“I must clean the high board before anyone finds our juices all over it,” she said.

“The servants will clean it,” he said. “Go back to sleep, Lara, my love.”

Obediently she closed her eyes, her fingers going to her crystal as she began to grow sleepy again. She was Vartan’s mate, his wife. Yet he had promised he would not stop her from following her destiny. She knew he meant what he said when he said it, but the proof would come when that moment arrived. In the meantime, he was a good man and a passionate lover-the coming winter would not prove dull. But first there was the Gathering to attend. She was concerned by the news he had shared with her this evening. She suspected that Bera did not know it yet. And was Bera aware of the union between her son and Lara? Still more questions.

She awoke with his lips on hers, his big body covering her as he entered her slowly. “Vartan!” she chided him, amused by his great lust for her.

“I cannot resist you,” he admitted. “I could spend the next six months in this bed with you, my Lara.”

She squeezed his manroot as it filled her, and he cried out. She licked his ear, her tongue tracing the whorl of flesh, pushing into the cavity to tickle him, murmuring to him what she thought of his masculine attributes and what she wanted him to do to her.

“You are a wicked faerie wench,” he told her as she wrapped her legs about him. “I will pleasure you more than you have ever been pleasured before, Lara, my love.”

“Actions,” she said softly, “speak louder than words, my lord Vartan.”

In reply he pulled her two arms above her head, holding her wrists firmly in one hand. Then he began a slow, deep, deliberate thrusting. Again, and again, and yet again he pushed into her body with a leisurely measured cadence. Shortly, Lara’s green eyes widened with surprise as she found herself responding to him strongly. She had known great pleasure with her Shadow Prince, but it had been an elegant pleasure. The feelings she now felt were wild and uncontrollable. She gasped in shock, for she had never imagined passion could go so deep or be so fierce. She struggled against him, but he gently mastered her, forcing her to his will, yet loving her so sweetly that she found herself weeping.

He kissed and licked the salty tears from her face. “Let go, Lara, my love. Trust me enough to let go.” And when she did, his great desire for her burst forth, leaving them both breathless and weak. Satisfied, he drew her into his arms, kissing her face, his big hand smoothing her hair. “We are fated to love each other, Lara, daughter of Swiftsword,” he told her quietly. “I am yours, and you are mine.”

She burrowed deeper into his arms. What had just happened to her? She could not believe that she had released herself to him so freely. It was all very confusing, and as her tears subsided she found herself falling asleep once again.

He smiled to himself, his hand still stroking her soft gilt hair. In all his life he had never felt so happy. He would need her in the days ahead. This difficulty with the Piaras and the Tormod clans would not be easily solved, and he worried about the other clan families as well. Throughout the centuries past, they had found that keeping to themselves for most of the year was what kept them from fighting among one another. But if Hetar had been bold enough to invade the Piaras and Tormod territories, what was to prevent them from moving deeper into the Outlands? It was very troubling.

When Lara awoke again Vartan had left her side, and Noss was bustling about the chamber putting her few possessions away in a small painted trunk. “Good morning,” Lara said, smiling at her young friend.

“’Tis more like afternoon.” Noss grinned back. “I had heard he was a mighty lover. He has obviously exhausted you.”

“You know not of what you speak,” Lara replied, irritated.

“They say you are his wife,” Noss answered, not in the least intimidated. “Are you? And how did that happen?”

“They have some law or other that says if you spend two nights with a man you are his wife,” Lara said. “While we were visiting his villages we had no choice but to share a bed, but that is all we did. And we never even got out of our clothing.”

“Until last night,” Noss giggled, holding up Lara’s gown which she had retrieved from the floor of the hall.

“There are hard times coming to the Outlands,” Lara responded. “I shared pleasures with him to soothe him. Then he told me of this law of theirs. But I shall go when my destiny calls me again, Noss, and Vartan knows it.”

“But you are his wife,” Noss repeated.

“I suppose I am, even if I was ignorant of these laws of the Fiacre,” Lara agreed. “I don’t know why our people call them lawless barbarians.”

“Perhaps because Outlanders are not like Hetarians,” Noss suggested.

Lara nodded. Then she said, “I need a bath. I stink of horse, of man, and of woman’s lustful nature. Have you discovered if they have a bathhouse?”

