While I was worrying about that, Jonas was making arrangements of his own. It would have been easy to sneak away for an afternoon and exchange our vows, but Guinn said it was impossible. It hurt to admit it, but I had no legal right to give myself away. The island owned me. Jonas and I had thought that our biggest obstacle would be that we were foreigners, but my indenture was more binding. I couldn’t exactly ask Dahra for permission to leave.
The next day a sour-faced lawyer sat with us at Guinn’s dinner table. He admitted that he was interested in my story as a novelty, and had agreed to advise us without payment because of his friendship with Guinn. When he said that, both men reddened a little. If I had not been so nervous I would have smiled at the sight. It was good to know that Guinn was not alone. Cissor cleared his throat and asked me his first question:
“Who did the island buy you from?”
I told them that my mother had been a Siren. I had no idea who she was. When I was five I had been given a choice and told that I could leave if I wanted to. The children on the island were raised to be terrified of the Mainlanders. Like every other girl, I had wept and clung to my nurse until she promised that I could stay. I described how the Siren had cut through my maidenhead to bind me to them forever. All three men looked away when I described it, their faces twisted with disgust. I mumbled an apology.
“Why are you sorry? It’s not your fault.” the lawyer’s jaw set, “Those animals have a lot to answer for.”
“Harriet doesn’t understand.” Jonas said stiffly, “It’s not a crime on the island. They probably call it a tradition, or something. I cannot begin to tell you what those twisted women are like.”
“I’ve heard enough.” Guinn rapped his hand on the table. He was sweating feverishly, “Am I right, Cissor, in thinking a five year old cannot bind herself to servitude?”
“Quite right.” Cissor smiled at me, “You belong to yourself. Your islanders claim to be the property of the island or of the cult. You cannot be owned by a place or an idea. Your mother was a Yangetti citizen first and a Siren second. Your father…”
“Dead.” I interrupted, and then waved my hand vaguely, “Men don’t last long on the island.”
“Yes, well keep that to yourself for now. We don’t want to complicate matters.” The lawyer’s eyes flicked up to meet Guinn’s, “I don’t know about Yanget, but in Altissi law your parents only own you until you’re sixteen. You own yourself. We just have to prove that you’re going to stay in our country.”
“Why?”
“Because our laws stop at the mountains. We might fight to stop the Yangetti from kidnapping an Altissi citizen, but we have no power over their own people. If you are prepared to repatriate then you would have the rights of any free Altissi – including the right to get married.” he raised his eyebrows at Jonas, “You too, young man.”
I was dubious, “Would your people let us stay?”
“They have no love for the Yangetti.” Cissor drained the last of his beer, “As soon as a priest signs your papers you’ll be safe. I’ll ask around and find one who sees things our way.”
I nodded, dazed, and then reached up to unclasp my necklace. I let it fall onto the table, and added my earrings and bracelets. “Take these, in case he needs more convincing.”
Guinn looked at Cissor, “We have enough money, child. Consider it a wedding present.”
“No.” I spoke more strongly, and the men blinked at the fierceness in my voice, “I love you, Guinn, but I cannot owe you for something so… so…” I ran out of words and shoved the jewellery across the table. One of the earrings fell onto the floor. “It’s Siren gold. They owe me far more than you do. Use it.”
Guinn scrubbed his face with one hand, “Will you at least let me set you up afterwards? You’ll need to stay away from Crozier until they’ve fallen out of love with those witches.”
I was already thanking him when Jonas shook his head, “You gave me my journeyman’s papers, sir. I can earn a living.”
Guinn bellowed with laughter and clapped Cissor hard on the back, “This is why I like the little brat, Cis! Look at him, so proud and so damn sure of himself.” he choked back another guffaw and pinched Jonas’s cheek, “Listen here, boy. I’m not going to set myself up against those sorceresses just to see you two starve to death.”
“Thank you.” I interrupted quickly before Jonas could make a snide retort, “It’s good of you. We’re not too proud to turn down help.” I caught Jonas’s hands and looked sternly into his eyes, “You don’t know the Siren like I do, Jonas. I think we’ll be running for a very long time.”
He drew a deep breath and rested his cheek against my own before untangling himself from my hands. The wooden thumb creaked, like always, and Guinn was quick to make a scathing comment about his apprentice’s shoddy workmanship. It was comfortable for them to argue, and I relaxed as they raised their voices.
Cissor touched my shoulder, and I turned around to see the old man smiling at me. There was pity in his expression, which I disliked. “You already knew how dangerous it was going to be, didn’t you?”
I nodded, and he gripped my shoulder a little more strongly. “You’re a brave woman, Harriet.”
I looked down at the mound of my boots under my skirt. I was trembling so much that I felt like I was about to take flight. I did not feel brave at all. The Siren had never been betrayed before. They would be furious.
We wouldn’t be running for years. We would never be able to stop.
