Dillon nodded. “I understand,” he replied. “Magnus is a good man and his love for my mother is deep. While she is perfectly capable of handling any difficulty that comes her way, Magnus wants to protect her.” Dillon smiled. “Are all men in love like that, my lord Kaliq?”

Kaliq laughed. “Aye, to one extent or another, we are. You will be, too, one day when you fall in love. Love is paramount.”

“I hope that will not be for a long time, my lord,” the boy responded. “I have much magic to learn and I do not want to be distracted.”

“Then be content with lust, which can be a great deal of fun,” the prince chuckled.

“My lord!” Og gently scolded his master. “The lad is too young for such talk.”

Kaliq laughed again. “Come to my library in an hour, Dillon. I will give you the message for the Dominus then and send you home.”

“May I continue training Amir?” Dillon asked.

“Yes,” the prince said. “Enjoy your time with him now, then say goodbye. He is a fine animal.” Kaliq patted the dapple gray yearling with a gentle hand.

When the boy had gone off into the valley with the animal, Og spoke. “She really is here, my lord? May I see her?”

“She is here, but she is exhausted by her ordeal in the Dark Lands. She needs to rest, but she does want to see you, Og. Perhaps tonight, briefly.”

“So her destiny is partly fulfilled,” the giant murmured. He was dying to ask the prince what this part of Lara’s destiny had been, but did not dare.

“It was necessary for Lara to restore the balance between the light and the dark in our worlds, Og,” Kaliq told him knowing the giant’s thoughts. “The dark was becoming stronger and would have soon reached out to overcome us all. Thanks to Lara, that danger has vanished for the immediate future.”

“But it will come again,” Og said quietly.

“Sadly it will,” the prince replied. “But not for many years. The Twilight Lord who rules the Dark Lands is now confined to his castle and without him little can be done. His subjects are at a loss without strong leadership, and will quarrel with one another.”

“It was a great task then that Lara undertook,” Og said thoughtfully.

“It was a terrible task,” Kaliq replied, “but she was successful.”

“Praise the Celestial Actuary for that,” Og answered.

“Come to my garden at moonrise,” the prince instructed the giant and then he left. Returning to his library he took out a parchment, picked up his stylus and considered what he would say to the Dominus of Terah. Finally he began to write. He kept it simple and to the point. Magnus Hauk was not an easy man and his love for Lara was great. Kaliq considered how the Dominus would feel in the years to come when he began to age as all mortals did and Lara, being faerie, did not. When he had completed his brief message he rolled the parchment tightly and sealed it closed with hot wax into which he had impressed his seal.

Dillon arrived exactly on the hour. “I have said farewell to Amir for now,” he said. “Anoush will be very jealous when I tell her that you have given me a horse of my own, my lord. Perhaps one day you will give her one. Og tells me that Amir’s dam has just given birth to a little white filly.” He looked hopefully at Kaliq.

The prince laughed, ruffling Dillon’s dark wavy hair. “We shall see,” he replied. Then he drew out the rolled parchment and handed it to the boy. “For Magnus. Now, I will return you to the little chamber from whence you came, Dillon. I hope you have enjoyed being with me in Shunnar.”

“Very much, my lord prince, but I am disappointed that I learned naught of magic here,” the boy replied.

“It is not yet time for you to be educated by me, Dillon,” Kaliq said. “Remember that you were not to come to Shunnar at all until you were twelve. Your mother was not pleased when I told her you were here. But perhaps you can visit now and again.”

“But it does not really matter, does it, my lord? You will remove the memory of my stay from both of us shortly,” Dillon said with a grin.

Kaliq laughed. “I can see that you will be a fine pupil,” he told Dillon. “Are you ready now?” When the boy nodded, the prince gave a wave of his hand and his companion was gone from him. Kaliq sighed. He had enjoyed Lara’s son very much. He would miss him but the time would come soon enough that Dillon would return to be taught by the Shadow Princes. Leaving his library, he went to see if Lara was comfortable.

