Crown of Destiny. Bertrice Small

      “If Kolgrim is attempting some mischief, my love, then having you in his power would give him an advantage and but speed his wickedness,” Kaliq said. “And he is capable of holding you captive, Lara. He will never harm you for you gave him life, and he holds fast to the family law of the Twilight Lords, which forbids the shedding of familial blood. But keeping a golden bird in a golden cage does it no harm. Remember how he tricked his twin brother, Kolbein, imprisoning him with Kol.”

      “I can’t forget it,” Lara admitted. “I am ashamed to admit that I thought it extremely clever of him.”

      Kaliq laughed. “It was,” he said. “But it is evidence of how dangerous Kolgrim really is. If we cannot stop him, he will envelop the world of Hetar in a deep and terrible darkness from which they may never escape.”

      “Then we have to stop him, Kaliq,” Lara said. “However we must first learn what wickedness he plans before we may take measures to prevent it.”

      “Let us first see what Coilen can learn,” Kaliq suggested.

      “Very well,” Lara agreed. “But if he can learn no more than he already has, I must go into the Dark Lands myself to see what I can see.”

      They decided they would give the Shadow Prince known as Coilen a moonspan in which to ferret out any information that he could. But when the month had passed Coilen came to tell Kaliq and Lara that he could learn nothing. Whatever Kolgrim was planning he kept it to himself. Possibly the old chancellor, Alfrigg, knew, but he was not a man to gossip.

      “There is nothing of any interest to report,” Coilen said, “unless you are interested in hearing that it is said Kolgrim may take a mate. But that rumor comes up now and again. It means naught.”

      A chill ran down Lara’s spine. “No!” she said sharply. “How long has it been since that rumor was last heard and bandied about?”

      Prince Coilen thought for several long moments. “I don’t think I have heard it,” he said slowly, “in decades. It was spoken in the mating season after he disposed of Ciarda, and possibly a season or two afterward. But nay! I have not heard it in decades, Lara. Can it mean something?”

      “Possibly,” Lara answered him. “Has anyone new, anyone dark, been brought to the Twilight Lord’s House of Women lately?”

      Coilen shook his head. “Actually he has but few women. Many Darklanders hid their daughters after what happened in the wake of Ciarda’s death.”

      “What exactly did happen?” Lara wanted to know.

      “Kolgrim had his daughters, their mothers and any of his many women who might be with child, or were known to be with child, murdered. Then he put a spell on the remaining women closing their wombs to his seed and keeping them young. He slakes his lust with those few, but there have been no more children. It is reported he said he wanted no siblings challenging his son’s right to inheritance one day.”

      Lara smiled grimly. “Ciarda’s legacy,” she said. “Had his half sister not attempted to usurp her brothers’ place this would not have happened at all. Kolgrim is truly Kol’s rightful heir that he could have been so heartless as to slaughter all those innocents to protect a son not even conceived by a bride not even known.”

      “That is the past,” Kaliq said. “We must consider the present and the future.”

      “We will need to know if Kolgrim is truly planning a marriage for himself. Has the Book of Rule directed him to find a bride? Or has it told him the bride to seek? These are the questions we must answer before we can proceed, or even decide how to proceed,” Lara told him. She felt stronger today. Stronger than she had felt in years. The Shadow Princes, in generously sharing their passions, had passed on to her a measure of their power. They did not, Lara knew, do this lightly. “I thought once,” she said to Kaliq, “that my destiny was to unite Hetar’s civilizations. Now I know it is to save them. But am I strong enough?”

      “Only time will tell us that, my love,” the Shadow Prince answered her.