The Sorceress of Belmair (25 page)

They nodded, and then turning as one, the faerie trio opened the tunnels to their destinations and raced into the golden light.

“One. Two. Three,” Nidhug said. And then,
“Bring all the young women of Belmair to me, so they may protected be. This hall from Yafir is now sealed. My magic cannot be revealed.”

And the hall was filled with all females of childbearing years. They looked about them, startled, and then seeing the dragon gasped with a single collective voice. Nidhug immediately spoke the spell.

“Protect the women of Belmair from all harm and the Yafir. Keep them close within their home. They cannot with a Yafir roam. This spell is an unseen token. It cannot, shall not, ere be broken.”

There was total silence in the hall. “You are safe now from the Yafir, women of Belmair.” Nidhug told them. “Now I will return you to your homes.” She did so with a wave of her paw, and was surprised at how strong her magic had suddenly become. It had to be her contact with Cirillo, she thought. About her the tunnels were opened again, and her three companions dashed back into the hall as the tunnels closed behind them. “I have done my part,” she told them. “The young women in this section of our world are now safe.”

“Alban sends his thanks,” Cirillo told Dillon.

“Tullio would send his, but I couldn’t remain to wait while he nattered on about whether the spell was foolproof, and asked just exactly how I could be certain,” Ilona said. “The man is a pedantic bore, Dillon.”

“And Dreng is relieved, but says he wished the spell had been in effect before he lost his granddaughter,” Dillon told them.

“And now, rude boy, where is that feast you promised us all?” Ilona stepped up to the high board. “Nidhug, my dear, do come and sit next to me. We have so much to chat about,” she told the beautiful dragon. “And the whole evening in which to do so.” She smiled brightly.

“There is the real dragon,” Cirillo murmured low to Dillon as his lover went to seat herself by his parent.

The king of Belmair laughed.

Chapter 9

W
HEN
N
APIER
IX
had pronounced their banishment centuries before, the Yafir had lived in peace with their neighbors, much like them but for the magic they possessed. Told they were to leave Belmair they had made a collective decision to remain. The question was, of course, where they might hide themselves so that they would never be discovered by the Belmairans. Beltran’s forests were deep, but because they took up much of the duchy, the forests were active with hunters. Beldane’s rolling glens didn’t offer enough hidden nooks, and Belia’s mountains were too cold. The main province itself, while possessing all the traits of the other three, was too populated. There remained but one place that would allow them to be totally hidden from all of Belmair.

The Yafir had made their new home beneath the seas of Belmair. The land entry into this new world of theirs could be found, if one had known to look for it, in an isolated beach cave on the far side of Belia where the coast was too rough-hewn for settlement and therefore deserted. Using their magic, the Yafir had created towns sealed within great bubbles anchored to the ocean floor. Self-contained, they no longer had any need for the surface world of Belmair above them, except in the matter of females. The sunlight filtered dimly into their new settlements. The sea creatures grew used to them, and their homes were deep enough to ride out the storms.

In the beginning they had taken the one hundred women of childbearing years that Napier IX had refused to give them. The women had come from each of the provinces, including the main one itself. Some of the women had conceived life immediately. Those who had not were then given to other Yafir males until they, too, were with child. Now and again, when a woman could not conceive, she was restored back to her own world. Those women, however, returned without memories that extended beyond the time they were taken. And to punish them for having proved useless to the Yafir, they were returned as old women. The women who were kept by the Yafir were spoiled beyond all mortal women, and lavished with riches each time they bore a child. Those who birthed daughters were the most fortunate, for the matings between Yafir and mortal seemed to produce more males than females. The anomaly only created the need for more and more women.

Cinnia had been in her apothecary grinding lavender into powder to be mixed into soap. Her pestle scraped against the sides of the stone mortar as she worked. The lovely fragrance of the flower rose up to assail her nostrils. It was late in the day, and the sun was low on the horizon. She was hungry, and the scent of the lavender, which was a sleeping aid, was making her drowsy. It was then she sensed she was not alone. Turning about, she saw the Yafir, Ahura Mazda, observing her.

“What do you want?” Cinnia asked him. Her eyes were heavy. She struggled to keep them open even as she realized he was casting a spell upon her.

“Stop!” she cried, her own mind desperately seeking a spell to stop him.

“I marked you for my own at your birth, Cinnia,” Ahura Mazda said. “You cannot resist me, for your magic is sweet and simple. Mine is fierce and strong. It is time now for you to come with me.” He reached out to take her hand in his.

Cinnia shrank from him. “Leave me be, Yafir! I have a husband, and you are my enemy! Begone!” She flung her pestle at him.

“You have a fiery spirit, Cinnia,” Ahura Mazda told her, laughing. “I shall enjoy taming you, and make no mistake about it, tame you I will! But I will not break your great spirit. Now, come!” Stepping forward, he grasped her by her small hand.

His touch rendered her weak, but Cinnia struggled nonetheless to get free of him.

