The Twilight Lord

by Bertrice Small

  They slept the few hours remaining of the night. It was to be their last peaceful moment for some time, for in the morning the Dominus’s brother-in-law Corrado brought word that the Hetarian fleet was preparing to set sail for Terah.

  CORRADO, MARRIED to the Dominus’s youngest and favorite sister, Sirvat, had been lurking off the coast of Hetar, something Terahns never did. They always met their trading partners at the midpoint of the Sea of Sagitta which separated the two kingdoms. But recently with the talk of war Corrado had taken it upon himself to spy on Hetar and Lara had aided him by making the small vessel he was sailing invisible. He had gone into the harbor where the Hetarian ships were being assembled and seen the men, the supplies and the weapons being loaded upon the waiting vessels. Then he had beached his own small craft in a hidden cove and walked into the village of the Coastal Kings where he sat in a tavern and listened to the talk about him.

  “And what is the talk?” Lara asked him as they sat in the Domina’s private dayroom. “Is their emperor still propagating his lies about Terah?”

  “Aye, but then you would have expected it, Domina,” Corrado replied. “But I learned a great deal more as I ate a rather tasty fish stew. The women of Hetar are in rebellion over Gaius Prospero’s latest campaign. They will do nothing to help their men. The Pleasure Houses in The City have opened their doors to the women who would come to shelter there and have refused service to all men. The new headmistress of the Pleasure Guilds is being made to look useless, for Lady Gillian is one of the leaders of this movement and she is greatly respected due to her many years in power, as well as her reputation for kindness and fairness. The women say that the emperor instigates wars, claiming that Hetar is in danger when it is not, and promises riches to everyone, yet the common folk of Hetar grow poorer with each of these misadventures. What is worse, they claim, is that their men are being killed off and the women and children are being left to fend for themselves. What kind of a world is Hetar that families do not care for one another when they lose members? Profit and acquisition seem to be their only values.

  “The poor are being swept up to serve in many capacities. The men, all but the truly old, are being sent to the ships; the women and children go to the factories and to the farms in the Outlands. They are no better than slaves now. Hetar, not being a sea-faring nation but for the Coastal Kings who traded with us, is attempting to set to sea with a group of inexperienced men. If any storms should hit while they are afloat, I fear many lives will be lost,” Corrado concluded. “This emperor of theirs must be totally mad to even attempt such folly.”

  “It was very brave of you to go into the tavern and listen, Corrado,” Lara told him. “Did you learn the date they have scheduled to sail forth?”

  “They were to sail in three days’ time, Domina.”

  “So with any luck, they are three days behind you,” Magnus Hauk said.

  Corrado laughed. “They would need a great deal of good fortune, my lord. More than likely they are still struggling out of the harbor of the Coastal Kings who have refused to partake in this venture. They have trained the more intelligent among the Hetarians to manage the ships, but will not sail with them. New ships had to be built to transport men and weapons. They found the merchant ships would not do, and besides, the captains of those merchant ships would not put them in the hands of strangers, especially as those ships are alive, and house sea spirits.”

  “I will contact my mother and have her raise the fog bank off our coastline,” Lara said to her husband. “They will get no closer than a hundred miles.” She hurried off to her private chamber, and pouring water from a stone pitcher into her golden reflecting bowl Lara looked into the crystal liquid and called to her mother to come to her.

  “Good morning, darling!” Ilona’s voice echoed about the chamber.

  “Hetar has set sail or is attempting to, Mother,” Lara told her parent. “The emperor could not be deterred in his foolishness. Will you set the fog you promised Magnus a hundred miles off the coast, please?”

  “Oh, I can do much better than that,” Ilona chuckled. “Within the hour all of Hetar’s little fleet will be thoroughly encased in a fog as thick as a mutton stew. The only way they will be able to escape it will be if they become turned about and are sailing toward Hetar.” She laughed merrily. “And I believe I shall even conjure up a few fearsome sea monsters to frighten them even further.”

  “Don’t hurt them, Mother,” Lara said. “Their ships are peopled by fools, incompetents and innocents.”