CHAPTER 18
Coluber decided to take the Siren on a triumph. It was absurd. They rode between castles so that the peasants could gape at them. The lords of those holdings often spent a year’s worth of profit making the royal family welcome. The closest the Siren would get to the common people was when their hunt trampled their farmland. Then, King Shay refused to take part. There were affairs of state he wanted to see to, he said, because he didn’t want to insult the Siren by actually telling them they were wasting his time. The grand parade turned into two weeks of travelling around the richest holdings and admiring their silverware.
I asked Clay if I could stay behind. She had a whole army of servants who were used to following her to the hunting lodges, and while she was travelling all she had to worry about was making sure the mud was brushed from her cloak. She even hired an Altissi seamstress to make her travelling clothes. I had no idea how the bone corsets and wire cages fit together, and I told Clay as much. I wouldn’t spend two weeks rattling around in a servant’s wagon just so she could tell me I was useless.
“If she doesn’t want to come, then why force her?” Coluber said when Clay complained, “I’m sure she’d love a few days away from you.”
The man had the gall to wink at me after he said that. Damn him. He knew my life better than I did. If things went sour between Altissi and Yanget, then the man could use my secrets to tear our sisterhood apart. He did not know about my wedding, though. The thought warmed me. The second Coluber tried to manipulate me I would tear myself away from the Siren forever.
The next few weeks dragged like years. For a few days I couldn’t help laughing aloud whenever I saw my fiancé, but as we grew more impatient we began to worry. It seemed too neat. We weren’t used to things being easy. One night, we sat at opposite sides of a table and listed all of the things we were worried about.
I started: “Coluber will try to blackmail Clay when we elope. He’s too clever to call it anything other than… than treason.”
Jonas winced. “Politics make my head hurt. I’m starting to wish I’d never left the woods.”
“Then you wouldn’t have met me.”
He tweaked my nose playfully, “Maybe the best solution is to hide in the mountains until things calm down.”
“I’m scared of spiders. Besides, if we had children they’d need a home.”
“They can sleep in the trees.” he quipped.
I bit back a sharp retort. He never seemed to worry about anything until it was
right in front of his face. But I was young and smitten with romantic idiocy, so I bit back everything I needed to say and tried to get Jonas to focus.
“We can live wherever we want after we have our citizenship papers. I mean, we barely even need those. Cissor says that most gatekeepers only ask for journeyman licenses. Don’t make jokes about living in the trees when he’s really trying to help us.”
“That’s another thing that bothers me. Why is Cissor helping? He barely knows us.” Jonas’s forehead puckered. I cleared my throat, but the man missed the hint and persisted: “How do we know that we can trust him?”
“We can.” I promised, and then groaned when my fiancé gave me a withering look. How could he be so dense? I lowered my voice, “Cissor and Guinn are lovers. Can’t you see it? If they can keep that from those Altissi bigots then they will not breathe a word about us.”
“Guinn likes men?” Jonas didn’t hide his blunt outburst. I scoffed, and he hastily explained, “I just never realized. Are you sure?”
“Watch them together.”
How had Jonas missed it? Guinn softened and warmed whenever his friend was nearby. They sought out each other’s eyes, speaking without needing words. I had seen it a hundred times before. Subtle glances in a crowded room became an epic drama if you knew what to look for. The Siren, in all their erogenous glory, had never worked out that their servants’ lives were just as lascivious.
***
An endless procession of horses and carriages clattered through the palace grounds. I tied Clay’s cosmetics satchel onto her belt. She barely noticed me. Her eyes fixed on Coluber, and she bit her lip. Their relationship had been little more than a tryst, but now they were going to shout it to the whole world. Clay had no experience with this kind of thing. She looked bewildered. I was too excited to feel sorry for her, but I kissed her before she left.
Jonas had been waiting for me since sunrise. He kissed me so many times that I felt dizzy. My throat closed up and I could not make a sound. Instead of making a fool of myself I tucked my hand into my friend’s and felt his fingers close warmly over mine.
We could have bribed any priest to marry us, but we could be recognised in one of the larger temples. There were smaller shrines outside of the city limits. We made our way through the maze of buildings. My silk shoes were so thin that I could feel the pebbles in the dirt paths when we made our way across farmland. If we had looked around we would have seen the city’s smoke-stained walls and narrow buildings, but the woodland we faced was otherworldly. I had spent almost a year surrounded by stone.
We reached a brick building in the middle of an oval copse. The crumbled stones around it hinted at other, grander buildings, long since decayed into ruin. The actual temple was an earthern-floored arch holding a shrine. A single green stone was set into the roof, and the sunlight glowed through it so brilliantly that the room shimmered. It looked as if it had been there since time began, shimmering and ancient. I gasped and fumbled for Jonas’s hand. He looked just as awed.
“You can’t get married dressed like that.” Guinn said, touching me on the shoulder. I jumped, kissed him hello, and then picked at my dress. I couldn’t help wondering what was wrong with it. I’d chosen my favourite gown: soft blue cotton, embroidered with dragonflies in green and pink thread. The man smiled at my puzzled expression and explained, “It’s our tradition for a couple to come to the altar unmasked. You’re marrying each other, not your clothes or jewels, and should see each other as you are. A hundred years ago everyone wore nothing at all!” he saw Jonas’s mortified expression and chuckled. “Don’t worry, I don’t want that to happen any more than you do, lad.”
