces of those surrounding her. Dillon. Kaliq. Lara. Ilona. Cirillo. Nidhug. Marzina and Anoush. They crowded about the bed.
“I am going to take us all into the shadows so you will not see us,” Kaliq said to her. “That way we will not distract you, Cinnia. But be assured that we are here.” His hand languidly encircled the chamber, and they all disappeared from her view, but Cinnia could see two small red-orange spots, which indicated Nidhug’s nostrils. The dragon’s fire rarely showed unless she was nervous or angry. Cinnia smiled, oddly comforted by that tiny glow. With a sigh she closed her eyes, and began to slip into sleep.
Arlais. She pictured the woman who had been one of her companions for a year. Tall. Dark auburn hair and wonderful dark gray eyes. Arlais whose gowns were all in shades of her favorite green. And then to her irritation Cinnia felt awake. She opened her eyes with annoyance, but to her surprise she was not lying in her bed. She was standing in a swirling silvery-gray mist that wrapped itself about her. All was silence. Deep, deep silence. The Dream Plain, Cinnia thought excitedly. She had attained the Dream Plain. Now she had to once again put her thoughts upon Arlais.
Closing her eyes briefly to regain her focus, Cinnia concentrated. Within her mind’s eye she saw Arlais in a pale green gown, her heavy, thick braids looped up about her face. “Arlais,” Cinnia called. “Come to me upon the Dream Plain, Arlais.” She opened her eyes. The mists were thick about her, yet continued to swirl silently. “Arlais, wife to the Yafir lord, come to Cinnia, the sorceress of Belmair. Come to me!”
The mists began to thin until they cleared away to reveal Arlais walking toward her in her pale green gown. When she reached the spot where Cinnia stood, Arlais said, “I knew it! It really is you. And it is Sapphira of Beldane who carries our husband’s child, is it not?”
Chapter 16
“AYE, IT IS,” Cinnia answered the woman. “But you will not tell him, will you?”
Arlais shook her head. “Nay, I will not. He would be shamed to have been outwitted by the king of Belmair. But how?” Arlais was amazed to be standing here in this strange place actually speaking with Cinnia. The magic involved awed her.
“That is not important,” Cinnia said. “Ahura Mazda does not understand that my husband is a great sorcerer. Dillon did not act sooner because he could not find me. When he did, however, the switch was made. And Sapphira, being the ambitious girl she is, quickly figured out what had happened, and has obviously decided to be content.”
Arlais nodded. “She protested at first, but everyone believed it was a blow to her head that had rendered her memory faulty. Once she had spent a night in his arms she was fully content. They are well matched. Both insatiable for pleasures, and lustful beyond measure. He has high hopes for her child.”
“I think he will get his wish,” Cinnia advised Arlais.
“Why have you called me here?” Arlais asked quietly, still daunted by this magical place.
“My husband truly wants peace between our two peoples,” Cinnia began. “But the Yafir lord’s bitterness seems unending.”
“It is,” Arlais replied. “He will never forgive Belmair.”
“But is his attitude that of all the Yafir?” Cinnia asked softly.
Arlais was silent for a long moment as she debated with herself what to tell the young queen of Belmair. Finally she said, “Nay, it is not. The bubbles are overcrowded. The population of women is shrinking, and the men are stopped from stealing others now. There is grumbling, and discontent beginning to arise. But Ahura Mazda hears it not.”
“Neither the king nor I seek to foment discontent,” Cinnia said, “but is there perhaps a way for us to resolve this that you can consider?”
“What is it that the king seeks to do?” Arlais asked.
“It has been many centuries since the Yafir were told to depart Belmair. In that time the blood of the Yafir has been well mixed with that of the Belmairans. While there are some who will object to those calling themselves Yafir rejoining our society, this is what Dillon wants. He wants us to be one people. We may all hold on to our customs, and sing of our heritage, but we should all be called by one name. Belmairan,” Cinnia said. “Your men cannot produce daughters except rarely, living beneath the sea. And both of our societies need female children. Our races are both dying from lack of them.”
“Can your people not produce females, either?” Arlais inquired.
“So many females have been taken over the centuries that we have fewer and fewer left each year. Now, of course, Dillon has enchanted our women to keep them safe, but it still does not solve our problem. Nor yours. We need to join together and be one,” Cinnia told her companion. “If Ahura Mazda will not listen, is there not someone who will? Is there not some way in which we can save both of our peoples?”
