The Shadow Queen (31 page)

“You are clever, Darkling,” he replied. “We will do well together. Now tell me. When am I to be revealed as Hetar’s great hope?” He laughed softly.

“You will appear first in the Coastal Kingdom, where you will perform several wonders that will be reported to the Lord High Ruler. I want Jonah to be afraid of what is to come. You will disappear from the Coastal Kingdom mysteriously only to reappear in the Midlands, where your miracles will be even more amazing. The gossip will race forth into The City, where eventually you will make a grand entrance. Once there we will go about winning over the magnates and others of importance. That is all you need know for now,” she told him.

“When will this all begin?” he asked.

“Toward the end of the Icy Season when the populace will have endured another bitter few months. Food will be scarce. The cold will be numbing. Sickness will run rampant as the spring rains begin. And then the Hierarch will come promising to end the want, the plagues, the general unhappiness of the population. You will promise to return Hetar to the days of her glory. You will point out that all these changes that have been made have not bettered Hetar, but ruined it. That by flouting the great traditions of Hetar, Hetar has been almost destroyed.”

“And will I be able to return Hetar to its former grandeur?” Cam asked the Darkling. “Will my promises be good? Or will they be worthless?”

“There are enough of those who wish to return to the old days to help us do just that,” Ciarda said. “The Crusader Knights and the Mercenaries are both unhappy. The magnates are not pleased that certain Pleasure Women now own their own houses, cutting the magnates out of what had been a most lucrative business. There is enough discontent among the wealthy and formerly powerful to work to our advantage, my lord Hierarch.”

“And when the Hetarians are convinced the good old days have returned?” Cam asked her. “What then, Darkling?”

“Then you will rule in Hetar, my lord Hierarch. I will give you several cohorts of Wolfyn to keep the peace. And the darkness will fall over the land even as my father desired it,” Ciarda said with a smile. “He will be so proud of me.”

“If he lives,” Cam told her. “But why would the Twilight Lord be pleased to see a slip of a female succeed where he had failed? You fool yourself, Darkling, when you say you do this for your father. You do it for yourself, for you are an ambitious woman. You will see the women of Hetar subjugated once again while you overcome all odds to take power for yourself. You are wickedly clever.”

“And you are too clever,” she responded. “What makes you think I will not dispense with your services once I gain what I want?”

Cam laughed. “Darkling, you need me, for no other lover has ever satisfied you as I do, and your appetite for pleasures is as great as mine.”

Ciarda looked irritably at him, but then she said, “You are right, my lord Hierarch. Not even the Wolfyn have your talent for pleasures. Perhaps when I have accomplished all I desire I will take you for my consort.”

Cam laughed again. “My aunt will defeat you, Darkling. But as long as I rule Hetar and Anoush is by my side, she will not care.”

“You are nothing without me, Outlander!” she cried.
“Nothing!”

“I will not argue the point with you, Darkling. I am but an ordinary man without your magic. But you will continue to give me that magic because I suit your convenience. You will find no other to play the part who can lead the people of Hetar into your web, Ciarda. I know my own worth. Do you?”

He was right, of course, but the truth rankled her. A stupid man would not be able to convince Hetar that he was who he said he was. Cam was everything the legend said the Hierarch was. His appearance was like a sunrise, sudden and unexpected in its beauty. His charm could make every person who heard him speak believe that he was speaking directly to them. “We must not quarrel,” Ciarda said. “Our goal is Hetar, and you will rule it as my govenor, my lord Hierarch. We must be united.”

“Agreed,” he said. “Now leave me be until you absolutely need me, Darkling. I would court Anoush, and it is difficult enough without your interference.”

“Very well.” She pouted. “But you must give me pleasures before you leave me.”

He granted her wish, and when he finally left her Ciarda lay but half-conscious and in a weakened state. He did not even glance back at her as, using her magic, he returned himself to his own bed. In the morning he arose early, and, going to a nearby hot spring, washed his body free of the stink of their lust. It would not do to go to Anoush smelling of another woman. He wanted to rid himself of every memory of the Darkling for now. He wanted to simply be Cam, a herder from Rivalen, who wanted to court Anoush, a maiden of Camdene.

