“She will not come willingly, for she has a mate whom she loves,” Alfrigg said. “And faerie women will not give children to those they do not love.”
“I have summoned the Munin,” Kol replied.
“The Munin? My lord, that is dangerous. What do you want of them?” Alfrigg looked concerned by his master’s news. “The Munin are not easy creatures and can be treacherous if provoked.”
“If I steal the faerie woman from her world she will resist me. But what if I have the Munin steal her memories before I take her?”
“What good is she without her knowledge of magic, my lord?” the chancellor asked. “No matter that she is the woman fated to birth the next Twilight Lord, you need her magic, as well. If she has no memory of her magic then she is of little use to you other than as a life bearer.”
“The Munin will place her memories in an alabaster jar and restore them to her as I require, but first I must convince her to trust me so completely that when I return her knowledge of magic to her she will be only too glad to aid me in my conquests. Her recollections of her husband and her children, I will not restore to her. She will have no need of them. For Lara her life will begin with me and me alone, Alfrigg.”
“She is light, my lord,” Alfrigg reminded him. “You are dark.”
“She will have no memory of the light,” he said with a smile. “And when her fears have been calmed, she will believe everything that I tell her. I will not show myself to be a threat to her in any manner. Indeed, I will be her savior.” He gazed down into the bowl. “Is she not beautiful, Alfrigg? Is she not perfection?”
The dwarf stood on his tiptoes and gazed down into the water. “Aye, my lord, she is an excellent specimen of female loveliness,” he agreed. “But once you restore her magic to her she may not be as easy to manage as previously. Women should not be allowed to have magic. They are emotional and unstable beings!”
The Twilight Lord laughed at this. “Women do have a certain intelligence, Alfrigg. In Hetar and in Terah they manage commerce and even speak their minds,” he told his chancellor who looked properly shocked.
“It is obvious there is no order in Hetar and Terah,” Alfrigg replied sourly. “Women of high caste are for breeding purposes only. Women of low caste are meant to be servants but can also be bred if the serving class is to be perpetuated. Only men of high caste can be considered fit to serve the Twilight Lord. As for the others, they serve as they are told to serve. The appropriate order must be kept, and those who would defy it must be punished so others not be encouraged to disobedience.”
“You are a hard man, Alfrigg,” his master told him with a small smile.
“Thank you, my lord,” the chancellor said with a short bow to his master.
The Twilight Lord returned his gaze to the surface of the water. Krell, Lord of Darkness, he thought to himself, I can hardly wait to have her! He felt his rod twitch beneath his robes, and fought back down the feelings of desire that threatened to overwhelm him. Just a little while longer, he reminded himself.
“My lord.” A serving man was bowing before him. “They have come.”
The Twilight Lord nodded. “Let them enter,” he said and then turned to Alfrigg. “Secrete yourself behind my throne and listen, but do not reveal yourself.”
Alfrigg nodded and did as he had been bid.
The doors to the chamber opened again; suddenly the room was cold. Kol sat motionless watching the Munin as they drifted to the foot of his throne. He had never before seen them and he was amazed by their appearance. They were spectral creatures, almost like shadows. They seemed to have no legs, but he was able to distinguish the arms, hands and faces of the Munin, who ranged in color from the palest to the darkest gray. They traveled toward him in a cluster.
The largest of them now detached from the assemblage, bowed politely and asked in a high, wispy voice, “How may my brethren and I serve you, great Twilight Lord? Your kind has never before called upon us.”
“Thank you for coming, and welcome,” Kol greeted them politely. “I would ask a great favor of you, lords of the Munin.”
“And what will you give us in return for this favor, Twilight Lord?” the Munin murmured.
“You have no home,” Kol replied. “You wander the worlds with no place to call your own. Help me and I will give you the valley we call Penumbras for your own. It is set between two of our tallest mountains where the sun’s rays never reach. It is a cold, dark and secret place. It will be yours for all time.”
“Will you build us a castle there?” the Munin lord demanded.
“A castle and a place beneath the earth where you may store your treasures,” Kol promised them.
“The favor you seek from us must be great. Tell me what you desire of us that you would be willing to part with some of your own lands?” the Munin lord said.
“Do you know of the faerie woman, Lara of Hetar, who was first wed to Vartan of the Fiacre and is now the wife of Magnus Hauk, the Dominus of Terah?”
“The daughter of Ilona of the Forest Faeries and the mortal man John Swiftsword? She who undid the curse of Usi upon the men of Terah?”
“The same,” Kol replied. “I want you to steal her memories and store them here in this jar that sits by my throne.”
A humming sound erupted from among the Munin and then the Munin lord said but one word. “Why?”
“You are aware that the Twilight Lords possess the Book of Rule, brought to us centuries ago by our common ancestress, Jorunn. With each new Twilight Lord, the words and instructions within the book change. It has been predicted since the days of Jorunn that the twelfth generation after Khalfani would take for his mate a woman, half-human, half-faerie, with great powers. Her powers combined with his would allow him to rule over all the lands. Lara is that woman,” Kol said.
“Lara of Hetar is wife to Magnus Hauk and Domina over Terah,” the Munin lord said. “She is allied with and almost worshiped by the eight Outland clan families. Her mother is the most powerful of all the faerie queens. Kaliq of the Shadow Princes is her mentor. Even Hetar’s emperor fears her. Do you mean to steal her, Twilight Lord? She will not come willingly to you. You had best examine your Book of Rule again.”
“The book is clear. Lara is to be the mother of the next Twilight Lord. And I know she will not come willingly. That is why I need you to steal her memories and store them in my jar. I will ask you to restore certain of those memories as she comes to trust me. But one memory I would bid you leave her-her memory of how much she enjoys pleasures, for it is not my intent to frighten her when we mate.”
“Then, when we have taken her memories, you will steal her and bring her here to your castle of Kolbyr,” the Munin lord said slowly. “Her disappearance will cause an uproar throughout both Terah and Hetar, though for different reasons. A search will be mounted and the Shadow Princes will become involved. And Ilona will not sit by quietly with her daughter missing. There must be no chance of them discovering that we have been involved in your treachery, Twilight Lord. Our powers are small compared to yours and those whom you will go up against. Sooner or later it will be discovered that you have stolen the faerie woman. Magnus Hauk will not restrain himself if you mate with his beloved wife to gain a son. If we agree to help you, Twilight Lord, you must first build us our refuge, for when we have done your bidding we will hide ourselves away there until the matter is finally settled between the Dark Land, Terah and Hetar. If.”
“My powers can build you your castle in seven days’ time,” Kol told them.
An excited murmur arose again from the cluster of Munin as the Munin lord turned back to them to discuss the matter. Some were eager to accept the Twilight Lord’s offer. Others considered his plan too dangerous and worried about being blamed publicly for their involvement in Kol’s perfidy. But the offer of a castle built for them in a secret valley far from all, with their own vault in which to hoard the memories they stole, was too tempting for them to resist. Even if their participation in Kol’s plan was finally discovered, no one would be able to find them. Those belonging to Hetar and Terah did not venture into the Dark Lands. Not even the magic folk.