“My sons, Behrooz and Sohrab, would return to Belmair if they could. And there are others like them,” Arlais admitted. “But we have been protected from the centuries beneath the sea. We do not know what will happen to us if we return.”
“Then this is the beginning of our dialogue,” Cinnia said. “Shall we meet again in a few days here upon the Dream Plain? We are both protected here from harm.”
Arlais nodded. “Yes, let us meet again. If your husband is the great sorcerer you say he is, then ask him if he knows what will happen to us if we return to Belmair after our centuries in the sea. Will the transition destroy us? What will happen?”
“I will indeed ask him,” Cinnia said. “Goodbye.” And the mists began to swirl about her once more. She could actually feel herself slipping away as the echo of Arlais’s farewe
ll reached her. Cinnia opened her eyes, fully awake.
“Good morning,” her husband said, and focusing, she saw the faces about her.
She sat up. “It was amazing,” Cinnia declared. “I spoke with Arlais.”
Kaliq smiled, as did Lara.
“I wish I could go to the Dream Plain,” Marzina said.
“You are too young,” her mother told her.
“There is hope,” Anoush said softly. They turned to her and could see that her eyes were glazed over with a vision. “But first there will be strife, not war, but strife among the Yafir, and danger for my brother Dillon. He is determined! He does not seek change! He will attempt to kill the king! You must stop him!” And then she slumped against her mother, trembling.
Lara put a firm arm about her eldest daughter’s shoulders, supporting her.
“One day those visions will kill her,” Ilona said, low. “She is too fragile.”
Anoush opened her blue eyes. “Nay, Grandmother, they will not destroy me. I look fragile, but I am strong of heart.” She smiled weakly.
“Tell us what happened,” Dillon said to Cinnia.
The young queen of Belmair repeated the conversation she had had with Arlais.
“It is difficult for her,” Cinnia explained. “She understands there must be a change if we are all to survive. Yet she would not betray Ahura Mazda. It is her two older sons, I think, who will probably aid us. But Arlais has asked a serious question, and you, my lord Kaliq, are probably the one to answer her query.”
“Why do you think that?” Kaliq said with a small smile.
“Because you are the most powerful being that I know,” Cinnia said candidly.
He smiled again. “Ask your question,” Kaliq said.
“Arlais wonders what will happen to the Yafir after centuries beneath the sea. If they return to the land will they become ancient and die? Remember that those who have been returned previously have suffered that fate. How can Belmair make peace with a people who will perish if they come back to our world? But how can we make peace if they remain below the sea, hostile to us? Ahura Mazda promises his folk that he will bring them back, but he has not the magic needed to do such a thing on such a grand scale, and if his people die attempting to live upon the land again then what has been accomplished but the destruction of the Yafir?”
“A most interesting query,” Kaliq said slowly. “I must think upon it, Cinnia. It is indeed possible that Ahura Mazda has stopped time because of the mortal blood now flowing with that of the Yafir. How old is Arlais? Do you know?”
“She told me she was twenty-seven,” Cinnia said. “And she certainly looks like a young woman in her twenties.”
“Could we not create a spell that would allow the Yafir to begin their lives upon the land once more at the age at which they were stolen?” Dillon said aloud.
“What of the children born to them? How do they age?” Lara wanted to know.
“Everyone looks as if they are in their twenties and thirties,” Cinnia said. “They seem to age just so far and no more. I saw no ancients at all, even among the servants.”
“Fascinating,” Kaliq mused. “Yes, Ahura Mazda has some small control over time beneath the sea, but he will not be able to exercise that control upon the land. I wonder if he knows it? It is unusual for a Yafir to have that kind of knowledge. I am curious as to where he obtained it.”
“There was a library of what were referred to as forbidden books in a hidden room in the Academy,” Cinnia said slowly. “Cirillo helped us discover it, but we were only inside of it briefly when we were forced to flee the place carrying what volumes we could. The library turned in on itself, and disappeared completely. Since Ahura Mazda has the ability to come and go as he chooses, is it possible there was a book there that aided him to increase his magic?”
“Who has the books you managed to retrieve?” Kaliq asked.
“Prentice, the Academy’s scholar of magic,” Cinnia told Kaliq.
“A hidden room with a guardian that protected it, and caused it to disappear again,” Kaliq said. “Whoever did that was more powerful than a Yafir lord. The room is still there. It is just hidden better now.”
“Cirillo said the room had gone for good,” Dillon remarked.
