Crown of Destiny

He ran a finger down her slender arm. “Do I conquer you, my love?” he asked.

“From the first moment you kissed me, Kaliq,” Lara answered him honestly. “Mayhap even before. How I hated it when you sent me from Shunnar. But in hindsight I understand. There is so much more than just you and me.”

“Aye, there is, but now is not the time to discuss it,” Kaliq told her.

“When?” she queried him.

“In the days to come when you are rested, and your strength has returned,” he promised her. “Now, however, I want to kiss you.” And his dark head dipped to find her eager mouth. The touch of her petal-soft lips on his caused his head to spin with delight. They had been lovers on and off for well over a century, and yet he had never grown bored with his faerie woman. Each time was like the first time he had kissed her as they stood in the wide marble corridor of his palace, and she had told him of herself, and of Og, the giant who accompanied her. He had fallen in love with her at that moment. And he had never stopped loving her. Now he must divert his jealousy in order that she receive the diverse passions she needed from his brothers. His kiss deepened.

She felt him blocking his thoughts from her. At any other time it would have disturbed Lara, but she suspected she knew why he did it. He was one of the most powerful beings in the Cosmos, and yet he was capable of feeling invidiousness. Unlike mortals, however, the great Shadow Prince could put such emotions aside, and not act on his feelings. Make love to me, Kaliq, she said in the silent language.

Did you not tell Lothair that passion denied was sweeter? he teased her.

For Lothair perhaps, my love, but not for you and me, Lara replied. Is it possible for either of us ever to get enough of the other?

“No,” he murmured in her ear, and licked it. Then he forged a trail of kisses down her jaw, her neck and across her shoulder.

Lara drew his head to her breasts.

He groaned as he buried his face between the round twin orbs. He licked at her nipples one by one. Then Kaliq suckled upon them while a single finger ran up and down her slit until she was squirming. The touch of her hand communicated her needs to him.

Tell me your desires, my beautiful faerie lover, Kaliq said to her.

I need your tongue to love me, Lara told him.

The warm fleshy organ began to lick her belly with long, slow strokes. She sighed. He moved lower and lower until his tongue replaced the finger that had been teasing at her slit. He moved himself between her open legs, and opened her to his view. The dainty nub of flesh called her jewel was simply perfect. He was almost mesmerized as he stared at it so neatly placed between the deep pink walls of flesh now becoming wet and shiny with her need.

And then Lara felt another Shadow Prince straddling the couch behind her, and reaching around to cup her breasts in his hands. Leaning her head back, she saw Prince Nasim’s smiling face, and she smiled back. His hands skillfully played with her nipples, sending shivers of pure lust through her. Kaliq’s mouth was on her jewel, licking gently at first, then sucking and sucking on her until between the two men her desire was beginning to blaze high.

Kaliq pulled himself up, his lover’s rod visible to her half-closed eyes. He was hard, and the lust on his face was potent. Two other princes were suddenly there, each taking one of her legs to draw them back over her shoulders so Kaliq might delve deeply. Memories of the first time they had shared pleasures at a banquet assailed her as he drove himself deep into her sheath.

“Oh yes!” Lara breathed aloud. “Yes!” she encouraged him.

He rode her long, and hard, and when he had filled her with his juices, Kaliq withdrew, seating himself on the carpet next to the head of the couch. Lothair quickly took his place, filling Lara full of himself, groaning as the muscles within her sheath tightened about him, drawing his juices from him as they both screamed with their satisfaction at the encounter.

I want more! Lara said as, kissing her, he reluctantly arose.

Lothair laughed. And we shall give you all you desire this night, Lara. Let me but rest and I will return to give you more of myself.

She was awash in the most exquisite sensations. There was not a part of her that was not indulged by the passions of the Shadow Princes. They sucked on her fingers, her toes, her nipples and her throbbing jewel. They tenderly filled every open orifice on her body taking her singly, two at a time, and at one point she accepted three manhoods at once. And all three of the Princes released their juices in a single moment, causing Lara to swoon.

The rest of the evening was as these evenings always were, a dream of intense pleasures and sweet tenderness that left Lara gasping with her delight. The Shadow Princes generously gave her their passions, and those passions renewed her spirit, making her stronger than she had been in decades. Finally Kaliq was in her arms again, and it was just the two of them upon the wide dining couch. She caressed his face and kissed him gently. I love you, she told him simply as he entered her body joining them once again. Only you, my lord Kaliq. Only you! She saw the tears he quickly forced back just briefly fill his bright blue eyes. Only you, she repeated, and then let him sweep her away.

When the sun rose in the morning, the naked couples awoke slowly, pair by pair, and then arose to go off to their own private places. Lara and Kaliq sought the baths, and then he joined her in her bed to sleep. There was no sign of Cadi until they awoke in the early afternoon, and she came to say a meal was set up in the gardens for them.

