“Good,” Magnus Hauk said. “The sooner the better. I have no wish to listen to Uma’s carping once my hearing is restored.” Then he stamped off to his own quarters.

Sirvat called for the meal to be served. Seeing but two places set at the table, Lara asked why.

“I cannot bear their company any longer,” Sirvat admitted. “Felda is sweet, but has the disposition of a milk cow. She is too bland and placid for intelligent conversation. Alcippe’s tongue is too sharp, and she is critical of everything now that she knows she is to be wed and gone from the castle. As for Uma, well, you know her nature. And her complaints haven’t stopped since you left. I should rather be alone with my own thoughts than bear their company. Now tell me, what happened?”

Lara carefully outlined their journey. She told Sirvat of Aslak’s demise.

“He was a cranky old man,” Sirvat observed. “He always looked at me as if I were a bug or a beetle, and once he suggested I be sent to the Daughters of the Great Creator, as my older sisters were married. I’ll shed no tears for him,” she sniffed.

“How well do you know the castle?” Lara asked her friend.

“I’ve lived here all my life,” Sirvat said, “and I have explored much of it, but I’ve never come upon a chamber that might qualify as Usi’s. I would think you could feel his evil in such a place, but I want to help you search, Lara.”

“What of the marriage negotiations for the others?” Lara asked her.

“Felda’s and Alcippe’s arrangements are already made. They have chosen husbands from among the aspirants for them. Only Uma remains obdurate. I don’t like to marry her off to someone she has not approved, but I may have no choice if she does not pick soon. I don’t know what to do with her.”

“Let me speak to her,” Lara said.

“She hates you,” Sirvat replied. “She thinks my brother was madly in love with her until you came and ensorcelled him. She won’t listen to you.”

“I think I can persuade her,” Lara told Sirvat.

“Let us eat first,” Sirvat said. “You have had a long day’s ride, and you will need your strength to deal with that termagant.”

Lara laughed, but agreed, and together the two enjoyed a pleasant meal. When it had concluded, and the servants had taken away the remnants, Lara arose and went to Uma’s little chamber. She knocked, and without waiting for a reply, entered.

Uma was creaming her lithe body. “What do you want?” she snarled, looking up.

“Sirvat tells me you have not picked a husband,” Lara began.

“Oh, I have,” Uma said. “It is the Dominus, and I will not be satisfied with any other man. He loved me until you came and worked your faerie enchantments upon him.” She spread more lotion along her shapely leg.

“Magnus has never been in love with you, Uma, and in your heart of hearts you know that. He is a cold and powerful man. He took women into his household for his own personal gratification, nothing more. He has never shown you anything more than his lust when you enjoyed pleasures together. It is all he offers to any woman, even me.”

“No,” Uma said low. “He looks at you the way he never looked at any of us.”

“Does he?” Lara laughed. “If he does it is because I am unlike any woman he has ever known, or will know. I intrigue him, but it has nothing to do with magic. I am Lara, daughter of Swiftsword, and Ilona, queen of the Forest Faeries. I am widow to a great man. I travel with a horse, a staff and a sword, magical creatures all. And I am magic. But Magnus Hauk’s fascination with me has nothing to do with magic. It is of his own making. I am the one woman he cannot, will not, ever tame or bend to his will. One day he will love me, Uma, and when he does there will never be another for him but me.”

“He is already falling in love with you,” Uma cried bitterly.

“No. Not yet. But one day. Now it is nothing more than lust,” Lara told the girl. “But his lust for me is greater than it has ever been for any woman. And you, despite what your eyes and heart tell you, are being a fool. Sirvat has found several men, all more than suitable to be your husband, yet you demur, Uma. Why?” Lara reached out and yanked Uma’s head up. “Look at me! Do you really believe he could prefer you over me? Do you know what he said about my hair? That it was gossamer, all sunlight and moonbeams. Has he ever said words like that to you?”

Uma burst into tears. “I…I hate you!” she sobbed.