In the hall that morning he went to Sholeh, the headwoman, who had acted as his foster mother these past few years. She smiled warmly at him as he approached her.

“Good morrow, Cam,” Sholeh greeted him.

He took her hands up in his, and kissed them respectfully. Then he knelt before her. “I would beg a boon of you, my lady. If you can grant it my heart will be happy.”

Sholeh reached out and ruffled his curly dark hair. “What do you want, Cam? If it is within my power I will give it to you.”

“Invite my cousin Anoush to visit with you, lady,” he asked her softly. “I cannot shirk my duties to the herd, which makes it impossible to know Anoush again. If she were here with you we could sit together in the evenings by the fire and talk. Perhaps she would bring a basket out to the meadow in the noonday so we might eat together.”

“Ah,” Sholeh said, “to be young and in love again.” She smiled fondly at him. “Of course I will ask my kinswoman Anoush to come and visit with me, Cam. I will send a message to her today via faerie post.”

His handsome face lit with pleasure, and he kissed both her hands again. “Thank you, my lady! Thank you!” Then he rose to his feet.

Sholeh laughed. “Are you so eager for a wife, Cam?” she asked him.

“Until now, nay, but now that I have seen Anoush again, aye!”

“Do not hurry the maid, Cam. Anoush is a careful girl. Take time to reacquaint yourselves again. If she cares for you none will dissuade her. You have time,” Sholeh advised him. “I believe you can rekindle the feelings Anoush had for you as a child.”

“I hope so!” he said earnestly.

There was a boyishness about him that touched Sholeh’s heart. Cam saw it and was satisfied that Sholeh would do whatever she had to to help him. The Lord High Ruler of Hetar had been clever in taking a princess of Terah as his wife. But he had made a mistake in angering her mother by stealing the girl. When Anoush agreed to be his wife he would go to her mother and plead for her permission to make her his bride.

He knew that when Hetar had been taken by the forces of the Darkling, and he was given the power to rule it, he could take his revenge on Lara. He would see that both of her daughters were turned over to a new Pleasure House he would create especially for the rapacious Wolfyn soldiers. Within a few months both of the young women would be dead, but those last months would be spent in an agony of unending pleasures as they were used over and over and over again. Thus would he destroy the faerie woman who had murdered his mother and father. She would never forget how her two daughters had ended their lives, nor that she had been unable to prevent it, for the Darkling would put a spell around that Pleasure House that could not be broken.

Cam smiled. He suspected that Ciarda had planned to just give the two sisters to the Wolfyn despite her vow not to harm them. But his way was a far more refined torture, and he knew when he told her the Darkling would appreciate the subtlety of his plan. Multiple rape by the Wolfyn would kill Anoush too easily. Zagiri would last longer, but she, too, would succumb quickly enough. Setting the sisters in a Pleasure House to endure the slow attentions of their cruel Wolfyn lovers was a far more satisfactory revenge.

He would be sorry to lose Anoush for he did have feelings for her. But the knowledge of what he must do would make their time together all the sweeter for him. In the end, however, she would have to be sacrificed, for he must have his revenge against her mother. And he was being quite generous. He was taking only two lives for the two taken. The laws of revenge did allow him more, but he was not a greedy man.

True to her word Sholeh sent an invitation to Anoush to come and visit. Several days later Anoush rode into Rivalen on a small golden mare, one of Dasras’s daughters. And that same evening she walked hand in hand with Cam beneath the autumn stars. It was the beginning of their romance, and as that romance deepened word spread among the Fiacre clan families that the daughter of Vartan was being courted by the son of her father’s killers. Anoush’s other suitors were outraged.

But when the respected headwoman, Sholeh, kin to Vartan, defended the lovers, pointing out what a fine man Cam had become beneath her tutelage, opinions began to change. Especially when Anoush and Cam were seen together, and they were so obviously in love. Winterfest came, and Cam was ready to solicit Lara’s permission to ask Anoush to be his wife. Forewarned of this by Noss, Lara chose instead to go to Shunnar. She did not often join the Fiacre except for those weeks late in the summer, so it would hardly be thought odd.

