The Shadow Queen (5 page)

Taj Hauk stood up, and immediately the Great Hall grew silent. “It is time,” he told them all. Then he stepped from the dais and led his mother from the High Board through the crowds in the large chamber.

“Give us a blessing, faerie woman,” some dared to beg as they passed by, and when they did Lara would smile sweetly and say that they now had it.

“They love her,” Lady Persis said to her daughters.

“I don’t know why they should,” Narda muttered.

“Nor I,” Aselma agreed.

“It is because you do not know her,” Sirvat told them. “If you did you would not be so spiteful, sisters.”

“She bewitched our brother, and held him in her thrall, yet she could not save him from death,” Aselma said bitterly.

“It is not within a faerie’s powers to keep death away for long,” Sirvat responded. “She did what she could so Magnus might make his last wishes known. And she healed my husband of grievous wounds.”

“Well,” Narda said, “at least our husbands will be in charge of directing our nephew’s path. Terah will be as it has always been.”

“Aye!” Aselma echoed.

“How ignorant you both are,” Sirvat answered. “Terah will never be as it was. Not now that Hetar knows us. Magnus knew that, and was wise enough to raise a defense force to keep us strong and safe.”

“And that would have never had to happen if
she
hadn’t come here,” Narda replied. “
She
has brought the misfortune of strangers upon us.”

“If Lara hadn’t come our men would still be deaf to our voices, although I imagine there are times Tostig would be happy not to hear your discontented carping,” Sirvat said sharply. “Terah is the better for Lara. Our brother is gone, but she gave him a fine son who has taken his place as our Dominus. Now see if you can both cease your bitterness long enough to honor our brother as he leaves us.”

“Your sister is correct in all she says,” Lady Persis said quietly.

“What, Mother? Do you take Lara’s side now?” Aselma wanted to know.

“When Lara came I will admit I was not happy, for I expected my son to wed a Terahn girl, but the truth is none suited him. Lara, however, did suit him. She has been a good wife to your brother, giving him children, and while she is bolder than Terahn women, it pleased your brother that she was. Look at all that has happened since his death three days ago. Could any Terahn-born Domina have acted more suitably, my daughters? She has honored the customs of this land scrupulously. I know now more than ever how fortunate my son was in his choice of a wife. Now cease your meanness.”

Narda and Aselma were surprised by their mother’s words. They grew silent, and now, joined by their husbands, came down from the castle and walked in procession to the great vessel whose sails had all been raised now. Arik, High Priest of the Temple of the Great Creator, came forward joined by the High Priestess from the Temple of the Daughters of the Great Creator, Kemina. They held their hands up to the evening sky.

“As death follows life, and night the day, we give thanks, Great Creator, for the life of Magnus Hauk,” Arik said in a strong voice that carried throughout the entire crowd, and even across the fjord.

“For three days his essence has hovered near the body that housed it. It is now time for Magnus Hauk to begin his journey into the next life, Oh Great Creator,” Kemina said, her own voice carrying well.

“May he be at peace, and leave us contented in the knowledge that in his time here he did well, and that the fruit of his loins will follow in his footsteps,” Arik said. The High Priest presented the young Dominus with a flaming torch.

A small cry of surprise arose from the crowd when Taj Hauk handed the burning brand to his mother. A murmur of approval followed as Lara reached out to take her son’s hand and place it on the hand that held the torch. Together they stepped forward setting the coffin of Magnus Hauk afire. Priests from the temple quickly came aboard to see that the entire ship was torched. Taj Hauk sliced through the ropes holding the boat to the stone quay. A light wind sprang up, and the flames began to leap higher as the vessel slipped out into the fjord and began to move downstream.

The young Dominus in the company of Corrado, the men of the family and specially chosen male guests would follow the ship out to sea, escorting it until it was burned to the waterline and sank. Lara invited the women of the family to return to the castle and watch the burning boat until it was no longer visible. They came, of course, but only Lara stood watching from a garden terrace until the flames were no longer visible. She struggled to sense his presence, but Magnus Hauk had truly gone for good. He had not lingered. Once more she wept softly, alone, for she wanted no comfort now. She needed to release her grief entirely so that she might be clearheaded, and better able to aid her son as he began his rule.