  “I shall let them sail about in the fog until their water and foodstuffs are almost gone,” Ilona said. “Then perhaps one fierce storm to buffet them the night long and they will be ready to return home, for they will be well terrified at that point. With their water and food gone they will be glad to see Hetarian shores again. I doubt Gaius Prospero can get them back to sea for another year, if then,” Ilona chortled.

  “And it will certainly prove a costly venture that yields absolutely no return,” Lara noted. “Thank you, Mother.”

  The queen of the Forest Faeries flashed her daughter a brilliant smile and then was gone from the surface of the reflecting bowl, and when Lara waved her hand over the vessel the water itself vanished from the bowl leaving it completely dry. Lara placed it back on its shelf and went to find her husband, so she might relate to him her mother’s plans for the Hetarian fleet.

  Both Magnus Hauk and Corrado laughed heartily when Lara told them her mother would send several sea monsters to be clearly seen by the Hetarian ships.

  “They are sure to wet themselves,” Corrado chuckled. “There won’t be a dry pair of breeches to be had and their ships will stink of piss.”

  Within the hour as Ilona had promised, the Hetarian fleet found itself encased in a thick fog. The watchtowers along the Terahn coast reported that they could see a thick wall of gray sitting atop the horizon. Aboard the Hetarian ships there was consternation. There should be no fog upon the sea at this time of year, yet the mist was so thick they could not see a hand before their faces, let alone another vessel. Several ships hit one another over the next few hours. And then night came.

  The sea surrounding them was flat. They could hear nothing but murmuring sounds of confusion coming from the ships around them. The sky was not visible at all, so there were no stars by which they might plot their course. And all about them an eerie silence prevailed. Fifteen ships had set sail, each carrying a full crew of five hundred Mercenaries, and eighty Crusader Knights. Once they reached Terah and sent back word, another fifteen ships would follow them. Over the next ten days three of the Hetarian ships escaped the fog only to find themselves back where they had started. Their inexperienced captains drew straws and two of the ships returned into the fog to seek the rest of the fleet while the third ship remained skirting the edges of the mist.

  Aboard the fog-bound ships, panic began to ensue as the rations grew smaller and the water barrels began to empty. Reaching Terah was no longer an option for the Hetarians. Escaping the fog that encased them was. The air about them remained still and hot. There was not the faintest hint of a breeze and even breathing became difficult. Over the last few days the inhabitants of the ships had been badly frightened at various times by great sea dragons, some with blue and green scales, others with red and green scales, and all with long graceful necks and heads with small horns, rising from the sea around them to peer curiously down upon the vessels bobbing in the calm waters. Several of these monsters nibbled upon the ships’ masts. And one mercenary leaning over the side of his ship puking his supper suddenly found himself face-to-face with a beast who swallowed him whole and then regurgitated the man back onto the deck with a disgusted snort. Both the mercenary and the sailor who had been next to him died of their terror, to the consternation of those about them.

  And then early one evening, lightning began to blaze in the foggy skies. Thunder rolled across the sea as it began to rise and roil. Darkness fell and the storm became feroci
ous. The Hetarian fleet was tossed upon the waters, up one side and down another. Enormous waves crashed over the ships. The men were unable to control their vessels, and one by one they sank beneath the waves, carrying all who had embarked with the fleet to their deaths.

  The only ship to survive was the single one that had remained outside the fog. It had seen the lightning and heard the thunder within the thick gray mist, but the sea surrounding that one ship had remained calm. When the morning came, the sunrise splashing across the blue waters of the now peaceful Sagitta and tinting the gentle waves golden, the sailors upon the surviving vessel saw to their horror that the waters were strewn with the wreckage of the fourteen other ships and the bodies of all those who had sailed upon them. The wind in its favor, the remaining ship returned to its port in the harbor of the Coastal Kings to report what had happened.

