Bertrice Small - The Twilight Lord

Finally Kigva spoke. “What will you do now, my lady?” she asked softly.

Vilia laughed and then she turned to Kigva with a brilliant smile. “Let him be made Lord High Ruler if he can indeed manage it,” she told her serving woman. “Becoming it and remaining it are two different things, my girl. I have said it is time for the women of Hetar to speak up and indeed it is. Thanks to Gaius Prospero’s wars we are now the majority. We must now speak up for our rights and the rights of the generation of women to come.”

“Not all women will support you, my lady,” Kigva replied.

“More will than won’t,” Vilia answered. “I will not be pushed aside any longer because of my sex. Besides, women are wiser than men. It is not simply Lady Lara’s magic that makes the Domina of Terah respected by her husband and her people. It is her wisdom.”

“Would you rule Hetar, mistress?” Kigva queried.

“I will rule Hetar one day,” Vilia responded. “It is my fate as the twelfth generation of the descendants of Ulla, the favored concubine of a great sorcerer. It is said that before she died she said that the twelfth generation of her descendants would rule Hetar. I am the only descendant in the twelfth generation. I once believed that it was my lot to be Gaius Prospero’s empress, but it was not. And then Jonah promised me that I would be his empress, but now he makes himself Lord High Ruler and tries to relegate me to a subservient position. Is it not obvious to you, Kigva, that if I am to rule Hetar that I will do it in my name and not a man’s?”

Kigva nodded.

“Then you will help me to work toward that goal,” Vilia told her serving woman. “And you will continue to keep my secrets, will you not?” She smiled at the younger woman. “I am quite certain that Tania, the late emperor’s slave woman, will offer her services to my lord Jonah. She probably already has. She is a clever woman, and quick to watch for every advantage. Do not trust her, Kigva. She will attempt to worm her way into your confidence, but beware of her no matter what she says.”

“If she is a slave, can she not be sold away?” Kigva asked.

Vilia shook her head. “The emperor will have freed her with his death. He was always most fond of her and she was totally loyal to him.”

“I will be careful of her,” Kigva promised. “I will not reveal your secrets, my lady, and one day you will fulfill your ancestress’s prophecy. I know that you will!”

Vilia smiled again. “Yes, I will,” she said.

“THE EMPEROR IS dead,” Lara told her husband.

“It is as you said it would be,” Magnus Hauk replied. He was no longer interested in Hetar. The danger had been nipped in the bud, and everything was back to normal. The Twilight Lord was penned in his castle in the Dark Lands. The giants were now allies of Terah. The Wolfyn had been decimated. And as Lara had predicted, the dwarf nation was not about to go to war for Kol. Their task was to protect the two heirs to the Dark Lands.

“Jonah has managed to get himself elected something called Lord High Ruler,” she continued. “How quickly he has distanced himself from everything having to do with Gaius Prospero,” Lara said. “He has even managed to relegate Vilia to a place of unimportance. I doubt she is pleased with that. Once again, a husband has betrayed her.”

“We need not be concerned with Hetar or its convoluted politics,” Magnus Hauk said. “It has naught to do with us, my love.” He lavished a warm and loving smile on her. On her swelling belly where his son now resided. His son! He could hardly wait to hold the boy in his arms. He loved Lara’s children and he loved their daughter, Zagiri, but a man needed a son to carry on his name. This child would be his heir. This child would be the father of generations of Terahn rulers to come.

“There is no escaping Hetar, my lord,” Lara told him. She had felt his thoughts, and frankly found herself irritated. This child in her belly had come from her love for Magnus Hauk, but suddenly he was behaving like a typical man and not the man she loved. “There can be no pretending that everything will return to what it was before our lands knew one another. Everything has changed, Magnus.”

“Aye, we know one another, but praise the Great Creator that an ocean separates us. The rules for trade between our nations have not changed. To all intents and purposes Hetar does not exist for us,” the Dominus said.

Lara sighed deeply. “Magnus,” she said, “Hetar very much exists for Terah. Do you think that Jonah will be content to leave things as they are, knowing that we are here? We will gain some respite from him while he rebuilds his power base, but then we will have no choice but to deal with him and with Hetar.”

“But for now they are out of our lives, and we don’t have to,” he replied. “You must not distress yourself, my love.” His hand reached out to touch her growing belly.

Angered by his refusal to see or understand, and furious that he was treating her like some prized breeding animal, Lara abruptly got up and left him. Going to the stables she saddled Dasras and rode out from the castle. “Fly,” she told the great stallion. “I need to get away from my husband, who is behaving like a perfect fool. If I remain I may say something I should not.”

Dasras unfolded his great white wings and took to the skies above. “Where should we go?” he asked her. “And if he is concerned by your condition I must tell you that I agree with him. A mare in foal should be treated carefully.”

Lara sniffed irritably at him. “Just fly up the fjord,” she instructed him. “No! Take me to the Temple of the Daughters of the Great Creator. I shall visit with Kemina.”

“Perhaps the high priestess can talk some sense into you,” Dasras muttered.

“You are becoming a worse old woman than Magnus,” Lara snapped at him.

The great golden stallion said nothing more. When they were within a few miles of the temple Dasras touched down as was his custom and galloped the remainder of the way, finally trotting into the courtyard where a young priestess came forward to take his bridle as he came to a stop. The bell announcing visitors was already being rung to herald her arrival. Recognizing the horse and its rider, the priestess bowed as Lara slid from Dasras’s back.

“Where is Lady Kemina?” she asked.

“You will find her in the small garden of her house, my lady Domina,” the young priestess said to Lara.

With a nod of thanks Lara hurried off to find the high priestess while Dasras was led off to be fed and watered.

Kemina had heard the visitor’s bell and was already coming from her garden to greet Lara. Her deep blue eyes were welcoming as the two women embraced. Setting Lara back, she looked at her sharply. “You are with child,” she said.

“I am giving Magnus his son,” Lara told her.

“How lovely of you to come and tell me yourself,” Kemina replied. “I suppose the Dominus is behaving like a perfect fool, attempting to keep you encased in cotton wool,” she chuckled. “I know how you dislike it when he treats you like a child.”

Lara laughed. “I had to get away from him or this babe would have been fatherless,” she admitted. “May I remain with you for a few days?”

“Does he know where you are?” Kemina asked softly.

“Nay,” Lara answered. “I simply went to the stables, saddled Dasras myself and came. It is not like this is my first child, Kemina, yet he persists in behaving like I am some fragile creature who will shatter if breathed upon.”

“But it is more than that,” Kemina noted wisely.

“Is it that obvious?” Lara said.

Kemina smiled. “Aye, it is. What else has he done?”