He laughed. “Amazing!” he repeated. Then he arose. “With your permission I will depart. I have an assignation at Lady Gillian’s tonight with an enchanting creature and I do not want to keep her waiting.” He caught his mother’s hand up and kissed it. “Goodbye, Mother. Do not leave The City before you have seen me again.”

“I shall not, Aubin,” Vilia said and watched as her son left her. He was a dear boy, she thought. Yet he could never imagine the plans that she and Jonah had and perhaps that was just as well. She would keep her bargain with her son, for any child she gave Jonah would inherit his father’s wealth.

6

HROLLEIF, CHIEF OF THE Wolfyn, looked about the table at his companions-Skrymir, chieftain of the Dark Land giants; Dain, chieftain of the Dark Land dwarfs; Alfrigg, the chancellor of the Dark Land; and the Twilight Lord himself. Why, Hrolleif wondered, had they all been called into the great Kol’s presence? Then Kol spoke.

“The time for conquest draws near,” he began. “I have the faerie woman in my power. She ripens with my heir. The Munin have been slowly restoring her memory. Soon I will return the memory of how to use all of her magic.”

“But will she wield it for you?” Hrolleif growled in a deep voice. The Wolfyn were creatures with the heads of wolves and the bodies of mortal men. They were fierce fighters and savage in their conquests, which had been few in recent decades.

“She has no memory of her past other than that which I choose to allow her,” Kol said. “She loves me. If she did not I could never have impregnated her with my son. She will do whatever I wish, for she trusts me. She believes I taught her the magic she now remembers. She believes I gave her the knowledge so she might help me.”

“I have heard it said that when you mate with other women you have them killed afterwards in order to please Lara,” Dain of the Dwarfs remarked.

“That seems a shameful waste of female flesh,” Skrymir muttered.

The Twilight Lord laughed. “I only killed a few to gain her trust,” he replied. “If she continues to believe that I kill more, it is all to the good, is it not, my lords?”

“Is it possible that your own black heart has been engaged by the faerie woman? It is said that her charms are irresistible,” Hrolleif growled. “Love is a deterrent to power, my lord, as you well know.”

Kol shot the Wolfyn chief an angry look. “If anything,” he replied, “Lara has strengthened my powers. Whether I love her or not matters little, for our magic combined is unstoppable. Do you question my vision now, Hrolleif?” The look Kol gave the Wolfyn caused Hrolleif’s pointed ears to twitch.

“Nay, my lord Kol!” he protested. “I am merely concerned for your well-being. Perhaps it is natural that you feel tenderly toward this faerie woman who has been chosen to bear your son. I recall a similar emotion when my mate dropped her first litter.”

“Aye,” Skrymir added soothingly in his rough voice. “We all have felt tenderly toward our mates when they are breeding. It is natural.”

Dain nodded in agreement.

“My lords, can we please get back to the matter at hand?” Alfrigg said sharply.

Kol hid his smile at the irritation in his chancellor’s voice. Alfrigg was not a sentimental man. “The timing will be crucial,” he said. “The planning, however, must begin now for the key to keeping our casualties low and the damage to the land at a minimum will be in that foresight.”

“We will want the forests of Hetar and the cattle pastures of the Fiacre for ourselves, my lord,” Hrolleif said.

“And we will want the mountains in Hetar and Terah for ourselves,” Dain remarked. “And the dwarfs there for our slaves.”

Kol held up an elegant hand. “My lords,” he said. “This can all be worked out. I shall leave you with Alfrigg to begin your work.” Then with a cold smile he left them.

Kol moved swiftly through the corridors of his castle. He was anxious to be with Lara, a fact that surprised him every time he realized it. In just a few more months she would deliver his son and heir. And then they might take pleasures together again. He had missed their couplings, but it was tradition that once the Chosen One was with child her lord did not use her body even casually. Strangely the lustful urges that generally overcame him were few of late and he rarely visited his House of Women where there lived a variety of beautiful females from his own world and others.

Reaching Lara’s quarters he swept into her dayroom. “Good morrow, my precious,” he greeted her with a small smile.

“My dearest lord!” Lara held out her arms to him in welcome. She was lounging upon a purple velvet couch with but one rolled arm. “What have you been doing today while I missed your company?” One graceful hand lay upon her swollen belly.

