9

THE DARKLING KNOWN AS Ciarda had made her home in a stone castle her father had erected long ago in the Valley of the Penumbras. It was small, for those for whom he had brought this castle into existence didn’t need a great deal of space. It was cold, but that suited Ciarda’s icy nature although her two servants were always whining about it. She had finally given them permission to keep a hot fire in the kitchen where they slept. The fires that burned above the stairs in her hall and elsewhere were cold fire, and gave off no heat and but dim light.

The Darkling sat at her High Board staring out into her hall and considering her next move. She must set her twin half brothers against one another. Whichever of them survived she would take as a mate. She would force him to give her his male heir, for, having been raised with no knowledge of his heritage, he would know no better. Then she would encourage him to a thoroughly debauched life that would soon kill him.

And when he was dead she would take power in the name of her son. As for that son, she would see he was encouraged from the moment of his birth to indulge himself in every way. Nothing would ever be denied him, and, used to having his own way, he would find ruling a tedious bore, and leave it to his dear mother, who would do whatever necessary to keep her boy happy. Ciarda laughed at the picture she was painting. She would complete her father’s dream to conquer Hetar and even Terah when the power was all hers. Patience, however, had never been her strong suit.

Irritatable now, she called to her Wolfyn lover, who lay by the fire in his animal form. Springing up, he took on a more human appearance, and walked over to the High Board where she now sat. “Pleasure me,” she said in a cold, hard voice.

From the shadows where he stood Kaliq watched, amused for a brief moment, and then he returned to his privy chamber where he found Gaszi and Eskil already awaiting him. “No luck?” he said to them.

“None,” Eskil replied. “Their manner of living is disgusting, by the way.”

Gaszi nodded in agreement. “To put a child with creatures like that,” he said, shaking his head. “The Wolfyn clan you visited?”

“The boy was not there, either. I did check on Ciarda, and listened to her thoughts. She is quite devious and clever. She means to set her brothers against one another for starters, marry the survivor, mother his heir and kill her mate off. Kol would be very proud of her,” Kaliq remarked dryly. “She is ruthless, dangerous and completely without mercy. But she is also extraordinarily beautiful and has a vast appetite for pleasures. Her Wolfyn lover was doing his best to sate her when I left. His youth and his endurance are his only advantages. I actually felt sorry for him.”

Lothair, Terriss and Nasim suddenly materialized within the privy chamber.

“I believe I have found him, brothers,” Terriss said excitedly.

“Did you see him?” Kaliq demanded to know.

“Nay. He was with his foster father and brothers in the forest. But the women of the household spoke of Chancellor Alfrigg’s impending visit,” Terriss responded. “I could only surmise that meant the boy was a member of the household.”

“That would seem a reasonable assumption,” Kaliq said. “Did they say when the chancellor was expected?”

“Nay, but it seemed as if it would be very soon as the women in the household were busy cleaning and scouring,” Terriss replied.

“Their hundred-year cleaning undoubtedly,” Eskil murmured. “There were bones all over the floor of the house I visited.” He shuddered.

“We will set a watch on Alfrigg, and on the Darkling Ciarda,” Kaliq said. “And Lara must now begin to observe the sons she bore Kol.” He looked to Terriss. “Did you leave the crystal where it would not be found as you were instructed?”

“I did,” his brother replied. “You will be able to observe Kolbein wherever he is now. Shall we see if the token is working?”

Kaliq nodded, and, going to a cabinet, opened it to take out a beautiful crystal bowl, oblong in shape. Setting it upon a table, Kaliq raised his upturned palm slowly over the bowl, and it filled with a clear liquid. “Show me Kolbein,” he said. Immediately the liquid darkened then cleared. The Shadow Princes gathered around the bowl saw the Wolfyn’s hall. Uproarious laughter came to their ears and they saw the males of the Wolfyn pack gathered about a table where a female was bent over, her bare buttocks being whipped by a tall boy. They could hear the woman’s cries of distress.

Finally the boy threw aside the dog whip he had been plying. From his baggy trousers he pulled forth a manhood larger than any mortal his age would possess. Grasping the woman’s hips, his fingers digging into her soft flesh, the boy thrust himself into her, and then began to pump her hard. The woman screamed, which sent the men surrounding her into further bursts of hilarity.

“That’s it, Kolbein lad,” an older man encouraged the boy. “Stuff her full. Make the wench give you her pleasures. Go deeper, lad, and harder!”