And then she felt as if her entire body was melting away. She had no feeling but for the hand holding hers tightly. She felt herself fading away, her eyes closed despite her desperate attempts to keep them open, and then all was darkness. The cat who kept Cinnia company in her apothecary watched astonished as his mistress and her companion disappeared in a puff of scarlet smoke. The fur went up on his feline back. He yowled, frightened, and then he ran out of the room past Britto, who stared openmouthed.

When Cinnia once more opened her eyes, she found herself lying upon a bed draped with sea-green silks. Confused, she struggled to remember what had happened to her. After several long and frightening minutes, her memory returned. She had been stolen by the Yafir lord, Ahura Mazda. What was it he had said?
I marked you for my own at your birth?
What did he mean? And where was she? Cinnia jumped up from the bed, and immediately collapsed onto the floor. Her legs had simply given out beneath her, she realized, shocked. What was the matter with her? Two women came at once to help her back onto the bed again.

“Where am I?” Cinnia asked them.

“You are in the lord’s castle,” one of them answered her.

Cinnia attempted to move from the bed again but the woman cautioned her.

“Do not. Your legs have been enchanted to keep you where the lord put you,” she explained. “New arrivals are always agitated in one way or another.” She smiled.

“I am Cinnia, queen of Belmair,” Cinnia told the woman. “Your master has erred by stealing me. My husband, the king, is a great sorcerer. He will destroy Ahura Mazda, and all that belongs to him for this.”

“There, there, my dear,” the woman said in kindly tones. “You must not be distressed. Yafirdom is a wonderful world in which to live. You will be very happy here, I assure you. And no one from Belmair will ever find you. ’Tis best to put any hope of returning there from your thoughts quickly. I am Arlais, one of Ahura Mazda’s wives. My companion is Minau, another of the lord’s wives. Are you hungry or thirsty?”

“When will the use of my legs be returned to me?” Cinnia asked them. Arlais was tall with auburn hair that was styled into two braids. Minau was of average height, and had short, white-blond curls.

“I don’t know,” Arlais said.

“I cannot just sit or lie here forever,” Cinnia said impatiently.

“Oh, the lord will be here soon,” Arlais responded cheerfully.

“How long have I been here?” Cinnia asked her.

“He put you here several days ago,” Arlais told her. “We have been watching over you so you would not be frightened when you awakened. Now surely you are hungry or thirsty,” she said again. “What would you like me to get you?”

Cinnia shook her head. “Nothing,” she said. “I want nothing but to go home.”

Ahura Mazda entered the chamber as Cinnia spoke. He was dressed as always in blue and green silks.

Arlais ran to him with a distressed cry. “Husband, she has just awakened, but she will neither eat nor drink. What shall we do?”

The Yafir put an arm about his wife and stroked her face gently. “Bring me sweet wine and the lovely little cakes you make, my love. I will feed her myself. Minau, my heavenly one, go along with Arlais and help her.” He ushered the two women from the room, but not before kissing each of them tenderly. Then he turned, and coming over to Cinnia, sat upon the bed next to her. “You are confused,” he said, and he took her hand in his, turning it to kiss first her wrist, and then her palm. His aquamarine eyes stared into hers, but she saw no menace in them.

“You have kidnapped me and brought me to your world,” Cinnia said, trying to free her hand from his grasp.

“Yes,” he admitted, “but by rights you belong to me.”

“I belong to no one,” Cinnia told him.

“You were marked for me at your birth,” Ahura Mazda said. “Each female infant born in Belmair is marked by a Yafir male for possible mating at a later date. You bear on your body my mark. A small heart at the top of your cleft is my mark.”

Cinnia grew even paler than she naturally was at his words. But she would not admit to her surprise. “Nonsense!” she said.

“Will you deny that you possess this mark?” he asked her.

“I have never in all my life seen such a mark upon my body,” she replied. “Did you examine my person for such a mark, my lord, that you say I have it?”

He laughed. “I have not examined your
person,
I promise you, Cinnia. I intend to very shortly, but when I brought you here I lay you upon this bed we will share, and left you to recover yourself.”

“By placing an enchantment upon my legs so I could not escape you,” she snapped at him angrily.

“I did that for your protection,” Ahura Mazda said. “What was the first thing you did upon awakening? You attempted to leave this bed, didn’t you?”

Cinnia flushed guiltily.

“And if you could have left this room you would have, and gone where? You have absolutely no idea where you are, do you?” he said.

“Where am I?”
she demanded of him.

“You are in the kingdom of Yafirdom. You are in my castle, within the women’s quarters,” he told her. “You are safe, and will remain so.”

“Take me back immediately!” Cinnia ordered him imperiously.

Arlais and Minau reentered the room. One carried a small tray of cakes, and the other a decanter and two goblets.

“Put them on the table, my darlings,” Ahura Mazda said. “Then take Cinnia to the baths to be prepared for our mating night.”

“
Mating?
I should sooner die,” Cinnia cried to him. “I am the wife of Dillon, king of Belmair. How dare you speak of me in such intimate terms, my lord!”

