Lara: Book One of the World of Hetar by Bertrice Small

Author:Bertrice Small [Small, Bertrice]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2005-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

LARA BID HER GRANDMOTHER, the great Maeve, farewell. “I will see you again,” she promised the old faerie.

Maeve shook her head. “Nay, my sweet child, you will not. I came tonight because Kaliq said you were with him, and out of the great friendship I have always had for the Shadow Princes, but I am too weak to come again.”

“Then I will come to you,” Lara said.

“Nay! I will not allow you in the Forest, Lara. The Foresters have sought for a hundred years in their feeble attempts to find me. We have eluded them for all that time, but I know there could come a time when they might discover us. I would not want you there to be retaken into bondage. I will never revoke the curse I placed upon them. They were ever an arrogant people, and for centuries we overlooked their bad behavior in order to keep the peace between us. Until Nixa was murdered. A foolish faerie woman, to be sure, but she did not deserve to die the way she did.”

“I will be free soon of the Foresters’ claim,” Lara said.

“Do you think, my child, that they will heed the law? They will not, especially if they find you in their realm. I have seen you now, and you have been reunited with your mother, which was my desire. I shall fade away happily, Lara.”

“But to lose you when I have only just found you?” she protested.

Maeve smiled. “It was never meant that I be a part of your destiny, Lara. Now give me a kiss, dear girl. It is time for me to go.”

Lara put her arms about the old faerie woman and hugged her, noticing that it was almost like hugging the air. She kissed Maeve’s cheeks several times. “Goodbye, grandmother, and thank you.” She felt the tears beginning to roll down her cheeks.

Reaching out, Maeve brushed the tears away, and then before Lara’s eyes she disappeared in a cloud of pale smoke. “Goodbye, Lara.” Her reedy voice echoed softly.

“You have made her very happy,” Ilona said to her daughter. “In a few weeks she will fade away completely, and I will be the new queen of the Forest Faeries. I will have to return then, and so we have little time together.”

“I know that faeries live for several centuries, but if I am your only child, Mother, who will follow you?” Lara asked Ilona.

Ilona sighed. “Once my mother has faded and I am crowned, I must take a mate who will sire a child on me. Son or daughter, it does not matter as long as I have an heir to follow. The Forest Faeries have been ruled since the beginning of time by our family. Because you are half-human you are not eligible to follow me, Lara. Our line must remain only faerie,” she explained.

“You preserve your purity as the Forest Lords once did, and continue to pretend they are doing,” Lara remarked with a small smile.

“I suppose we do,” Ilona replied.

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