“Kemina,” he said, taking her hands to press them to his head, his lips and his heart. “Do you never grow old, High Priestess?”
Kemina laughed. She was a woman with strong striking features, and eyes as blue as the Sea of Sagitta. Her hair was snow-white, but her face was youthful. She did not demur at his compliment, but rather asked, “What brings you here, and who is your companion? A faerie woman, my lord Dominus?”
“I am Lara of Hetar, half mortal, half faerie,” Lara introduced herself. “My mother is Ilona, queen of the Forest Faeries, my lady Kemina.”
“I plan to wed her shortly,” Magnus told the High Priestess.
“It is time you were married,” Kemina scolded him gently. “Past time. But then it was obviously not meant to be until this fair creature came into your world. But come! Let us not stand in the courtyard gossiping like old women.” With a warm smile she led them into the building from which she had exited. “This is my house,” she told Lara as they entered a spacious room with a fountain in its center. “Sit,” she invited them clapping her hands, and instructing the attending priestess to bring refreshments. Then she joined them in a comfortable chair constructed of leather and wood. “You do not visit often, my lord Dominus, and so I must conclude there is a purpose to this visit,” Kemina said candidly. “Is it too soon for me to ask if you will share it?”
Magnus Hauk chuckled. “Direct as ever,” he said. “Aye, there is a reason. It seems in our pride we men of Terah believed our women had been cursed into silence when in truth our ears had been stopped up.”
“There has been a great deal of rumor flying about the countryside,” Kemina said.
“Lara banished the ghost of Usi who still inhabited his tower. The cursed place was destroyed as was his book of spells so that none could ever use them again,” Magnus explained. “I decided to go to the Temple of the Great Creator last, and I want you to come with us. My uncle, the High Priest, knew what Lara was attempting, but you know that many of the priests still hold to Aslak’s belief that all magic is evil. Lara must remove the curse from them, and you must be there to convince them that they can once more hear the voices of females.”
Kemina laughed heartily. “I will gladly go with you,” she said. “I cannot wait to see the look upon the faces of some of those sour old men when they have been freed of the curse Usi placed on Terah all those centuries back. Let us enjoy some wine first, and then we must go at once. I cannot wait until the morrow, and the sun will not set for several hours yet. It is but a short distance to the Temple of the Great Creator.” She picked up a goblet of wine that had been placed by her hand. “I cannot say I was sorry to learn of Aslak’s death. It was time. I never knew a mind so narrow or so closed.”
“It was the sound of my voice, I fear, that caused his death,” Lara said softly.
Kemina looked astounded, and then she chuckled. “Let us hope a few more of those old dogs keel over at the sound of it,” she said, and then drank down her wine.
“As your Dominus I must reprimand you, High Priestess,” Magnus said with a wicked grin. “I am shocked by your lack of sympathy.”
“Do not tell me you were sorry to see Aslak go,” she cackled. “Praise the Great Creator that your uncle had already been elected to follow him. Arik is a man of vision. He will shake them all up, and move the priesthood into a more modern age.”
“We can but hope,” Magnus said.
When they had finished their refreshment they departed for the larger Temple of the Great Creator, Dasras again carrying two passengers. The High Priestess rode upon a small roan mare that the stallion eyed with interest. Arriving, they were greeted by a young priest and shown into the High Priest’s privy chamber.
“Nephew, welcome back!” Arik greeted them. “Kemina, I greet you. Lara, I greet you,” he said.
Lara smiled at Magnus’s uncle and recited, “Ears that once heeded woman’s call, shall open again and hear them all.”
“I greet you, Arik,” the High Priestess said quietly.
“I can hear her!” Arik almost shouted. He looked to Lara. “You have done the impossible, my lovely faerie woman. Thank you! Thank you!”
“Gather your priests together, my lord Arik, and I will unstop their ears, as well,” Lara said to him.
The High Priest called to one of his minions and gave him quick instructions. The young priest hurried out, and shortly the sound of the temple bells ringing was heard. “I’ve summoned them all to the temple itself. It seems a fitting setting in which to lift the curse of Usi,” Arik said. “Come along!”
