The Twilight Lord

Anoush looked defiantly at her mother and then burst out, “Why did you kill our father? Grandmother says you wanted his power and that you killed Cam’s father and mother when they came to my father’s defense.”

The shock on Lara’s face was evident. Then drawing a long deep breath she said, “I did not kill your father, Anoush. His brother, Adon, Cam’s father, killed Vartan with a poisoned dagger that Cam’s mother had obtained from Hetar. Adon’s wife, Elin, had been suborned by the Hetarians and was convinced that if your father were dead, her husband would be made lord of the Fiacre. Even if Vartan had died of natural causes, Adon would have never been selected to lead the Fiacre. He was a weak, foolish and vain man who wasted his life and his energies in envy of your father. Whoever told you that I killed your father lied to you, Anoush, and a wicked lie it is.”

Anoush looked confused. She was a child, and the only people who ever spoke of her father were her grandmother and her cousin, Cam. Liam and Noss did not speak of him. And until recently she hadn’t even known that the beautiful woman who appeared now and again in the hall was her mother. Her brother had known and he had confirmed what Cam had told her of their parentage. Why had she not been told? But then recovering somewhat, she said, “Do you deny killing Cam’s parents?”

“No,” Lara said, “I do not. When your uncle murdered your father before our eyes, I had no choice but to revenge him. Fiacre law gave me that right. Adon murdered Vartan in front of their own mother and me. And Elin stood smiling at his side as he did the deed. I silently called to my sword, Andraste, who hung over the hearth, and slew them immediately before either of them might even enjoy the fruits of their treachery, Anoush. You were in the hall that day. You slept in your cradle as Vartan was slain. Now what else have you been told by that sad old woman? You know that she is totally mad, don’t you?”

Anoush said nothing.

“Surely you have more questions for me?” Lara demanded.

Finally Anoush spoke. “Grandmother says you are a faerie witch,” she said.

“I was born in Hetar of a mortal father and a faerie mother. You have met your grandmother, Ilona, queen of the Forest Faeries. Your grandfather is John Swiftsword, a Crusader Knight commander. My instincts are more faerie than mortal, Anoush, and my powers have grown stronger in the last few years. I was born to a destiny I have yet to find or fulfill, but I grow closer to it with each change in my life and I will meet that destiny one day. It is my fate to do so. I cannot escape it.

“I remained in the Outlands the summer your father died and I saw to his cremation and did him honor. I saw that much honor was done to him by the others who had admired and loved Vartan. Dillon will tell you of that time. You have only to ask him. But my destiny called and I had no choice but to follow.”

“Would you have done so if my father were alive?” Anoush asked.

“Aye, I would have and your father understood that. We both knew that one day I would go, but he would be there for you and Dillon. And then he wasn’t. Liam is your father’s blood kin. He is yours and Dillon’s, too. Noss is my best friend. I asked them to take you and your brother—for where I go you cannot always follow. My destiny is not yours. They have been good foster parents to you, Anoush. I journeyed to Terah, where I met Magnus Hauk. We fell in love and married. Much else has happened in the years since your father’s death, but I suspect I have already told you more than enough. You need only know that I love you and your brother. When I return to the castle in a few weeks, you both will return with me. It is time now for you to know your mother and your little sister. Magnus will be a good stepfather to you.”

“Is this place really the New Outlands?” Anoush asked. “Cam says it is not and that you have told us it is so when the Hetarians want us they can enslave us easily, for you are lulling us into a false sense of security.”

“This is a new place,” Lara reassured her daughter. “You are very, very far from Hetar now. Across a wide sea, in fact. The lords of the clan families know it is truth. They will tell you that the land, while similar, is not the same. The Fiacre never had a nearby lake in the Outlands, but you have one here in the New Outlands. When we go to the Dominus’s castle, you will see that Terah sits between two great oceans.”

“How can I see such a thing?” Anoush wanted to know.

“You will sit before me on my saddle as Dasras gallops across the sky,” Lara told her older daughter.

“I don’t want to leave here,” Anoush said. “I want to stay with Cam and Grandmother. Cam says Noss and Liam don’t want Dillon and me any longer because Noss is fat with another baby. Cam says they don’t want to be bothered with your children when they will have four of their own.”

