Dark Dominance

By Aradia

The King of the Dark Lands watched with a mix of annoyance and amusement as a magickal Gate opened just inside the western border of his sealed territory, depositing two horseback riders. He strained to see the features of the two riders, but the bowl of seerwater shook, blurring their faces. All he knew for certain was that one was male and the other was female. Then he watched as a band of his citizens chased a lone woman through the hostile lands, and as she eventually ran straight into his two unwelcome riders.

Leurc Taarene looked up as his younger brother, Lucian, strode into the throne room of the dark castle. "We have visitors again, Lucian," Leurc said without preamble, his rich voice holding a clipped accent. "Two women and a man." His dark gold eyes shone in the torchlit room, his dark blonde hair long and tied with a simple strip of leather. As Leurc dumped the water onto the floor of his throne room, he regarded his younger brother soberly.

Lucian Taarene was good looking, but held a hint of cruelty that was absent in his older brother. His chestnut hair waved slightly, a similar shade to the hazel of his eyes. Unlike Leurc, Lucian was not a mage, but only a minor wizard. He was, however, an accomplished swordsman and a clever tactician. Lucian held no physical resemblance to Leurc, which bothered neither of them, as they were the last of the first luchthren created. It had been Leurc, Lucian, and Leurc’s former lover Yliana Jerane who had escaped the mass slaughter of the luchthren when their creator had been unhappy with Leurc’s refusal to accept slavery.

"So let the crowds take care of them," Lucian said flippantly, bringing Leurc back to the present. "The women can’t last long, and the man won’t."

"One of them is a mage," Leurc replied sharply. "And that unsettles the balance, don’t you agree?"

A banging on the front doors drew the attentions of both men before three figures strode into the room. One was the woman that had been chased through the lands. The other two were the cloaked figures from the Gate. "Which of you is Leurc Taarene?"

Leurc rose easily and proudly. "I am. Who are you to breach the seal I put on my territory?" As he spoke, he studied the three figures.

The first woman was small, dressed in shockingly bright colours, a bit plain in appearance. Her eyes were bright with curiosity, her dark hair tangled and matted from her weeks in his lands. Encircling her small wrists were gold bracelets, and small bells encircled her slender waist. She moved with the grace of a dancer, but she didn’t have the mage’s aura he was looking for, and so he dismissed her.

The man pushed his hood back first, his dark hair tied back in a simple style, much like Leurc’s. His bright blue eyes were narrowed in contemplation, his entire being readied in a fighting stance. His striking features made him as good a looking man as Lucian, even with his golden skin. But it was the other woman who caught Leurc’s attention.

She bore an obvious resemblance to the man, her equally dark curls cascading down her back. Her golden face was set off by the radiant-cut sapphire in the hollow of her throat, even though her dark clothes, so like the man’s, flattered her as well.

"I am Calypso Starblood, this is my brother Indiana, and this is Zakiyah," the second woman finally said, gesturing to her companions. "We came to speak with you about an incident in Kettahr."

"You are not human," Lucian drawled lazily, though he gave Zakiyah an appraising look, causing her to move closer to Indiana. "Kettahrites are human."

"I and my brother are Kestrelae," Calypso replied. "I have come to tell you that a wizard assassinated the King of Kettahr, Sardis Skycrest."

"My sympathies," Leurc murmured with the same laziness as his brother. "Though I fail to see why a pair of Kestrelae would worry about the king’s death. I should think that would ensure your victory in the wars."

"Mayhap if you got out more, you would know that the wars are two years ended," Indiana retorted. "My sister is the Queen of Kettahr now."

"And I suppose Zakiyah is the Princess of Kettahr as well," Lucian snorted. "While you are merely an heir-apparent."

"I’m th’ Princess o’ nothin’!" Zakiyah snapped, her high voice coloured by a thick Salion accent. "I’m jes’ a trav’ler."

Calypso did not move a muscle as she met Leurc’s relentless gaze. "Sardis issued a provision in our peace treaty, by which I have gained a kingdom I had hoped to not inherit."

"Well, I offer a thousand congratulations," Leurc murmured, still lazily, though he drew his knife to idly toy with it. "Though I fail to see why an emissary could not have been sent."

Calypso’s reply was to toss a knife at Leurc, which he caught easily. It was a short blade, encrusted with blood to the hilt, the hilt engraved with an ancient luchthren dialect. "Either you intended to kill me and have odious aim," he finally said. "Or you offer this as a piece of evidence that I killed him. Which I assure you I did not."

"This dagger does not hold your mage’s aura, Leurc Taarene. It does hold your companion’s wizard’s aura." Her musical voice was filled with authority. "But he is not the one who wielded the knife. He merely influenced the assassin."