They followed the excited high priest from his dwelling and into the temple. It was a large building with an open portico on all four sides. Inside, however, it was simple, and plain in decor. The roof of the temple had a great dome through which sunlight poured. The High Priest led his visitors up two wide stairs to stand before the modest marble altar. Below and around them the temple was filled with priests.
“Are all gathered here now?” Arik asked, looking about.
There was a short silence, then a voice said, “All but the sick in the infirmary, my lord Arik.”
Arik turned to Lara. “Will you visit them, and free them?” he asked.
She nodded. “I will.”
The High Priest turned back to the crowd, and began to speak. “Priests of the Great Creator, a miracle is about to be visited upon you.” He drew Lara forward. “This is Lara of Hetar, daughter of a mortal man and a faerie queen.”
A murmur began below them.
The High Priest held up his hand. “She has discovered that it was not the women of Terah who were cursed into silence by the sorcerer. It was the men of Hetar whose ears were stopped up because they listened to a woman, and let her destroy Usi.”
“She lies!” a voice from the crowd said.
“Nay, she does not lie, and she has come today to lift the curse from you as she has lifted it from all the men of Terah. I could hear her from the first moment we met, for she is Hetarian. Tell them, Lara.”
“I can free you, good priests of the Great Creator,” Lara told them.
Surprise showed on the faces below them.
“This is magic!” came the cry.
“Magic is evil. Did not Aslak teach us that?” another voice spoke.
“There is both good and wicked magic,” Arik told them. “This lady is good, and her magic is good. She will speak her spell, and lift the curse from you.”
Lara stepped quickly forward. “Ears that once heeded woman’s call, shall open again and hear them all!” she cried in a loud voice.
Now it was Kemina who stepped forward. “And now, priests of the Great Creator, hear the voice of your High Priestess, that you may be convinced at what good has been done you this day.”
Shocked and upturned faces greeted her proclamation, and then the voices began to exclaim with astonishment as the priests admitted to being able to hear Kemina.
Arik gave them a moment to recover from the shock of what had happened. Then he said, “There is good magic in this world, my brothers.”
“Where are the sick?” Lara asked him. “I would remove the curse from them as well.”
The High Priest led them from the temple area to a small house where Lara once again spoke the spell, and freed the remaining men from Usi’s curse. When they were settled again in his house Arik asked her, “The book of spells?”
“Destroyed,” she told him. Then she related her adventure in Usi’s tower. “I dispatched the book myself within a magical clay jar. The Shadow Prince Kaliq disposed of the ashes in various places so that no one will ever again use Usi’s book of spells.”
Kemina had listened in rapt awe to Lara’s tale. “You are a brave woman,” she said when the story had come to its conclusion.
“I only did what needed to be done,” Lara answered her.
“You are too modest,” Kemina replied.
“You must marry her, Magnus,” the High Priest said.
“I would certainly agree,” Kemina murmured.
“We will wed,” the Dominus answered them.
“But first we have other things that must be accomplished,” Lara told them. “And Sirvat is to be married to Captain Corrado.”
“What is it that is so important to you both that you would wait to wed?” the High Priest wanted to know. “I could marry you both now, and it would be done with, Nephew.”
“Nay, Uncle. The marriage of the Dominus must be a great occasion,” Magnus said. “And my sister is not of a mind to wait,” he chuckled, skillfully avoiding answering his uncle’s question. He had made a very great promise to Lara, and he would not marry her until he had fulfilled his obligations.
The High Priestess departed, escorted by several young priests, back to her own temple compound.
Arik ate the evening meal with them, and then bid them good-night. “Come and see me, Magnus, before you depart on the morrow,” he said.
“I will, Uncle,” the Dominus promised.
“He will want the answer to the question he asked you earlier,” Lara said.
“I know,” Magnus answered her.
“Perhaps it would be best if you told him,” Lara advised. “I know it will surprise him, but it may be better that someone else knows what we are doing. There may come a time when we need his help. ’Tis better your uncle feel we have kept nothing from him, that we trusted him enough to share our plans with him.”