“Under the laws of the Yafir you are not Dillon’s wife any longer, for I have claimed you. You have become one of my wives. As lord of the Yafir I am permitted to have six wives, and you are the sixth. I have removed the enchantment from your limbs, Cinnia. Now go with Arlais and Minau. I will feed you cakes and sweet wine when you return.” He pushed her gently from the bed, and immediately the two other women took her hands and led her off.

They brought her to a beautiful bath whose walls were covered in pale green tiles, and floors were cream marble veined in gold. They stripped her gown from her, remarking frankly upon the beauty of her body, but gasping in shock at the bush of coal-black curls in the space between her thighs. Working swiftly they slathered the place in a pale pink cream, and when they rinsed it away minutes later Cinnia found herself denuded of the hair. Arlais and Minau smiled, pleased.

But Cinnia’s pulse leaped at the sight of a small heart now most prominently displayed at the very top of her cleft.
His mark!
Just as he had said. She could not ever remember having seen that mark when she was a child, but then she had not been seeking it out, had she? They washed her long, night-black hair, and brushed it dry, then rubbed it with silk until it was shining. They massaged her body with fragrant creams that melted into her skin. Finally they pared her fingernails and her toenails before wrapping Cinnia in a pale green silk robe, and leading her back to Ahura Mazda.

“She is ready for you, my lord husband,” Arlais said with a smile.

Minau said nothing, but then Cinnia had quickly realized the girl had little to say.

“Come, and give me a kiss, both of you,” the Yafir lord said to them, and they each came to his side for a tender kiss. “You have pleased me,” he told them. “Now go and spend the remainder of the evening with your sons, my darlings.”

When the two women had gone, Ahura Mazda held out a hand to Cinnia. “Come,” he said, “and let us drink wine together.”

Cinnia shook her head. “Nay, I will take neither food nor drink while I am caught here in your kingdom. We both know that if I do I am bound to this place.”

“You will both eat and drink with me,” he said softly, but there was menace in his tone. “You are mine, Cinnia, and that mongrel that you married, Belmair’s Shadow-faerie-mortal king, will find another wife. Or perhaps if once he learns he cannot find you, his heart will be broken, and he will return to Hetar. Belmair will soon belong to the Yafir anyway. And with you in my arms, and as my wife, perhaps even sooner than I had anticipated. Now, my love, come and join me on our nuptial bed for I should like to become better acquainted with you. Do not be shy. I will be most gentle with you.”

Flea be!
Cinnia said quickly in the silent language of magic.

Ahura Mazda looked amazed as his captive disappeared from before his eyes. “Where have you gone, you Belmairan sorceress?” he called to her. He hadn’t heard her spell for she had whispered it too softly.

The tiny flea took several large jumps, and hid itself within the folds of the bed curtains. She was safe for now, but Cinnia knew she could not hold the flea’s form forever. She concentrated upon maintaining it, hoping that he would eventually grow angry enough to leave the chamber. But he did not. Instead Ahura Mazda stretched out upon the bed, his hands behind his head as he waited.

“Whatever shape you have taken, you cannot hold it forever,” he said. “You are clever, my darling, and have perhaps a bit more skill than I gave you credit for, I fear. I am a patient man, and will be happy to wait until you realize you cannot evade what was meant to be, Cinnia.”

Hidden in the folds of the bed curtains, Cinnia waited, and closing her eyes concentrated with all her being on maintaining the flea’s form. Several hours passed. Never had she held another form for so long, and she could feel herself growing tired. Then to her relief the man on the bed below arose.

“I will leave you now, my bride, for certainly you must be exhausted at this point,” he said, his tone affectionate and amused. “I shall come to you again when you are well rested, and of a more reasonable frame of mind. It was foolish of me to rush our passion, but you are so very beautiful, Cinnia, and I have waited for you for many years.”

His footsteps sounded as he walked across the chamber. The door opened, and then it closed. A key turned in the door’s lock with a loud click.

Cinnia clung to the flea’s shape listening. Had he really left the chamber? Or was he playing a game with her? The flea dropped down onto the bed, and looking about saw that the room was indeed empty. She sighed, relieved, and almost immediately regained her own form. She was so weakend by her efforts of the past few hours that she could not move. Quiet tears slipped down her cheeks as she lay sobbing softly. If only she had thought to shape-shift when Ahura Mazda had first come into her apothecary she would not be in this difficulty. She had to escape the Yafir lord, but she had absolutely no idea of where she was.
Yafirdom?
She had never heard of it, nor knew its location. Could she keep Ahura Mazda at bay long enough to learn what she needed to know? Long enough to escape this place? She was certainly going to try. Cinnia’s eyes kept closing, and at first she struggled to remain awake. But hearing nothing but silence around her, and hearing no noise from beyond the door she decided she had best sleep and regain her strength while she could. Who knew when the very determined Yafir lord would come to her again. She needed to be strong if she was going to continue to defy him. Cinnia realized that the flea had been a very successful shape for her to take, and she had probably been able to hold its form for as long as she did because it was so tiny. The moment she heard that key in the door again she would shape-shift once more.