“What of Ahura Mazda?” Arlais asked softly as she led Cinnia and Nidhug from the common room. “Will he be given a star to protect him?”

“Your husband is pure Yafir. He is magic, and does not need our protection,” Cinnia said. “That is why his coming and going from our world never affected him. There were not many Yafir of pure blood left when they fled to their world beneath the sea. Those centuries there will not have aged them any more than if they had been here.”

Arlais nodded, and took Cinnia and the dragon to the Great Hall where all the servants and other inhabitants in the castle had been assembled. There the young Belmairan queen and Nidhug worked the magic of Dillon’s spell and Cinnia’s stars for each person in the room. Many wept with joy to be once again in Belmair, upon the land. They kissed Cinnia’s hands, and bowed to the Great Dragon, thanking them.

Then Arlais went outside with her guests, and Cinnia looked up and said, “Shadow Princes, all is well. Would you please remove the spell?”

To Arlais’s amazement and delight, the bubble that had shielded them for so many centuries slowly dissolved in a final rainbow burst of color. A soft breeze touched her rosy cheek, and Ahura Mazda’s first wife herself wept as the warm air caressed her face. “Ah,” she said softly, “never did I think to feel the wind again. Thank you, my queen!” And catching Cinnia’s two hands up in her own she kissed them reverently.

“Your queen, aye,” Cinnia replied, “but your friend, too, Arlais. In the time I spent in your household you were kind, and thoughtful. And when you realized the deception played upon the Yafir lord, you did not expose it. I have had time and peace with my own beloved husband, and for that I thank you.”

“I was protecting Ahura,” Arlais admitted.

Cinnia nodded. “I understand,” she told the woman.

Dillon, Kaliq, Cronan and Cirillo were suddenly coming toward them, and Cinnia smiled. She drew Arlais forward and introduced her to the magical quartet.

“You are he who saved the Yafir,” Arlais said as she curtseyed to Cronan.

“I am he,” Cronan admitted.

“I have never before met a Shadow Prince although we had certainly heard of your kind, and their great magic,” Arlais said shyly.

“How pretty you are,” Cirillo murmured, and Nidhug growled low, her nostrils glowing orange-red.

“Thank you,” Arlais told him. “And you are very bold, but then it is said that faerie men are forward.”

Kaliq chuckled at Cirillo’s surprise, for the young faerie prince was not used to be scolded by any other than his mother.

“Quite right, faerie men are much too bold,” Nidhug agreed.

Arlais curtseyed to the king. “You truly seek peace between my people and the Belmairans?” she asked him.

“I do,” he said, “and we shall have it, my lady, if it takes a thousand years although I hope we may come to be one people sooner. Speak with your lord, and tell him that we would be friends. That I hold no ill will toward him, but I will not tolerate rebellion from him. When he is ready to speak with me I will be ready to listen.”

Then before Arlais’s eyes the king and his party disappeared in a great puff of bright blue smoke. Arlais stood where she was for several long minutes as she realized that Ahura Mazda had to make his peace with the Belmairan king. He really had no other choice for these were powerful beings, and the young sorcerer now ruling Belmair would brook no interference with his plans. She had seen that in his eyes. She walked slowly back into the castle. Within she found something she had not known in years. Happiness. The servants were smiling. The children and their nurses made their way past her, going into the gardens to play in the warm sunshine. She found her way to the common room.

“Is he awake yet?” she asked of no one in particular as she entered.

“Not yet,” Minau answered.

Arlais took a long, deep breath, and then went into Tyne’s bedchamber where Ahura Mazda lay sprawled upon the bed, sleeping. Quietly she walked across the room and opened the lead-paned casement windows. The sun was just coming around to these particular windows. A soft breeze blew gently, fluttering the bed curtains. Arlais sat down in a small chair by the cold hearth, and waited for her husband to awaken.

And eventually he did. Slowly Ahura Mazda came to himself. He stretched his long limbs and sighed. Then his beautiful eyes opened, and gazed sleepily about. The light from the sun told him it must be close to noon. It was very bright and warm. The breeze blowing through the windows was scented with a garden full of flowers. He could not remember a more pleasant awakening. And then the reality slammed into him. Bright sunlight? A warm breeze? The smell of flowers? The lord of the Yafir sat up with a roar, and saw Arlais sitting in the room.