“Noss loves you, and would keep you forever if I would let her, but I will not,” Lara replied. “You are Fiacre, but you are also my children.”

“If Zagiri is a princess why can I not be a princess?” Anoush wanted to know.

“Zagiri is the daughter of the Dominus of Terah,” Lara said. “She was born royal. You and Dillon are of noble birth, but not royal. You will have to wed a prince one day, Anoush, if you desire to be a princess.”

“Could you really turn me into a warty toad?” Anoush asked her mother.

“I could. My magic is very strong, my daughter.”

“I don’t have any magic, do I?”

“It would seem not. You are like your father. The only magic he possessed was his ability to shape-shift. Perhaps when you grow up a bit more we shall see if you, too, have his talents,” Lara told her daughter. “Or perhaps even some of your own.”

“Dillon has magic,” Anoush remarked. “Grandmother says he is a wicked boy.”

“Aye, your brother does indeed have magic, but he is not wicked,” Lara said.

“Does Zagiri have magic?” Anoush wanted to know.

“She is too little for me to know if she does,” Lara replied.

“Mother?”

“Yes, Anoush?”

“Why did Grandmother lie to me about you?”

“Your grandmother went mad when your father was killed and I was forced to slay her younger son in retaliation. She has never recovered but instead rewove the event so she would not have to face the truth of Adon’s treachery. It cannot be easy to accept that your youngest son has brutally murdered your eldest. And then I took my revenge on Adon and Elin so poor Bera has made me her villain. Before your father’s death, she and I were great friends and I loved her like a mother.”

“Do you still love her?” Anoush asked.

Lara shook her head. “Nay, but I feel no animosity toward her. I feel pity.”

Then Lara reached out and took her daughter’s little hand. “Have you understood all I have told you? Is there more you would ask me or tell me?”

“I understand, I think,” Anoush replied. “My faerie grandmother frightens me, Mother. When she comes to visit she is more interested in Dillon than she is in me, and she shoos me away. Dillon says it is her way and I must not be offended.”

“How typical of Ilona,” Lara murmured, almost to herself. Then she said, “Faeries can have cold hearts, my daughter. She means you no ill, but Dillon’s talents intrigue her. Did you know that I did not know her until I was grown? But that is a story for another time, I think. You will be relieved to know that your stepfather is all mortal. He will love you because he loves me, Anoush. Be kind to him, please.”

“What will I do at the castle?” Anoush was clearly fascinated now.

“You will have lessons as you do here. You will ride your own horse by the sea, and I will teach you to care for your very own garden. At night I will tell you stories before you sleep and then I will kiss you so you may have sweet dreams,” Lara said.

“I am still angry at you, and I have many more questions,” Anoush said frankly.

“I do not expect to win your heart back in an afternoon,” Lara told her child. “Just know that I love you and that all I have done is for you and Dillon and for your safety.”

Anoush nodded. “May I go back to Grandmother’s now?” she said.

“Nay,” Lara told her daughter. “I will not allow you to ever enter Bera’s house again, Anoush. You must be freed from her poisonous ravings.”

Anoush’s eyes grew dark with her annoyance, but then she said, “What am I to do if I must remain here?”

“Perhaps you might go to Noss, and give her your apologies for being so unkind to her these past weeks. She really does love you and she has taken such great care of you and your brother when I could not,” Lara said.

“Will I get to play with Cam again?” she asked.

“I don’t think so,” Lara responded. “He is not a good influence on you, Anoush. He has embroidered on his grandmother’s fantasies, I suspect, which was very cruel. Do you understand what they were doing? Bera and Cam were trying to lure you from those who love you. Why would they do that?”

Anoush swung her legs back and forth as she thought. “I don’t know,” she finally said.

“Nor do I,” Lara replied. “But it was wicked nonetheless, Anoush.” Of course she knew, Lara thought. While Adon had killed his brother and somewhere deep in her mind Bera knew it, she could nevertheless forgive him. But she could never forgive Lara for slaying her surviving son. Elin had meant naught to her, but Adon had been her baby and Lara had killed him. Deep within, Bera sought to have her revenge—what better way than to destroy Lara’s daughter who was young and impressionable? Dillon was safe from his grandmother for Bera could not reach into his heart and soul and twist them as she had twisted Anoush’s trusting little heart. If she knew the power I have gained these past years, the old woman would be truly afraid, Lara thought.

