Noss nodded reluctantly. “I cannot help but feel if we had been raising Cam it would have been different,” she said.
Lara shook her head. “Nay, there is wickedness in him,” she replied. “He will need to be kept under control all his life.”
NOSS GAVE BIRTH to her daughter in very late summer. Mildri was a pretty baby and gentle of temperament. The time of the Gathering was drawing near. Magnus Hauk would join Lara and the clan families as he had done every year since they had come to the New Outlands. It was at the Gathering that they rendered him their tribute as their overlord. Lara had sent a faerie post to her husband telling him that Dillon and Anoush would be coming home with them. The Dominus wrote back that his sister, Sirvat, had come to help. She was already preparing rooms for the children despite the fact she was great with a second child to be born in late autumn.
Anoush had grown closer to her mother now that she was not in Cam or Bera’s company. Having learned from Dillon of Anoush’s proclivities for plants, Lara had started a small herb garden with her daughter. They would transplant Anoush’s plants to a new garden in Terah, Lara promised. She also taught the little girl small facts such as lavender being an excellent agent for those troubled by sleeplessness and chamomile tea being good for the nerves. One day she took the child up on Dasras with her. They traveled to the Obscura, where they watched the sea creatures playing in the waves. Anoush was fascinated by it all. The angry look had left her eyes, to Lara’s relief.
Then, on a perfect late-summer’s night, Lara and her two children lay upon a gentle hillock almost all of the evening and watched the flying stars streaking across the black skies before the moonrise. The earth beneath them smelled green and fresh with the early dew. Then with Dillon by her side Lara walked home carrying Anoush, who had fallen asleep.
“It was a perfect magical moment,” Dillon told his mother. “Why do the stars fly, Mother? But for this night they seem to be still in the heavens.”
“I don’t know,” Lara admitted. “That is a question we must ask Kaliq when we see him again, my son.”
“And when will that be?” Dillon wanted to know.
Lara laughed. “Oh, how you long to go to the Shadow Princes!” she teased. “But this will be the first time you have lived with me in several years. Let me have a little time with you, Dillon. I am certain Kaliq would agree with that.”
“You grown folk, magical or mortal, all stick together,” Dillon complained.
“’Tis the only way we can survive our young long enough to teach them,” Lara told him with a chuckle.
They entered the lord’s house, then the servant who had waited up for them barred the doors. Reaching the chamber she shared with her children each time she visited, Lara lay Anoush down in her bed with Zagiri, who was already sleeping, and drew the coverlet over them. She kissed her daughters and then she kissed her son who had already climbed into his own bed.
“Good night, Dillon. Sleep well.”
“I don’t know if I can,” Dillon replied. “It was such a wonderful evening, Mother.”
Lara ruffled his hair. “You will sleep,” she told him. Then she lay down in her own bed to rest. It had been a perfect summer. In another two weeks, Magnus would join them and they would all go to the Gathering together. She was anxious to see the other clan lords and learn how they were now faring after several years in the New Outlands. Liam said that everyone was content, but she needed to hear it from their own lips. When she had arrived two months ago, the fields below her had certainly looked fertile and green. And the horses belonging to the Aghy had looked fat. But what of the others? Were Rendor’s sheep thriving? Were the dwarfs in the Emerald Mountains still getting along with the Piaras and the Tormod? Having brought them all here she would always worry about them, Lara thought. But then her eyes began to droop and she fell into a contented sleep.
In the morning when Dillon awoke, he lay quietly considering the odd dream he had had in the night. It had seemed so very real, yet he was certain he had been sleeping. Yawning and stretching, he saw that his mother was already up. He knew she enjoyed viewing the sunrise and was usually awake before her children. Turning his head, Dillon noted his sisters were still sleeping. He smiled at them. They were both his mother’s daughters, and yet they were so very different. Zagiri was adventurous and absolutely sure of herself, which probably came from having a father in her life. Anoush, on the other hand was cautious and defensive, having lost her father before she ever knew him.
Dillon remembered Vartan well and he made it a point to tell Anoush often of how the great Outland lord had taken her up on his saddle and ridden about his meadows with her. He told his sister of how their father had adored his little girl, that he loved both his children with all of his heart. But unfortunately Cam and Bera had told Anoush a different tale of Vartan and confused her. Dillon had to admit that he was glad Cam had been sent away this summer. He was glad that they were returning with Lara to her castle on the Terahn coast. Sadly, without her father, the New Outlands were not good for Anoush. She needed to begin anew. She needed both a mother and a father. Dillon knew that Magnus would love them because they were Lara’s children. The Dominus would treat them well.
Dillon arose from his bed and dressed himself. His sisters would awaken soon. He filled the chamber ewer with water and quickly washed his face and hands. He scrubbed his teeth with a small brush dipped in fine pumice stone that his mother had taught him to use. After rinsing his mouth, he ran his fingers through his dark locks, then emptied the little basin and refilled it for his sisters. The sun was just edging over the horizon. If he was quick he could join his mother.
But he could not find Lara outside and while he pushed back thoughts of his dream he began to wonder if it had been real after all. He had been awakened by what sounded like whispering, yet he could not make out the words. Turning over, he saw a cluster of filmy, almost transparent beings, gray-white in color, hovering over his mother. They drew gauzy golden strands from her head, which one of them wrapped carefully about a large spool. Then the creatures, whatever they were, disappeared into the air itself. Dillon blinked with surprise and when he looked again, his mother was no longer in her bed. I am dreaming, he thought, and fell back asleep. But had he been dreaming? It was so very, very odd. It would have had to be magic. He was aware there were magical beings in their world other than his mother, but Dillon knew instinctively that none of her associates would have been involved with what he had seen in the night. Perhaps Lara left because some emergency had called her. But she would not have done so without telling someone. Dillon made his way back to Liam’s hall from the hillock where he had gone to watch the sunrise with Lara.
Entering through the kitchen door he bid the servants a good morning, and smiling took the thick slice of freshly baked bread the cook offered him. After a time, Noss came into the kitchens, Mildri in a woven sling about her mother’s body.
Noss sat down wearily. “Good morning,” she said.
Dillon smiled at his foster mother. “Has Mildri not yet fathomed the difference between night and day, dear Noss?” He touched the baby’s reddish head with a gentle finger. “She is such a pretty thing. She will be a great beauty one day and will bring a good bride price to you and Liam.”
Noss smiled weakly. “She is also very stubborn,” she said. “The boys were so easy compared to this longed-for daughter of mine.”
“I cannot find my mother,” Dillon replied casually. Please, he thought silently, let Noss say she knows where my mother is. Please let it have been only a strange dream.