Kaliq set her gently upon her feet and helped her to the balustrade, but his arm remained about her waist.

Lara looked down into the great green valley where the Shadow Princes’ herds grazed. It never failed to amaze her that in the center of the desert this magical place existed. “Is Og here?” she asked Kaliq. “Does he know what happened?”

“Og is here and so is your son, Dillon,” Kaliq informed her.

“Dillon should not be here yet,” Lara cried, turning to look up into his handsome face. “I said you might have him when he was twelve but not before, my lord.”

“I brought him to Shunnar but a short while back, Lara, and I did because he suddenly knew that you were in the Dark Lands. I needed to distract Dillon before your husband took him too seriously, marshaled his army and marched north. Hetar is threatening Terah. Your old friend Gaius Prospero has disposed of Anora and is divorcing Lady Vilia so he may wed his lover, a creature of our creation. But he will, I fear, be disappointed for all of his plans will come to naught. We will retrieve the lady Shifra when she has served her purpose for us.”

“And what has her purpose been, my lord?” Lara asked him, curious.

“To distract Gaius Prospero from his nefarious plans to invade Terah, which he believes weakened by your absence,” Kaliq told her. “And to break his heart.”

“Will Jonah take Vilia to wife?” Lara wondered aloud.

“Aye, he will and while it will greatly discomfit the emperor to learn of the marriage, he will believe Jonah’s explanation. That he has wed the lady only to prevent her from falling into the hands of those who would depose Gaius Prospero and to prevent her from being shamed and seeking to wreak revenge upon her former husband. Her family is a prominent and conservative one.”

“And the emperor will be grateful to his good right hand,” Lara replied with a small smile. “And then the creature you have given Gaius Prospero will disappear. Not right away, I hope. He needs to be punished for all his wickedness. If the emperor is content with this female then you have removed the curse I placed upon him, Kaliq, so he might enjoy pleasures with her. It is the only reason he would revere her, for his tastes have long since been jaded.”

“It was necessary,” Kaliq said, “and you should really have never plagued him in such a manner, Lara.” He scolded her with a smile.

“Magical or mortal,” Lara replied dryly, “all men stick together when it comes to matters of pleasure.”

The prince laughed. “You are feeling a little better,” he said.

“Aye, but I am also very tired, Kaliq.”

“I know,” he replied sympathetically. “Being in the Dark Lands for so many months has drained you of your strength. You will remain with me until you are fully recovered, my love.” His elegant fingers caressed her face.

“May I see Dillon?” she asked him.

“I do not think it wise,” he told her. “I am going to return him to Magnus today with the message that you will soon be home again. He knows now that your disappearance had to do with fulfilling your destiny.”

She nodded. “And when I do go back to my husband and children?”

“Your memories of those months spent in the Dark Lands will be gone, my love,” he said quietly. “As for those affected by your disappearance, they, too, will not remember. It will be as if you had never been gone, Lara. Magnus will remember coming for you in the New Outlands and bringing you home. The past months for you all will be recalled as any year in your lives. Nothing special will have happened. In Hetar, the war that Gaius Prospero plans will be based solely upon his fears of Terah and his need to do something to keep in favor,” Kaliq explained. “Your lives will go on as they should.”

“You can do this?” she said.

“My brothers and I, working with the Munin, can do this,” he replied. “The Munin owe us one more favor for rescuing them from Kol and the Dark Lands.”

“But Kol will not forget what has happened,” Lara said.

“Nay, he will not,” Kaliq answered her. “It is a punishment for him that he will remember that once he possessed a most beautiful faerie woman called Lara. No other will ever please him again. But he will be too busy with the sons you gave him to spend much time grieving. He must hold on to the Dark Kingdom from within his prison and in the face of the growing threat Kolbein and Kolgrim will present to him. And without the presence of their lord to hold them in check, the giants, the dwarfs and the Wolfyn will run rampant throughout the Dark Lands,” Kaliq said.

“Then I am safe,” Lara murmured. She was growing very tired and slumped against Kaliq’s shoulders. “I need to sleep,” she told him.

“Come,” he said and led her to the magnificent apartment that had once been hers.

“We will eat our evening meal in your garden.” Then he left her.