Leurc snorted in disdain at that. "Unfortunately, Queen of wherever, my brother is still a novice in wizardry. He could not have influenced anyone to do anything. Unless the assassin talked?"

"The assassin committed suicide rather than allow my troops to capture him." She gestured sharply at her brother’s movement, and he relaxed slowly. "But your brother’s wizard’s aura is quite distinctive. No one else would have such a bloodtaint on his aura that your brother does."

Lucian rose to her challenge immediately. "What do you know of mages and wizards, you unnatural wench?" When she turned a cold look on him, he almost cringed. Her eyes held a promise of pain, of vengeance, and of death.

"I know that my mother is the granddaughter of the High Mage of Taundra. I know that my grandmother is a scholar of the arcane arts." Calypso’s voice became too soft, too dangerous. "I know that you are the unnatural creature here, Lucian Taarene. I know that you, and Leurc Taarene, and the lover, are all luchthren creatures. That you were created by a distorted Nature-Lord, and that he destroyed most of your people. But you three escaped, and the Nature-Lord’s partner, the one he trusted most, turned on him. I know that the Nature-Witch saw what he had done, saw what he had become, and she destroyed him."

"And how does that make me unnatural?" Lucian demanded arrogantly. "I’m not the one here who kills those unfortunate enough to be in my bed."

"Unfortunate is right," Indiana shot back before his sister could answer. "I pity the women that you bully into your bed, because you are only a little boy trying to prove he’s got a man’s balls."

A choking sound came from Calypso, as though she were trying desperately to not laugh. Zakiyah’s eyes grew wide at that insult, but she didn’t move. Leurc’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t answer the insult to his brother. Lucian stared at Indiana in shock, then drew his sword slowly. All the time, Indiana just smirked at the luchthren prince.

"Leurc, I’m going to kill this…abomination…for his insult. Then I’ll kill his sister for daring to laugh. I might decide to spare the wanderer there, but I doubt it." Lucian held the sword loosely and expertly.

Indiana started to draw his own sword as well, but stopped at his sister’s look. "Caly, this is a fight between me and him. Let me handle it."

"No, Prince, you will not." Calypso’s mental voice was commanding. "There will be no fights here. If there is, ‘twill be between Lucian Taarene and myself."

"Must we fight, gentlemen?" Leurc asked in a deceptively mild tone. "You came to tell me that Sardis of Kettahr is dead, that my brother is responsible for it, and that we are unnatural. I thank you for that information, now please leave."

Calypso turned her gaze to Leurc to reply, but Lucian moved first. A dagger flew out of nowhere, aimed straight for her lovely features. Zakiyah gasped instinctively, and Indiana started to raise his hands to create a defense shield around his sister. But the dagger was too fast, and the movement too unexpected.

The nymph woman twisted around as she brought her hands up to catch the spinning blade flat between her palms, stopping the attack centimeters from her face. Her dark eyes turned black with anger, but she simply examined the knife’s edge insolently before dropping it at Lucian’s feet with a clatter. "No wonder you will never be a true wizard, Lucian Taarene. You cannot even achieve a true edge to your weapons, and that will be your downfall in magick." Her voice held the same anger as her eyes, but she leveled her gaze back to Leurc. "Indiana and I will leave now, Leurc Taarene. But know that we are not far away. And that I rule in Kettahr as fairly as I rule the Kestrel Chain." With that, she and her brother turned and strode out, a powerful wind flapping their cloaks about them.

Zakiyah stared at the Dark King and the Dark Prince with a bit of fear, but Leurc just gave her an irritated look. "There’s chambers in the north tower that you can settle into, wanderer. Perhaps at breakfast, you will explain why you breached the seal I placed on my lands." He gave her a telling look when she started to protest, and she dashed off.

Lucian stared after the Queen and Prince with a rage so powerful he shook violently. "That bitch will never contain Kettahr. You should have had those territories."

Leurc stared at his brother in amazement. "So you arranged for the death of Sardis Skycrest in some misplaced attempt to expand the empire?"

"Yliana Jerane abandoned you when you needed her!" Lucian shouted. "She should have yielded to you and not challenged your right to the throne of the Dark Lands!"

"Calypso Starblood is not Yliana Jerane! Rumour holds that her mother’s consort is not her sire," Leurc shouted back. "Rumour holds that her sire is Kreyner of Garul!"

"Piffle," Lucian said rudely. "She’s trying to scare everyone. It won’t work."

"So you hope," Leurc replied sharply before rising and stalking out of the throne room. Lucian continued to stare after Calypso and Indiana with a vicious gleam in his hazel eyes.

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