Corrado’s ship did not return that night. The mourners began to return to their own homes. Aselma and Narda would have remained waiting for Armen and Tostig, but their mother told them no. She promised them that Lara would return their husbands to them by means of her magic, but they must go. “I am going, too. And Sirvat, as well.”

As she saw her mother-in-law off Lara thanked her.

Lady Persis smiled the first kind smile she had ever smiled at Lara. “You need time to gather your strength, my daughter. Remember I know the truth of my son’s last wishes, and will keep your secrets. I will return when Taj is formally crowned.” Then she kissed Lara upon both cheeks with her cold, dry lips.

“She puts me to shame by her example,” Lara’s mother, Ilona, said sourly. “Come back to the forest with me. The old witch is right. You do need to gather your strength.”

“Your realm has never given me strength,” Lara replied. “I need to be here. Terah is from where I take my strength.”

“Let me have Marzina, then, for a brief time,” Ilona said.

“Not yet, Mother. Marzina needs to be with her brother and sisters now. I will send her to you in time,” Lara promised.

“You are so protective of that child,” Ilona complained. “I am her grandmother, after all. She is pure magic, and I have much to teach her, Lara.”

Lara felt a stab of irritation. “I wish you had been as thoughtful of me when I was her age,” she said. Then she relented. “Marzina is fortunate to have you, Mother.”

“Of course she is,” Ilona said calmly. “Do you think Persis can teach her anything of value? Persis would teach her to be obedient to male domination, and how to make conserves, and sugared violets. Bah! Marzina is magic, and I will teach her how to use it. With her bloodline she will be a great sorceress when she is grown.”

“She is Magnus’s daughter, a Terahn princess,” Lara replied in an even voice.

Ilona laughed.
We know better, you and I,
she said in the silent language.

Lara grew pale.
You are cruel to remind me, Mother. Marzina must never know that the Twilight Lord violated me upon the Dream Plain when I was carrying Taj, and set his seed to bloom in me so that she was born when Taj was. You told everyone who would listen when I birthed her that she favored a Nix ancestress. No one has ever questioned her birth. Aye, magic courses through her veins, but the Twilight Lord was an evil being. I will not deny Marzina her talent, but I want it used only for good. Once you begin to teach her serious magic who knows what will be unleashed in her,
Lara said.

And only you or I can educate her to control any wickedness that may arise in her,
the Queen of the Forest Faeries replied.

“She is still too young,” Lara answered.

“She is thirteen,” Ilona responded.

“Let our lives settle themselves back into a normal pattern. I will send her to you before the next Icy Season,” Lara promised her mother.

“It is agreed, then,” Ilona said. “Farewell, Daughter.” And she was gone in a burst of purple smoke.

Lara sighed with relief. But for her daughters the castle was now empty of all guests. Everyone had returned home but for those with Corrado. She sought for her daughters, finding them in her private garden. It was a small, pretty space on a promontory that overlooked the Dominus’s Fjord. On three sides of the garden high, vine-covered walls offered a view of the water. On the fourth side a castle tower soared into the skies above. Lara slipped off her shoes before walking out onto the fresh green grass where Anoush, Zagiri and Marzina were now seated near a bed of bright yellow and white spring flowers. A small nearby miniature almond tree was in bloom, its pink blossoms delicately scenting the air. Lara came and sat with them.

“It seems strange without Father here,” Zagiri said softly.

“I cannot sense him at all,” Marzina agreed.

“He has gone,” Lara told them. “Sometimes spirits will linger, but his did not. I do not know why that is, but it is.”

“It hurt too much to stay,” Anoush told her companions. “He told me that before he went. He did not want any of us to stand still as if waiting for his return. He wanted us all to move forward with our lives.”

“Can you sense him at all?” Lara asked her eldest daughter.

Anoush shook her head. “He is gone, Mother.”

“His vessel must have gone far that those accompanying it are not yet back,” Zagiri noted. “It was a magnificent Farewell. I wonder that more Terahns do not do it.”

“Not all Terahns have access to the sea, or have vessels to burn,” Lara replied. “Usually such Farewells are reserved for a Dominus and his family.”

“What will we do now?” Marzina wondered.

