“At least the same breeder gave us life,” Durga said. “She must have been a clever creature to lure our sire back into her bed when she was nursing me. None before her had done so. They suckled their nurslings like good little ewe sheep, never knowing that when their children were weaned they would be taken away and given to their real mothers. Never suspecting, poor little lambkins, that the men who filled their wombs would strangle them, and bury their bodies in the darkest part of the Forest.” He laughed.

“It will not happen in our generation,” Enda said, “but possibly in our sons’ time, or our grandsons’? One day we will produce sons on our own women again. One day our women will not weep with the curse of their infertility because the men of our grandfather’s generation murdered a faerie woman, and then refused to atone for their crime. This is a new beginning for us, Durga. We will be hailed as heroes by our descendants.”

Durga nodded and then, swilling down his goblet of wine, he arose from the high board. “I am going to bed,” he said. “I have a fresh and juicy woman to give me pleasure this night. The trader may depart tomorrow unharmed. ’Tis only a day’s ride to the border by horse, though the caravan travels slower. I intend plugging the fiery Truda until her legs can no longer hold her up-the memory of the beautiful Lara will encourage me onward,” he chuckled. “I will tell Sita you are to wed her sister, Tira, soon. I think the autumn is a good time, eh?”

Enda nodded. “Why not?” he agreed. “We will plan the date for a time when Lara’s moonlink is broken. She is unclean then, and I will need a pretty outlet for my lustful nature. Tira will be a good substitute. Now that I have a breeder to get a son on it is time I wed.”

The brothers parted, Enda remaining in the hall drinking. He considered taking one of the new slave women for his amusement, but he knew now he would never be content knowing that Lara lay sleeping below the hall in the trader’s wagon. He licked his lips in anticipation of their first night. She would be afraid, of course, but he would soothe her with kisses and caresses. And when he had convinced her she had no other choice but to sweetly yield herself to him, he would fill her tight little sheath full with his manroot, leaving her breathless with his skill. And while he plundered her virginity his brother would watch, his own need for Lara swelling. When Enda had finished with her that first time, Durga would cover the girl’s fair body with his own. He would howl with his satisfaction, for Durga was a noisy lover. How Lara’s eyes would widen when his brother’s thick manroot filled her sheath! He fully admitted his elder sibling had a bigger mass of man flesh; but Enda had a much longer organ. He would push it right to the mouth of her womb, and she would cry out when he filled her full with his potent seed. Then Enda grinned, looking down to see his manroot engorged and poking up beneath his tunic. The mere thought of the beauteous half faerie girl set more than his pulses racing. He was afire with need for her. Standing up, he walked slowly from his brother’s hall and stood on the treed portico looking down at the trader’s encampment, where the object of his intense desire slept her innocent sleep. Or was she thinking of him, and tossing with her own thoughts?

SHE COULD FEEL HIM. He was somewhere near, and his very presence was disturbing. I don’t want this, she murmured silently to the crystal. You have a fate to follow, to live out, the voice said back to her. They repel me, these Forest Lords, she replied. You will not be long with them, Ethne promised her. Just a little while. Be brave, child. You are protected.

The caravan awoke before the dawn. Noss gently shook Lara awake, and handed her a piece of flat bread with cheese. The older girl nodded her thanks, and began to eat slowly. She had not slept well at all, but she knew she would need all her strength and her wits about her if she was to survive what was to come. She smiled suddenly, remembering Rolf Fairplay’s lies yesterday as he attempted to save her from the determination of the Forest Lords to have her for themselves. What made them want her? Surely it was not just her beauty. If it was, then her beauty was an anathema, and she didn’t want it. But no, she sensed it was something more. But what? She hoped the revelation would not be too awful.

Noss brought her a basin of warm water.

“You don’t have to wait upon me, Noss,” Lara told her.

“You saved me from those men,” Noss whispered. “I shall be forever in your debt, and must do what I can to serve you while we are yet together, Lara.”

“Thank you,” Lara said, quickly washing herself. Then she grew serious. “In two more days I will leave you, Noss. You will be protected by my mercenary friend, but you must stop being afraid of life, little one. It is an adventure to be lived. Promise me whenever you think you are growing frightened to remember those words and me.”