  WHEN KING ARCHERON, the emperor’s governor of the former Coastal Kingdom, now the Coastal Province, heard the tale told him by the captain of the surviving vessel, he smiled grimly. He had warned Gaius Prospero not to embark upon this ridiculous venture. Terah was no danger to Hetar and with Lara as wife to its ruler, it was certain to be protected by strong magic. Archeron grew angry.

  “Eight thousand four hundred men lost to the sea, dead because of this ridiculous venture! Seven thousand mercenaries! Eleven hundred and twenty Crusader Knights, and two hundred and eighty incompetent men forced to sail ships they did not know how to sail!” the Coastal King raged.

  “You must send a faerie post to the emperor,” one of his fellow kings said cautiously. “He must be advised not to allow the second half of the fleet to sail.”

  “Will he listen?” another king asked nervously.

  “Probably not,” Archeron answered, “but I will not give the order sending them to their certain deaths. We all know Terah is no danger to us. Now we also know that strong magic is protecting it from any attack by Hetar. That fog bank that arose and surrounded those ships was no natural occurrence. And the storm that destroyed the fleet? Who among us has ever faced a fierce storm at sea amid a thick fog? I will write to the emperor in the strongest terms that his attempt to conquer Terah must be abandoned.”

  “If the women in The City learned of what has happened it might save the other half of the fleet,” the king named Balasi ventured softly. He was not known as a brave man, so they were all surprised to hear his suggestion. “They say this movement against the war is very strong and that the emperor hoped a quick and easy victory against Terah would silence it for good. But when word of this disaster is made known, who knows what the women will do, Brother Archeron?”

  The other kings nodded in agreement.

  “I would protect the remaining men of the fleet,” Archeron said. “Are the rest of you brave enough to support me in this matter? Or do I stand alone?”

  “We will support you,” Balasi replied, and the other kings murmured, “Aye!”

  “Can your son, Arcas, help us at all?” King Pelias asked Archeron.

  “I will not ask him,” Archeron responded. “You all know I have disowned him. I have no son. And besides, I have it on the best authority that he spies for Lord Jonah, the emperor’s right hand. Given the opportunity, Arcas would betray us all once again as he has betrayed us in the past. Where is my secretary?”

  A hovering servant hurried to fetch Archeron’s secretary. When the man had come, Archeron dictated a terse letter to Gaius Prospero informing him of the disaster visited upon the Hetarian fleet. He told the emperor in no uncertain terms that he would not give the order to the remaining fleet to embark to their own doom, for Terah was obviously protected by great magic. And all of the Coastal Kings were in agreement with him. If Gaius Prospero wanted to conquer Terah he would have to find another way. When the letter had been written and signed by all the Coastal Kings, it was dispatched by faerie post to The City.

  Upon reading Archeron’s missive, Gaius Prospero flung the parchment from him, and began to rant. “He dares to say he and his fellow kings will not obey my orders? It is treason! Perhaps it is time I kicked his dignified ass from his throne and replaced him with Arcas. I did after all promise the weasel that he would serve me as governor of the province one day. At least I can control Arcas.”

  “My good lord,” Jonah murmured, “I know how upset you must surely be by this betrayal of your governor, but Arcas is indeed a fool, as you have so often said. If you sent him to the Coastal Province the kings would not obey him and I am quite certain Archeron himself would cut his son’s throat. I regret to tell you that word of this disaster is already spreading throughout The City. We will have to do all we can to put down Lady Gillian and her women. This is a terrible loss for Hetar. This is not seven wagons of dead driven into The City. This is over eight thousand men, mostly Mercenaries and Crusader Knights. This is the cream of our defense and now it has been halved.”

  “It is that damned faerie woman again!” the emperor snapped. “If I had known what troubles that exquisite girl I once sold was going to create for me, I would have taken my pleasure of her and seen her strangled afterwards!”

  “Alas, my lord, hindsight is no real gift,” Jonah said dryly.

  Gaius Prospero looked sharply at his good right hand, but Jonah’s face was its usual emotionless mask. The emperor wondered if Vilia took pleasures with her new husband. He somehow could not see Jonah sweaty with passion.