“She isn’t a virgin,” the boy complained. “You promised me a virgin, Father Thorolf. The wench has a sheath that is wide as the open road and slack, too.” He pulled out of the female and pushed her away. “Go back to the kitchens,” he ordered her.

“But, my lord,” the woman said, clutching at his arm, “I did not give you pleasures.” She looked up anxiously at him.

“A creature like you could not give me pleasures,” the boy said sulkily. “Be gone!” His gray eyes were darkening with his irritation.

“Go!” Thorolf told the woman, and thrust her away. “Before he loses his temper and throttles you.”

“I want a virgin,” Kolbein said. “I want a virgin whose sheath is tight, and who will weep and beg me not to take her precious virtue away from her. I want a virgin I can thoroughly despoil, Father Thorolf. You found virgins for Wulfgar and Wulfram. Why will you not find one for me?”

“Your foster brothers found their own virgins, Kolbein. They hunted them down in their wolf forms. A Wolfyn can scent a virgin, but you are not Wolfyn, Kolbein. You were given to us to foster.”

“Who gave me to you?” the boy demanded to know.

Thorolf shook his head. “I am forbidden from telling you that until he comes himself to tell you. And that will be soon, I promise you.”

“Your promises are worthless.” The boy sneered. “You promised me a virgin, and then gave me a kitchen wench that every male in this house has futtered. Bah!” And the boy stormed from the hall angrily.

The liquid in the bowl darkened again before reverting to its original form.

“A lovely boy,” Kaliq murmured. “If it were my choice I would kill him where he stood right now.”

“It is amazing to realize that Lara birthed him,” Lothair said. “Can we have a look at Kolgrim now?”

“Show us Kolgrim,” Kaliq said, and the bowl clouded darkly, then cleared to reveal the hall of the Forest Giant. Arild sat at his High Board with his wives to his left, and three boys on his right. The boy on the end, while tall for a man, was small in comparison with the giants, but his hair was golden-blond and he was extremely handsome. “Kolgrim,” Kaliq murmured. “He can be no other.”

His companions nodded in agreement.

“The giants keep a better hall than the Wolfyn,” Eskil noted.

“Let us watch and see if this son of Kol is as vicious as his brother,” Terriss said.

But Kolgrim was pleasant and had good manners. He spoke respectfully to his foster parents and their elder son, the scholarly Vili. He joshed with the foster brother closest in age to him, Evert, as any normal mortal boy would do with a sibling.

“Wait,” Kaliq said. Then, looking into the bowl, he said, “Show me Kolgrim in his bed,” and the bowl clouded and cleared to reveal the boy with two buxom mortal servant girls. An insatiable and skillful lover, Kolgrim used both women until they were exhausted and begging for mercy.

“I am not satisfied yet,” he told them. “Neither of you has succeeded in pleasuring me. Until you do you will have no rest.” When one girl was foolish enough to protest he slapped her several times, bringing tears to her eyes. “Aah, I am beginning to be aroused by you,” he told her, slapping her face and then her breasts. “Yes, you are starting to amuse me.” He turned the girl over onto his lap, and smacked her plump bottom again and again until she was begging him to cease.

“Interesting,” Nasim observed. “They both seem to have large appetites for pleasures, but both require pain to obtain it.”

“Both parents have great appetites,” Kaliq said quietly. “Passion doubled is a difficult burden to bear. Bowl clear!”

“Lara will have to observe more than we have in order to make a decision,” Lothair said. “Kolbein looks like his father as does Kolgrim but for the golden hair.”

“When will she begin her observations?” Gaszi asked. “Is she still here in Shunnar? Was she not magnificent last night? Such beauty! Such passion! Such perfect trust in us not to harm her.” He sighed gustily. “When her lips closed about my rod I felt like a boy experiencing that pleasure for the very first time.”

“Mind yourself, Geszi,” Lothair teased. “You know how Kaliq feels about her.”

“I love her,” Kaliq said quietly.

There was a shocked silence.

“We do not give our hearts, brother,” Eskil said sympathetically.

“Nay, I have never given my heart before in all the millenia that we have walked this world, but she is meant to be mine, brothers,” Kaliq told them. “Not yet, but one day.” He smiled at them. “Do not look so concerned, brothers.”

“Indeed it is rare that we love for eternity,” Nasim said, “but it has happened before, and will happen again as long as we exist upon this world. Kaliq will never allow his love for the faerie woman to keep him from his duties. I wish him good fortune!”