Seated at supper with Kaliq, Lara said, “Noss still does not like Cam despite what everyone else seems to think. Our friendship goes back so far that I trust her instincts as much as I would trust mine.”

“And what do you think?” Kaliq asked.

“He seems changed, and yet…” Lara paused. “There is little light surrounding him. He says all the right things, but beneath his smiles and fine words I sense something else although I have not been with him enough to put my finger on it.”

“You don’t want to be with him, do you?” the prince said as he reached for a small bunch of grapes.

“Nay, I do not,” Lara admitted. She took a golden apricot, split it with her two thumbs and ate one half of it. “Every time I look at him I see his parents. I do not care what others may think of him. Yet Anoush is in love with him. She does not remember her father for she was a baby when he was killed. All she knows of Vartan is his legend. Yet Cam has managed to revive those feelings she had for him as a little girl before Dillon warned me of his wickedness. Anoush’s letters to me are so sweet, Kaliq. So filled with the joy and wonder of first love. How can I who have known such great love in my own life deny my child love? I thought others would court Anoush, that she would come to consider Cam as her kinsman only. It has not happened, and now he would wed her. If I allow him to ask me for her what can I reply feeling as I do? I do not want this man as my son-in-law. I do not want grandchildren from his black blood. If I refuse him will my daughter turn against me as Zagiri did?”

Reaching out, he took the other half of the apricot from her hand, sucking the juice from her fingers before he ate it. He did not release her hand. “I am pleased to see your instincts are as sharp as ever despite these last months, my love. I told you that we had set a watch upon Ciarda. We have discovered some very interesting things about her. Cam is her lover, and the skill of his passions has enslaved the Darkling. We have not dared to come too close to her for we are not yet certain ourselves how attuned her senses are. Remember, she seemed to know she was being observed when you first sought her out. As soon as we can determine the proper cloaking we must use to hide our presence from her we will know more. But for now you understand that if Cam is Ciarda’s lover there is some wickedness afoot between them. Your daughter must not be involved further with him. If necessary we can bring Anoush to Shunnar for her own safety.”

“Nay, Kaliq, that would but alert Cam that we suspected something of him. Let me put Anoush into a deep sleep from which she cannot be awakened by mortal hand. I will surround her with a protective barrier so that the Darkling cannot harm her. Cam dares not ask me for my daughter’s hand when she lies in an unconscious state from which no one can arouse her. And when I am called to her side I will deny all knowledge of what has befallen my child. You and I both know that to forbid Anoush the man she believes she loves would be fatal, for then she would be even more determined to have him. In that she and her sister are alike.”

“In that all females are alike.” Kaliq chuckled. Then he grew serious. “There is one more gate that must be closed to prevent your mare from escaping. We must bar the Dream Plain to Anoush. Her sleep must be one without even the remotest chance of a dream where something evil might approach or attack her. If there is some reason why Cam needs to wed Anoush he will use the Darkling to reach out to her and force her awake so his purposes may be realized. I would come with you when you set the spell, Lara. Not because I do not believe you are capable, but because you will need all the help that can be given to you.”

“I will not argue that, Kaliq,” Lara replied. “My primary concern is that Anoush be kept safe from any and all harm. Now that you have told me of Cam’s involvement with the Darkling I cannot believe his feelings for my daughter are genuine.”

“There is indeed something wicked afoot, my love,” he said. “I had hoped when we imprisoned Kol for a thousand years there would be peace. This Darkling is an ambitious female, something that is very rare among denizens of the Dark Lands. I wonder who her mother was. One day I will satisfy my curiosity to that. For now we must contain the evil she would perpetrate.”

“Sometimes I grow tired of this constant battle,” Lara said candidly. “Sometimes I wish we might just go to Zeroun, and never return. But then I know I have a destiny, and a purpose in life. I feel the strength filling me again.”

“And that is as it should be,” Kaliq told her. “Even those of us in the magical realms feel despair now and again. I suspect we should feel that way even if we only dealt with our own kind.” He chuckled. “But the Celestial Actuary has given us the task of monitoring the mortal races, and they are not easy creatures under normal circumstances. But when the darker among our numbers seek to encourage them mayhem is certain to ensue, my love. This is a never-ending battle between the light and the dark.”