She was truly alone for the first time in months. And she was in a familiar place. Slowly Lara looked about her. She stood in the little antechamber where he had first brought her all those years ago. And then Noss had come in, and they had been so glad to have found one another again. Lara smiled with the memory. Could either she or Noss have ever imagined the future before them then? She doubted it.

Everything seemed to be the same within her apartment. It was a spacious accommodation with a dining chamber, a dayroom, a small bedroom where Noss had slept and a large bedchamber that had been hers for little over a year. There was also a small tiled bath with its own bathing pool. Lara looked down to see the same fine wool carpets in shades of ruby, sapphire, amethyst and emerald adorning the marble floors. The sheer, pale golden silk curtains blew in the soft warm breeze and beyond was a lovely green garden. Lara knew that Kaliq’s chambers were on the other side of that garden. The furniture was ebony accented with gold, as well as plush covered in silk, and was strewn with plump pillows. She walked into her bedchamber and smiled again. She had always loved this room with its pale wood walls painted with all manner of desert animals. Curious, she opened the wardrobe to see it filled as it had always been with silk robes and little leather sandals in just her size.

Her bed beckoned and pushing aside the gossamer draperies that shielded it, Lara lay down. Her destiny had been fulfilled and she was amazed by what had happened. Recalling how she had always disliked the oblique mysteriousness of her peers when that destiny was referred to, she had to laugh. Despite the magic in her, despite the powers she now possessed, Lara knew that had she ever been asked directly to do what needed to be done, she would have refused. She would not have left Magnus and her children.

And yet it had been necessary for her, for their worlds, that she fulfill that destiny. Without her the deception could not have been played out. She wondered if Kol’s Book of Rule had actually said that he would take a faerie woman for his mate, or if that had been but another part of the deception. Perhaps what had been written had not even mentioned a faerie woman at all. Perhaps that was just something that had been inserted by a power far greater than the Book of Rule’s magical author. And who had that author been? she wondered. His essence would have had to have been completely erased from memory for another to overcome the magic in the book. She had so many questions to ask Kaliq and she wondered whether she would ever receive her answers. Her eyes felt heavy suddenly, then Lara lapsed into a deep and healing sleep.

When Kaliq had left her he had gone down into the valley below to find his horse master and young Dillon. He found them in a paddock. In the few days his visitor had been in Shunnar, Og had helped the boy by getting the yearling Dillon had chosen to accept him as his master. Kaliq watched as Dillon, holding a long rein, cantered the animal about the enclosure. He had a natural ability with horses, the prince could see.

Spying the prince Dillon brought the animal to a halt. Together he and the horse bowed to Kaliq. “My lord prince,” Dillon said, “I thank you for my fine mount.” His hand reached up to rub the beast’s muzzle.

“What is his name?” Kaliq asked.

“Amir,” the boy replied. “It means king.”

“Dasras may have something to say about that,” the prince noted with a smile.

“He descends from Dasras!” Dillon said excitedly. “Both his sire and his dam were born from Dasras’s seed, although on different mares. I am certain Dasras will be very pleased to meet him!”

“Provided he acknowledges Dasras’s superiority, lad,” Og remarked. “Dasras is a great stallion. None finer.”

“My lord, does Amir have the gift of speech?” Dillon wondered.

“He will one day,” Prince Kaliq said. “He is still young. Now, Dillon, today you are to go home to Terah. You will carry a message to your stepfather for me. Amir will be here awaiting you when you come to me for a visit or for your schooling. You must tell your stepfather that your mother will shortly be returning home to you all.”

“She is here now,” the boy said. “I always sense when she is near.”

Kaliq was surprised by Dillon’s words, but then he said, “Yes, she is resting. You will not tell the Dominus she is here for she is in a weakened state and needs to remain in Shunnar for a short time in order to recover and regain her strength.”

“She was in the Dark Lands, wasn’t she?” the boy said quietly.

Kaliq nodded. “She was and for a faerie woman to exist in that dark, cold place is difficult. She has fulfilled part of the destiny to which she was born and when she is well she will be returned to Terah.” Telling Dillon the truth now did not matter for when the spell was woven to eradicate the year past he would not remember any more than Lara, who had lived it, would recall. But for now, the boy’s natural curiosity was satisfied. “It would be wise, however, if you did not repeat what I have told you to your stepfather. Magnus Hauk is a passionate man and his anger could lead him to act foolishly, I fear. All he needs to know is that Lara will soon be with him.”