“I did,” Lara admitted. “I would have been very happy to keep Kolgrim from this marriage to Nyura Ahasferus, but it was not to be.”

“What did you hope to accomplish by such an act?” Cadarn asked.

“This girl he is to wed was not chosen casually,” Lara said. Then she explained to them about the Book of Rule, and how its pages wrote themselves, directing each Twilight Lord in his behavior. “I hoped to stop this marriage in order to save Hetar, but Kolgrim charmed my youngest daughter, Marzina, and menaced her.”

“I thought he did not kill blood kin,” Cadarn said.

“He did not intend killing her. What he planned was far worse. She was in a room of glass that Kolgrim threatened to release into a bottomless cavern outside of his castle. Marzina would have been trapped, unable to escape, and condemned for eternity. As I have a particular fondness for this daughter,” Lara told Cadarn, “I gave him back his betrothed wife, and he gave me back my child.”

“How cruel!” Lady Paulina said softly. “I could see the evil in his eyes. The poor maiden who is to be his wife.”

“Oh, she is quite delighted with her fate,” Lara said. “Do not grieve for Nyura.”

“Let us make ourselves comfortable until we are called to the wedding,” Prince Kaliq said, seating himself upon a velvet couch, drawing Lara down beside him.

“Indeed,” Cadarn agreed. “If this wedding is like all weddings, it will be a busy day.” He sat himself upon another velvet couch, patting the cushion by his side.

Lady Paulina accepted his invitation.

Let silence reign among us all and quiet be until the call, Prince Kaliq silently murmured the small enchantment. At once Cadarn and his wife fell asleep where they sat. “There has been enough talk,” he said by way of explanation to Lara.

“Agreed,” she replied. “They won’t listen anyway. They do try, but they are so quickly led astray. They are beginning to sound more like Hetarians than Terahns. I can only imagine what Magnus would say.”

“I think he would be very surprised to see what is happening in Terah. His son should have never allowed the Hetarian trading vessels to come to Terah. The kingdom was safer when the Terahn ships met the Hetarian ones at sea and transferred the cargo,” Kaliq noted. “I will never understand why Taj did not listen to you in the matter.”

“He was seventeen,” Lara remembered, “and determined to escape the influence of his mother, the Shadow Queen. His grandmother, Lady Persis, persisted in irritating him about my position. She simply could not stomach a woman in a locus of power. And so to prove to her that he was Dominus and my authority was nonexistent, he allowed the Hetarian trading vessels to dock in Terah. Then he cajoled his uncles into declaring him old enough to rule alone, and that was the end of it. He had no respect for my advice after that, although he loved me. And then Persis died, and begged him on her deathbed to choose a traditional Terahn wife. His swore it, and his aunts acted swiftly.” Lara laughed ruefully. “After that my power among the Terahns began to wane. There was nothing I could do.”

Kaliq shook his head. “These mortal folk are determined to go their own way, and now here in the world of Hetar we must let them do just that. I am only sorry for the hurt they did you, Lara, my love. And now today we must watch as this marriage brings them closer to the edge of destruction. They will eat and dance and celebrate, not knowing until it is too late just what they have done.”

11

THE DOOR TO THE CHAMBER OPENED AGAIN, AND a servant in splendid red-and-gold livery standing in the portal announced, “My lords and my ladies. The litters to take you to the wedding await you. If you will follow me, please.” And he bowed to them.

Awaken refreshed! Kaliq released the Terahn ruler and his wife from the spell he had set upon them earlier.

“Must have dozed off,” Cadarn said. “Nothing like a little nap to refresh one.”

His wife nodded in agreement as she stood brushing nonexistent wrinkles from her beautiful gown. Then she took her husband’s arm and they followed the servant.

Lara and Kaliq came behind them, smiling at each other with amusement.

As they came out into the great entry foyer Lara remembered the first time she had been in this place. Strangely it did not seem so very impressive now as it had then. As they exited the palace into the late-morning light they found two magnificent litters awaiting them. Large enough to comfortably carry two adults, they were of carved ebony decorated with pure gold designs, upholstered with soft golden leather and hung with gold-colored and spangled silk gauze draperies.

