Bertrice Small - Crown of Destiny

“Kolgrim will not let him go, nor will he even hear of someone taking Alfrigg’s place as his chancellor,” Kaliq replied. “Prince Coilen has been visiting the Dark Lands, watching and listening. If Alfrigg dies we will have serious difficulties with Kolgrim.”

“Perhaps if I pay this dark son of mine a visit I can learn what he is thinking,” Lara said slowly. “He is untrustworthy, of course, but he has always liked me.”

Kaliq chuckled. “I know,” he said. “He is quite fascinated by you, which fascinates me. Until a century ago he did not even know who you were, but from the first moment he laid eyes upon you he felt a bond with you.”

Lara sniffed derisively. “He seeks to beat me at the game we of the magic world seem to play with each other and the mortals. If he ever had a triumph over me, he would no longer be interested in me, Kaliq. He is amusing, and clever, but his heart, if indeed he has a heart, is icy cold. He is like his father. He is filled with greed for everything, and with lust for everything. But if you sense that he is about to reach out again, we must learn to what purpose,” Lara remarked. “I must go into the darkness to learn what I can.”

Kaliq knew better than to forbid her, so he said, “If you go then I go with you.”

“Are you that fearful for my safety, my lord?” He surprised her.

“If Kolgrim is attempting some mischief, my love, then having you in his power would give him an advantage and but speed his wickedness,” Kaliq said. “And he is capable of holding you captive, Lara. He will never harm you for you gave him life, and he holds fast to the family law of the Twilight Lords, which forbids the shedding of familial blood. But keeping a golden bird in a golden cage does it no harm. Remember how he tricked his twin brother, Kolbein, imprisoning him with Kol.”

“I can’t forget it,” Lara admitted. “I am ashamed to admit that I thought it extremely clever of him.”

Kaliq laughed. “It was,” he said. “But it is evidence of how dangerous Kolgrim really is. If we cannot stop him, he will envelop the world of Hetar in a deep and terrible darkness from which they may never escape.”

“Then we have to stop him, Kaliq,” Lara said. “However we must first learn what wickedness he plans before we may take measures to prevent it.”

“Let us first see what Coilen can learn,” Kaliq suggested.

“Very well,” Lara agreed. “But if he can learn no more than he already has, I must go into the Dark Lands myself to see what I can see.”

They decided they would give the Shadow Prince known as Coilen a moonspan in which to ferret out any information that he could. But when the month had passed Coilen came to tell Kaliq and Lara that he could learn nothing. Whatever Kolgrim was planning he kept it to himself. Possibly the old chancellor, Alfrigg, knew, but he was not a man to gossip.

“There is nothing of any interest to report,” Coilen said, “unless you are interested in hearing that it is said Kolgrim may take a mate. But that rumor comes up now and again. It means naught.”

A chill ran down Lara’s spine. “No!” she said sharply. “How long has it been since that rumor was last heard and bandied about?”

Prince Coilen thought for several long moments. “I don’t think I have heard it,” he said slowly, “in decades. It was spoken in the mating season after he disposed of Ciarda, and possibly a season or two afterward. But nay! I have not heard it in decades, Lara. Can it mean something?”

“Possibly,” Lara answered him. “Has anyone new, anyone dark, been brought to the Twilight Lord’s House of Women lately?”

Coilen shook his head. “Actually he has but few women. Many Darklanders hid their daughters after what happened in the wake of Ciarda’s death.”

“What exactly did happen?” Lara wanted to know.

“Kolgrim had his daughters, their mothers and any of his many women who might be with child, or were known to be with child, murdered. Then he put a spell on the remaining women closing their wombs to his seed and keeping them young. He slakes his lust with those few, but there have been no more children. It is reported he said he wanted no siblings challenging his son’s right to inheritance one day.”

Lara smiled grimly. “Ciarda’s legacy,” she said. “Had his half sister not attempted to usurp her brothers’ place this would not have happened at all. Kolgrim is truly Kol’s rightful heir that he could have been so heartless as to slaughter all those innocents to protect a son not even conceived by a bride not even known.”

“That is the past,” Kaliq said. “We must consider the present and the future.”

“We will need to know if Kolgrim is truly planning a marriage for himself. Has the Book of Rule directed him to find a bride? Or has it told him the bride to seek? These are the questions we must answer before we can proceed, or even decide how to proceed,” Lara told him. She felt stronger today. Stronger than she had felt in years. The Shadow Princes, in generously sharing their passions, had passed on to her a measure of their power. They did not, Lara knew, do this lightly. “I thought once,” she said to Kaliq, “that my destiny was to unite Hetar’s civilizations. Now I know it is to save them. But am I strong enough?”

“Only time will tell us that, my love,” the Shadow Prince answered her.

“I AM BORED,” MARZINA, THE YOUNGEST DAUGHTER of Lara, announced with a sigh. She was a very beautiful young faerie woman with long straight black hair and violet eyes. Seated by a small pool she combed her silky tresses with a mother-of-pearl comb.

“How can you be bored?” Ilona, Queen of the Forest Faeries, her grandmother, wanted to know. “There is so much to do in the forest. What happened to your lover?” Ilona was seated upon a delicately woven rug that had been laid upon the forest floor. “He was rather nicely made for a mortal. You have such a good eye, child.”

“I sent him away,” Marzina answered. “He was becoming as boring as my life now is, Grandmother. Perhaps I shall go home to Terah and visit my mother. I do enjoy seeing how it upsets the Dominus to have both of us in the midst of his court. I know his thoughts. He refuses to accept magic, and thinks we should both be long dead. It makes it very difficult to deny the existence of something when it is standing there in front of you.” And she laughed mischievously.

Ilona laughed, too, but then she said, “Your mother has finally left Terah, and no sooner had she departed than the Dominus, her great-grandson Cadarn, began dismantling the southwest tower of the castle where she lived. I suppose he thinks if he destroys her home she cannot come back. But he will never get that tower down for each night after his workmen have left it I use my magic to rebuild the tower.” Ilona chuckled. “The Terahns are beginning to be frightened, and Cadarn is quite frustrated. He even attempted to blow up the tower. Eventually he will simply give up. He may put Lara from his thoughts, but he will not destroy the evidence of her existence in Terah.”

“I suppose Mother has gone to Shunnar,” Marzina said casually. “She always runs to Kaliq when she weakens.”

“Your mother has done great things for Hetar and Terah,” Ilona said quietly. “Do not be angry at Lara because Kaliq loves her. He did from the moment he first laid eyes on her, Marzina. Your mother and Kaliq are life mates. They always were, but your mother had a path to follow, and she did.”

“Mother has never been kind to me since Kaliq tried to seduce me. She blamed me, Grandmother,” the young faerie said. Though she had lived over a hundred years, she looked no older than a girl of sixteen.