“Then choose the man that suits you best from those Sirvat has found. Marry him, and leave the castle with honor and dignity. Be with a man who will love you, and give you children of your own in your own house. Or remain here, and watch as the Dominus falls in love with me, and you become a poor shadow ignored by all. The choice is yours to make, Uma. But in the morning you will make it one way or another. You will go to Sirvat and choose your mate. Or you will tell Sirvat you wish to remain here, wasting the rest of your days in the futile pursuit of a man who will never love you because in the end he will belong to me, body and soul. You have but one opportunity to make your choice, Uma. And once you have made it you will have to live with it. There will be no second chances for you. Be warned, for I speak to you out of kindness. I have no hate for you as you claim to have for me.” Then loosening her hold on Uma’s hair, Lara turned and left the stunned woman, who had begun to sob again.

“What did you say to her?” Sirvat wanted to know when Lara rejoined her friend in the day room of their quarters.

“I quite surprised myself,” Lara admitted. “It was as if my mother was speaking. I was faerie cold, and faerie cruel. But come the morrow Uma will give you her decision one way or another. She will either choose a husband or elect to remain in the castle, ignored by all. I hope her choice is a wise one that will give her happiness, but she is a stubborn creature, and foolish to boot. I did tell her there would be no second chance for her if she chose unwisely.”

“I think it might help if Magnus were here when she makes that decision,” Sirvat said. “With a proprietary arm about you. Let us make it clear to Uma that she has no place here within my brother’s household.”

Lara smiled at her friend. “I see you can be cruel, too, Sirvat,” she said.

“All women have a streak of cruelty in them,” she laughed. “I will send word to my brother now.” Sirvat arose and took a small writing box from a cabinet. “This is how I have always communicated important matters to Magnus and the other men in our household,” she explained.

“Your parents are dead?” Lara inquired.

“Our father, aye, but our mother lives with our oldest sister’s family. She says the castle depressed her after our father died. Magnus was the first born of my siblings, and then our mother, who is called Persis, produced three daughters in a row. The eldest is Narda, and she is married to Tostig. They live two fjords to the west, and Tostig’s family control great fields of silk worms. Aselma is our middle sister. She is wed to Armen, and his family are famed weavers in Terah. They live but one fjord to the west.”

“You did not go with your mother?”

“She did not ask me to accompany her, nor did Narda invite me into her house. I was ten when my mother departed, and I was not unhappy to see her go,” came the startling admission. “She was very disappointed when I was found to be a girl. She had wanted another son, so her interest in me waned quickly. Had it not been for my brother and my old nurse, I do not know what would have happened to me.”

“And you have not seen your mother since she left the castle?” Lara was fascinated by this information. Magnus’s mother did not sound like a warm woman.

“No,” Sirvat said. “She wrote my brother that she was happily settled in Narda’s home, and thanked him for letting her go there. Narda wrote to Magnus that she was happy to have the companionship of our mother once again. They are much alike, as I recall. I was six when Narda was wed, and eight when Aselma married. Our father died the year after, and then our mother went away. At first I was lonely, and not just a little afraid. So much had changed for me in two short years. But then Magnus said as he had no wife, it was my responsibility to manage his household.” She laughed. “I told him I was just a little girl, and he replied that I was the sister of the Dominus, and must accept my responsibilities. So I did. Did you have siblings?”

“Two half brothers,” Lara replied. “Mikhail, my father’s son by his wife Susanna. He was scarcely a year when I left the City. And my mother’s son by her consort, Thanos. He is a little boy, too. Mikhail is all mortal, and Cirilo is all faerie. And I stand between them.”

“So like me, you have the most fragile relationship with your siblings,” Sirvat noted. “As you will one day be Magnus’s wife, I am glad we are to be friends.”

“Who told you I would be your brother’s wife?”

“He is falling in love with you,” Sirvat said. “He has never loved any woman before, but I see the difference in the way he treats you.”

“What can you know of love, youngling?” Lara asked her, smiling.

“I love Corrado,” Sirvat said quietly. “And from the look in his eyes when he gazes upon me I know he loves me, too. My brother now has that same appearance.”

“How old are you?” Lara wanted to know.

“Almost seventeen,” Sirvat answered. “And you?”

“Twenty-one.”

“It is a good age,” Sirvat replied. “When I wed Corrado I will continue to live here, for my brother’s Captain of Captains, Corrado, had his home here in the castle. So we may continue to be friends, and we will be sisters one day.”

“But does not Corrado live in male quarters?” Lara wanted to know.

“Oh yes, for now. But when we are wed I have already chosen where we will reside,” Sirvat replied. “I will show you tomorrow when we begin to seek out the sorcerer’s chamber,” she promised.