“May I go now and tell Noss that I am sorry, Mother?” Anoush said.

“Give me a kiss first, my daughter,” Lara said, wrapping her arms about the child and hugging her. “I will try not to leave you again, Anoush, but know wherever I am that I love you with all of my heart.” She kissed her daughter’s cheek as Anoush rose from her seat and then, giving her a little push, sent her off to find Noss.

Dillon appeared from out of the afternoon shadows and came to sit at Lara’s feet.

“How much did you hear?” Lara asked her son.

“Only the end,” he said. “Do not be lulled by her acquiescence, Mother. Anoush is a very willful girl. It is not Grandmother you need worry about—it is Cam. He will not like it that she is no longer available to him. When I found them today, they were in the grass and my cousin had his hand on my sister’s in a most proprietary manner.”

“I think Cam must be sent to our Sholeh in New Rivalen,” Lara answered her son calmly. “He is old enough to work in the fields until it is time for the Gathering. I had intended to remain in the New Outlands until after it concluded, but I think now I must take you both home sooner. Bera may protest the loss of Cam at first but then she will be silent. I shall ask this of Liam when he comes home today. You will tell him what you saw and he will do this for me. Where is Zagiri?”

“She fell asleep and so Noss laid her down for a nap,” the boy answered.

“Have you released Dasras into the meadows?”

“Aye, and he immediately found Sakiri and their latest foal,” Dillon said.

“After he has sated himself with her company he will fly off to the Aghy,” Lara chuckled. “He is of a mind to visit Roan’s new young mares.”

“His offspring have increased the stamina and beauty of the Horse Lord’s herds,” Dillon remarked. “Will I like Terah, Mother?”

“It will be different for you,” Lara said, “but aye, I believe you will like it. And there is so much that you can learn. You will need to know everything that you can absorb, Dillon, before you go to Prince Kaliq to study the magical arts. I am frankly surprised by your talents, my son, for you are but a quarter faerie.”

“I don’t know if what I possess is so much magic as it is intuitiveness. I see things that others do not, Mother. And I sense things, too—like I knew you were coming today. You had sent no faerie post, but I knew.”

“This is a great gift, Dillon,” his mother said. “And Kaliq will help you to refine your gift and use it for the good.”

“Anoush has a gift, too, Mother,” Dillon told her.

“Does she?” Lara was surprised. “And what is it, my son?”

“She is clever with plants and herbs. It is not magic of course, but I believe if her interest continues she might become an excellent healer,” the boy said.

“I offered her a garden,” Lara replied thoughtfully. “She seemed pleased by the notion she might have one of her own. Thank you, Dillon. This will be the means by which I win her back and bind her to the light.”

“I am so glad that you have come, Mother,” he told her.

Liam, lord of the Fiacre, came now from the kitchen. “Welcome, Domina,” he greeted her with a smile. He was holding a pitcher in one hand and refilled her cup with frine as he sat down to join her, sipping from his own cup. “Noss tells me you would take your children with you when you return home. We will miss them.”

“I will return them to the Fiacre each summer, and if they choose they may remain through the Gathering time,” Lara responded. “But it is now time for them to be with Magnus and me. They both know their parentage and their history.”

He nodded in understanding. “The children of Vartan will always be welcome here among their Fiacre kinsmen and women.”

Reaching down, Lara drew her son to his feet. “Go and stay with your sisters, for I must speak with Liam privately,” she told him and Dillon immediately left them.

“What is it?” Liam asked her. “Is there trouble coming of some sort?”

Lara laughed. “Nay, not any of which I am aware. I need a favor from you, lord of the Fiacre. I want to send Cam away while I am here with my children. Both he and Bera have been filling Anoush’s little head with all manner of lies. Had I not come when I did today they might very well have stolen my daughter and dragged her into their dark world. Once the children are in Terah, neither Bera nor Cam can harm them. We will not be able to keep Anoush from running off to find Cam if he is here. We cannot watch her constantly. As for Bera we must find a good woman to live with her and care for her.”

“Where will you send the lad?” Liam asked. “I can certainly think of a few places,” he added with a chuckle.

