Three Rings (The Fairytail Saga)

by S. K Munt

  ‘What about lobsters from Maine?’ Ivyanne challenged, fastening a pale green sarong around her waist with a single knot on her hip, so the cloth draped to the floor, but exposed the entire length of one perfect leg. She sat on the arm of the chair closest to Lincoln, being careful to keep a few inches between them.

  ‘You may have me there…’

  Lincoln was sick of being cautious. He slid his arm around her damp waist possessively. ‘I’ve heard of those…’ he mused, slipping one finger under the cloth, tickling her lower back, where no one could see. ‘I’ve heard it’s delicious. Won’t know until I’ve sampled it, of course,’ he looked up at her and grinned, aware that she was up to speed with his double entendre. ‘Maybe Ivyanne will show me someday soon.’

  ‘We’ll see…..’ she said, her cheeks pink with whatever was affecting her mood the most. She took a furtive sip of her champagne, but Lincoln put his glass down. He wanted his wits about him.

  ‘They make this lobster bisque…’ Ash kissed the tips of his fingers. ‘Ivyanne and I had at least two servings a day the last time we were there.’ He glanced up as his wife put a pitcher of sparkling juice on the coffee table. ‘That was Maine, wasn’t it sweetie?’

  ‘No, Boston….Maine was where you ate all the chowder.’

  Ash smacked his hands together. ‘Right!’ He grinned at Lincoln. ‘Tell you what, get your chef to whip something close to that up, and I’ll be there every day. Ivyanne too.’

  ‘I’ll bet Pintang could get it right,’ Vana said quickly. ‘She’s quite the little gourmet.’

  Lincoln glanced at Ivyanne to see if she was smiling, but was surprised to see her staring down at the coffee table, looking perplexed.

  ‘What is that doing here?’ She asked tightly.

  Lincoln followed her gaze. For the first time, he noticed that what looked to be a crown was sitting on a dark blue velvet pillow in the centre of the table, nestled within a wooden box. It was a wide circlet, tarnished in places, but attractive to the eye. Pearls were set into the surface, each one nestled within an intricate carving.

  He looked up at Vana. ‘Is that yours?’

  ‘Yes,’ Vana smiled and moved around the table, sinking to her knees behind the object of focus. ‘French, circa 942.’

  ‘Anna’s,’ Ivyanne said quietly.

  ‘Is it gold?’ Lincoln couldn’t believe his eyes. He’d never been so close to something of such value before in his life.

  Vana ran her finger gingerly along the edge of it. ‘Quite striking, wouldn’t you agree?’

  He nodded, awed. ‘How is it in such good condition?’

  Vana smiled, reaching across the table to pat her husbands’ knee. ‘Ash knows a guy in Brazil….another mermaid of course. He gold plates it and restores it as best as he can, every fifty years or so.’

  ‘But we usually store it,’ Ivyanne said quickly. ‘Because it isn’t safe for it to be in the sea air as often as it is.’

  ‘Ivyanne hasn’t told you that she loathes this trinket?’ Vana asked.

  Lincoln turned to her. ‘Really? Why? It’s so pretty! And it’s a great heirloom from Anna, isn’t it? I would have thought you’d treasure it.’

  ‘Maybe I would,’ Ivyanne said sharply. ‘If it wasn’t so damn heavy with the weight of a thousand lives and millions of expectations.’ She sighed. ‘Besides, the man who put that on Anna’s head killed her children. Looking at it sometimes breaks my heart.’

  ‘Anna created lovely memories in this crown after those dark times,’ Ash said quietly. ‘As in life, the good is seldom without a tinge of the dark.’

  Lincoln was inclined to agree. ‘Is there a uh, king’s crown?’

  Vana smiled at him knowingly. ‘Upstairs, acting as a paperweight. Ash hasn’t worn it since our wedding day.’

  ‘It doesn’t fit,’ Ash said grumpily, glancing at Lincoln, sizing it up. ‘Hope you’ve got a smaller head than I do.’

  Lincoln smiled. A sudden thumping on the stairs became apparent and he glanced up to see Lux sauntering down, a grin on her face making her look prettier than she had in awhile. Ever since Tristan’s death, she’d withdrawn into herself, becoming an observer rather than a participant in the household interactions. No one aside from Lincoln, Ivyanne and Pintang knew what she’d tried on him, and she seemed happy to keep it that way-though the queen hadn’t been ignorant of Lux’s attentions and had cautioned her to her face.

  Either way, Lux had mostly backed off. The shock of losing Tristan must have made her realize that Ivyanne needed Lincoln in her life more than Lux needed him in her bed. The Kayu-Api’s arrival had sobered her too. She watched them a lot, a thoughtful, remorseful expression on her face.

  Lincoln didn’t know what she was thinking, but aside from one or two flirtations that seemed more off the cuff than intentional, she’d kept her distance from him too, and the resort-and he was grateful for it. Though he often felt her eyes on him-as long as it wasn’t her hands-he was able to relax in her company. At the end of the day she was an effervescent, disarming girl who was fun to talk to, and Ivyanne warming up to her despite what had transpired allowed him to do the same.

  Anyway whether Lux still wanted him or not, there was clearly something else weighing heavily on her mind. Maybe Tristan’s death had also opened a channel for her to finally mourn Ardhi.