Entering her apartments silently he went directly to her bedchamber and saw that she was sleeping peacefully. He sat by the bedside and watched as she slumbered. Of all the women he had ever known, of the few he had loved, she was the most unique. It was not simply her delicate beauty, it was her indomitable spirit that reached out to him. Had he not been fully aware of the destiny that had been chosen for her he would have never let her leave Shunnar all those years ago. He loved her, a fatal flaw for a Shadow Prince, for while his race believed in love above all, they rarely gave their hearts to any one woman. Yet he had been fortunate in that her faerie nature had allowed her to accept him not just as a casual lover and friend but as her mentor. Kaliq slipped from the room as quietly as he had entered it.

When Lara awoke she could see, looking out into the gardens, that the day was almost finished. She stretched lazily and realized that she felt more rested than she had in months. Since the night she had been stolen away by Kol. The air about her was warm with the desert heat and fragrant with flowers. And then she saw Kaliq coming across the garden that separated their apartments. Rising, Lara went to greet him.

“Have you slept well?” he asked her, taking her into his arms and kissing her forehead. “I looked in on you and you appeared at peace.”

“I slept amazingly well considering my ordeal,” she told him.

“I am going to bathe you,” he told her with a smile.

“Magnus would not like it.”

“Magnus is not here and you will not remember this interlude,” he told her. “It is up to me to treasure you and help you to regain your equilibrium. Come!” He took her hand and brought her to the little bath that was part of her quarters. “We will not go to my palace’s baths. It will just be the two of us as it used to be.”

“I well remember how it used to be,” Lara replied with laughter.

“Do you?” he asked her, and his bright blue eyes scanned her face.

“I remember very well,” she said softly. “There is not a moment of that year I spent with you that I cannot recall if I choose to recall it,” Lara told him. “I was happy here with you and your brothers, Kaliq.”

He reached out and unfastened the robe she wore, his supple fingers undoing the embroidered front closures. And when they were all opened he pushed the garment from her. Then he removed his own robe and they stood together naked as they once had done. The bath was silent; there was no servant to aid them. The prince took Lara to a small indentation in the marble floor and stood her there. Then he took up a large sponge that he dipped in a large bowl of soft soap. He began to wash her, slowly, thoroughly, drawing the sponge across her shoulders and down her back. Rotating it about her buttocks and then stooping to do her legs. Lara lifted each foot for him, setting it back down again when he had finished. He brought the soapy sponge back up the front of her legs, over her belly, around her breasts, her chest and slender neck. Her mons had grown a bushful of golden curls over her months in the Dark Lands. Kaliq had always preferred his women denuded there, so he spread a creamy depilatory upon her mons. It would remain until he rinsed her body free of the suds now caressing it. Lastly he washed her long golden hair.

When he had finished, Lara took the sponge from him and dipping it into the bowl of sweet smelling soft soap began to wash him. It was not easy keeping her mind on the business of cleanliness, she found, when his manhood began to burgeon and swell with her touch. “Kaliq,” she scolded him, half laughing.

“We are going to make love, Lara, and you know it,” he said, pulling her against him and kissing her mouth with soft little butterfly kisses.

“I am Magnus Hauk’s wife,” she reminded him.

“You are more faerie than mortal, my love,” he reminded her. “And faerie women take lovers. Besides, as I have previously told you, the memory of this interlude will be gone by the time I return you to the Dominus. There is no harm in what we do. But come and let us rinse the soap from our bodies.”

They stepped from the bathing area and into separate indentations in the marble bath floor where small geysers of warm water rinsed their bodies and hair free of soap and the depilatory that was smeared across Lara’s plump mons. Lara closed her eyes as the water sluiced over her head, freeing it of its lather. Stepping from the small rinsing hollows they made their way to the little square bathing pool and soaked in the warm, perfumed water for a brief time. Lara had brought a thick drying cloth with her and now toweled her hair before pinning it up with a small gold pin she snatched out of the air. Then she dried Kaliq’s dark wavy locks.

“You never change,” she said. “You are as handsome as ever.”

“And you, my love, do not change, either,” he told her. “You are as beautiful as the first time I brought you to Shunnar.”

“I feel cleansed of the Dark Lands now,” she told him. “The baths there were dark and over-humid. I did not have the lovely soaps, creams and oils, or even the thick drying cloths that a civilized house would have. I’m afraid I am a very spoiled faerie woman, Kaliq,” Lara said with a little laugh.

“There is one more thing we must do, my love, to complete your transformation,” he told her. “Come, stand in the center of the pool with me.” And when he had her there he took her arms and raised them up, bringing her wrists together.