“To Sholeh in New Rivalen. She is kin to you both and as headwoman of her village, she has both authority and strength. Cam could be put to work in the fields until the harvest. That should keep him busy and out of trouble,” Lara said.

“Aye, he is old enough,” Liam agreed. “We will have to send a faerie post to Sholeh and request her aid in this matter.”

“Nay, I will go myself, for we are asking a great favor of her and it is in my interests that we need her help,” Lara said. She stood up from the table. “Would you mind if I went now, Liam?”

“Shall I have Dasras caught and saddled?” the lord of the Fiacre asked her.

“Nay,” Lara told him, and with a delicate wave of her hand she disappeared in a faint cloud of mauve smoke.

Liam stared and then he laughed weakly. How long had he known her, and still Lara’s growing magic always surprised him.

But he was no more surprised than Sholeh, the headwoman of New Rivalen, who jumped back as Lara suddenly appeared before her in her chamber. “Gracious!” She jumped to her feet, dropping the brush in her hand for she had been in the middle of brushing her long auburn hair. “Lara! Is it really you?” She immediately embraced her visitor.

“Aye, ’tis me, Sholeh,” Lara said.

“How can I serve you, Domina?” Sholeh was suddenly very formal for she was more than aware Lara’s visit was hardly a casual one.

“I have come to ask a great favor of you,” Lara began.

“Anything!” Sholeh responded.

Lara laughed. “Wait until I have told you what it is I want,” she said. Then she explained what Bera and Cam had been doing to her little daughter. “I came to the New Outlands with the express purpose of visiting and then returning with both of Vartan’s children to Terah. It is time they were with me again.”

Sholeh nodded her agreement and then listened as Lara continued.

“It would be too difficult and cause great dissension between my daughter and me if I had to keep her from Cam. I can only keep them apart if Cam is not there. I would have you take the boy until the Gathering. He is young, but he can be put to work in the fields, and herding cattle. Keep him busy. Hopefully that will keep him from getting into trouble. He will be so charming and polite with you that you will wonder to yourself why I sent him away. But believe me when I say that Cam, son of Adon, is filled to overflowing with wickedness,” Lara said.

“I know he is,” Sholeh responded. “I saw him with his grandmother as he twisted poor Bera’s words and thoughts. I am not fooled by his soft-spoken demeanor, Lara. Aye, I will take him and keep him tightly reined. You will want him gone quickly, I assume. What will you do with Bera?”

“We will find a good woman to live with her for she really is no longer capable of caring for herself. The woman will remain when Cam returns home after the Gathering,” Lara told Sholeh. “Will you return with me now to New Camdene?”

“I suppose we will be transported by means of your magic,” Sholeh said nervously. “Well, no matter. Come into the hall with me, and we will tell the servants so they do not worry when I am suddenly gone.”

The two women left the chamber and went into the hall where, seeing Lara, the servants greeted her with smiles.

“I am going to take your mistress with me to New Camdene,” she said. “I will return her on the morrow.” Then with a wave of her hand they were gone from before the servants’ startled eyes.

As they rematerialized beneath the pergola in Liam’s hall, Lara said, “There now, Sholeh, that didn’t hurt at all, did it?” And she laughed.

Sholeh laughed, too. “It is a convenient mode of transport, I will admit, but it still makes me nervous and you know I fear nothing.”

“It is getting cool out here and the sun is setting,” Lara remarked. “Let us go into the hall. I smell food and if there is one thing about me that is solely mortal it is my appetite. I am ravenous, Sholeh, and could eat an entire side of one of Liam’s cows.”

Warned by her husband, Noss showed no surprise when the two women entered her hall. She greeted Sholeh respectfully as an elder of the clan family and as headwoman of New Rivalen. Then she beckoned the two to be seated at her high board. There were only the four adults, Noss’s children and Lara’s having been fed earlier. They had already gone back outside to play in the long summer twilight.

“Sholeh has agreed to take Cam until the Gathering time,” Lara told Liam and Noss. “I will transport them back to New Rivalen in the morning.”

“And I know just the woman to care for Bera,” said Noss. “She is newly widowed, and her son would like to wed but what woman will come into a house with another woman in it? This will solve both of their problems and when Bera has departed this life we will give the woman her own cottage.”

“Make certain she you have chosen is not easily deluded by Bera—and later, Cam. I do not want the history of Vartan’s life destroyed by their lies,” Lara said.