“You are braver than I,” Noss said.

“Until a few days ago I had lived all of my life in the Mercenaries’ Quarter of the City, Noss. I have no deep well of experience to sustain me, and I am only three years older than you,” Lara replied. “We are on a journey, you and I. How we travel our journey’s road is up to us. If we choose to live in constant fear, the journey will be an unpleasant one. But if we live it with enthusiasm, taking each day as it comes, enjoying the surprises and appreciating the quiet times, then we will travel a far less bumpy road.”

“Aren’t you afraid of being left with the Forest Lords?” Noss asked Lara.

Lara sighed. “Afraid? Perhaps a little, but I will master my fear, for to be afraid of these men will give them power over me. I do not want that. They have some plan in mind for me, but I sense I will not be with them for long. My road does not end here in the Forest. It is longer and more complex.” She smiled at the girl. “Come, let us roll up our mattresses and fold our coverlets. It is almost time for the caravan to depart. We have a long day ahead of us.”

Noss shook her head. “You are so brave,” she said.

“Will you try to be brave, even when I am gone?” Lara replied.

“I will try,” Noss promised.

They left the Head Forester’s compound just as the first rays of the sun crept over the horizon, traveling at a steady pace as they had since leaving the City. At midday, the wagons stopped to allow the animals a small rest. They ate and then were on their way again, not stopping until the summer twilight had almost faded into night.

Rolf Fairplay came to see how the two girls were doing. He patted Noss’s cheek telling her, “I will only sell you to a kind master, little one. I have promised Lara.”

“And I have promised her to try not to be so fearful,” Noss said.

The trader chuckled. “Excellent!” he said.

“Will we reach the border tomorrow?” Lara asked him.

“Late, probably. The exchange between the Head Forester and myself will take place the following morning. Lara, I could slip over the border and refuse the sale. One of the Coastal Kings will pay just as much for you.”

“You would make a fearsome enemy, my lord,” Lara told him. “One who would complain to your Guild, who would probably attack any trader’s caravan that entered his precincts from now on. Even Gaius Prospero would disapprove of such behavior, and your good reputation would be ruined. You have agreed to the bargain, and you must keep it, but I thank you for your kindness.”

“It pains me that a slave as fine as you should be condemned to life with the Forest clan,” Rolf Fairplay answered her. “You are meant for a better master.”

Lara laughed. “Do not compliment me so, my lord. I might begin to believe you. I did not know my mother, but believe me I am protected by her faerie magic. This star I wear about my neck is proof of it. I will be fine.”

“Lara says she will not be long with the Forest Lords,” Noss spoke up.

The trader looked askance. “What is this?”

“An instinct, my lord, nothing more,” Lara told him softly.

“Faerie magic,” he said, nodding. “Only those with it know such things. It sets my heart at rest, Lara. I am a trader by profession, and commerce is in my very veins. But I am also a man like my cousin, who likes to see fine merchandise with fine people. This sale I have made is grand in scale, but far less than I had hoped for-although I must admit to you that I have made an outrageous profit, and obtained more for you than my illustrious cousin would have dared to dream.” He chuckled. “I intend to send the gold directly back to him from the Desert Kingdom.”

“Is that not dangerous, sending so much coin by another caravan?” she asked him.

“Nay. I will give the gold to one of the Desert men who acts as a banker for the Shadow Princes and traders like me. The banker will send a faeriepost to the City crediting my cousin’s account for the amount. He, in turn, will have his banker credit my account for the commission. I would not travel a step farther than I must with all that gold. It is not likely I will see the City for another seven or eight months.”

Rolf bid them goodnight then, and the two girls unrolled their mattresses and their coverlets, and slept again that night in their wagon transport. The next day was very much like the previous, but the landscape began to change as they traveled. The Forest thinned out, and then was gone entirely. During the last few hours of daylight they traveled across a flat terrain of scrubland with stunted trees and bushes rising from an increasingly sandy soil. Finally, as darkness was falling, they reached the border station between the Desert and the Forest.

Grumbling, the border inspectors from the Forest painstakingly inspected the bills of lading. “Why do you carry two slaves instead of only one?” one of the guards demanded.