Dillon stopped dead in his tracks. “Look at me!” he said fiercely. His tone was so dire that Anoush turned startled eyes up to him. “So you understand that Noss is our foster mother, do you? It is true. The mother who gave us life and who loves us beyond measure is Lara, the Domina of Terah. She was born in Hetar of a mortal father and a faerie mother. She was our father’s wife. She is a great lady and she has a destiny to follow. She did not choose to have a destiny. She would have been content to remain our father’s widow and our mother, but such is not her fate, Anoush. Our mother knows she has no choice but to follow until she meets and claims her destiny. She saw to our comfort and our safety before she left us. She saved the clan families from Hetar when she and the Shadow Princes transported us from the Outlands here to the New Outlands. You will speak of her with respect, Sister.” Then, taking Anoush’s hand again, Dillon half dragged her to the lord’s hall where their mother was awaiting them.
Noss saw them first. “Anoush, come! We have a visitor,” she said.
Seeing Lara, Anoush stopped. Then she said, “Good morrow, Mother.”
Noss paled.
“Good morrow, Anoush,” Lara replied quietly.
Tread carefully. She heard Ethne murmur silently.
“You grow prettier each time I see you,” Lara said.
“And how often is that, Mother?” Anoush asked sarcastically.
Lara was surprised, although she did not show it, at the bitterness in the little girl’s question. Noss was right. Someone—Bera? Cam?—was working hard to separate Anoush from her family and her heritage. And it was going to stop as of today, she decided. “I have not seen you often enough in the past few years,” Lara answered, “but that is all going to change now, my daughter.”
“What?” Anoush responded. “Has your latest lover thrown you out, and you are returning to the Outlands once again to cause trouble?”
“Anoush!” Noss gasped, almost faint with shock at the girl’s words.
But Lara remained calm with the child. “Did your grandmother tell you that? Or was it your cousin, Cam?” she asked pleasantly. “No matter. Nothing they have told you is true, I suspect. And Anoush, you are no longer in the Outlands. These are the New Outlands. The clan families were brought here several years ago.”
“That is a lie!” Anoush said. “Grandmother says you told us that to confuse us and make us vulnerable to Hetar’s conquest. Nothing has changed. Nothing!”
“Oh, dear,” Lara sighed patiently. “I can see there is much you must learn and unlearn before I take you and your brother home with me.” She smiled at Anoush and then said, “Come and greet your baby sister, Zagiri.”
“Your bastard, you mean,” Anoush answered her mother.
Noss clutched at the table’s edge, her fingers digging into the wood.
“Zagiri is a princess of Terah as you are a noblewoman of the Fiacre Clan, although I must say your language is more that of a peasant child than the daughter of Vartan,” Lara remarked. “Come here to me, Anoush.”
Reluctantly Anoush moved to stand before Lara. “What?” she said.
“Noss, would you take Zagiri and Dillon? I think I must speak with Anoush alone.”
“I think I should stay,” Dillon said.
“Thank you, my son, but no. Anoush and I must speak alone. If she becomes too difficult I shall simply turn her into a warty toad until she learns reason.” Lara could not conceal the twinkle in her eye for she saw Anoush’s eyes dart about nervously at her words.
Dillon grinned at his mother, picked up Zagiri and followed after Noss.
“Sit down, Anoush,” Lara said.
“I wish to stand,” Anoush replied.
“But I prefer that you sit,” Lara answered quietly, pointing a finger at the little girl who suddenly sat down, a surprised look on her face. “There,” Lara said, “that’s much better, isn’t it? Now, you will ask your questions and I will answer them. What is it you wish to know of me, Anoush?”
Anoush looked defiantly at her mother and then burst out, “Why did you kill our father? Grandmother says you wanted his power and that you killed Cam’s father and mother when they came to my father’s defense.”
