The Sorceress of Belmair (38 page)

“I hope his news is good,” Dillon said. “Sapphira is driving me mad. She is beautiful. She is uninhibited, but she is the most boring female I have ever known. Even my littlest sister, Marzina, has more of interest to say than Sapphira. Her only virtue is that she gives me pleasures without complaint.”

“It is early,” the duke said. “Have you eaten? Would you like breakfast?”

“Let us go and see what Agenor has to say first. I will not enjoy my food otherwise. We will use Shadow magic today. Step beneath my cloak,” the king said.

“What if the tide is in?” Alban asked nervously.

Dillon smiled. “A good thought,” he paused. “And now it is fixed.” He draped his white cloak about them, and when Alban opened his eyes again, for he had instinctively closed them, they were standing upon a crescent of sand before Agenor’s rock. “Good morrow, Agenor!” Dillon called to the merman.

“Ah, so ’twas your magic that swept the water back,” Agenor said. “My messenger isn’t even back yet, and here you are. Come up and join me upon my rock, and let the waters flow back in. It is my young daughter, Antea, who brings the news I believe you seek, king of Belmair.”

With a casual wave of his hand, Dillon set himself and Duke Alban up upon Agenor’s huge flat-topped stone seat of office. He next produced two pillows, and they sat, one on each side of the chief of the Merfolk. “I believe we are ready to hear what it is your daughter has to say to us, Agenor.”

“Antea, come into the cave,” Agenor called in a booming voice.

They watched as the mermaid swam beneath the crystal blue-green waters and over the pale sugar sands into the cave. When she popped to the surface, they saw a very pretty girl with long, thick, blond hair and bright sea-green eyes. “Good morrow, Father,” Antea said. “Good morrow, my lords.”

“This is the king, Daughter,” Agenor said, gesturing with a hand to Dillon. “Tell him exactly what you saw, and where you saw it.”

“Three days ago as I swam beneath the western seas I came upon a group of large bubbles, and within these bubbles were villages, and in one, a castle. I knew at once it was magic. As I watched I observed mortal folk moving back and forth within the village bubbles, living their lives in an ordinary fashion.”

“Were some of these folk silver-haired, Antea?” Dillon asked the mermaid.

“Indeed, Majesty, all the men seemed to be and some of the women, but most of the women were dark or fair,” Antea said.

“Did you swim near the castle?” Duke Alban inquired.

“I did! It is most beautiful, but it is set within a garden. As I swam closer to view the garden I saw a girl, and she saw me. She smiled, and then she spoke to me in the silent language. I was very surprised, but then I thought that all of it is surely magic-made, my lords, so the folk within, while looking mortal, are nonetheless magic.”

“Did the girl tell you who they were?” Dillon asked.

“Nay, we spoke but briefly, but then someone called her. She did not want them to see me, and told me to go. But she asked me to return again. She says she goes to the garden at the same time each day,” Antea said.

“Did you hear the girl’s name when it was called?” Dillon said.

Antea nodded her head. “But she had already told me her name, and I told her mine. Her name is Cinnia.”

Dillon groaned as if he had been injured. Then he took a deep breath, and asked Antea, “Tell me what this girl looked like.”

“She was as pale as the moonlight with beautiful long sable-black hair and spring-green eyes. When I first saw her she was digging in a great box of what looked like real earth such as I have seen from the sea. It was not sand.”

“It would appear that my daughter has found the queen,” Agenor said quietly.

Dillon nodded, and then he said, “Antea, I need you to return to that castle. Will you go for me? I know it is far, but you have already earned a great reward for your discovery. And you will have anything I can give you if you will continue to aid me.”

“My lord, I will gladly aid you for naught,” Antea said, and Agenor beamed with pride at his daughter’s kind heart.

“You must go back to the bubble with the castle, and wait until you see Cinnia again. Let no one else see you. Speak to no one else. Speak only to her,” Dillon said.

“What shall I say, Majesty?” Antea asked him.

“Ask her if she is the daughter of Fflergant, and wife to Dillon. If she tells you she is then say to her,
the king counsels you to patience. Now that he has found you, he will find a way to rescue you
. Can you remember that, Antea?”

“I can, my lord,” the young mermaid said. “I will go now with your permission, and my father’s permission.”