“Did you enjoy the banquet?” Kaliq asked the faerie as he stepped naked from the bed. He donned the white cotton caftan with the deep blue embroidery that she handed him. “We do not have such affairs often, but your mistress needed to regain certain powers that only my brothers and I can give her.”

“It was wonderful, my lord! I thank you for allowing me to come. Queen Ilona has spoken many times of your banquets. I never thought to experience one,” Cadi said.

“I think you have intrigued my brother Lothair,” Kaliq said mischievously.

“The sword master? I cannot deny he wields his personal weapon well,” Cadi replied pithily. “I hope we will meet again.”

Kaliq laughed. “I suspect your wish will be granted, Cadi,” he told her. Then, turning back to the bed, he caught Lara’s shoulder shaking her gently. “Wake up, sleepyhead. It’s time to eat. Even a faerie woman needs more than one strength.”

Lara rolled over, looking up at him. “Feed me then,” she responded.

“If I do you will never get up, and we need to talk, Lara, my love,” he told her.

The green eyes grew wary. “Today?” she said.

He nodded.

“Do I not get a few days of respite, my lord?” Lara demanded to know.

“After we talk,” he promised.

With a sigh Lara arose, taking the white cotton caftan with the blue embroidery from Cadi, donning it and then sitting down upon a small bench so Cadi could brush out her long tangled hair. When Cadi had braided the golden hair into a single plait, Lara joined her prince in the garden where a meal of roasted capon, saffron rice, mixed lettuces, yogurt, fruit, bread and cheese was awaiting them. Cadi filled their carved silver cups with sweet apricot-flavored frine and then disappeared from their sight.

“Eat first,” Kaliq said to Lara. He took up the capon and tore it in half, taking one of the two large pieces for himself and slicing from the other what he knew Lara enjoyed. Lara filled their plates with the rest of the foods, and they ate quietly at first. Finally she could not wait any longer to learn what he had to say to her. Sensing it, he said, “Your son and his evil have begun to stir once again, my love.”

Lara sighed. “Has Kolgrim rebuilt his armies then? Is he planning to reach for Hetar and Terah once again?”

“Rebuilding an army proved an impossible task,” Kaliq said.

“Why? Certainly there are enough dark creatures in our world eager enough to profit from Kolgrim’s greed for power and lands that they would pledge themselves to him,” Lara replied. “Of course there is always the possibility of being killed in one of those little ventures the Twilight Lords so enjoy.”

“The Dark Lands cannot provide Kolgrim with the armies he needs to overcome Hetar and Terah. They do not have enough women to breed soldiers upon. But when those two lands he covets combine their forces with the magic world, he has no chance at all of succeeding. Still there have been whispers of a more disturbing nature that indicate Kolgrim is planning something nefarious, Lara.”

“Can he not raise up warriors full grown to battle us?” she wanted to know.

“He has tried over the last century to do just that. But he has failed, and now he considers something different. But what we do not know. That is why it was so important for you to leave Terah and return to Shunnar. Whatever it is Kolgrim seeks to do will be dangerous, for although Alfrigg has kept him in check until now, the old dwarf is probably nearing his end. Without him Kolgrim’s reckless nature will erupt, I fear,” Kaliq told Lara.

“Has Alfrigg not trained a replacement for himself? He very much wanted to escape the burdens he carried for Kol these last few centuries. I pushed back the years from his aged body so he might guide Kolgrim long enough to find a successor and teach him what he needed to know. It was my reward to him for his aid,” Lara said, concerned.

“Kolgrim will not let him go, nor will he even hear of someone taking Alfrigg’s place as his chancellor,” Kaliq replied. “Prince Coilen has been visiting the Dark Lands, watching and listening. If Alfrigg dies we will have serious difficulties with Kolgrim.”

“Perhaps if I pay this dark son of mine a visit I can learn what he is thinking,” Lara said slowly. “He is untrustworthy, of course, but he has always liked me.”

Kaliq chuckled. “I know,” he said. “He is quite fascinated by you, which fascinates me. Until a century ago he did not even know who you were, but from the first moment he laid eyes upon you he felt a bond with you.”

Lara sniffed derisively. “He seeks to beat me at the game we of the magic world seem to play with each other and the mortals. If he ever had a triumph over me, he would no longer be interested in me, Kaliq. He is amusing, and clever, but his heart, if indeed he has a heart, is icy cold. He is like his father. He is filled with greed for everything, and with lust for everything. But if you sense that he is about to reach out again, we must learn to what purpose,” Lara remarked. “I must go into the darkness to learn what I can.”

Kaliq knew better than to forbid her, so he said, “If you go then I go with you.”

“Are you that fearful for my safety, my lord?” He surprised her.

“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.”