The shock on Lara’s face was evident. Then drawing a long deep breath she said, “I did not kill your father, Anoush. His brother Adon, Cam’s father, killed Vartan with a poisoned dagger that Cam’s mother had obtained from Hetar. Adon’s wife, Elin, had been suborned by the Hetarians and was convinced that if your father were dead, her husband would be made lord of the Fiacre. Even if Vartan had died of natural causes, Adon would have never been selected to lead the Fiacre. He was a weak, foolish and vain man who wasted his life and his energies in envy of your father. Whoever told you that I killed your father lied to you, Anoush, and a wicked lie it is.”
Anoush looked confused. She was a child, and the only people who ever spoke of her father were her grandmother and her cousin, Cam. Liam and Noss did not speak of him. And until recently she hadn’t even known that the beautiful woman who appeared now and again in the hall was her mother. Her brother had known and he had confirmed what Cam had told her of their parentage. Why had she not been told? But then recovering somewhat, she said, “Do you deny killing Cam’s parents?”
“No,” Lara said, “I do not. When your uncle murdered your father before our eyes, I had no choice but to revenge him. Fiacre law gave me that right. Adon murdered Vartan in front of their own mother and me. And Elin stood smiling at his side as he did the deed. I silently called to my sword, Andraste, who hung over the hearth, and slew them immediately before either of them might even enjoy the fruits of their treachery, Anoush. You were in the hall that day. You slept in your cradle as Vartan was slain. Now what else have you been told by that sad old woman? You know that she is totally mad, don’t you?”
Anoush said nothing.
“Surely you have more questions for me?” Lara demanded.
Finally Anoush spoke. “Grandmother says you are a faerie witch,” she said.
“I was born in Hetar of a mortal father and a faerie mother. You have met your grandmother, Ilona, queen of the Forest Faeries. Your grandfather is John Swiftsword, a Crusader Knight commander. My instincts are more faerie than mortal, Anoush, and my powers have grown stronger in the last few years. I was born to a destiny I have yet to find or fulfill, but I grow closer to it with each change in my life and I will meet that destiny one day. It is my fate to do so. I cannot escape it.
“I remained in the Outlands the summer your father died and I saw to his cremation and did him honor. I saw that much honor was done to him by the others who had admired and loved Vartan. Dillon will tell you of that time. You have only to ask him. But my destiny called and I had no choice but to follow.”
“Would you have done so if my father were alive?” Anoush asked.
“Aye, I would have and your father understood that. We both knew that one day I would go, but he would be there for you and Dillon. And then he wasn’t. Liam is your father’s blood kin. He is yours and Dillon’s, too. Noss is my best friend. I asked them to take you and your brother—for where I go you cannot always follow. My destiny is not yours. They have been good foster parents to you, Anoush. I journeyed to Terah, where I met Magnus Hauk. We fell in love and married. Much else has happened in the years since your father’s death, but I suspect I have already told you more than enough. You need only know that I love you and your brother. When I return to the castle in a few weeks, you both will return with me. It is time now for you to know your mother and your little sister. Magnus will be a good stepfather to you.”
“Is this place really the New Outlands?” Anoush asked. “Cam says it is not and that you have told us it is so when the Hetarians want us they can enslave us easily, for you are lulling us into a false sense of security.”
“This is a new place,” Lara reassured her daughter. “You are very, very far from Hetar now. Across a wide sea, in fact. The lords of the clan families know it is
truth. They will tell you that the land, while similar, is not the same. The Fiacre never had a nearby lake in the Outlands, but you have one here in the New Outlands. When we go to the Dominus’s castle, you will see that Terah sits between two great oceans.”
“How can I see such a thing?” Anoush wanted to know.
“You will sit before me on my saddle as Dasras gallops across the sky,” Lara told her older daughter.
“I don’t want to leave here,” Anoush said. “I want to stay with Cam and Grandmother. Cam says Noss and Liam don’t want Dillon and me any longer because Noss is fat with another baby. Cam says they don’t want to be bothered with your children when they will have four of their own.”
“Noss loves you, and would keep you forever if I would let her, but I will not,” Lara replied. “You are Fiacre, but you are also my children.”
“If Zagiri is a princess why can I not be a princess?” Anoush wanted to know.