“Your uncle does not know everything,” Kaliq replied drily.
“The key disappeared when the chamber did,” Dillon said.
“I will not need a key,” Kaliq answered him.
Lara could not help but smile at this. “Let us break our fast, and then you, Dillon and Cinnia may go to the Academy to access the hidden room. After that the rest of us are going to take a nap, for we have been up all night sitting by Cinnia’s side as she traversed the Dream Plain.”
They all adjourned to the little family hall where the servants were busy setting the board and then bringing in the meal. There were eggs, scrambled into a fluffy, mass along with rashers of crisp bacon, fresh fruit and breads served with little tubs of newly churned butter. Sweet, hot tea was brought. It was not particularly popular in Hetar, but in Belmair it was quite favored. Dillon had developed a great taste for a strong red tea to which he added honey.
“I am going home now,” Ilona said when they were finished. “I’ll sleep better in my own bed.” She looked to her son, but he said nothing. The queen of the Forest Faeries shrugged. “If you need me, Dillon, call to me. I will come.”
“Thank you, Grandmother,” he told her and he kissed both of her cheeks.
Ilona returned the gesture, reaching up to give his handsome face a loving pat as she disappeared with a smile in a cloud of mauve mist.
“She really is the most elegant faerie,” Zagiri sighed, “even if I am not her favorite. Mama, do you think I can attain that elegance one day?”
“I am her favorite,” Marzina said smugly with typical ten-year-old candor. “I believe she loves me even more than she loves Dillon.”
“I think it is time for both of you to nap,” Lara said. “And yes, Zagiri, you will most certainly attain your grandmother’s elegance one day. Now come along, girls.” And she led them from the chamber.
“You will not need me as you have the great Shadow Prince,” Cirillo said quietly. “Come, Nidhug. I believe we should nap, as well.” Then hand in paw he and the dragon departed from the chamber.
“An interesting pairing,” Kaliq observed. “I am amazed that his faerie heart is genuinely engaged by her.” He turned to Cinnia. “Your dragon is quite an amazing female, my dear. I have never known her like before.”
“Let us go and regain the hidden chamber, my lord,” Dillon said.
“Step within my robes,” the Shadow Prince said, and when they did they instantly found themselves in the library of the Academy. As they moved away from him, Kaliq stood very still as if sensing something. Then he said abruptly, “Come!” and led them into the most deserted far section of the archives. Against a wall stood a tall bookcase. Well concealed as you may be, you may not hide away from me, he said in the silent language of the magic folk.
To the amazement of his two companions the little door appeared and sprang open for them. Dillon looked to Kaliq, who nodded. Together the trio entered the hidden chamber. He led them to the room’s center, and then murmured something to Dillon.
“I am Dillon, son of Kaliq of the Shadows, and Lara, a great faerie woman,” the young man began. “I am king of Belmair, and I ask permission of he who guards this chamber to allow us peaceful entry. Reveal yoursel
f to us if you will, great lord.”
The eye in the ceiling above them opened, observed, and then suddenly before them a very gnarled and ancient male figure appeared. He was bent, and his hair was the color of pure snow, but his eyes were a startling bright blue. He was garbed all in white.
“Cronan!” Kaliq exclaimed, and he bowed respectfully.
“Kaliq,” a surprisingly strong voice for one so old came from Cronan.
“When you disappeared it was thought you had gone into the Beyond,” Kaliq said.
“This is your son?” Cronan asked, not bothering to offer any explanations to Kaliq though he obviously sought some knowledge.
“Yes, Dillon,” Kaliq replied.
“You always were a romantic fool, Kaliq,” Cronan said, but his tone was gentle. “Now tell me, young Dillon, king of Belmair, what is it you seek here in the forbidden athenaeum that I guard? Greetings, Cinnia, daughter of Fflergant. You are amazed to find one of my kind here in Belmair, I can see.”
He was a Shadow Prince! Cinnia had recognized his kind immediately. “I am, my lord,” she admitted. “But you do our world great honor by your presence.”
Cronan chuckled. “I do,” he admitted affably. Then he turned back to Dillon.
“We need to learn how the Yafir lord, Ahura Mazda, manipulates time for his folk. And we need to know what will happen when the Yafir once more walk the land. Will the population die, or can they survive?” Dillon asked.
“Tell me, why do you seek this wisdom?” Cronan asked.
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?”
The Sorceress of Belmair Page 42
