Lara’s eyes quickly scanned the letter from King Archeron. Arcas, as she had known he would, had betrayed the Coastal Kings. Gaius Prospero was now aware that the luxury goods Hetar so craved did not come from them but from Terah. The emperor had turned the Coastal Kingdom into a province. Archeron, however, had been chosen by the emperor to be its governor. My son thought to have this position, Archeron wrote, but Gaius Prospero is wise enough to know he cannot trust the man who betrayed us into his greedy hands. But he trusts me for two reasons. The first is that I have never locked horns with him, and the second is that Arcas tried to murder me. Lara smiled. She could almost hear King Archeron chortling. The Coastal King went on to write that Hetar had now taken over the province’s beautiful empty lands, and was settling people on them.
As for the Outlands, they had not proved as profitable as Gaius Prospero had promised they would be. The Hetarians transported there for the purpose of settlement were having difficulty erecting their villages and shelters before the winter set in. There wasn’t enough livestock or poultry to stock the new farms. There wasn’t enough lumber for the buildings, or even food to eat. The settlers were being forced to send two-thirds of what the newly opened fields produced to the City. What remained had to feed the settlers in the Outlands, and little was being stored for winter. It was an unfortunate situation.
Now the Forest Lords were demanding control over the forests of the Purple Mountains, and Squire Darah of the Midlands, now its governor, was insisting that the farmlands of the Outlands should really be under his control. The Shadow Princes had withdrawn from the High Council, and warned the emperor that any incursion into their lands would result in disaster for Hetar. But Gaius Prospero has no idea the riches the desert kingdom holds, and so is content to ignore what he considers a wasteland, Archeron wrote.
The mines he has opened have yielded next to nothing. Those poor in the City without means or important friends are being swept up into slavery to make up for the clan families who disappeared from the Outlands before the invasion. I don’t suppose Lara would know anything about that? Be warned, Archeron went on, that Gaius Prospero is growing desperate, and probably dangerous. Arcas has told him what little we know of Terah, and it is indeed possible that despite the situation in Hetar, which is spiraling out of control, the emperor may attempt to send someone to Terah to investigate your riches. I have warned you not because I am disloyal to Hetar, but because I am horrified by what has been happening. It is too dangerous for me to write again. I am sending this letter by my late wife’s brother who captains one of our vessels. I know he is trustworthy. The Celestial Actuary protect us all in these perilous times.
Lara set the letter aside. “Archeron is an honorable man,” she said. “He thought long and hard about sending you this message, Magnus. Now do you truly understand our need for a military force to protect Terah?”
The Dominus nodded. “I will speak to Corrado first,” he said. “And then I will send to the headmen of all the fjord villages. We have seven named fjords. And there are many villages. This meeting must take place before the Icy Season sets in for it will be too difficult to gather everyone once it does.”
“You have no governing body?” Lara asked her husband.
He shook his head. “I am the Dominus. It has always been this way in Terah. Once a High Council was proposed, but it was believed that a council would be likely to get caught up in debates, and then nothing would get done. Members of a council would also be open to bribery and coercion. There are greedy and ambitious among us, too, Lara. It is better that each village has its headman, who is responsible to me. I make the decisions based upon what they tell me. I do what is right for Terah,” Magnus Hauk said. “It has worked well for centuries, except for the time in which Usi ruled over Terah.”
“How did he gain such control over the land?” Lara wanted to know.
“The Dominus at the time was a particularly kind man, and Usi is said to have bewitched him,” Magnus Hauk replied.
“We must see that does not happen again,” Lara murmured.
“It will not,” the Dominus said in a hard voice.
The next morning Corrado joined Magnus Hauk and Lara. Sitting together they explained all that had happened in the last few months, and why it was going to be necessary to raise a military force to protect Terah.
“But we are craftsmen and traders by nature,” Corrado protested. “We know naught of war.”
“So you are content to be conquered by Hetar?” Lara said to him. She knew she would hear this same protest over and over again once they met with the headmen from the many villages located along the shores of the seven named fjords.
“Well, no,” Corrado said slowly, “but is there not another way?”
“We are only proposing to defend ourselves from attack,” the Dominus answered.
“We will initiate no hostilities ourselves, but we must be prepared in the event hostilities are initiated by others, Corrado. And once that happens it will be too late unless we are prepared for it. Pitchforks and hoes in the hands of farmers and craftsmen will not stop an invading force. We need weapons, and we need men trained to know how to use them. The weapons can be made over the winter months, and we can train the men then, too,” Magnus Hauk said.
“Women are capable of fighting, too,” Lara told them. “I will train a force of women in swordsmanship and staff.”
Both her husband and Corrado looked horrified at her words.
“Magnus!” Lara glared at him. “You know I can fight.”
“Aye, you can, but Terahn women have never been warriors,” he replied.
“Oh really? What would you have called Geltruda, the woman who destroyed Usi? Was she not a warrior? A heroine? Women are every bit as capable as men, my lord Dominus, but if you wish to cut your fighting force in half then do so. Andraste and I, however, will fight by your side should it be necessary,” Lara told him.
“Will Hetar send women warriors into battle?”
“Nay, they will not,” Lara said. “Do you wish to be as stupid as Gaius Prospero who believes that women are only good for pleasures, childbirth and housekeeping?”
“We will invite women to join in protecting Terah, but we will not compel them to do so,” Magnus Hauk decided, and Lara kissed her husband’s cheek in approval.
“I would not allow Sirvat to join such a force,” Corrado said.
“Sirvat must make her own choices,” Lara said quietly. “She is a member of Terah’s ruling family, and will decide where best she may serve our homeland.”
Corrado raised a quizzical eyebrow. “You are Hetarian,” he said.
“I am Terahn,” she told him. “I could not choose where I was born, and actually I was born in the faerie realm, Corrado. My loyalties, however, are Terahn. Not because I am now its Domina, but because it is where my heart is.”
To her surprise her husband’s captain of captains stood, and knelt suddenly at her feet. Looking up at Lara he said, “Forgive me, Domina. I am a fool.”
“But only sometimes,” Lara replied with a smile, and she held out her hand to help him rise to his feet again.
Both men laughed aloud, and the Dominus said, “Let us continue to talk so we may decide what is to be done. I thought to send messengers to the headmen of all the named fjords, and to the headmen of each of the villages inviting them to the castle. When we have assembled them all we will tell them what has transpired, and what we must do to protect Terah.”
“We will want Arik and Kemina at these meetings, too, for they represent the religious orders, and it is the Great Creator who will guide us in what we do now,” Lara noted.
The two men nodded.
“Archeron was brave to warn us,” Lara said.