The Twilight Lord. Бертрис Смолл

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СКАЧАТЬ like that he is never wrong, though he is yet a child himself.”

       “I will be glad to have the opportunity to observe him more,” Lara said. “I had not planned to send him to Kaliq until he was twelve but if his powers are strengthening I may have to change my mind. Don’t tell him I said so,” Lara finished with a small laugh. “He is so anxious to go.”

       “I suspect he wants to be someplace where his talents are not looked upon with suspicion,” Noss remarked. “There are always those who will be frightened of magic, and often he is thought of as more your son than Vartan’s.”

       Lara sighed. “If Vartan were still alive that would not be so.”

       “I know,” Noss concurred. “It is sad, but there it is and we cannot change it.”

       “I suppose not,” Lara agreed. “Has Bera said anything since we sent Cam away with Sholeh? And how is the woman we chose doing?”

       “I don’t think Bera realizes how many days have passed since the boy left,” Noss said. “Pakwa does well with her. Bera enjoys her company and she is a marvelous cook. I actually think Bera is putting on a bit of weight. She seems less intense with Cam gone.”

       “What a pity we cannot keep Cam from her entirely,” Lara murmured. “I hope Pakwa will remain when he returns. If Cam decides he doesn’t want her in Bera’s house he will make it difficult for her to stay.”

       “Pakwa has been warned. She will concentrate all her efforts upon Bera and ignore the boy. He will have his lessons to concentrate upon in the Icy Season,” Noss remarked. “And he will go to Sholeh again next year. Or perhaps to Rendor or Roan.”

       “Don’t allow him to become close friends with anyone,” Lara advised. “He must make no allies among the clan families.”

       “Lara, he is just a child,” Noss said softly.

       “He will not always be a child and Bera has put it in his head, you may be certain, that he should one day be lord of the Fiacre. Liam will live long, Noss. I know it. But you do not want Cam causing trouble among the Fiacre as your husband grows older.”

       Noss nodded reluctantly. “I cannot help but feel if we had been raising Cam it would have been different,” she said.

       Lara shook her head. “Nay, there is wickedness in him,” she replied. “He will need to be kept under control all his life.”

      * * *

      NOSS GAVE BIRTH to her daughter in very late summer. Mildri was a pretty baby and gentle of temperament. The time of the Gathering was drawing near. Magnus Hauk would join Lara and the clan families as he had done every year since they had come to the New Outlands. It was at the Gathering that they rendered him their tribute as their overlord. Lara had sent a faerie post to her husband telling him that Dillon and Anoush would be coming home with them. The Dominus wrote back that his sister, Sirvat, had come to help. She was already preparing rooms for the children despite the fact she was great with a second child to be born in late autumn.

       Anoush had grown closer to her mother now that she was not in Cam’s or Bera’s company. Having learned from Dillon of Anoush’s proclivities for plants, Lara had started a small herb garden with her daughter. They would transplant Anoush’s plants to a new garden in Terah, Lara promised. She also taught the little girl small facts such as lavender being an excellent agent for those troubled by sleeplessness and chamomile tea being good for the nerves. One day she took the child up on Dasras with her. They traveled to the Obscura, where they watched the sea creatures playing in the waves. Anoush was fascinated by it all. The angry look had left her eyes, to Lara’s relief.

       Then, on a perfect late-summer’s night, Lara and her two children lay upon a gentle hillock almost all of the evening and watched the flying stars streaking across the black skies before the moonrise. The earth beneath them smelled green and fresh with the early dew. Then with Dillon by her side Lara walked home carrying Anoush, who had fallen asleep.

       “It was a perfect magical moment,” Dillon told his mother. “Why do the stars fly, Mother? But for this night they seem to be still in the heavens.”

       “I don’t know,” Lara admitted. “That is a question we must ask Kaliq when we see him again, my son.”

       “And when will that be?” Dillon wanted to know.

       Lara laughed. “Oh, how you long to go to the Shadow Princes!” she teased. “But this will be the first time you have lived with me in several years. Let me have a little time with you, Dillon. I am certain Kaliq would agree with that.”

       “You grown folk, magical or mortal, all stick together,” Dillon complained.

       “’Tis the only way we can survive our young long enough to teach them,” Lara told him with a chuckle.

       They entered the lord’s house, then the servant who had waited up for them barred the doors. Reaching the chamber she shared with her children each time she visited, Lara lay Anoush down in her bed with Zagiri, who was already sleeping, and drew the coverlet over them. She kissed her daughters and then she kissed her son who had already climbed into his own bed.

       “Good night, Dillon. Sleep well.”

       “I don’t know if I can,” Dillon replied. “It was such a wonderful evening, Mother.”

       Lara ruffled his hair. “You will sleep,” she told him. Then she lay down in her own bed to rest. It had been a perfect summer. In another two weeks, Magnus would join them and they would all go to the Gathering together. She was anxious to see the other clan lords and learn how they were now faring after several years in the New Outlands. Liam said that everyone was content, but she needed to hear it from their own lips. When she had arrived two months ago, the fields below her had certainly looked fertile and green. And the horses belonging to the Aghy had looked fat. But what of the others? Were Rendor’s sheep thriving? Were the dwarfs in the Emerald Mountains still getting along with the Piaras and the Tormod? Having brought them all here she would always worry about them, Lara thought. But then her eyes began to droop and she fell into a contented sleep.

       In the morning when Dillon awoke, he lay quietly considering the odd dream he had had in the night. It had seemed so very real, yet he was certain he had been sleeping. Yawning and stretching, he saw that his mother was already up. He knew she enjoyed viewing the sunrise and was usually awake before her children. Turning his head, Dillon noted his sisters were still sleeping. He smiled at them. They were both his mother’s daughters, and yet they were so very different. Zagiri was adventurous and absolutely sure of herself, which probably came from having a father in her life. Anoush, on the other hand was cautious and defensive, having lost her father before she ever knew him.

       Dillon remembered Vartan well and he made it a point to tell Anoush often of how the great Outland lord had taken her up on his saddle and ridden about his meadows with her. He told his sister of how their father had adored his little girl, that he loved both his children with all of his heart. But unfortunately Cam and Bera had told Anoush a different tale of Vartan and confused her. Dillon had to admit that he was glad Cam had been sent away this summer. He was glad that they were returning with Lara to her castle on the Terahn coast. Sadly, without her father, the New Outlands were not good for Anoush. She needed to begin anew. She needed both a mother and a father. Dillon knew that Magnus would love them because they were Lara’s children. The Dominus would treat them well.

       Dillon arose from СКАЧАТЬ