“Look at the tassels on the pillows,” they heard Lady Paulina exclaim to the Dominus as she climbed into the transport. “Do you think the jewels are real? Caddie, we must have a litter like this made for ourselves when we get home. Our litters are too plain by far. What will Vaclar’s bride think of us with such ordinary litters?”

They did not hear Cadarn’s reply, and Lara was more interested in the four young men who bore each litter. They were identical in face and form. “Are you brothers?” she inquired of them.

The men nodded in reply. Then they all opened their mouths to reveal they had no tongues and could not speak.

Lara saw their plight then asked, “Magic effected this perfection you all bear. Did it also take your tongues and with it your power of speech?”

Again the bearers nodded in unison.

“Are you well treated otherwise?” Lara wanted to know.

They nodded.

“Then I shall restore your ability to communicate without anyone realizing that you can,” she said. Hear my voice this very day. Hear what all your brothers say. Speak to them within your head. This is magic you need not dread.

A look of wonder suddenly lit the eight bearers faces, and Lara smiled.

“Take us to the wedding now. You will be able to speak with each other in this manner from this moment on. Those who rendered you voiceless will never know you have the power to communicate again,” she told them. Then Lara climbed into the litter.

Thank you, faerie woman! Thank you! one of the bearers said.

You are welcome, my friends, Lara said. She moved slightly to accommodate Kaliq, who had climbed in beside her. “How barbaric to take their tongues from them so they could not tell of the magic that made them identical. Some bad faerie did this. I hope it was not one of our forest folk. I will have Mother investigate.”

“And how Hetarian of the Lord High Ruler to have handsome identical bearers for his litters. I wonder how many more of them there are,” Kaliq wondered. “No matter. I have enabled any unknown to us to have the gift of mind speak. I will tell these bearers, and they can bring the news to the others.”

They felt their litter lifted up, and the bearers set off at a swift trot across the green park that was the Golden District. Looking at Lara in her green gown, Kaliq felt a surge of desire and was startled to find her gaze on him. Closing his bright blue eyes, he began to imagine them making love within the litter. Catching his thoughts, Lara joined hers to his. They were naked, lying stretched out against the soft golden leather of the interior of the litter. He sat propped up by the many pillows, his great cock filling her as she sat facing him, her arms entwined about his neck, her breasts pushing against his chest. They moved together in perfect rhythm as the litter jogged along. And then their passions peaked simultaneously. They sighed, and opened their eyes, smiling at each other.

“That was delicious,” Lara murmured to him, laying her head upon his shoulder.

“An appetizer for later when we have returned to Shunnar, and I may spend hours enjoying your beautiful body, your sweet lips, Lara, my love,” Kaliq told her.

“If mortals knew all the things we could do they would be so envious,” Lara chuckled mischievously. “Their perceptions of magic are far too simple.”

They felt the tempo of the bearers slowing down and, looking through the sheer draperies, saw they were coming up a curved driveway. On either side of the path great tall bushes filled with round, deep pink flowers lined the way. Then suddenly a view of Grugyn Ahasferus’s home was revealed to them. A low two stories, constructed of cream-colored marble, and generously colonnaded, it had two wings separated by a third single-storied section. Its exterior was almost as magnificent as the palace, but Lara wagered with herself the interior would be far more glorious. As long as the Ahasferus family was wise enough not to display their great wealth too publicly they were safe from Palben’s wrath. No one but those few invited into both homes would ever be able to compare the two. And they would not dare to do so if they valued their lives.

The litter came to a stop and was set down gently. Kaliq emerged, holding his hand out to Lara, who then stepped forth. Tell any others who have been afflicted as you have in the service of your masters that they can now use the mindspeak of the magic world, my friend, Kaliq told one of the bearers.

There is no way in which we can thank you for this gift, my lord, the bearer said with tears in his eyes.

Fight the darkness that will soon come with good, Kaliq replied and then he turned to escort Lara into the great mansion of Grugyn Ahasferus.

The master of the house and his wife, Lady Camilla, having been advised of these most important guests, were awaiting them in the entry rotunda of the house. Cadarn had wisely waited for Lara and Kaliq despite his wife’s insistence they go ahead. Lara nodded her approval to her great-grandson as they passed him by to meet Grugyn Ahasferus and his lady.