“Why is my son king of a nebulous world of which I know less than nothing?” Lara demanded of him. “I recall my mother mentioning it briefly many years ago. She said the magic kingdoms call the great sky the Cosmos, and that there were other worlds within it, and the star we call Belmair was one. I could hardly conceive it then. And now you tell me my son is no longer in our world? That he is there?”

“Dillon was needed, and it was his fate to be there,” Kaliq said. “The dragon needed him, Lara, my love.”

“The dragon?” Her voice had risen at least a full octave. “What dragon?”

“The Great Dragon of Belmair, Nidhug,” Kaliq replied. “You must calm yourself, my love, for all is well. Dillon is exactly where he should be at this time.”

“You had no right to steal my son and send him to some other world in this Cosmos of yours!” Lara cried. “Why, at least, did you not tell me first? I have always trusted you, Kaliq. Why did you feel it was necessary to do this without speaking to me beforehand? You know how much I love Dillon.” Her beautiful green eyes were filling with tears. “Will I ever see him again?” Her voice had begun to quaver just slightly.

Kaliq put his arms about her. She was, he thought sadly to himself, as beautiful, as vulnerable, as compelling as she had ever been despite the fact that her oldest children were grown, and her younger children half-grown. “Of course you will see Dillon again. I will take you to Belmair anytime you want to go, Lara, my love.”

For a brief moment she was content to be in his arms, but then she shook him off angrily, stepping back, looking up into his handsome face. “My son! He is my son! You have overstepped your bounds, Kaliq. How dare you make a decision like this for Dillon without even consulting me first. He is my son!” she repeated.

Kaliq drew a long breath, and then letting it out he said, “And he is my son, too, Lara. I cannot fathom that in your faerie arrogance you have believed all these years that his incredible talents and his wondrous powers came just from you. The child of a faerie woman and a mere mortal man could not have gained the wisdom and skills that Dillon showed from his earliest childhood.”

She had been standing, and now she sat down heavily upon a marble bench near the fountain. “I was the child of a faerie woman and a mortal man,” she said.

“Your father had faerie blood in him, too, Lara. You know that even if he did not,” Kaliq reminded her.

“You said you could not give me a child,” Lara reminded him weakly.

“I lied,” Kaliq told her bluntly. “We Shadow Princes can reproduce whenever we choose to, although we do not do so often anymore. There is no real need for it given our longevity. Now and again one of us will spawn a child. We give our lovers female children as a rule. But I wanted a son.”

“Why did you not tell me?” Lara said.

“Because you were very young then, and while I realized that you were in love with me, I could not keep you. Remember, I know much of your destiny, Lara, my love. You were not meant to remain your life long here in Shunnar. Think of what you have accomplished since you left here all those years ago. You have lifted a curse from Terah, set the powers of darkness against itself, begun a peaceful revolution in Hetar. You have rescued a people from certain extinction and fought successfully in two wars. You have birthed five children. None of it would have been possible had you remained in Shunnar. Think of me as selfish if you will, but I wanted my son born of your loins.”

“How was it possible?” Lara asked. “I was with Vartan for months before I loved him enough to give him a child. Tell me what magic you worked upon me?”

“You were in love with me,” Kaliq began. “I was able therefore to plant my seed within you. The magic involved was that my seed would only bloom when you were ready to give another your love and a child. Vartan, like me, had dark hair and blue eyes. It was a simple thing to have people believe Dillon resembled Vartan because of that. But have you not noticed that recently his eyes became the bright blue of the Shadows?”

“You are not selfish,” Lara said angrily. “You are arrogant, Kaliq!”

“No more so than you are, my love,” he told her, a small smile touching the corners of his sensuous mouth. “We belonging to the magic kingdoms have a tendency to be so.” Reaching out, he took her hand in his, holding it just tightly enough so she could not snatch it back as she immediately attempted to do. “Do not be angry with me, Lara.”

“Tell me why I shouldn’t be angry at you, Kaliq?” Lara said furiously. “Why did you not tell me this years ago? After Vartan died at least? You are no better than Kol, the Twilight Lord, secreting your seed within me.”

