Crown of Destiny

“Then you shall go now,” Lara said.

“Wait! How will I contact you?” he asked her.

“Commit these words to memory, Amren. Grandmother, Grandmother, heed my plea. Cease all else and come to me. Say these words, and I will come to you.”

“I will remember them,” he said.

“Very well then. Farewell, my lord Amren,” Lara said. Then she magicked him away with these words. Amren, return to The City from whence you came. I’ll call when you must come again.

Terah’s ambassador suddenly found himself standing in his privy chamber within his own house in The City’s Golden District. He was astounded, and to be certain he was not dreaming he pinched himself hard. “Ouch!” he exclaimed. He was not dreaming! What an amazing thing had just happened to him. He had actually seen magic. He could no longer deny that it existed, but he would never admit such a thing aloud. He would be considered a fool, and his stature diminished if he did. But magic was real. Who knew what rewards it could bring him from his grandmother if he cooperated with her. And she asked little. Report on the gossip within the court and The City itself. And Ambassador Amren of Terah always heard the gossip first.

CHAPTER THREE

LARA RETURNED TO the castle of the Dominus. Cadi was waiting for her.

“What do you want to take, mistress?” she asked.

Lara looked about her. “Just my personal possessions,” she said.

“The portrait of Magnus Hauk?” Cadi inquired.

Lara shook her head. “Nay. I have his face painted within a small oval. I shall give the large portrait in my day room to Dominus Cadarn. Find me some guardsmen to carry it to him.”

The serving woman sought out two strong young men-at-arms, bringing them to her mistress. “You will carry a large portrait of the Dominus Magnus Hauk to Dominus Cadarn,” she told them.

Lara pointed at the big painting upon the wall. She motioned her hand up, and the picture in its ornate, carved gold wood frame rose off the wall. She beckoned the image forward with a single finger until it hung in the air directly in front of her. Then, turning her hand over, she signaled the painting down. “There,” she said to the two openmouthed guards. “You may take it now to the Dominus with my compliments.”

“Well, don’t stand there slack-jawed,” Cadi said. “Do as you are bid.”

Almost bemused, the two men-at-arms picked up the portrait between them and removed it from Lara’s apartments.

“You might have just placed it on the wall you wanted instead of letting those two clods struggle through the castle with it,” Cadi said.

“You saw how those two young men reacted when I removed the picture from the wall. They have grown up believing there is no magic. Imagine if I had simply magicked the portrait onto another wall. It’s unlikely anyone would have noticed it. I wanted those two to see my magic. Now I will seek out my great-grandson and set the painting on a wall of his choice so he may be forced to acknowledge magic,” Lara told her servant.

Cadi laughed. “This generation of mortal Terahns has really rankled you, mistress, haven’t they?”

Lara smiled ruefully. “Their refusal to believe in magic is very irritating,” she admitted. “After Taj came of age and began to rule himself, I seemed to lose interest for a while in everything. I spent time with my mother, with Kaliq, at Zeroun, even back in The City for a brief time when Zagiri needed me. I became complacent, and when I did, Magnus’s family managed to bring Terah back into its past. They did not shun me for they were too afraid of me. They simply included me as little as possible, and my travels made it all the more easy for them.” She sighed. “I let the magic die here, and they are the worse for it. I cannot change what is past, but before I leave I shall give my great-grandson a good dose of magic so that even if he chooses to ignore magic in the future, he knows that it exists whether he acknowledges it or not.” She looked about her apartments. “Nay, there is nothing to take but that which I have instructed you. Magick it all to Shunnar, Cadi. Then follow it. I shall come after I have spoken with the Dominus.”

“Very good, mistress, but one thing before I go,” Cadi said. She gestured with her hand and suddenly Lara was clothed all in gold and silver. “Mortals believe that first impressions are important, but I believe the last impression is equally important. The Dominus has not rendered you the respect that you deserve, my lady. Today he will.” Lara walked across the chamber to the long glass mirror she possessed. She viewed her servant’s handiwork. The gown was a mixture of both silver and gold, hammered as fine as the best watered silk. The bodice was sleeveless and bejeweled with multicolored small stones in red, blue, green, yellow, lavender, pink and some that were clear. Its V neckline allowed for Lara’s gold chain with the crystal housing her guardian spirit, Ethne, to be well and fully displayed. Below her breasts a skirt of tiny, narrow pleats hung gracefully. A cape of pure gold was fastened to each of her shoulders by delicate gold epaulets studded with emeralds. It would trail behind her when she walked. Her long golden hair hung loose, held by a gold circlet with a large emerald directly in its center. Upon her feet were silver slippers.

Lara smiled, well pleased by what she saw. Her own image seemed to give her new strength. It had been many years since she had allowed herself to be the faerie woman she really was. She nodded her thanks to Cadi then said, “The mirror.” With a final look about these rooms in which she had spent so many years, Lara walked through the doors into 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.