“Perhaps I should go to him now. This is not something quickly told, and we do want to get back to the castle tomorrow,” the Dominus said thoughtfully.
“Go and find him,” Lara told him. “I am tired, and will seek my bed.”
He pulled her into his arms, and kissed her a slow sweet kiss. “Then good night, my faerie love. Sleep well,” he told her.
An unfamiliar feeling overcame her briefly. Reaching up she caressed his face. “Good night, Magnus,” she responded. When he had left her, Lara considered what had just happened. What had she sensed? Was it some type of emotion? Affection? Caring?
Love? Ethne’s voice was very clear.
“I do not know how to really love,” Lara said aloud.
Perhaps you are finally learning, Ethne replied. You had great fondness for Vartan, but you did not really love him, though he thought you did when you gave him the children he desired.
He was good to me, Lara said silently.
This man may well be your equal, Ethne said. We will see if he keeps his promise to you to help the Outland peoples.
He has never really faced the duplicitous behavior of which Gaius Prospero and the High Council of Hetar are capable. He is strong, and he is wise, but he lacks the sophistication necessary to deal successfully with Hetar. Terah is totally different from Hetar, Ethne. They have lived the same sort of life for centuries, never changing, never looking forward. What if Arik convinces Magnus not to help the Outland family clans?
He won’t, Ethne said with great assurance, but it would not be unwise for you and Magnus to visit Hetar. If he saw what was happening there perhaps he would better understand your concerns. We all see different situations in different lights, my child. You clearly see the danger for the Outlands, but Magnus is a stranger. He cannot see unless you show him.
I had thought never to return to Hetar again, Lara admitted.
Just enough of a visit to introduce Magnus to the Outland clan lords and to show him the decay and corruption of the City, of those who now rule Hetar, Ethne said.
It must be done secretly, Lara told her crystal guardian. Will you contact Kaliq for me, and see if he can help?
I will, Ethne promised. Now go to sleep, my child.
Sirvat must be wed first, Lara insisted.
Of course. Now sleep!
And while Lara spoke with Ethne, Magnus had gone to his uncle. He found Arik in his private quarters. The older man did not seem surprised to see his nephew, even just having bid him good-night. He dismissed his servants and motioned the Dominus to a seat by his fire. “I thought you might come and speak with me before you retired,” Arik said quietly. “This must be a most important undertaking. Tell me what it is, Nephew.”
“First I would tell you that it is Lara who feels you should be made aware of what we mean to do, Uncle,” Magnus began.
The High Priest chuckled. “She is a clever and intelligent woman, for which you may thank the Great Creator.”
“Several days ago when she finished lifting Usi’s curse from all but those here,” the Dominus began, “we flew over the mountains to the lands beyond. There is another sea as well, Uncle. Lara says it is called the Obscura.”
“You flew?” Arik’s eyebrow quirked.
“Her horse can sprout wings, Uncle. It is magic. And he talks as well,” Magnus admitted with a small grin.
Arik shook his head amazed. “Go on,” he managed to say.
“The lands beyond our mountains are great, Uncle. And they are uninhabited. A huge fertile plain with nary a village or cultivated field.”
“And what do you intend doing with it, Nephew?” Arik asked him.
Then the Dominus explained to his uncle what he had promised to Lara, and why.
The High Priest nodded thoughtfully. Then he said, “Better to have vassals paying you a yearly tribute and making the land useful than to have it uninhabited, for an enemy or stranger to take. What is on the other side of this sea called Obscura?”
“Hetar, even as it is with Sagitta,” Magnus answered him. “The difference is that Obscura’s opposite shore meets the desert of the Shadow Princes.”
“Then we are endangered from both sides,” Arik said.
“No one knows of Obscura but the princes, for it is at the far end of their desert where no one goes, even the nomadic desert dwellers,” Magnus told his uncle.
“For now,” Arik replied thoughtfully. “Still it would indeed be better to have enemies of Hetar on those plains. If Hetar ever sails across that sea they will not receive a warm welcome, and we will be warned. Are these Outlanders good soldiers?”
