Crown of Destiny. Бертрис Смолл
the corridor. It was unlikely she would ever return here.
She closed her eyes briefly so she might see where the Dominus was. She smiled. He was in his Throne Room at this moment, surrounded by his small court, his wife, the Domina Paulina by his side. Lara decided as she walked toward the Throne Room to make a simple entry. “Announce me,” she said to the dignified, elderly majordomo at the door. “The Domina Lara.”
The majordomo walked silently forward. He pounded the silver-knobbed staff of his office upon the floor of the chamber. “The Domina Lara, widow of Dominus Magnus Hauk, daughter of a queen, enters this chamber now,” the majordomo said in stentorian tones. Then he murmured in a voice only she could hear, “I am the grandson of Ampyx, great lady. I remember what others choose not to recall.” With a small courtly bow he stepped aside so Lara might enter the great chamber.
His words almost brought her to tears. “Faerie blessings on you, grandson of Ampyx,” she murmured as she passed him by. Ampyx had been Taj’s personal secretary. The crowded throne room parted to let Lara pass through. Her cape shimmered as it moved behind her. She saw the stares and heard the whispers as she moved by these Terahn mortals. Finally reaching the foot of the throne, she bowed low to her great-grandson. “Greetings, Dominus Cadarn, son of Amhar, grandson of Taj, great-grandson of Magnus Hauk,” Lara said in her beautiful voice.
“Greetings, Great-grandmother,” he replied. He was uncomfortable addressing her in this manner, for she was so young and so beautiful that she appeared to be no more than in her late twenties. His great-grandmother should be ancient and bent. Nay! She should be long dead.
“I have come to congratulate you, my lord Cadarn,” she responded.
“Congratulate me?” Cadarn Hauk looked genuinely puzzled. “What have I done to deserve your praise, my lady?”
“Why your decision to send your younger brother, Cadoc, to Hetar as its new ambassador is brilliant, as is your determination to elevate your uncle, the lord prince Amren, to the new position of Lord High Trade Commissioner for Terah. Your cleverness has brought great status to Terah within Hetar, my lord. And so I hope you will accept my congratulations. I feel comfortable now at long last in my own decision to leave Terah.” She smiled up at him.
He was astounded. Looking out over his court, he saw that they were all frozen in place. “What have you done?” he asked her nervously.
“Given us an opportunity to speak privately. No one will hear us, and when we are through none of them will even realize this small interlude happened,” Lara told Cadarn Hauk quietly.
The Dominus sat down heavily upon his throne. “I told no one of my decision to send Cadoc to Hetar,” he said. “How could you know?”
“You have never believed in me, my powers or my world, Cadarn. But that does not mean we, it, do not exist. We do. You are right to replace Amren. He has lived in Hetar for most of his life and is more Hetarian than Terahn. He has reached an age where he would garner some wealth, for wealth is all-important in Hetar. Nonetheless he has served you faithfully and honestly. That is why you will give him this new position. He maintains his status in Hetar, brings more stature to Terah and can do no harm as a trade emissary.”
“And he can collect his bribes,” Cadarn said with a small smile. Then the smile was gone. “I do not like being told what to do, my lady. I do not like a mere female making my decisions for me. But you are damnably clever. You have gained your own way while making it all appear as if I have done this. Very well, I agree.”
“Thank you,” Lara said softly.
“You say you are leaving Terah? Why? And where will you go?” the Dominus Cadarn asked her. “I know that you and I have no close relationship, but you are my blood. For the sake of Magnus Hauk I need to know you are safe and cared for, my lady.” Turquoise-blue eyes, so like her late husband’s, looked directly at her.
“I am going to Shunnar, the palace of the Shadow Prince Kaliq. I should have departed Terah years ago, but I could not seem to make myself go despite all the changes that I despised happening about me. Kaliq is my life mate, and I have always had a home at Shunnar. I will be more than safe in my own magical world, Cadarn. But I am touched that you would consider my welfare.”
“I have heard you speak of this Shadow Prince before, my lady, but Shadow Princes are but legend. They do not exist now, indeed if they ever did,” Cadarn said.
Lara shook her head in amazement. “Cadarn, look about you. Your court stands frozen. I have stopped time. You stand in the presence of magic, and yet you do not believe. Do your eyes not see, my most mortal descendant? How do you explain to yourself the great-grandmother who looks like a young woman? How do you justify any of this? Do you think you dream, Dominus of Terah?”
He had the grace to look briefly confused, but then he said, “I do not have to account for any of this, my lady. Perhaps I do dream. And if you truly mean to go, it will make it easier, for then there shall be no one whispering about your unseemly appearance, or the superstitious murmuring about something that is not like magic. No one here really knows you. The wife of Magnus Hauk is more legend than truth.”
Lara shook her head. “You are a fool, Cadarn. Your great-grandfather was unique in that his mind was more open than any Terahn before him, and since him. While Magnus Hauk ruled, Terah existed in a golden age. But those who could not, would not, tolerate change have destroyed all he and I worked for, Cadarn. There is nothing left of our world, and I weep. Once Terah was a shining light. Now you have allowed Hetar to bring world-weariness and corruption into it. You believe in nothing. I pity you.”
“Lady,” he said, “I think you are ill. Return to your apartments, and I will send the physician to care for you.”
Lara laughed. “Nay.” She turned toward the court, and with a small motion of her hand, restored all as it had been. “Lords and ladies of Terah,” she said to them, and curious, they looked at her. The men admired her beauty. The women her rich garb. “Your Dominus does not believe the witness of his own eyes. He claims there is no magic in your world, that there are no Shadow Princes. He is wrong. Now behold the truth! Prince Kaliq, heed my call, and come to me from out yon wall!”
The great Shadow Prince stepped forth from the chamber’s wall and walked to where Lara stood. “Is it time, my love?” he asked her.
It is time. Let me depart first, and then you will make your exit. These fools will not believe in magic, and so I would leave them with something their own eyes cannot deny, my lord.
The men and women in the chamber were buzzing with astonishment. They stared at the tall dark-haired man with the bright blue eyes who was so richly, yet simply garbed. They had all seen him step from the wall. How had that happened? Was it some Hetarian conjurer’s trick?
Lara turned again to look at her great-grandson. “I will leave you now, my lord Dominus,” she told him. “I will not desert Terah, but you may not see me again, Cadarn Hauk. Explain away the magic you have viewed today. But it does exist.” She looked to Cadarn’s wife. “Faerie blessings upon you, Domina Paulina,” Lara said in a gentle and kind voice. “Now farewell!” There was a clap of thunder. A thick puff of lavender smoke rose about her. When it cleared, Lara was gone from the castle’s Throne Room.
The Terahns gasped aloud collectively, looking about for her.
“Farewell, Dominus,” Kaliq said. Then with a dramatic swirl of his cloak, he, too, was gone.
Cadarn Hauk called out to the servants in the chamber, “Open the windows at once! We have been poisoned by some bad air, and seen that which does not exist.” He turned to his wife. “Are you all right, Paulina?” he inquired solicitously.
The Domina nodded silently. Her husband might deny what they had just seen, but she could not. Being a proper Terahn wife, she kept her thoughts to herself.
* * *
WATCHING WITH KALIQ from the ether, Lara heard the Domina’s thoughts and smiled to herself. Then they reappeared in Shunnar together.