“Zagiri is the daughter of the Dominus of Terah,” Lara said. “She was born royal. You and Dillon are of noble birth, but not royal. You will have to wed a prince one day, Anoush, if you desire to be a princess.”
“Could you really turn me into a warty toad?” Anoush asked her mother.
“I could. My magic is very strong, my daughter.”
“I don’t have any magic, do I?”
“It would seem not. You are like your father. The only magic he possessed was his ability to shape-shift. Perhaps when you grow up a bit more we shall see if you, too, have his talents,” Lara told her daughter. “Or perhaps even some of your own.”
“Dillon has magic,” Anoush remarked. “Grandmother says he is a wicked boy.”
“Aye, your brother does indeed have magic, but he is not wicked,” Lara said.
“Does Zagiri have magic?” Anoush wanted to know.
“She is too little for me to know if she does,” Lara replied.
“Mother?”
“Yes, Anoush?”
“Why did Grandmother lie to me about you?”
“Your grandmother went mad when your father was killed and I was forced to slay her younger son in retaliation. She has never recovered but instead rewove the event so she would not have to face the truth of Adon’s treachery. It cannot be easy to accept that your youngest son has brutally murdered your eldest. And then I took my revenge on Adon and Elin so poor Bera has made me her villain. Before your father’s death, she and I were great friends and I loved her like a mother.”
“Do you still love her?” Anoush asked.
Lara shook her head. “Nay, but I feel no animosity toward her. I feel pity.”
Then Lara reached out and took her daughter’s little hand. “Have you understood all I have told you? Is there more you would ask me or tell me?”
“I understand, I think,” Anoush replied. “My faerie grandmother frightens me, Mother. When she comes to visit she is more interested in Dillon than she is in me, and she shoos me away. Dillon says it is her way and I must not be offended.”
“How typical of Ilona,” Lara murmured, almost to herself. Then she said, “Faeries can have cold hearts, my daughter. She means you no ill, but Dillon’s talents intrigue her. Did you know that I did not know her until I was grown? But that is a story for another time, I think. You will be relieved to know that your stepfather is all mortal. He will love you because he loves me, Anoush. Be kind to him, please.”
“What will I do at the castle?” Anoush was clearly fascinated now.
“You will have lessons as you do here. You will ride your own horse by the sea, and I will teach you to care for your very own garden. At night I will tell you stories before you sleep and then I will kiss you so you may have sweet dreams,” Lara said.
“I am still angry at you, and I have many more questions,” Anoush said frankly.
“I do not expect to win your heart back in an afternoon,” Lara told her child. “Just know that I love you and that all I have done is for you and Dillon and for your safety.”
Anoush nodded. “May I go back to Grandmother’s now?” she said.
“Nay,” Lara told her daughter. “I will not allow you to ever enter Bera’s house again, Anoush. You must be freed from her poisonous ravings.”
Anoush’s eyes grew dark with her annoyance, but then she said, “What am I to do if I must remain here?”
“Perhaps you might go to Noss, and give her your apologies for being so unkind to her these past weeks. She really does love you and she has taken such great care of you and your brother when I could not,” Lara said.
“Will I get to play with Cam again?” she asked.
“I don’t think so,” Lara responded. “He is not a good influence on you, Anoush. He has embroidered on his grandmother’s fantasies, I suspect, which was very cruel. Do you understand what they were doing? Bera and Cam were trying to lure you from those who love you. Why would they do that?”
Anoush swung her legs back and forth as she thought. “I don’t know,” she finally said.
“Nor do I,” Lara replied. “But it was wicked nonetheless, Anoush.” Of course she knew, Lara thought. While Adon had killed his brother and somewhere deep in her mind Bera knew it, she could nevertheless forgive him. But she could never forgive Lara for slaying her surviving son. Elin had meant naught to her, but Adon had been her baby and Lara had killed him. Deep within, Bera sought to have her revenge—what better way than to destroy Lara’s daughter who was young and impressionable? Dillon was safe from his grandmother for Bera could not reach into his heart and soul and twist them as she had twisted Anoush’s trusting little heart. If she knew the power I have gained these last years, the old woman would be truly afraid, Lara thought.
