“Your realm has never given me strength,” Lara replied. “I need to be here. Terah is from where I take my strength.”

“Let me have Marzina, then, for a brief time,” Ilona said.

“Not yet, Mother. Marzina needs to be with her brother and sisters now. I will send her to you in time,” Lara promised.

“You are so protective of that child,” Ilona complained. “I am her grandmother, after all. She is pure magic, and I have much to teach her, Lara.”

Lara felt a stab of irritation. “I wish you had been as thoughtful of me when I was her age,” she said. Then she relented. “Marzina is fortunate to have you, Mother.”

“Of course she is,” Ilona said calmly. “Do you think Persis can teach her anything of value? Persis would teach her to be obedient to male domination, and how to make conserves, and sugared violets. Bah! Marzina is magic, and I will teach her how to use it. With her bloodline she will be a great sorceress when she is grown.”

“She is Magnus’s daughter, a Terahn princess,” Lara replied in an even voice.

Ilona laughed. We know better, you and I, she said in the silent language.

Lara grew pale. You are cruel to remind me, Mother. Marzina must never know that the Twilight Lord violated me upon the Dream Plain when I was carrying Taj, and set his seed to bloom in me so that she was born when Taj was. You told everyone who would listen when I birthed her that she favored a Nix ancestress. No one has ever questioned her birth. Aye, magic courses through her veins, but the Twilight Lord was an evil being. I will not deny Marzina her talent, but I want it used only for good. Once you begin to teach her serious magic who knows what will be unleashed in her, Lara said.

And only you or I can educate her to control any wickedness that may arise in her, the Queen of the Forest Faeries replied.