“Our lives will continue as they always have,” Lara told her daughters.

“How can they without Father?” Marzina responded anxiously. “Nothing will ever be the same again, Mother!
Nothing!
”

“You are correct,” Lara said. “Nothing will ever be the same as it has been with Magnus Hauk in our midst. It will be totally different, and yet it will also be familiar. Although your father has left us, it does not mean we will change the pattern of our days. Tomorrow you and Zagiri will begin your lessons once again, and Anoush will prepare for her annual trek to the New Outlands to visit her father’s family. If Taj is back then he will resume his studies once more. Your father would not want us to stop living because he is no longer living.”

“Taj is the Dominus now,” Marzina replied. “Why should he need to continue studying? He is his own man.”

“Taj is still a boy, and his capacity for knowledge will never be satisfied, for he is like his father,” Lara said. “Besides, no man, or woman for that matter, should rule from a position of ignorance, Marzina. And none of us should ever stop learning.”

“You don’t know half of what you will need to know to be a good Terahn wife,” Zagiri remarked. “Even I still have much to learn, and I am four years your senior.”

“I do not need to know any more about cooking and soap making,” Marzina said scornfully. “I want to learn more magic. Grandmother Ilona has promised to teach me.”

“And provided your behavior is exemplary over these next few months I shall allow you to go to her just before the Icy Season,” Lara said quietly.

Marzina’s eyes widened with surprise and delight. “Oh, Mother!” she gasped. “Really? Truly? I can go to Grandmother soon?”

“If you show me that you are mature enough to be taught by your grandmother, Marzina, then just before the Icy Season begins you may go to the Forest Kingdom.
But not a moment before.
If, however, you act the spoiled princess as you sometimes do, if you play wicked magic tricks on the servants, then I shall decide that you are not yet old enough to be away from home. Your grandmother will not be an easy taskmistress.”

“I will be good,” Marzina promised.

“Hah!” Zagiri said scornfully. “I shall be amazed if you are.” She mischievously stuck her tongue out at her younger sister. “Want to turn me into a toadstool, brat?”

Marzina’s purple eyes narrowed dangerously. “Not at all,” she said sweetly, “but I might make your careless tongue sprout with toadstools, sister dear.”

Zagiri shrieked, horrified, for she knew Marzina could do exactly what she threatened to do.

“This is not the kind of behavior that will gain you the privilege of going to your grandmother’s, Marzina,” her mother said quietly.

“I didn’t say I would, Mother. I just said I might,” Marzina answered pertly.

Lara had to laugh. “Well, threatening is as bad as doing it, so control your anger in the future. You must learn that or else your magic will control you, and not the other way around.” She turned to Zagiri. “You are happy being what you are, my golden daughter. Please let Marzina be what she is meant to be. You should help one another. Now I would be alone in my garden. Leave me, my darlings.”

They all arose from the soft lawn, and the three sisters hurried back into the castle. Lara walked to the end of her garden, and, reaching a wall, looked down the Dominus’s Fjord and out to the sea. Suddenly she could just make out a faint smudge of lavender upon the horizon. It would be the sails of Corrado’s vessel, and it was headed home. A wave of sadness overwhelmed her briefly. It was finished. Magnus was gone. She felt the ice about her cold faerie heart harden with her admission of fact. The small bit of mortal within her retreated, cowed by the magic thundering through her veins now. There was no time for mortal weakness anymore.

But her brief mourning had weakened her. She needed to go where she might regain her strength again, and she knew just the place. But first she must set her household in order. Taj would return by nightfall. She could not escape until everything was as it should be. She would ask Corrado to stay at the castle while she was gone, for she could not leave her children without proper supervision. But she needed a few days to herself. She needed to draw deep from her well of strength. Even a faerie woman had her limits though few would consider that.

Lara felt a soft breeze touch her face. It smelled of both the sea and the spring flowers that grew on the cliffs around them. She breathed deep, and felt a wave of peace flow over her. A smile touched her lips. She would have a small respite before she would be needed. Her instincts told her that, and Lara was both glad and relieved. Looking out toward the sea, she could see the lavender smudge taking on the shape of sails. The return of Corrado’s ship meant a whole new era was beginning. And once again Lara’s destiny was moving closer.