Then Lara went on to explain her visit to Jonah and the reforms she had suggested he would have to make if he was to hold on to his throne. “We will soon learn if his ambition or his greed is the greater,” she said. “Wealth is easier to recoup than power, however, and I think Jonah understands that.”

Lady Gillian nodded her agreement. “What can I do?” she said.

“You will have to gather the important women together quickly so they may each speak with other women in The City. When Jonah says that he will defend the rights of women to be heard and participate we need a vocal majority to back him. This will throw off the Darkling, who expects the women to capitulate easily. Why should the Pleasure Houses be returned to the ownership of men only? Or the new houses that cater to women be closed down? The Pleasure Guild pays a great deal of taxes, and that is due to the women who own the houses and those who work in them. You do not cheat the council as the men used to do when they owned these lucrative businesses.”

“But the taxes have not been used as they should have been,” Gillian pointed out.

“I suspect they will be in the future,” Lara said dryly.

“How can you be certain of this?” Gillian wanted to know.

“Because the women on the council are going to see to it,” Lara told her. “The council is made up of twenty members, with the Lord High Ruler voting only to break a tie. Only five are women. And men like the Forest Lords and the Midlanders are unlikely to ever see women as anything but subservient. But they are only four. There are eleven other votes you can work to sway. You won’t get them all, of course, but you need only six. My half brother is a reasonable man. Make a point of speaking with the wives of the representatives from the Mercenaries and the Crusader Knights. These women can influence their husbands on matters that concern their families and their children. And my daughter can sway her husband.”

“Hetar’s First Lady is interested only in her own enjoyments,” Gillian said candidly. “Her lust for pleasures is said to be prodigious and inexhaustible. They say it is her faerie blood run wild. Jonah is the envy of his companions, and is so jealous of her that he will only share her with their household sex slaves. They possess three. Two males and a female. Once I would not permit you to be sold into one of The City’s Pleasure Houses because your beauty would have destroyed us all. It is fortunate that your daughter is not a Pleasure Woman, though there are some who wish she could be.”

“Unlike other girls in Terah who at fourteen are permitted to take lovers, Zagiri never wanted a lover,” Lara said. “When her pent-up desires are fulfilled she will be less aggressive in her needs. Speak to her, Gillian. Ask her to use her influence with her husband for the betterment of Hetar.”

“Why will you not speak with her?” the retired Pleasure Mistress asked.

“My own anger at what happened has still not cooled,” Lara admitted frankly.

“Yet you spoke to Jonah,” Lady Gillian observed.

“I had no choice in that matter,” Lara said. “I do where Zagiri is concerned. If I speak with her, and she angers me as she can so easily do, then the breach between us widens. I don’t want that. In time I will overcome my reluctance, and my repulsion.”

“You are repelled? Why?” Lady Gillian asked.

“Because of her choice of a husband. My beautiful young daughter has shackled herself to a man who could be her father. He will be old when she is still young!” Lara cried. “As a faerie woman I know the pain you can suffer watching your mortal lover grow older. That is why faeries never linger long with their mortal partners. Yet my mortal daughter has picked an all-too-mortal man to love who is many years her senior.”

“I cannot convince Lara that this is Zagiri’s fate,” Prince Kaliq said softly.

“What kind of a fate is that for my beautiful child?” Lara said angrily.

“Her fate,” Kaliq said in a stern voice. “Not what you would wish for her, my love, for rarely does what you desire for your children come to pass. Each mortal born has its own fate to follow.”

“I will speak with your daughter, Lara,” Lady Gillian said sympathetically. She understood, although she had never borne a child herself. But she had mothered many of the young women in her Pleasure House, nurtured them, taught them, wept with them and been proud of their accomplishments and good fortune when it had occurred.

“Thank you,” Lara replied. She was unhappy with how she felt regarding Zagiri. It was a more mortal feeling than a faerie one. Perhaps because Zagiri had been born of the love she and Magnus Hauk had shared, and Magnus was now dead. Had he lived, would this union between Zagiri and Jonah taken place?

“We are through here,” Kaliq said quietly.

Lara and Lady Gillian embraced.

