Crown of Destiny. Bertrice Small

kindness. And Lara was relieved to have a serving woman who understood her mistress and her magical ways, someone who could be trusted to keep Lara’s secrets. Cadi had traveled with Lara to the New Outlands to bid the friend of her youth a final farewell. It had been a poignant and difficult moment for Lara.

      Word had come via faerie post that Noss was in her final days. She would not live, her daughter Mildri wrote, to see this year’s Gathering. No longer having any official duties in Terah, Lara had called to Cadi, newly come to her then, to join her. Going to the stables, they had mounted Lara’s great horse, Dasras, and together they had traveled to the New Outlands.

      Seeing Lara again, Noss, now silver-haired and wrinkled, had laughed knowingly. “This journey I will take without you, Lara,” she said. “But Liam is waiting for me.”

      “Do not go just yet,” Lara begged her friend. “We are only newly come.”

      “Who is the girl with the odd hair who accompanies you?” Noss wanted to know.

      “Her name is Cadi, and she is my new serving woman,” Lara answered.

      “Come here, child.” Noss beckoned to Cadi, and when the girl knelt next to the old woman Noss chuckled. Her hand reached up to ruffle the faerie girl’s head. “She is magic,” Noss said. “’Twas past time your mother sent you someone. How difficult it must be to have us all dying about you, dearest Lara. I remember your mother saying ’twas the curse of being a faerie who loved mortals.” Noss lay back upon her pillows, and closed her eyes briefly. Then she sighed. “I know my time has come, Lara, and though I am now ancient and crippled I am still loath to leave this world. What lies beyond for us? Do you know?”

      Lara shook her head. “I know no more than you, dearest Noss. They say for those good mortals, and you are surely one of them, there is another, but different world of joy, where you will be united with those you love who have gone before you. And for those wicked mortals an entirely different place of punishment exists. ’Tis all I know.”

      “Will you live forever?” Noss asked.

      “I don’t know,” Lara said. “My grandmother Maeve died after many hundreds of years in this world, but where she went, or if her essence disappeared entirely forever I do not know, Noss.”

      “Does Ethne?” Noss wondered, referring to Lara’s spirit guardian, who lived in a crystal Lara wore about her neck.

      “I never asked her,” Lara replied. “And I am not certain I am ready to, or to know the answer she might give me.” The crystal at the end of the chain about her neck glowed briefly, and Lara was certain that she heard Ethne’s tinkling laughter.

      Noss gasped, for she had heard the light laughter, too. “I heard her!” she said excitedly. “I heard Ethne laugh! I did!” Noss sat up.

      That and the words I now speak to you, Noss of the Fiacre, are my parting gift to you. You have loved my mistress well for lo these many years. Your friendship has been a faithful and true friendship. When you are ready, go into the light unafraid, Noss of the Fiacre, for your mate is eagerly awaiting your arrival. Have no fear of the door now opening for you. Step bravely across it, knowing you have done well in this life, and you go forth carrying many faerie blessings with you.

      And Noss felt just the lightest of kisses upon her cheek. Her faded brown eyes filled with tears. “Thank you, Ethne,” she managed to say. Then she turned her head to look at Lara. “My time has come,” she told her oldest and dearest friend with a sigh. “Will you remain by my side until I am gone, dearest Lara?” The old woman closed her eyes and lay back again upon her pillows.

      “I will, dearest Noss,” Lara responded, taking Noss’s hand in hers. “I will not leave until you have.” And the faerie woman sat by the side of the only mortal friend remaining to her as the day waned. Finally, as the sun sank away in a blaze of reds, oranges and golds edged in pale green, a deepening blue sky above it filled with small gilt-edged purple clouds, Noss of the Fiacre, widow of Liam, lord of the clan family, stepped bravely through the open door to leave this life for the next. And as she did, Lara heard the joyous cries of welcome for Noss from those beyond that door. She smiled, and looking to Noss’s daughter, Mildri, said softly, “Your mother has left us.”

      Mildri wept quietly for some minutes, and then, her mother’s daughter, she arose, saying to Lara, “You will remain for the Farewell Ceremony, of course.”

      And Lara had. She and Noss had been friends since they were mere girls. They had shared slavery together. Had been reunited by the Shadow Princes. Had traveled across the plains of the old Outlands together encountering adventures Lara would never forget. She had protected Noss, who had been three years younger than Lara. And when Lara’s first husband’s cousin had fallen in love with Noss, and Noss with him, it had been Lara who had arranged their marriage. And it had been a happy marriage, producing several sons and a daughter. Noss’s destiny had been to be a wife, a mother, a Fiacre clanswoman. And while Lara’s fate had been a far different one, their friendship had never wavered. But now Noss was gone.

      Remembering that day so many years ago, Lara wept again briefly. How many mortals had she lost? And now she found herself in a world that did not remember who she was, or her many accomplishments that had helped the mortals inhabiting the world of Hetar to survive and stay within the light. But something was about to happen. Something was going to change. The uneasiness she felt did not bode well. She needed to go to the oasis of Zeroun to think. To escape all the mortal emotions that surrounded her and could divert her thoughts.

      “Cadi!” she called to her servant.

      “We are going to Zeroun,” Cadi said as she came forward to join her mistress.

      Lara laughed. “Is it that you read my thoughts now?” she said.

      “Nay, I should not presume, my lady. But I know that when you get that certain look upon your face, we are going to Zeroun,” Cadi answered with a smile.

      “I would ride Dasras,” Lara said. “But I will send you now to prepare my dwelling ahead of time.” With a wave of her hand Lara opened the magical golden passage saying but one word, “Zeroun!” And without another word Cadi stepped into the tunnel and hurried down the shimmering passage. The tunnel closed. Taking a white silk cape lined in soft natural-colored wool from her wardrobe, Lara draped it about her and with another wave of her hand transported herself to the stable where Dasras was housed.

      The great white stallion looked up, nodding a greeting to her as Lara magicked his blanket, his saddle and bridle on. “In a hurry, are we?” Dasras asked drily as the cinch magically tightened itself about his belly. “Where are we going?”

      “Zeroun,” Lara told the horse. “Your stall is dirty. Has it not been cleaned?”

      “The grooms are careless now,” Dasras said. “Ever since Jason’s grandson died I have not had a personal servant.” He stamped a hoof and shook his head. “My mane has not been combed recently,” he said. “The time draws near, mistress, for us to leave this place. Terah is no longer a home to us.”

      “I know,” Lara half whispered, and felt the tears springing to her eyes. Taking up a currycomb she ran it through the stallion’s thick mane, tears now falling softly. “That is why we go to Zeroun. I must think on what to do.”

      “We should go to Shunnar,” Dasras responded. “You know the prince has wanted you there. He was even willing to raise up a palace for you so you might maintain your cherished independence.”

      “Perhaps I should go to the Forest Kingdom of my mother,” Lara suggested.

      The big stallion snorted derisively. “Nonsense,” he told her. “Besides I cannot run free in the forest with all those trees. Climb upon my back now, mistress, and let us be off to Zeroun. I am eager to take to the sky today.”

      Lara did as Dasras bid her, pointing at the stable doors, which flew open allowing them to exit. The stallion burst forth from the stables into the open courtyard, gaining a certain satisfaction as the stablemen and grooms scattered, making