The Sorceress of Belmair (44 page)

“I am proud of my heritage, and of the world into which I was born,” Dillon said. “But I am now Belmair’s king, and consider myself Belmairan, not Hetarian or Terahn. If you live in a world, are part of that world, then you should call yourself by that world’s name no matter your heritage,” he concluded.

“It would appear that removing Ahura Mazda from his lordship will be a necessity,” Kaliq said. “But if you would remove a leader you had best have another waiting or you create a vacuum, which usually provides an opportunity for troublemakers, and it is certain that there will be several of those among the Yafir.”

“You should ask Cinnia what, if anything, she may have heard during her stay with the Yafir,” Lara suggested to them.

The young queen was called, and came to join them. They told her of their discussion, and asked if she knew anything that might help them reach out to the Yafir.

“Ahura Mazda’s first wife, Arlais, has several sons. I do not believe that they are embittered despite their father’s emotions. Arlais is a reasonable woman. If I wanted to reach out to the Yafir, I would speak with her before I spoke with anyone else. She will listen to you. She will be truthful. But she will never betray her lord husband. She loves him, you see,” Cinnia explained.

“We can reach out to her on the Dream Plain,” Dillon said. “I can tell her that I genuinely seek peace, and offer her people a home above the waves once again.”

“No, my lord, ’tis I who should go,” Cinnia said quietly. “She knows me, and will not be afraid of coming to my call.”

“But then she will realize that Sapphira is not you,” Dillon said.

“Arlais will not tell Ahura Mazda that you outmagicked him in order to retrieve me,” Cinnia responded. “And besides if such a thing became publicly known the Yafir lord would be a laughingstock. She would not do that to him. Besides there is the chance that Sapphira carries a female child.”

“Would not a female child make Sapphira supreme to Arlais?” Lara asked.

“He would never put Sapphira or a daughter before Arlais’s devotion and loyalty,” Cinnia told them. “That is the paradox of this man. He loves his women despite his ambition and his bitterness.”

“Then I think Cinnia should be the one to approach Arlais,” Kaliq said.

“So be it,” Dillon said.

“When shall I do it, my lord?” Cinnia asked them.

“Will she be safe upon the Dream Plain?” Nidhug wanted to know. She had been silent for most of the meeting, listening, evaluating carefully all that was said.

“She will be more than safe for she carries the protection of the king of Belmair, a Shadow Prince and a great faerie woman,” Dillon said with a smile. “Do not fret, Nidhug. I swore when I regained my wife that never again would I allow anyone or anything to harm her. I will keep that vow.”

“We will wait until evening,” Kaliq said. “I think a first visit to the Dream Plain should begin in an ordinary manner, like any evening’s preparation for sleep.” He took Cinnia’s hand, and looked into her face. “You will not be afraid, my daughter, I promise you. About your neck you will wear a medallion of the tree of life. It will protect you in addition to all Dillon, Lara and I will do. Do you believe me, Cinnia?”

“I do!” Cinnia replied, quite surprised by the effect his words and his beautiful penetrating eyes had upon her.

The discussion regarding the problem of the Yafir lord was now over. Dillon and Cinnia went to bid their many guests farewell as they departed to return to the four corners of Belmair. Cinnia was very relieved to see Duke Tullio and his sister, Margisia, depart. She couldn’t help but harbor a small guilty feeling for the deception that had been played upon them, and she was frankly uncomfortable in their presence although she masked those emotions well.

“You have made us, made Beldane proud,” Duke Tullio said as he bade farewell. He took her by her shoulders, and kissed both of her cheeks. “Be happy, my child,” he told her. Then he made a formal bow. “I salute you, queen of Belmair.”

“Thank you, my lord uncle,” Cinnia replied. “I am content to have pleased you, and brought honor to Beldane.”

Margisia enveloped Cinnia in a hug. “I am so proud of you, my darling,” she gushed. Then she lowered her voice. “I knew you could do it. Old Dreng is fit to be tied. He’s already gone,” she giggled. “Now, remember what I have taught you. Gather up as much wealth for yourself as possible. And when you want something special that your husband may not be of a mind to give you, withhold yourself from him while teasing him just enough so he believes you are not. But do not give him your body until you get your way, Sapphira. I hope you garnered a great deal when he forced you to change your name. I know you would have never done it otherwise,” she nattered on.

