The Twilight Lord. Бертрис Смолл

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СКАЧАТЬ “I am going to take your mistress with me to New Camdene,” she said. “I will return her on the morrow.” Then with a wave of her hand they were gone from before the servants’ startled eyes.

       As they rematerialized beneath the pergola in Liam’s hall, Lara said, “There now, Sholeh, that didn’t hurt at all, did it?” And she laughed.

       Sholeh laughed, too. “It is a convenient mode of transport, I will admit, but it still makes me nervous and you know I fear nothing.”

       “It is getting cool out here and the sun is setting,” Lara remarked. “Let us go into the hall. I smell food and if there is one thing about me that is solely mortal it is my appetite. I am ravenous, Sholeh, and could eat an entire side of one of Liam’s cows.”

       Warned by her husband, Noss showed no surprise when the two women entered her hall. She greeted Sholeh respectfully as an elder of the clan family and as headwoman of New Rivalen. Then she beckoned the two to be seated at her high board. There were only the four adults, Noss’s children and Lara’s having been fed earlier. They had already gone back outside to play in the long summer twilight.

       “Sholeh has agreed to take Cam until the Gathering time,” Lara told Liam and Noss. “I will transport them back to New Rivalen in the morning.”

       “And I know just the woman to care for Bera,” said Noss. “She is newly widowed, and her son would like to wed but what woman will come into a house with another woman in it? This will solve both of their problems and when Bera has departed this life we will give the woman her own cottage.”

       “Make certain she you have chosen is not easily deluded by Bera—and later, Cam. I do not want the history of Vartan’s life destroyed by their lies,” Lara said.

       “You can speak with the woman yourself and make the decision tomorrow,” Liam suggested. “It was bad enough when they poisoned little Anoush’s mind, but we cannot have their prevarications harming our people. There are always those who are quick to believe the worst or who enjoy blackening the reputations of heroes. It is five years since Vartan’s death. His legend remains but his influence has faded from the Fiacre. And there are those, too, who never trusted you, Lara, because of your Hetarian birth, although they have certainly profited by your faerie nature. Any rumor begun among us will eventually spread to the other clan families. We cannot allow divisions to separate us now that we are relatively safe once again.”

       “Thank you, Liam,” Lara said to him. “Your friendship is precious to me. You are as safe as any peoples here, but I am concerned not just with Hetar but with the Dark Lands to our north. Hetar is an ocean away. But the other…” She sighed. “Does anyone know of the people who inhabit that place? It seems to be all mountains.”

       “None of our folk have ventured north,” Liam said. “Those mountains, unlike the Emerald Range that separates us from Terah proper, seem threatening. All the clan families have enough lands where we are. Our territories are at least twice as large as those we held previously. Why do the Dark Lands concern you, Lara?”

       “I am not certain, but I sense a threat from them,” she answered. “The first time I saw them, I was on Dasras’s back and observing the sea creatures frolicking in the sea we call Obscura. Those mountains drew my eye, and I was almost overwhelmed by the aura of darkness that emanated from them.”

       “We have never seen any signs of life from them,” Liam told her. “I wonder if they are even inhabited. They certainly appear to be inhospitable.”

       “Aye,” Lara replied slowly. Then she shook off the feeling of gloom that had come over her when she spoke of the Dark Lands.

       Dillon came into the hall and went to his mother. “Anoush has gone to our grandmother’s house,” he told her.

       “I will fetch her,” Sholeh said standing up. “I want to see how Bera is faring.”

       She hurried from the hall with Dillon by her side.

       “You see how it is?” Lara said to Liam.

       “Cam will be gone on the morrow,” Noss soothed, “and you will not have to see him again. Frankly I’ll be glad to have him out of the village. Whenever he ventures out he always manages to cause trouble among the other children. There are several who are fascinated by him, but then there are always those who cannot help being drawn by the darkness and then into it.”

       “You are such a tattletale,” Anoush complained to her brother as they returned together to the hall.

       “You were told not to go back there,” he countered.

       “You are not my master, Brother. I do what pleases me,” Anoush snapped.

       “You are not old enough to do as you please,” he replied.

       “I am six,” Anoush answered, “and that is old enough.”

       “Ah, children, here you are,” Lara came toward them smiling. “I believe it is time for you to go to bed, Anoush.” She took her daughter by her hand and led her away.

       Dillon grinned after them. “My mother is surely the cleverest woman alive,” he said with a chuckle.

       “And you are much too wise for a boy so young,” Noss told him, ruffling his hair.

       “My soul, I think, is as old as time itself, dearest Noss,” he answered.

       “You will do well one day with the Shadow Princes,” Noss said.

       “My mother says I am not yet ready,” he replied sadly.

       “Do not stop trusting your mother now, Dillon,” Noss advised. “She has never failed any of us. If she says you must wait, then accept her decision and be patient.”

       “I will,” he told her but his tone was reluctant.

       “Go and fetch the boys for me,” she said. “It is time they went to bed, too.”

       With a quick smile he ran off to do her bidding.

       Noss looked out over the darkening landscape. A warm summer breeze touched her cheek and pushed at a loose strand of her hair. It sometimes seemed only yesterday she was a frightened girl from The City sold into slavery by her parents. So much had happened in the years that had passed. She often wondered if her parents still lived, and considered what they would think of the good fortune that had given her a wonderful noble husband, three healthy sons and a respected place in her community.

       And Lara. Without Lara she might have ended up a concubine to a Forest Lord, only to be killed when she had delivered a healthy son for her master. She shivered and shook off the black thought. She was the lady Noss, wife to the lord of the Fiacre. She was loved, and she was safe. There was peace and they were far from Hetar. It was enough, she thought as she rubbed her distended belly and felt the child within move lustily. “I am going to call you Mildri,” she whispered softly to herself, smiling. And then her three sons came running toward her and Noss laughed with her happiness.

      Chapter Two

      THE chamber was a square one. Its walls were black marble veined with silver. Tall silver censers burning fragrant oils lined the room, their flickering flames casting shadows upon the СКАЧАТЬ