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.“I am sure you have heard street poetry, Lara, but it is unlikely you have ever heard the great sagas and songs of old that were once taught, and recited about the halls at night.”“No,” she said.“I have never heard anything like that.”“Nor I,” Noss chimed into the conversation.“There is a great saga that was once told of how the Shadow Princes of the Desert came into being eons ago,” Master Bashkar said.“Prince Kaliq once told me he had a Peri ancestor, but he also said his kind had come from the shadows at the beginning of time,” Lara said.“How can that be?”“Before time as we now know it began,” Master Bashkar said, “Hetar was a world of clouds and fog.The Shadow Princes came first from those mists.They were male spirits, and for several generations they mated with the faerie races they found here.Then the clouds cleared away, and the beauty of the planet was visible to all.At that time it was discovered there were others on Hetar as well.The Forest Lords descended from tree spirits and banded with the Midland folk who came from the earth spirits.The people from the Coastal Region had their origins in the sea.They built the City at the center of it all, and became civilized.”“But what of the Shadow Princes?” Lara asked.“The faerie women they had mated with bore only sons.Discovering this hidden valley, they chose the Desert as their realm,” Master Bashkar continued.“But soon it was feared there would not be room for all the offspring they were producing, for they were a fertile race.It was then the princes decided if the faeries would grant them long life and the same ability to reproduce only when they chose, they would remain in the Desert, joining the High Council as a part of Hetar, keeping clear of all dissension, yet trading with the others and welcoming them when they came.Women were no longer necessary to their society, nor were children.The Shadow Princes are a selfish race.Kind, but selfish.And so it has been for many centuries.Now and again new members are chosen for the council that the others are not made uncomfortable by their longevity and never-changing appearance.They take women they admire for their pleasure, but they always return them to their families with enough wealth to satisfy those families.”“But what if the women fall in love with their princes?” Lara asked.“Then they are returned with broken hearts.It is not wise to love a Shadow Prince, Lara, and they try to be careful in their choices,” he said.“How came you here?” she wondered.“I am an Outlander, a member of the Devyn clan,” he explained.“Our society is very different from that of Hetar.The clan families keep mostly to themselves.”“I have never met an Outlander,” Lara told him.“You would not have,” he told her with a smile.“We are despised by those who call themselves Hetarians.They are repulsed by our ways for we refused to allow ourselves to conform to their way of thinking, or their social order.They wear a cloak of civilization proudly, but beneath their veneer they are more savage than the Outlanders.Did the prince not tell me your father sold you into carnal bondage that he might advance himself and his new family? It is barbaric, and would not happen in the Outlands!”“No!” Lara cried.“You do not understand! My father is a great swordsman, but without the means to advance himself into the Crusader Knights he was doomed to remain in the Quarter.My baby brother would have had no future at all.Nor would I, for there was no coin for my dowry.He had nothing of value but for me.The monies Gaius Prospero paid for me allowed my father to dress himself properly, to obtain new weapons, and fine armor.We knew he would win his tournament matches if his application could just be accepted, but it would not have been unless he appeared worthy.My father is a good man, Master Bashkar, and I was proud to be able to aid him.”“His great skills with his weapon should have made him more than worthy, Lara.Men should be judged by what they can do, and for no other reason,” Master Bashkar said.“A fine appearance will not aid him on the battlefield, my child.You were the treasure your faerie mother gave him in return for his love.Yet he used you badly.”“My father did not desert me, Master Bashkar.If my mother had remained with us, could not her faerie magic have aided my father to gain his goal sooner? But she did not.I was but a few months old when she left us for another lover.”“She loved you, my child.Did she not put that chain and star crystal about your neck to keep you safe from harm? A faerie woman who gives a mortal man a child does not leave them without great cause.”Lara was more confused than she had ever been as she listened to Master Bashkar’s words.Her whole life she had been told of how thoughtless and cruel Ilona had been.How she had ensorcelled her father as a youth, given the love-struck boy a half faerie child, and then recklessly left him to satisfy her carnal faerie nature, thereby breaking his heart.Had not her grandmother, Ina, said it often enough? And her father had never disagreed.Indeed, he spoke of Ilona as little as possible, and when he did the look in his eyes was painful to see.When she had been naughty as a child, Ina had often warned her she must not allow her mother’s wicked faerie nature to overcome her.Now, however, she was being asked to embrace that nature, and unable to help herself, she was.And what’s more, she found she liked that part of her that was faerie.But still she could not reconcile herself to a faerie mother who cared so little for her that she deserted her.She would never forgive Ilona.And her father was a good man, no matter what Master Bashkar said.The Master was an old man, and he did not understand the complexities of life in the City.The winter passed, and spring came to the Desert.For the first time Kaliq took Lara from the palace.The rains had come for a brief time to the sands, and the Desert was abloom with a carpet of flowers.Lara was amazed by them as they rode forth.“How can this be?” she asked him.He shrugged.“It is an aberration of nature,” he told her.“They will be gone in a few days, and then the sands will stretch golden again for as far as the eye can see.Each year at this time the flowers come into bloom.When they begin to die we will gather the fading blossoms to make potions and medicines from their seeds and petals.”When they returned to the palace within the cliffs, Lara was suddenly aware of how stifling it was in comparison to the great Desert.The urge to leave the Shadow Princes was suddenly tugging at her.She forced it back.She must remain the year and a day to be truly free.And where else would she go that she could be as safe? Og was more than content working with the prince’s horses.He had friends among the other servants who were not intimidated by his size.She rarely saw him now but in passing.But she had her lessons with Master Bashkar, and she had Noss.And Kaliq instructed her each night in the arts of passion.Lara enjoyed his lessons best of all.The months passed, and then one day when she had been within the Shadow realm for almost a year, the grandmother she had never known, Maeve, queen of the Forest Faeries arrived in Kaliq’s dining hall one evening in her usual puff of lavender mist.She was barely visible, yet seeing her, the Shadow Princes came to their feet and bowed low.Kaliq came forward to lead her to a seat.He put a goblet of wine in her hand.She drank from it, and her image strengthened.She was a beautiful creature even in her decline.Lara could but imagine what she had been like in her prime.Maeve was tall, and gracefully slender [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]