Outlands the summer your father died and I saw to his cremation and did him honor. I saw that much honor was done to him by the others who had admired and loved Vartan. Dillon will tell you of that time. You have only to ask him. But my destiny called and I had no choice but to follow.”
“Would you have done so if my father were alive?” Anoush asked.
“Aye, I would have and your father understood that. We both knew that one day I would go, but he would be there for you and Dillon. And then he wasn’t. Liam is your father’s blood kin. He is yours and Dillon’s, too. Noss is my best friend. I asked them to take you and your brother—for where I go you cannot always follow. My destiny is not yours. They have been good foster parents to you, Anoush. I journeyed to Terah, where I met Magnus Hauk. We fell in love and married. Much else has happened in the years since your father’s death, but I suspect I have already told you more than enough. You need only know that I love you and your brother. When I return to the castle in a few weeks, you both will return with me. It is time now for you to know your mother and your little sister. Magnus will be a good stepfather to you.”
“Is this place really the New Outlands?” Anoush asked. “Cam says it is not and that you have told us it is so when the Hetarians want us they can enslave us easily, for you are lulling us into a false sense of security.”
“This is a new place,” Lara reassured her daughter. “You are very, very far from Hetar now. Across a wide sea, in fact. The lords of the clan families know it is truth. They will tell you that the land, while similar, is not the same. The Fiacre never had a nearby lake in the Outlands, but you have one here in the New Outlands. When we go to the Dominus’s castle, you will see that Terah sits between two great oceans.”
“How can I see such a thing?” Anoush wanted to know.
“You will sit before me on my saddle as Dasras gallops across the sky,” Lara told her older daughter.
“I don’t want to leave here,” Anoush said. “I want to stay with Cam and Grandmother. Cam says Noss and Liam don’t want Dillon and me any longer because Noss is fat with another baby. Cam says they don’t want to be bothered with your children when they will have four of their own.”
“Noss loves you, and would keep you forever if I would let her, but I will not,” Lara replied. “You are Fiacre, but you are also my children.”
“If Zagiri is a princess why can I not be a princess?” Anoush wanted to know.
“Zagiri is the daughter of the Dominus of Terah,” Lara said. “She was born royal. You and Dillon are of noble birth, but not royal. You will have to wed a prince one day, Anoush, if you desire to be a princess.”
“Could you really turn me into a warty toad?” Anoush asked her mother.
“I could. My magic is very strong, my daughter.”
“I don’t have any magic, do I?”
“It would seem not. You are like your father. The only magic he possessed was his ability to shape-shift. Perhaps when you grow up a bit more we shall see if you, too, have his talents,” Lara told her daughter. “Or perhaps even some of your own.”
“Dillon has magic,” Anoush remarked. “Grandmother says he is a wicked boy.”
“Aye, your brother does indeed have magic, but he is not wicked,” Lara said.
“Does Zagiri have magic?” Anoush wanted to know.
“She is too little for me to know if she does,” Lara replied.
“Mother?”
“Yes, Anoush?”
“Why did Grandmother lie to me about you?”
“Your grandmother went mad when your father was killed and I was forced to slay her younger son in retaliation. She has never recovered but instead rewove the event so she would not have to face the truth of Adon’s treachery. It cannot be easy to accept that your youngest son has brutally murdered your eldest. And then I took my revenge on Adon and Elin so poor Bera has made me her villain. Before your father’s death, she and I were great friends and I loved her like a mother.”
“Do you still love her?” Anoush asked.
Lara shook her head. “Nay, but I feel no animosity toward her. I feel pity.”
Then Lara reached out and took her daughter’s little hand. “Have you understood all I have told you? Is there more you would ask me or tell me?”
“I understand, I think,” Anoush replied. “My faerie grandmother frightens me, Mother. When she comes to visit she is more interested in Dillon than she is in me, and she shoos me away. Dillon says it is her way and I must not be offended.”
“How typical of Ilona,” Lara murmured, almost to herself. Then she said, “Faeries can have cold hearts, my daughter. She means you no ill, but Dillon’s talents intrigue her. Did you know that I did not know her until I was grown? But that is a story for another time, I think. You will be relieved to know that your stepfather is all mortal. He will love you because he loves me, Anoush. Be kind to him, please.”
“What will I do at the castle?” Anoush was clearly fascinated now.
“You will have lessons as you do here. You will ride your own horse by the sea, and I will teach you to care for your very own garden. At night I will tell you stories before you sleep and then I will kiss you so you may have sweet dreams,” Lara said.
“I am still angry at you, and I have many more questions,” Anoush said frankly.
“I do not expect to win your heart back in an afternoon,” Lara told her child. “Just know that I love you and that all I have done is for you and Dillon and for your safety.”
Anoush nodded. “May I go back to Grandmother’s now?” she said.
“Nay,” Lara told her daughter. “I will not allow you to ever enter Bera’s house again, Anoush. You must be freed from her poisonous ravings.”
Anoush’s eyes grew dark with her annoyance, but then she said, “What am I to do if I must remain here?”
“Perhaps you might go to Noss, and give her your apologies for being so unkind to her these past weeks. She really does love you and she has taken such great care of you and your brother when I could not,” Lara said.
“Will I get to play with Cam again?” she asked.
“I don’t think so,” Lara responded. “He is not a good influence on you, Anoush. He has embroidered on his grandmother’s fantasies, I suspect, which was very cruel. Do you understand what they were doing? Bera and Cam were trying to lure you from those who love you. Why would they do that?”
Anoush swung her legs back and forth as she thought. “I don’t know,” she finally said.
“Nor do I,” Lara replied. “But it was wicked nonetheless, Anoush.” Of course she knew, Lara thought. While Adon had killed his brother and somewhere deep in her mind Bera knew it, she could nevertheless forgive him. But she could never forgive Lara for slaying her surviving son. Elin had meant naught to her, but Adon had been her baby and