  There was a soft knock upon the door and Jonah’s servant, Lionel, entered. “Forgive me, my lord emperor, my lord, for interrupting, but an urgent message has just been brought from Squire Darah of the Midlands.”

  “What is it?” Gaius Prospero demanded to know.

  Lionel beckoned to a shadowed figure in the door and a man entered into the chamber. “My lord, the messenger,” Lionel said.

  “Well, what have you to say?” Gaius Prospero shouted impatiently.

  “My master, Squire Darah, sends me to tell you that creatures he believes to be Wolfyn are streaming forth from the forest and laying waste to our Midlands. Fields are being fired, livestock slaughtered, women and children carried off. Squire Darah requests your aid, my lord emperor. We are doing our best to hold them off, but our men are few, and most are old. They cannot fight these creatures.”

  Gaius Prospero looked surprised. “I thought the Wolfyn were but a legend me ant to frighten naughty children,” he said to Jonah.

  “All legend is rooted in fact, my lord,” Jonah answered. This was not good. He had hoped to use the disaster in the Coastal Province to help him unseat Gaius Prospero.

  “I cannot help your master,” Gaius Prospero finally said. “All of our mercenaries are in the Coastal Kingdom, for the invasion has begun. There are less than a thousand Crusader Knights here in The City and they are mostly elderly. Besides, we will need them to defend us should these Wolfyn come here.”

  Squire Darah’s messenger look both outraged and devastated.

  “What the emperor means,” Jonah quickly put in, “is that we must prepare The City for any attack by these Wolfyn, but we could spare you one hundred Crusader Knights to help you mount your own defenses and train your few men. Is that not so, my lord?” Jonah looked encouragingly at the emperor.

  And to his credit Gaius Prospero understood his good right hand. “Yes! Yes! Of course I will send you a small force to help out,” he said.

  The Squire’s messenger knelt and kissed the emperor’s hand fervently. “Thank you, my lord! Thank you!”

  “Lionel,” Jonah said sharply. “Make the arrangements.”

  “Yes, my lord,” came the answer. Lionel escorted the messenger out.

  “Well, now,” Gaius Prospero said, “what mischief is this and why did the Forest Lords not warn us of this new peril? We must quickly recall our forces from the coast. And send to Lord Enda, the Head Forester, for an explanation.”

  “At once, my lord,” Jonah said. He bowed to his master and then hurried out. He had to apprise Vilia of this new and sudden danger t
hat faced them all. They would have to decide how to use it to their own best advantage. Gaius Prospero’s time was fast coming to an end. Jonah smiled one of his rare smiles. He could almost taste the power that would soon be his.

  14

  “HOW COULD YOU allow all those men to die?” Lara demanded of her mother. She had just learned the depth of the tragedy that had afflicted the Hetarian fleet.

  “You have one weakness, my daughter,” Ilona replied. “You yet have mortal compassion in your heart, even for your enemies. Destroying that fleet was necessary to protect Terah. And only half the fleet had put to sea. The second half was meant to follow after Hetar reached Terah.”

  “Was my father among those you slew?” Lara asked.

  “Nay. He was on the vessel that was spared,” Ilona said. “I suppose some part of me still cares for him or perhaps my love for you caused me to keep him safe.”

  “Well, some good has come of it all,” Magnus Hauk said.

  “What possible good could come from the deaths of over eight thousand men?” Lara wanted to know.

  “Hetar is now very afraid of us,” the Dominus replied. “They have recalled their armies. It is not likely they will consider attacking us again until the memory of what has happened fades from their history.”

  “You have a greater problem now,” Ilona said. “The reason Hetar recalled their troops is that they cannot fight a war on two fronts. The Twilight Lord has sent the Wolfyn into Hetar. He put them by means of his magic into the forest and from there they spread out into the Midlands. The City is already scrambling to protect itself.”

  Lara grew pale, and feeling faint, clutched at a chair to steady herself.

  Seeing this the Dominus asked, “What is it, my darling? What is distressing you so?” He reached out to put an arm about her, but Lara pulled away.