“And do not ruin your figure by bearing him more than one child. Son or daughter, it makes no mind. I would not give your father more than one. A woman’s body is destroyed with childbearing, and when it is you will find your husband runs off to a younger woman whose body has not been ravaged and stretched with new life. Men can be so cruel, my darling Sapphira. Remember that you are the only one who will look after you. Trust no other.” Then Margisia began to weep. “Oh, my darling daughter! To think I shall never see you again! Oh, I cannot bear it! I cannot!”

“Certainly you will come to visit, Sister,” the duke said impatiently. “Now let us take our leave. Our vessel awaits us.” Grasping Margisia’s upper arm he led her to her horse, and helped to boost her into the saddle.

“Goodbye,” Cinnia said. “Travel in safety.” She was more than relieved to have Sapphira’s mother gone. What a wretched woman. No wonder her daughter had turned out the way she had. Cinnia waved, and tried to look sad.

By late afternoon all the wedding guests were gone. Cinnia spent some time with Dillon’s three younger sisters, the oldest of whom was close to her own age. Anoush, daughter of Lara and Vartan of the Fiacre, was a beautiful girl with brown hair and blue eyes. There was a fragility about her partly due to her faerie blood. She was a quiet girl given only to speaking when she had something to say. She was looking forward to returning to Hetar, for she spent her summers in the New Outlands region of Terah with her foster mother, Noss.

“I need to be with my father’s people for at least part of the year,” she explained to Cinnia. “It renews my spirit, and I do not as often see my visions there as I do in other places. I do not like my gift, but I accept it. Sometimes I wish my blood ran only mortal.”

“Yet I owe you a great debt for directing Dillon in the right path so he was able to find me,” Cinnia said to the girl.

Anoush smiled sweetly. “That is the best part of my gift. When I am able to help. I am most grateful for my ability to heal, and do not regret that gift at all.”

Zagiri, Dillon’s middle sister, was a delightful girl with her father’s golden looks. She was pure mortal with not an ounce of magic about her. She looked forward to the day when she would find her true love, and marry. “I love my mother,” she told Cinnia, “but she has a destiny that has only been partly fulfilled. One day she is certain to go away again as she has done before. It’s a good thing I’m nothing like her, and can be here to look after my father and little sister. My father says mother is an amazing and great woman. I suppose she is, but I am glad my faerie blood is dormant. I don’t want to be like Anoush, who is so fragile, or Marzina, who already seems to know too much. I just want a husband to love and children to raise. My grandmother, the lady Persis, is teaching me how to cook. She says a husband will appreciate that I can feed him well if our cook falls ill. She says every girl should know how to cook. Anoush can only cook her potions. And Marzina doesn’t want to learn,” Zagiri concluded.

It was her littlest sister-in-law who delighted Cinnia, however. Marzina was a true faerie child. Dark haired with large violet eyes, she was quick of mind and foot. She was also friendly, impatient and imperious, sometimes all at once. And from the moment she had successfully pronounced her first spell at the wedding feast the previous day, she had become her faerie grandmother’s pet, which pleased her well.

“You are a little sorceress,” she told Cinnia. “But one day I shall be a great sorceress. My grandmother says it will be.”

“Well, your brother has promised he will teach me more,” Cinnia said.

“What can you do now?” Marzina asked.

“I do potions, and I can shape-shift,” Cinnia said.

“Shape-shifting is easy,” Marzina said scornfully.
Anizram, change!
And suddenly a small green-and-violet bird was fluttering before Cinnia’s face.

Ainnic, change!
A tiger cub leaped up to catch the bird between its soft paws.

The bird turned into a bright yellow-and-green butterfly escaping the tiger cub’s gentle grip. The tiger then turned into a net that trapped the butterfly. At once the butterfly became a pair of scissors and the net quickly shifted into a beautiful jewel.

Marzina change!

Cinnia change!

And both the young woman and the girl returned to their own natural forms. Both were laughing.

“You are very good!” Marzina said admiringly. “You shifted quickly enough to counter me. Can we play this game again sometime?” she asked, smiling.

“You are amazing for one so young,” Cinnia told her. “I couldn’t shape-shift properly until I was twelve.”

“We shall become great sorceresses together,” Marzina declared.

