The Twilight Lord Read Online Free PDF Page A

years since Vartan’s death. His legend remains but his influence has faded from the Fiacre. And there are those, too, who never trusted you, Lara, because of your Hetarian birth, although they have certainly profited by your faerie nature. Any rumor begun among us will eventually spread to the other clan families. We cannot allow divisions to separate us now that we are relatively safe once again.”
    “Thank you, Liam,” Lara said to him. “Your friendship is precious to me. You are as safe as any peoples here, but I am concerned not just with Hetar but with the Dark Lands to our north. Hetar is an ocean away. But the other…” She sighed. “Does anyone know of the people who inhabit that place? It seems to be all mountains.”
    “None of our folk have ventured north,” Liam said. “Those mountains, unlike the Emerald Range that separates us from Terah proper, seem threatening. All the clan families have enough lands where we are. Our territories are at least twice as large as those we held previously. Why do the Dark Lands concern you, Lara?”
    “I am not certain, but I sense a threat from them,” she answered. “The first time I saw them, I was on Dasras’s back and observing the sea creatures frolicking in the sea we call Obscura. Those mountains drew my eye, and I was almost overwhelmed by the aura of darkness that emanated from them.”
    “We have never seen any signs of life from them,” Liam told her. “I wonder if they are even inhabited. They certainly appear to be inhospitable.”
    “Aye,” Lara replied slowly. Then she shook off the feeling of gloom that had come over her when she spoke of the Dark Lands.
    Dillon came into the hall and went to his mother. “Anoush has gone to our grandmother’s house,” he told her.
    “I will fetch her,” Sholeh said standing up. “I want to see how Bera is faring.”
    She hurried from the hall with Dillon by her side.
    “You see how it is?” Lara said to Liam.
    “Cam will be gone on the morrow,” Noss soothed, “and you will not have to see him again. Frankly I’ll be glad to have him out of the village. Whenever he ventures out he always manages to cause trouble among the other children. There are several who are fascinated by him, but then there are always those who cannot help being drawn by the darkness and then into it.”
    “You are such a tattletale,” Anoush complained to her brother as they returned together to the hall.
    “You were told not to go back there,” he countered.
    “You are not my master, Brother. I do what pleases me,” Anoush snapped.
    “You are not old enough to do as you please,” he replied.
    “I am six,” Anoush answered, “and that is old enough.”
    “Ah, children, here you are,” Lara came toward them smiling. “I believe it is time for you to go to bed, Anoush.” She took her daughter by her hand and led her away.
    Dillon grinned after them. “My mother is surely the cleverest woman alive,” he said with a chuckle.
    “And you are much too wise for a boy so young,” Noss told him, ruffling his hair.
    “My soul, I think, is as old as time itself, dearest Noss,” he answered.
    “You will do well one day with the Shadow Princes,” Noss said.
    “My mother says I am not yet ready,” he replied sadly.
    “Do not stop trusting your mother now, Dillon,” Noss advised. “She has never failed any of us. If she says you must wait, then accept her decision and be patient.”
    “I will,” he told her but his tone was reluctant.
    “Go and fetch the boys for me,” she said. “It is time they went to bed, too.”
    With a quick smile he ran off to do her bidding.
    Noss looked out over the darkening landscape. A warm summer breeze touched her cheek and pushed at a loose strand of her hair. It sometimes seemed only yesterday she was a frightened girl from The City sold into slavery by her parents. So much had happened in the years that had passed. She often wondered if her parents still lived, and