“May I go now and tell Noss that I am sorry, Mother?” Anoush said.
“Give me a kiss first, my daughter,” Lara said, wrapping her arms about the child and hugging her. “I will try not to leave you again, Anoush, but know wherever I am that I love you with all of my heart.” She kissed her daughter’s cheek as Anoush rose from her seat and then, giving her a little push, sent her off to find Noss.
Dillon appeared from out of the afternoon shadows and came to sit at Lara’s feet.
“How much did you hear?” Lara asked her son.
“Only the end,” he said. “Do not be lulled by her acquiescence, Mother. Anoush is a very willful girl. It is not Grandmother you need worry about—it is Cam. He will not like it that she is no longer available to him. When I found them today, they were in the grass and my cousin had his hand on my sister’s in a most proprietary manner.”
“I think Cam must be sent to our Sholeh in New Rivalen,” Lara answered her son calmly. “He is old enough to work in the fields until it is time for the Gathering. I had intended to remain in the New Outlands until after it concluded, but I think now I must take you both home sooner. Bera may protest the loss of Cam at first but then she will be silent. I shall ask this of Liam when he comes home today. You will tell him what you saw and he will do this for me. Where is Zagiri?”
“She fell asleep and so Noss laid her down for a nap,” the boy answered.
“Have you released Dasras into the meadows?”
“Aye, and he immediately found Sakiri and their latest foal,” Dillon said.
“After he has sated himself with her company he will fly off to the Aghy,” Lara chuckled. “He is of a mind to visit Roan’s new young mares.”
“His offspring have increased the stamina and beauty of the Horse Lord’s herds,” Dillon remarked. “Will I like Terah, Mother?”
“It will be different for you,” Lara said, “but aye, I believe you will like it. And there is so much that you can learn. You will need to know everything that you can absorb, Dillon, before you go Prince Kaliq to study the magical arts. I am frankly surprised by your talents, my son, for you are but a quarter faerie.”
“I don’t know if what I possess is so much magic as it is intuitiveness. I see things that others do not, Mother. And I sense
things, too—like I knew you were coming today. You had sent no faerie post, but I knew.”
“This is a great gift, Dillon,” his mother said. “And Kaliq will help you to refine your gift and use it for the good.”
“Anoush has a gift, too, Mother,” Dillon told her.
“Does she?” Lara was surprised. “And what is it, my son?”
“She is clever with plants and herbs. It is not magic of course, but I believe if her interest continues she might become an excellent healer,” the boy said.
“I offered her a garden,” Lara replied thoughtfully. “She seemed pleased by the notion she might have one of her own. Thank you, Dillon. This will be the means by which I win her back and bind her to the light.”
“I am so glad that you have come, Mother,” he told her.
Liam, lord of the Fiacre, came now from the kitchen. “Welcome, Domina,” he greeted her with a smile. He was holding a pitcher in one hand and refilled her cup with frine as he sat down to join her, sipping from his own cup. “Noss tells me you would take your children with you when you return home. We will miss them.”
“I will return them to the Fiacre each summer, and if they choose they may remain through the Gathering time,” Lara responded. “But it is now time for them to be with Magnus and me. They both know their parentage and their history.”
He nodded in understanding. “The children of Vartan will always be welcome here among their Fiacre kinsmen and women.”
Reaching down, Lara drew her son to his feet. “Go and stay with your sisters, for I must speak with Liam privately,” she told him and Dillon immediately left them.
“What is it?” Liam asked her. “Is there trouble coming of some sort?”
Lara laughed. “Nay, not any of which I am aware. I need a favor from you, lord of the Fiacre. I want to send Cam away while I am here with my children. Both he and Bera have been filling Anoush’s little head with all manner of lies. Had I not come when I did today they might very well have stolen my daughter and dragged her into their dark world. Once the children are in Terah, neither Bera nor Cam can harm them. We will not be able to keep Anoush from running off to find Cam if he is here. We cannot watch her constantly. As for Bera we must find a good woman to live with her and care for her.”
The Twilight Lord Page 2