“Call to me if you need me,” Lara told her. “You know that I will come.”

“I will,” Gillian said, smiling as the two magic folk disappeared before her eyes.

Where are we going now? Lara asked Kaliq as she pressed against him for warmth. She was suddenly feeling chilled.

Into the streets of The City, but we shall not be visible to any, he answered. I think we need to know the mood of the people.

And, flinging back his cloak, they were in the main market square of The City. Lara was appalled by how shabby it had become. There were few goods, and what was there was expensive. Once the main market had had a large table beneath an awning where day-old goods were placed for the poor to come and take. It was, Lara noted, no longer there. Her eye went to a small boy who was creeping up unnoticed upon a baker’s kiosk. She watched as he waited patiently for the baker to be occupied elsewhere, and then, with lightning speed, the boy grabbed a loaf of bread just as the baker turned to see him. The baker’s face grew red with his fury.

“Thief!” he shouted. “Thief! Catch him! Thief! Thief!”

The boy dodged in and out of the few shoppers, evading grasping hands that reached out to stop him. Lara raised a hand, pointed her finger and suddenly a clear path opened up. The boy dashed from the main market and disappeared into the side streets that surrounded it.

Come! Lara called to Kaliq. You wanted to gauge the mood of the people? Let us see where our little thief goes.

They moved quickly after the boy, noting that once he was certain the chase had been given up, he moved with sure steps, obviously knowing exactly where he was going. They followed, and Lara suddenly realized where the boy’s steps were leading them.

He is headed for The Quarter, where I was raised, she told Kaliq.

And sure enough the boy went past the guard-house entrance where, Lara noticed, no guard sat any longer. They moved through several narrow streets until finally the boy came to a small hovel and slipped in. The magic couple followed him silently. Inside, they could see the thatched roof was damaged; there was no fire in the hearth. Two children even smaller than the little thief huddled in a bed where a woman lay nursing an infant. And then Lara’s eye was drawn to a corner by the cold hearth where a man lay supine. Walking over, she bent, sniffed and shook her head.

He is drunk on Razi, Lara said quietly to Kaliq. No fire in the hearth to keep his wife and children warm, but he finds the coin for Razi.

They watched now as the young thief placed the bread upon a table, and, fetching up a knife, cut four small slices. He then wrapped the remainder of the loaf in a piece of cloth, and put it in the hearth oven for safe keeping from the rats. Then he handed his mother and siblings their bread while finally sitting down on a stool to slowly eat his.

“You stole it,” the woman said wearily.

The boy nodded. “What else could I do? He’s been drunk for two days, and we need to eat. You cannot feed the infant without food yourself.”

“What if you had been caught?” the woman said despairingly. “There is no mercy for thieves, my son.”

“I wasn’t caught,” he answered her stubbornly.

“But you might have been!” the mother cried. “What would I do without you?”

“Well, we have bread for a few days,” the boy said. “I won’t have to steal again for a little while.”

“You must have faith in the Hierarch,” the woman said.

“What can the Hierarch do for folk like us?” the boy demanded.

“He will make it all right again if we but have faith,” she told him.

“We will starve before that happens,” the boy said dryly.

“Has he not opened the warehouses for us?” she said.

“And each of us was given a small share of grain, which is now gone, but the bakers seem to have enough wheat to make bread to sell at an exorbitant price. Why does the Hierarch not prevent them from profiteering while we starve?”

“He will! He will!” the mother insisted. “Did the prophecy not tell us that in our time of trial the Hierarch would come and save us? He is in The City now, my son. Soon he will bring Hetar back to the way it once was, and all will be well for us.”

“In the meantime we must eat,” the boy said, “so I must steal, and you must pray to the Celestial Actuary that I not be caught.”

We have heard enough, Lara said. She stood next to the boy at his seat and placed her hand just above his head. Steal only when you must. Your speed will leave all in the dust. Lara wove the small protection spell about the boy.

Your heart is so good, Kaliq told her.

He is not a thief by nature. He will be a fine man one day. He cannot be any older than nine or ten, yet he accepts the responsibility of his mother and siblings. As you can see, the father is lost to Razi because there is no work for him. Lara sighed.