“When it is necessary,” Magnus answered. “They prefer to farm, mine and tend their herds and flocks, Lara said, but when threatened they become a strong fighting force. She has fought with them in a war she called the Winter War.”
Arik smiled briefly. “A most versatile faerie woman.” He paused in thought for several long moments. “You love her enough to do this for her, Magnus?”
The Dominus nodded. “I do, Uncle. She believes, and I believe, too, that it is her destiny to save these peoples.”
“This is not an endeavor that should soon become public knowledge,” Arik said.
“We are all agreed upon that point, Uncle,” the Dominus replied.
“I am glad you have shared this with me, Nephew,” the High Priest remarked. “Now, tell me. Have you spoken with my sister Persis about her daughter’s wedding yet? She will be most pleased, I am certain.”
“Our mother has had little to do with the upbringing of my youngest sister,” Magnus said stiffly. “She will be invited to the festivities, but no earlier than the other guests. From the moment she left the castle she has shown no interest in Sirvat. She has not seen her in five or more years. Narda and Aselma were always her especial pets, Uncle. She was proud to birth me for she had then given my father an heir, but Sirvat’s conception was an error, she told me when my sister was born. She said she had taken comfort in the fact that this unexpected confinement would give our father a second son. When it did not she virtually washed her hands of the infant. Sirvat cannot remember Persis even addressing her but for half a dozen occasions before she departed to live with Narda,” the Dominus explained.
“I had not realized she was so distant with Sirvat,” Arik replied. “Persis was always a bit cold. I was surprised when your father took her to be his wife. I always wondered what it was he saw in her.”
“She fascinated him,” Magnus answered his uncle. “He could never get enough of her company, h
er beauty, the pleasures she offered him. She knew her duty, I will say that for my mother. As Domina she was without peer, and she deferred to my father in all the things she did. My father adored her, and she was the perfect wife for him. But she was also selfish and self-involved, Uncle. Surely you understood that? You grew up in the same house together.”
“I left for the temple when I was eight,” Arik said. “I knew from the time I could form thoughts that this is what I wanted. When I was eighteen I returned home for my interval year as required before taking my final vows to the Great Creator. Persis was gone by then, and married to your father.”
“You chose not to marry,” Magnus said.
“Aye, but I am not a celibate as some are. I take my pleasures now and again as I feel the need. But a wife and children, as some called to my vocation have, would have hindered my rise in our order. I have always been an ambitious man, Nephew. I prefer power to women.” Then he laughed. “But you knew that, didn’t you?”
Magnus Hauk grinned broadly, and nodded. “I knew it, Uncle. But you are practical, as well, I think.”
The High Priest nodded, and then he arose. “And being practical, I need my rest, Nephew. Bring Lara to me in the morning that I may bid you both farewell, and give you my blessing until the time of your nuptials.”
The Dominus stood. “Good night again then, Uncle,” he said. Returning to the guest house, he found Lara sleeping, a small smile upon her lips. Looking down at her, his own heart swelled. He did love her. He wondered if she had any emotions for him other than passion. Did he care? He washed himself, and lay down by her side to sleep.
IN THE MORNING, Lara and Magnus bid the High Priest farewell, and he did indeed give them his blessing, after telling Lara that she had his full support, and that the immigration of the Outland clan families would remain their secret. She thanked him, taking his hands in the Terahn fashion and pressing them first to her head, then her lips and finally her heart. The gesture brought a smile to Arik’s lips.
As Dasras did not like the narrow cliff road above the fjord he unfolded his great wings and flew back to the castle, landing in the courtyard close to the midday hour. The stable men stared wide-eyed as the horse’s hooves touched down on the cobbled ground. They gasped audibly as Dasras’s wings disappeared completely, folding themselves into his body when he commanded them to do so. They were barely used to the horse’s speech, but to see the magic he made half frightened them. Then one young boy, braver than the rest, came forward and took the horse’s bridle.
A Distant Tomorrow Page 24