She had gained a family, Cinnia thought happily. She had never known her mother, who had died shortly after her birth. Her father while kind was still a distant man whose sole concern was for Belmair. Nidhug had been her only family, and the dragon had raised the girl as tenderly as if she had been her own child. Now suddenly Cinnia had three sisters, each of whom was different, yet interesting. She had a mother-in-law, a faerie grandmother, an uncle who was a faerie prince and a Shadow Prince for a father-in-law. And she had still to meet Lara’s husband, and Dillon’s little brother.

Cinnia realized how truly happy she was. She knew now that had Dillon not been brought to Belmair to be its king, to be her husband, her world would be a very different place. Had she gained her heart’s desire and been selected as Belmair’s reigning queen she would have never been able to stop Ahura Mazda. But now she had a strong husband, a family, who would stand by her side in the battle ahead.

“Will you all stay with me when I enter the Dream Plain?” she asked them that evening after the meal. “All of you, Anoush, Zagiri, Marzina, too, unless you will not allow it, Lara. I would find it comforting to know I was surrounded by loved ones.”

“I do not know if Marzina is old enough for such an experience,” Lara mused.

“Oh, please, let her,” Cinnia begged. “Her magic, while untutored, is already strong. Unless it would frighten her.”

“Please, Mama!”

“I think it would be an excellent experience for her,” Ilona, who had not departed the previous night after all, said.

Lara pretended to consider, and then she said, “Yes!” She turned to her two other daughters. “Girls?” she asked.

“I would rather not,” Zagiri responded. “Magic makes me uncomfortable, Mama. And Belmair seems to reek of magic, or perhaps it is just because you, Kaliq, Dillon and Grandma are all here at once. Please do not be offended, Cinnia,” she said, turning to the older girl with a small smile of apology.

“I understand,” Cinnia told her, returning the smile.

“I will remain,” Anoush said softly. “If necessary I may be able to help.”

“Well,” Ilona said pithily, “I suppose three out of five is not a bad tally.”

“Mother!” Lara looked askance at her faerie parent who shrugged.

“The chamber has been prepared,” Dillon said. “Shall we go?”

Together they exited the family hall where they had eaten their meal. Dillon led them to a chamber high in a tower. The walls were whitewashed, and a large casement window with leaded panes opened to the night sky where Belmair’s twin moons, crescents tonight, were just coming into view. Cinnia had stopped in the apartment she shared with her husband just long enough to allow Tamary and Anke to remove her garments, and help her into a plain white silk sleep garment. Entering the chamber, Cinnia saw it had but a single piece of furniture, a bed, the mattress encased in a sheet, a coverlet atop it.

Dillon stepped up before his wife, and opening his raised hand, allowed a gold chain with a golden charm to drop from his closed fist. The charm was fashioned like a tree in full leaf, and each of the leaves was enameled in a slightly different shade of green. He slipped the chain about Cinnia’s neck. “The tree of life will keep you safe upon the Dream Plain. Do you know what to expect there?”

She nodded. “Mists which will clear to reveal she whom I seek,” Cinnia said.

“You must concentrate upon Arlais, and no other,” Dillon warned her. “Think only of her, and call her name. She will come.”

“Here,” Lara said as she conjured a goblet from the air. “This is frine, and it will aid you in your efforts to sleep. Drink it, my daughter.”

Cinnia took the cup, and drank it all. Then she made herself comfortable upon the bed, which was indeed the most cozy upon which she had ever lain. She looked at the faces of those surrounding her. Dillon. Kaliq. Lara. Ilona. Cirillo. Nidhug. Marzina and Anoush. They crowded about the bed.

“I am going to take us all into the shadows so you will not see us,” Kaliq said to her. “That way we will not distract you, Cinnia. But be assured that we are here.” His hand languidly encircled the chamber, and they all disappeared from her view, but Cinnia could see two small red-orange spots, which indicated Nidhug’s nostrils. The dragon’s fire rarely showed unless she was nervous or angry. Cinnia smiled, oddly comforted by that tiny glow. With a sigh she closed her eyes, and began to slip into sleep.

Arlais.
She pictured the woman who had been one of her companions for a year. Tall. Dark auburn hair and wonderful dark gray eyes. Arlais whose gowns were all in shades of her favorite green. And then to her irritation Cinnia felt awake. She opened her eyes with annoyance, but to her surprise she was not lying in her bed. She was standing in a swirling silvery-gray mist that wrapped itself about her. All was silence. Deep, deep silence.
The Dream Plain,
Cinnia thought excitedly. She had attained the Dream Plain. Now she had to once again put her thoughts upon Arlais.