“Be careful, Antea,” Agenor advised her, “and come back as soon as you have delivered your message.”

With a saucy flip of her tail Antea dove beneath the sea and swam swiftly from her father’s cave. She left behind her a small spray of golden foam.

“My mermen and I can help to retrieve your wife from beneath the sea,” Agenor said to the king. “You will take a sailing vessel to the spot just above this castle. We will then retrieve the queen and bring her to the surface.”

“But how can she possibly breathe? She will drown before she reaches the surface,” Duke Alban said.

“Not if she is carrying a piece of our magic seaweed. It will enable her to breathe beneath the water as she rises up,” Agenor explained. “But how will we get through into the bubble without destroying it and alerting the Yafir? These folk are the Yafir, Majesty, are they not?”

Dillon nodded. “I will give you a spell that will let you pass through the bubble when you need to, and return back, as well. You will leave something in the castle garden when you retrieve my wife.” He smiled wickedly and chuckled.

“I will send for Duke Alban, and he will send to you, when my daughter returns again, Majesty,” Agenor said.

Dillon nodded, and then standing with Alban he threw his cloak about them, and they were gone. Agenor shook his head in wonder, and then he noticed that where there had been two large silk cushions there were now two baskets of pineapples. He smiled broadly. In the end his aid would cost more than fresh fruit, but then the king was aware of that, he knew.

* * *

“W
E
HAVE
FOUND
her,” Dillon told his father, his uncle and Nidhug as they spoke within a sealed room inside his castle. He had immediately sent for Kaliq and Cirillo when he returned from Duke Alban’s. “Agenor has come up with a plan to rescue her.” And he explained carefully.

“When Ahura Mazda finds her gone he will come here to retrieve her,” Cirillo said. “And then you will have the difficulty of the Belmairans wanting to reject her.”

“He will not come if he does not realize that he has not lost her,” Dillon said slyly.

They looked at one another and finally to Dillon, confused.

And then the great Shadow Prince began to smile. “It is brilliant!” he said.

“What is brilliant?” Nidhug asked.

“Of course!” Cirillo exclaimed.

“Of course what?” Nidhug demanded to know.

“We will substitute Sapphira for Cinnia,” Dillon said.

“He will see through it at once. For one thing her eyes are darker than the queen’s,” the dragon pointed out. “And she will protest, and tell the Yafir who she is.”

“I can change the color of her eyes with my magic,” Dillon said. “And I will release her womb from my infertility charm while placing a confusion spell upon her. She will not be certain who she really is at all, and her temporary loss of memories will be put down to the fall she will appear to have taken in the gardens. Sapphira’s lustful nature will delight Ahura Mazda, and he will impregnate her. Then he will cosset and spoil her as is his nature with his women when their bellies swell. And he shall have his heart’s desire of her. A daughter! Her memories of who she really is will return then, but I suspect she will not care at that point.”

“It is a daring plan,” Kaliq said. “And it is well thought out. But you need to do more in this matter than just rescue your wife.”

“I am aware of that,” Dillon replied. “When I regain possession of my wife I will announce that I am taking Sapphira in marriage. We will plan a great wedding feast for all the kingdom. The false Sapphira will announce she is changing her name to Cinnia in honor of my first wife.”

“And you will not set Belmairan against Belmairan over the matter of you taking your old wife back. As far as all of Belmair will be concerned, Cinnia, daughter of Fflergant, was kidnapped by the Yafir, and is lost to you. And King Dillon has taken Sapphira, niece of Tullio of Beldane, as his new wife. Sapphira in a grand gesture to honor her predecessor takes her name. Aye, it is wickedly clever,” Nidhug approved.

“The mix of Shadow and faerie blood, it would seem, is a good one,” Cirillo noted.

“When I tell Mother she will be so proud.”

“I do not mean to allow this incident to thwart my plans to bring Belmairan and Yafir together again as one people,” Dillon said. “Ahura Mazda is too filled with bitterness to help me attain my goal. We will have to find another Yafir to become lord. He cannot be the only one capable of negotiation for his people.”

“Cinnia may be able to help us when she returns,” Nidhug said. “She has been with them for just over a year now, and has surely learned a great deal about them.”