“You can speak with the woman yourself and make the decision tomorrow,” Liam suggested. “It was bad enough when they poisoned little Anoush’s mind, but we cannot have their prevarications harming our people. There are always those who are quick to believe the worst or who enjoy blackening the reputations of heroes. It is five years since Vartan’s death. His legend remains but his influence has faded from the Fiacre. And there are those, too, who never trusted you, Lara, because of your Hetarian birth, although they have certainly profited by your faerie nature. Any rumor begun among us will eventually spread to the other clan families. We cannot allow divisions to separate us now that we are relatively safe once again.”

“Thank you, Liam,” Lara said to him. “Your friendship is precious to me. You are as safe as any peoples here, but I am concerned not just with Hetar but with the Dark Lands to our north. Hetar is an ocean away. But the other…” She sighed. “Does anyone know of the people who inhabit that place? It seems to be all mountains.”

“None of our folk have ventured north,” Liam said. “Those mountains, unlike the Emerald Range that separates us from Terah proper, seem threatening. All the clan families have enough lands where we are. Our territories are at least twice as large as those we held previously. Why do the Dark Lands concern you, Lara?”

“I am not certain, but I sense a threat from them,” she answered. “The first time I saw them, I was on Dasras’s back and observing the sea creatures frolicking in the sea we call Obscura. Those mountains drew my eye, and I was almost overwhelmed by the aura of darkness that emanated from them.”

“We have never seen any signs of life from them,” Liam told her. “I wonder if they are even inhabited. They certainly appear to be inhospitable.”

“Aye,” Lara replied slowly. Then she shook off the feeling of gloom that had come over her when she spoke of the Dark Lands.

Dillon came into the hall and went to his mother. “Anoush has gone to our grandmother’s house,” he told her.

“I will fetch her,” Sholeh said standing up. “I want to see how Bera is faring.”

She hurried from the hall with Dillon by her side.

“You see how it is?” Lara said to Liam.

“Cam will be gone on the morrow,” Noss soothed, “and you will not have to see him again. Frankly I’ll be glad to have him out of the village. Whenever he ventures out he always manages to cause trouble among the other children. There are several who are fascinated by him, but then there are always those who cannot help being drawn by the darkness and then into it.”

“You are such a tattletale,” Anoush complained to her brother as they returned together to the hall.

“You were told not to go back there,” he countered.

“You are not my master, Brother. I do what pleases me,” Anoush snapped.

“You are not old enough to do as you please,” he replied.

“I am six,” Anoush answered, “and that is old enough.”

“Ah, children, here you are,” Lara came toward them smiling. “I believe it is time for you to go to bed, Anoush.” She took her daughter by her hand and led her away.

Dillon grinned after them. “My mother is surely the cleverest woman alive,” he said with a chuckle.

“And you are much too wise for a boy so young,” Noss told him, ruffling his hair.

“My soul, I think, is as old as time itself, dearest Noss,” he answered.

“You will do well one day with the Shadow Princes,” Noss said.

“My mother says I am not yet ready,” he replied sadly.

“Do not stop trusting your mother now, Dillon,” Noss advised. “She has never failed any of us. If she says you must wait, then accept her decision and be patient.”

“I will,” he told her but his tone was reluctant.

“Go and fetch the boys for me,” she said. “It is time they went to bed, too.”

With a quick smile he ran off to do her bidding.

Noss looked out over the darkening landscape. A warm summer breeze touched her cheek and pushed at a loose strand of her hair. It sometimes seemed only yesterday she was a frightened girl from The City sold into slavery by her parents. So much had happened in the years that had passed. She often wondered if her parents still lived, and considered what they would think of the good fortune that had given her a wonderful noble husband, three healthy sons and a respected place in her community.

And Lara. Without Lara she might have ended up a concubine to a Forest Lord, only to be killed when she had delivered a healthy son for her master. She shivered and shook off the black thought. She was the lady Noss, wife to the lord of the Fiacre. She was loved, and she was safe. There was peace and they were far from Hetar. It was enough, she thought as she rubbed her distended belly and felt the child within move lustily. “I am going to call you Mildri,” she whispered softly to herself, smiling. And then her three sons came running toward her and Noss laughed with her happiness.