“I did not tell you because I wanted you to continue to believe that Dillon was Vartan’s son. Dillon needed to believe it, too, because he needed the normalcy that being the son of a mortal man gave him. He needed to know in those early years that he was Fiacre, that he belonged where he was, especially when you were away so often. And as Vartan’s son he held the responsibility for his sister Anoush when you were not with them. Oh, Noss and Liam had physical custody of the children, but Dillon felt Anoush was his charge despite that because she was his blood. As it was Dillon showed his talents from an early age, and the Fiacre were uncomfortable with those talents as they were with you and your magic. They tolerated Dillon because he was their martyred leader’s son. Would they have done so had they known he was in truth my son?”

Lara sighed. “No,” she admitted, “they would not have.”

“You have protected Dillon in your way over the years. I have protected him in my way. And do not dare to compare me with Kol! My love for you has always been a pure love. His was not. He would have kept you a prisoner in the Dark Lands had he had the power to do so. I allowed you to go free to live out your destiny.”

“I have wounded you,” Lara said softly. “I did not think such a thing was possible, Kaliq. You still love me.” She freed her hand from his.

“I have never stopped loving you, Lara,” the prince admitted.

“Does it please your cold faerie heart to know that, my love?” he taunted her.

The green eyes met his. “Aye, it does,” she said cruelly.

The prince laughed aloud. “Faerie witch,” he said in a fond tone.

“Does Dillon know the truth of his parentage?” Lara asked.

“I told him before I took him to Belmair,” the prince said. “Do you know he told me that he has suspected it these last few years?” Kaliq shook his head. “He is an amazing young man, my love.”

Lara nodded. “He is,” she agreed.

“Do not be angry with me that you must share him,” Kaliq said.

Now it was Lara who laughed. “You are the most devious man I know,” she told him. “Charming, but devious, and I think, utterly ruthless. Why did our son have to go to this Belmair? As I recall, my mother said it was a peaceful and prosperous place.”

“Peaceful, aye. But they have a mystery that unless solved will destroy them,” Kaliq said. And then he began to tell Lara the story of Belmair, and its connection with Hetar. How aeons before the divisive among the Belmairans had been exiled to Hetar so that Belmair could retain its peaceful ways. How Hetar had lost that knowledge of its history over the ensuing centuries. “They are much like the Hetarians, except they are peaceful and have no great passion for acquisition. They live according to ages-old traditions and laws. Their kings have always been chosen by the Great Dragon, who is Belmair’s protector. They are not always hereditary.”

“But why did this dragon choose Dillon?” Lara wanted to know. “Why a young sorcerer from Hetar?”

“Because the daughter of the old king is a sorceress of much skill. She has not Dillon’s talents for magic, but she is strong enough to work with him.”

“And why would she?” Then suddenly Lara shrieked, and jumped up. “You have mated them, haven’t you? Not only have you taken my son from me, you have given him to another woman! Tell me why I should not kill you, Kaliq?” Lara demanded.

“Well,” he replied, struggling not to laugh at her, for he knew she would never forgive him for it, “you cannot kill me. And yes, they are married. It is the tradition on Belmair that if an old king has an unmarried daughter, the new king must take her as his wife. They must be joined physically for the succession to be official. And the dragon and I stood witness to the event. Dillon is king of Belmair now, and Cinnia is his queen.”

Lara sat back down. “There should be something I can do to punish you,” she muttered darkly. Then, “Will he be happy with her? Please tell me he will be happy.”

Kaliq took Lara’s hand again, and then he told her of what had happened when the joining of Dillon and Cinnia had reached its culmination. “They will love one another eventually,” he said. “But first they will need to reach an understanding, for Cinnia is proud of her abilities and has no real idea of how much more powerful Dillon is. When she learns it, her pride will be hurt, and it will take her a while to accept the knowledge.”

“Is she a fool then not to realize a Shadow Prince’s son is stronger that the piddling magic her dragon taught her?” Lara queried him.

“Cinnia, like all Belmairans, has lived an insular life,” Kaliq explained. “She knows little of other worlds. She has no idea that Nidhug’s own powers are limited. Cinnia is known as the sorceress of Belmair, Lara. She is considered powerful among her own people. There is little magic in Belmair but for Nidhug and Cinnia’s.”

“What of its faerie population?” Lara asked.

“The Belmairans do not speak of faeries,” Kaliq replied slowly.