“No,” Noss said.

“Then how do they keep clean?” Lara demanded.

“They bathe in their houses in small round tubs,” Noss replied.

“Then have a tub brought, and hot water, too,” Lara commanded. “It has been too many days since I bathed. My skin is beginning to itch.” She climbed from her bed, heedless of her nudity, and stretched. “Where is Vartan?”

“He has been out since just after sunrise overseeing the last of the winter preparations. We leave for the Gathering in the morning, Bera says. I’ll go get your tub, but cover yourself, for I doubt your husband wants his serving men seeing you in all your halfling glory,” Noss told Lara.

“Halfling? What is a halfling?” Lara asked.

“Half one thing, half another. Bera says you are a halfling. Half faerie, half Hetarian. She is very happy you are Vartan’s wife. She says you are strong where he is weak. She says you will be the making of him for she has always thought he could be a great leader of the Fiacre. They are the largest of the clan families, you know.” Then turning Noss hurried from the bedchamber to fetch a tub for Lara.

Lara looked about for something to cover her nakedness. Opening the little painted trunk where she had seen Noss store her things, she drew out a chemise and slipped it on. Noss was just full of information, Lara mused. Comfortable in safety, she had become friendly and full of gossip. Bera-or was it Liam?-had worked a magic of her own on the girl. Love, it was said, changed people. If she believed in love she might believe that was true.

The tub was brought, and Lara was amused by its small size. Well, it was all they had, and she was grateful to be able to bathe herself. When the tub was filled Lara disrobed again, washing first her body, and then her long hair. Noss had brought her a small hard cake of soap with a faint fragrance of wildflowers. It lathered well, and Lara was grateful for it. Wrapping herself in the drying cloth, she began to towel her golden hair. She sought for her hairbrush, smiling as she pulled Kaliq’s gift from the trunk. It was beautiful. The prince had obviously kept her simple pearwood brush, and replaced it with this gold one with fine boar’s bristles. The top of the brush bore a single heart, and twining around it and down its handle was a vine of delicate flowers.

There were several leaded windows set together in the chamber wall with a window seat built in beneath them. Lara sat before one of the open windows and began to brush out her long hair. As it dried in the gentle breeze of the sunny autumn afternoon, the silken stuff flew like a banner from the window. Riding in from the fields Vartan could see it, and felt a surge of contentment well up within him. His wife, he thought happily. His wife was awaiting him.

Her hair dry, Lara dressed herself in one of her two simple gowns, pale green to match her eyes. Then she went out into the hall as Vartan entered it. He immediately enfolded her in his embrace and kissed her mouth tenderly. Lara smiled up at him. She could not help it, and she realized that she was happy for the first time in a very long while. Not relieved at escaping the Forest Lords, or protected by Kaliq, but deeply happy. Was this what love was? she wondered.

“You are beautiful, and you smell delicious,” he said, still holding her.

“Of course I am beautiful,” she agreed, looking up into his face, “and I have finally had a bath. But your tub is so tiny. It is no bigger than the one I shared with my stepmother back in the Quarter.”

“I shall have a larger one made for you,” he promised.

“Make it big enough for two,” she suggested softly.

His slow smile reached all the way to his eyes. A hand caressed her buttocks suggestively. “We leave tomorrow for the Gathering,” he told her.

“So Noss has told me,” Lara returned. “I fear I shall shame you, Vartan, for I have but two gowns, and they are more suited to the palace of the Shadow Princes than to the Outlands on an autumn day. I am sorry. Would you prefer I remain behind?”

“Wife, have you not looked in your trunk?” he asked her.

“The little painted one? Aye, I saw Noss storing my things there,” Lara said.

“The large one, Lara,” he replied.

“That is not yours?” She was surprised.

“Nay, it is yours, and it is filled with the garments of a chieftain’s wife,” he said. “My mother and her women sewed quite diligently while we were away in the villages. And I have this for you.” He pulled a wide heavy gold ring from his tunic and pushed it onto the third finger of her left hand, the finger that connected directly to her heart. “I want everyone at the Gathering to know you are my mate, Lara, daughter of Swiftsword.”

Lara looked at the ring in surprise. It was red gold, a very rare ore, and it was simplicity itself. A plain band that when she looked at it brought tears to her eyes.