“What is going on?” he demanded, leaping from the bed, and going to the open windows. He looked out upon a beautiful garden filled with flowers. Birds sang. Gaily colored butterflies fluttered about. His younger children ran shrieking with glee along the graveled pathways, followed by their laughing nursemaids. His eyes almost jumped from his skull at the sight. “What is going on?” he repeated, and turned toward Arlais.

“We are no longer beneath the sea,” Arlais said quietly. “Put some clothing on, my lord, and we will talk.”

“Tell me now,” he said, but he was gathering up his garments, and dressing himself as he spoke. “I can see we are no longer beneath the waters. Where are we, and how has this happened?”

“We are in Belmair’s newest province, which has been created especially for us,” Arlais began. “It is called Belbuoy.”

“And you know this because…?” he asked.

“I have spoken with King Dillon and Queen Cinnia. I have spoken with the two great Shadow Princes, Kaliq and Cronan. I have met a faerie prince and Belmair’s Great Dragon, the lady Nidhug. They each had a part in all of this, my lord,” Arlais told him.

The Yafir lord’s mouth tightened, and his eyes darkened with his rage. “They dared to usurp my authority?” he said. “And now we have been put in this place? Why? We were told we were not welcome in Belmair. Have we been brought here then to be slaughtered by these Belmairans? And you knew, but did not tell me, Arlais? You are my first wife. The woman I trust above all others. Why have you betrayed me?” He stood before her now fully clothed.

“I have not betrayed you, my lord, and my heart breaks that you would utter such words to me,” Arlais said to him. “The Yafir were banished centuries ago. That king is long dead, and the many who followed him since. The king who now rules Belmair is not of this world. He has no preconceived notions regarding the Yafir. He seeks peace with us. Why do you rebuff his overtures? The time for bitterness is in the past, my dear lord.”

“I will never make peace with Belmair!” Ahura Mazda declared.

“Which is why this was done without your permission, my lord,” Arlais told him. “Most of the folk calling themselves Yafir have more Belmairan blood in their veins. There are few pure Yafir as you are, my lord, remaining among our people. Even your children’s blood is evenly mixed, for all of your wives come from Belmair. We have not forgotten the history of the Yafir, but the Belmairans were not the first to banish the Yafir from their world. The Yafir have been exiled from many worlds.”

“Aye, but here we created a safe haven beneath the sea for ourselves!” Ahura Mazda declared. “It is I who have kept our people safe for most of the centuries that have past, and now you would bring us back to the brink of extinction and danger!”

“The Yafir did not create Yafirdom, my lord,” Arlais said. “The Shadow Prince Cronan took pity on your people, and made your continued existence possible through his great magic. That is why as our population grew you could not give us more bubbles for them to live in, and more sealand in which to graze our poor flocks and grow our crops.”

“Blasphemy!” he shouted.

Arlais stood up. “Nay, my lord, truth.”

“You have never spoken to me with such disrespect,” he said to her.

“It is not disrespect, my lord. It is truth I speak to you, and I will tell you more truth. The Yafir are weary of living in the gloom of the sea bottom, the stale air of the bubbles. We would exist in the sunlight, and fresh air of the land. If you are able to create a world beneath the sea then put us back there now! But you cannot. Yafir magic is little magic.”

He slapped her, and without another word Arlais turned and left the chamber. “Come back!” he shouted, but she did not. And when he finally went into the common room he found it empty. None of his women were anywhere in sight. Ahura Mazda went to his own apartments, and sat brooding over Arlais’s words. What did she mean the people wanted to live upon the land once more. They were his people. They did what he wanted. What was this rebellion that Belmair was trying to foment among the Yafir? He would not have it! He would have his revenge upon them, and they would think twice before interfering with him again.

Ahura Mazda remained within his own apartments for the next several days. He did not come out even at night to visit his wives. And they did not come to him. Cheerful servants-he was growing to dislike their happy faces-brought him his meals, and saw to all of his needs. But no one came to see if he was all right. Even the ambitious Sapphira. He watched them stealthily from his windows as they sat in the gardens and talked among themselves. He viewed Sapphira in direct defiance of his orders nursing their daughter, whose silvery hair was getting just the faintest touch of gold in it. His anger grew with each passing day. He could feel himself losing control of everything around him, and briefly he was frightened. Then the fear subsided, and his anger against Belmair, its king and queen and the damned dragon who had brought Dillon of Shunnar to Belmair, grew hotter. At last he had a visitor.