“Beginning the plan for our conquest of the other worlds,” he told her. “I have gathered Hrolleif of the Wolfyn, Skrymir of the Giants and Dain of the Dwarfs, all bound to me by oath. I left them with Alfrigg. What have you been doing?”

“I spent some hours looking into the reflecting bowl as you suggested. The fat emperor of Hetar seems to be a wife short from the last time I looked. He still does not know that his first wife is betraying him with his right hand.” She laughed. “And he has fallen in love, Kol! That obnoxious little man is in love!”

“Is his lover beautiful, my precious?” Kol asked Lara.

“Oh yes, very beautiful! I have planned a delicious entertainment for us when we take The City, my lord. Before we kill him we will bind this fat emperor to his throne and make him watch as this pretty creature he loves is forced to give pleasures to you as Hetar’s conqueror. And you will use both your dominant and lesser rods with the girl. Then you will pass her to the Wolfyn chief, the Dwarf chief and finally to Skrymir. If his love rod does not split her in two then we will give her to whichever of your legions fought the hardest. Her screams should drive the fat emperor mad,” Lara laughed.

Kol smiled broadly. “My precious, what delicious darkness bubbles within you. May our son inherit it. But what of the emperor’s unfaithful wife? Should she not also be punished for her naughtiness?”

“Not as severely, for her wickedness is dark. Is that not good, my lord?” Lara purred. “Let her be forced to take pleasures with her lover in the emperor’s sight. And then we will kill the fat slug. But slowly. We will cut his rod and balls from his body. I will prevent him from feeling the pain of it. Then we will roast them over a slow fire and force him to eat them.” She giggled. “With each bite he takes he will feel the pain. His screams, however, will become tedious then, my lord, and so we will have to garotte him.” She caressed his cheek. “Do you like my program, my lord?”

“Aye, I do, you charming witch. How I wish we might take pleasures together, for when you speak of such delightful evil I am filled with my lust for you, Lara, my precious. But my son must be protected.” He lay his hand on her belly and smiled into her icy green eyes. “You are such perfection, Lara. I adore you!”

“I am so glad the knowledge of my magic has returned,” Lara told him, smiling back into his eyes. “Now, my lord, there is something we must discuss. I will need a wet nurse for this child. A healthy woman with big breasts overfull with milk to suckle our son, for I will have no time for such common labors. Find me such a woman and have her ready for the day I give birth. Tell her to wean her own child within the next two months. Then she must come to the castle and you will suckle her daily until your son is birthed. It will keep her milk fresh and sweet, her breasts overflowing and ready to nourish your son. Is that not a perfect idea?”

Kol found himself more and more astounded by Lara as each day passed. The faerie woman of Hetar and Terah was known for her kindness, her goodness. But Lara, devoid of all of her personal memories, this Lara that he was helping to shape and create was a creature of pure darkness. She was indeed his mate and for the next several hundred years they would enjoy one another, for it appeared the mortal in her had been overridden by her magic. She would not die young as humans did.

IN THE WORLD BEYOND the Dark Land the spring passed, another summer came and Magnus Hauk grew more and more despondent. His magical allies appeared to be completely stymied by Lara’s mysterious disappearance and their inability to find her was maddening. The Dominus’s only solace was the three children in his home. Zagiri was now four years old and would have forgotten her mother had it not been for her half sister, Anoush. The Dominus had come to love Lara’s two offspring by Vartan, but he especially loved Anoush, for even with little real personal knowledge herself of her mother, the girl wove a history of Lara that kept her alive for Zagiri.

“When will our mother return to us?” Magnus Hauk heard his daughter ask her half sister one day.

“Very soon, I am sure, little Zagiri,” Anoush assured her younger sibling. “Her destiny will soon be realized and she will return to us.”

“Really? Truly?” Zagiri asked wide-eyed.

“Oh yes,” Anoush replied with certainty.

“How do you know that?” Zagiri said.

“I just do,” Anoush responded. “Do not forget, Zagiri, that our mother is a magical being and we have all inherited certain of her talents, I am sure.”

Dillon, who had been standing in the shadows with his stepfather, smiled and said softly, “Aye, and now I see that Anoush has been given the gift of sight along with her budding abilities as a healer.”

Magnus Hauk drew in a sharp breath. “And Zagiri. What will her talent be?”

“I do not know, Magnus,” the boy replied. “It is too soon.”