“And what is to become of Ahura Mazda?” Kaliq said. “He does not appear to be a man who will step aside for another, even blood kin. We will see he loses favor with the Yafir, and when he has, factions will arise to depose him. When that happens we will choose he who will be the next lord, and see that he gains his people’s favor.”

“I mean to see him dead,” Dillon answered in a cold, deadly voice. “He has taken my wife from me, used her body for his pleasure, stolen a year of our lives from us. For this he will forfeit his life. He will be no loss to either Belmair or Yafirdom.”

“He will deserve whatever you give him, Majesty,” the dragon said.

Dillon smiled at her. “I have known wickeder,” he replied. “The difficulty with Ahura Mazda is that he is resistant to change. Nor will he accept change from others. Actually he is much like Dreng. I honestly do not know if I can ever forgive what he has done to Cinnia, but it is his obdurate nature that will cost him his life. He will always cause dissent, and that dissent can prevent the union of our peoples. Whether or not Ahura Mazda or Dreng likes it, we must share this world. Better we share it in peace. We are different in many ways, alike in many ways. Imagine what we may accomplish united,” Dillon said enthusiastically.

“Indeed Belmair can flourish with a great sorcerer as its leader,” the dragon said with equal zeal.

“Nothing will prosper for Belmair as it should without its sorceress,” Dillon replied. “Cinnia must be restored to her rightful place.”

The others murmured their agreement.

“For now we must await word from Agenor,” Kaliq reminded them.

“And our plans must be kept secret from all,” Nidhug said. “But how will we get to the spot Agenor’s Merfolk located without attracting attention?”

“On the day appointed, Sapphira and I will go for a sail. I will transport the vessel by means of my magic to the proper site where Agenor will await me. Sapphira will have already been rendered unconscious, and dressed in a garb matching the one Cinnia will be wearing. The Merfolk will tuck their magical seaweed in her pocket, and take her below the sea to the castle comb where Cinnia should be awaiting. The switch will be made, the seaweed put in Cinnia’s pocket, and she will be brought to the surface, where I will await her. I will then bring our little vessel back to our own harbor, explaining to my wife as we travel what has happened, how we have accomplished it and what she must now do to pretend she is Sapphira so none will ever know that we have outwitted the Yafir lord,” Dillon explained.

“Will not some be suspicious?” Cirillo asked.

“Perhaps,” Dillon said. “But on what will they base their doubts?”

“I will give Cinnia Sapphira’s memories up to the day she came to the castle,” Kaliq said. “I do not think she would appreciate knowing those memories she gained after arriving,” he concluded with a small smile.

Dillon chuckled. “Nay, she would not,” he agreed.

“And we can blur the eyes of Sapphira’s mother and uncle each time they see her so she appears to them as she has always been,” Cirillo added.

“So now we wait for word from Agenor,” Dillon said.

“You feel no pity for Sapphira?” Kaliq asked the young king.

Dillon paused, and then he sighed. “Aye, I do,” he admitted. “But she will not be harmed by Ahura Mazda. Indeed he will love her above all of his other wives, for she will give him the daughter he so desperately desires. And he will heap many riches upon her. Sapphira is not just greedy for pleasures. She is greedy for treasures of all kinds. Once she gets the lay of the land in which she has been put, she will thrive.”

“Does he love the others?” Kaliq asked quietly. “How do you know?”

“Aye, he does,” Dillon answered. “With his women the Yafir is gentle and tender. I have watched him in my reflecting bowl. It did not tell me where he was but I could see, and before you ask I did not watch his private moments with them. I could not have borne that. As for Sapphira, she wanted to be my mistress. I did not force her to it. She has done all she could to gain my heart, but I cannot give what I no longer possess. I believe she will be happier where we send her.”

Kaliq nodded, satisfied with his son’s answer. The older Dillon grew, the more visible and stronger his magical blood became. He would love deeply, passionately, but he was also capable of detaching himself entirely from the mortals around him, and when it became necessary he could exhibit a cold faerie heart. But Dillon was right about mending the rift between the people of Belmair and the Yafir. It had to be done. And Ahura Mazda’s bitterness could not be allowed to interfere. The Yafir lord’s strength of will and determination had held the Yafir tightly together during the centuries, but now it was time to make changes. As in Hetar, war was not the answer.