I looked down again at my dress. My sisters had made it for me. It suited me because they knew how to make women look lovely, but I hadn’t chosen one stitch of it. I liked flowers, not feathers. I felt my lips widen into a smile. “I didn’t bring any other clothes.”
“Naked it is.” Jonas grinned. I stuck my tongue out at him.
“Luckily, I have more forethought than you two give me credit for.” Guinn pretended that he was exasperated, “You wouldn’t let me give you a useful wedding present, so I thought I’d just give you the wedding.”
“What do you mean?” Jonas was ever-ready to refuse charity. Our friend waved his hands airily around him.
“Cissor paid for the temple, and I parted ways with rather a lot of wine to keep the other priests at bay. We had to guess your sizes, but we got you some proper clothes to wear. None of this… fancy stuff.” He blushed, cleared his throat, and pushed through his embarrassment, “We also rented a cottage for you for the week. It’s in the woods, nice and peaceful and all that. You have to wade through plenty of mud to get there, so I figured it’d keep any nosy eyes away.”
“You can’t just…” Jonas objected, and yelped when I stepped on his foot. I skipped forward and nuzzled my cheek against Guinn’s cheek.
“It’s a lovely thing. A beautiful thing.” My eyes must have shone like stars as I looked up, “Guinn, you’re amazing.”
He looked pleased, but gruffly pushed me away, “Save your kisses for your honey month, girl.”
When the man had walked away to find the priest, I looked back at Jonas and saw that his face was as flushed with surprise as my own surely was. “A week alone together!” I burst out, “Isn’t it the best thing you’ve ever heard?”
“It would be better if it was a month.” Jonas said. He gave me a mischievous smile, and I shivered when my stomach warmed.
Guinn and Cissor returned with the priest in tow. The red-haired man gave us a slow look up and down, and then nodded to Cissor.
“I am satisfied. I will be honoured to perform the ceremony.” He turned to us and took our hands, speaking with a quick professionalism that belied his gentle eyes and ridiculous costume, “Master Cissor has explained your situation to me. I will give you all of the legal protection I can. Tomorrow, I will sign your papers.”
“Make it the week after.” Cissor murmured, and laughed. “They might not want company tomorrow.”
“Nor the week after that.” Jonas said with an answering grin. “But we’ll never have a better reason to leave our bed. We’ll never be able to thank you for your help.”
“Forgive me for disturbing your honey month, and I’ll consider us even.” The priest said with a touch of mischief. I couldn’t hide my blushing cheeks fast enough.
The dress Guinn had brought me was not ugly, as I had expected. I thought the point was to wear simple clothes, but whoever crafted the flowing gown had done it with amazing skill. It could have been a tribute for the same god of light that the temple was built for. It had a soft sheen to it that looked luminous even in the greenish glass glow. It was made of simple fabric and held closed with one glass pin at my shoulder and another at the hip. It fitted me as if I had been measured for it. I let my hair down in a dark tumble which nestled in the soft fabric of the mantle. I had worn beautiful clothes all of my life, but when I put on my wedding dress I felt like a queen.
Guinn escorted me into the temple, and I saw Jonas standing in the green light. Every other thought in my head flew away. Guinn tactfully let me go, and I ran up to my friend and kissed him. His blush clashed wonderfully with the tunic he was wearing.
"Harriet,” he pushed me back and gazed at me in wonder. He had to swallow back a lump in his throat. "You look perfect."
I caught his hand and nuzzled against it. My cheek was hot where I’d blushed, and his fingers trembled against my skin, "You look perfect, too. And you didn’t need new clothes for that. You just got there by being you."
He lowered his voice, “Well, we still have time to do this naked.”
I giggled. “Be serious!”
“You’re right. It would be hard to concentrate.” he kissed me rapidly. His voice was heated when he murmured, “And I want you all to myself.”
I drew him back and kissed him properly, winning a few catcalls from our friends. For the first ti
me I did not care. The fact that we did not need to be secretive was intoxicating.
"Children, do you love each other?" A voice asked, and we both laughed and looked around. The priest smiled back at us and waited for us to speak.
"I love him." I said matter-of-factly, and then I looked up at Jonas and my heart felt raw. I caught my breath, "I love you, Jonas."
"I love you,” he rested his forehead against my own. I could feel his heart racing, "I've always loved you, Harriet."
For a long moment the priest was silent, and we were grateful. It hadn't been a simple question. It had struck both of us with the utter reality of what we were doing. It was the first question of the rite. If either of us had hesitated for a moment the priest would not have carried on with the ceremony.
I wondered if every bride felt a tremor of fear then, when the priest could object. I felt Jonas’s hand tightening around my own, and realized that he was just as nervous. When we dared to look up, the priest was beaming widely at us. We heard Guinn and Cissor laughing, and fought back our own relieved grins. The priest drew us closer to the altar.
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