  ‘Hey…’ Lux said. The Kayu-Api’s were on her heels. ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘Meeting my future father in law.’ Lincoln answered easily, refusing to dance around the subject just because Ardhi’s parents were in the vicinity. They still regarded him with suspicion, and had yet to start up a conversation with him. In fact, they barely spoke at all.

  ‘Oh?’ Some of the levity left Lux’s tone. She glanced at Ash, smiling wryly. ‘Has he made a good impression or what?’

  ‘More than you have recently, young lady.’ The king chided her, and Lux had the grace to look embarrassed. ‘I trust that you have no objections to me welcoming Lincoln here as a son?’

  Lux rolled her eyes. ‘Yes yes I’m the big bad flirt!’ She winked at Ivyanne. ‘But luckily, I’m not the type to fight for a bouquet.’

  Flirt? Lincoln almost snorted. Predator was more accurate. But Ash didn’t need to know why.

  ‘Actually,’ Vana cleared her throat and indicated to the crown on the table, shooting Lincoln an apologetic look before turning to the Kayu-Api’s again. ‘I was just showing Lincoln my crown.’

  Ivyanne narrowed her eyes at her mother. ‘Well we only usually whip it out for important weddings and funerals, so tell me mother...why did you leave it out here today?’

  Lincoln felt Ivyanne’s good mood evaporate, and he sighed slightly, dropping his arm from her skin. One day soon, he was determined to have at least two good hours with her in a row. Was it so much to ask?

  Vana pursed her lips and looked at her husband, before turning back to Ivyanne. ‘Possibly both, I suppose.’

  Ivyanne stood up, and began to pace. ‘You’re writing our vows already?’ she asked, including Lincoln in her accusing gaze. ‘Planning to wrap up two funerals with a white wedding?’

  ‘Maybe,’ Vana replied, just as bluntly. ‘Would that be so bad, Ivyanne? Don’t you think after all of these weeks of indecision, it’s time for you to prove to our people that the chaos is over for awhile?’

  ‘I don’t even know if our people want me to marry Lincoln yet!’ Ivyanne said quickly, motioning to the the Kayu-Apis. ‘I don’t want them thinking I’m so eager to replace their beloved sons with a newby that I mustn’t have ever cared to begin with.’

  Joakim and Eka hung their heads, saying nothing. Lux folded them into an embrace at the foot of the stairs, watching silently.

  ‘Actually, you’re very wrong.’ Vana said, her expression stern. ‘I’ve got an inbox full of e-mails from people demanding that you go on and marry Lincoln before another tragedy takes a match from your life. The people are getting worried Ivyanne, and it’s giving your ‘curse�
�� as you call it, more weight than I’d like. They held their tongues about the line you crossed with Tristan in hope that it had provided the kingdom with another heir, but since it hasn’t, they’ve begun to make themselves, and their fears, heard.’

  Ivyanne paused. ‘They have?’

  Vana nodded somberly. ‘They have.’

  ‘But-’ Lux interrupted. ‘But you’re the ruler Vana, and you can’t push Ivyanne into a marriage she might not be ready for because of peer pressure.’ She motioned to Lincoln. ‘Or him. Treating him like a back up plan, an agenda to be pushed, isn’t the best way to start a marriage, is it?’

  Lincoln felt a surge of annoyance. As far as he was concerned, he couldn’t be pushed hard enough, soon enough. Where did Lux get off making Ivyanne feel bad about something he’d forgiven her for? Or suggesting that he was a consolation prize more than a soul mate? He cleared his throat. ‘Um, so do I get a say here?’

  ‘Not really,’ Ivyanne said sharply, eyeing Lux, who was clearly the true source of her growing irritation.

  ‘Of course you do,’ Ash said, darting his daughter a warning Look then including Lux within it. ‘What do you think? You’ve been more exposed to this than I have. Would marrying Ivyanne right now be a bad move, do you think?’

  Lincoln looked at Ivyanne imploringly, asking for her help, but she merely rolled her eyes and looked away. He turned back to her father, who was waiting patiently.

  ‘I know it would tie up a lot of loose ends, and it sounds like it will make almost everyone happy, though I can understand if Eka and Joakim, and Tristan’s parents, might see it as being too soon...’ He said honestly, knowing that everyone was hanging onto his every word. ‘I know that I’ve been a nervous wreck at work lately, and the staff don’t think they can count on me anymore, and this affects the way they respect me. I assume that sort of thing happens when Monarchs lose the plot for a while too.’ He stared down at the crown. ‘It would make me feel safer, I know that-but that’s not a good reason for her to marry me. If Ivyanne is still having doubts, then marriage won’t change them, only amplify them.’ He glanced at her. ‘But as far as I’m concerned, I’ve been ready to marry her since I was eleven and that will never change. If she gives me the chance, I know she’ll see that there was never another option.’

  ‘Wisely and truthfully spoken,’ Ash’s voice turned away from Lincoln. ‘Don’t you think, daughter?’

  Link risked a peek, and saw that Ivyanne was staring at him, her eyes shining with guilt. He hadn’t intended that-he really had just been trying to be honest.

  ‘Link, I’m not hesitating because I don’t want to marry you,’ she said softly, coming to his side once more, resting her arm across her shoulder. ‘You remember, don’t you, what I told you the other night? About fate?’

  Lincoln nodded. He’d come damn close to demanding her words in writing. ‘Yeah…’

  ‘Exactly. I still feel that way-but you don’t understand what a mer marriage entails yet. It would mean leaving Seaview you know, for a year.’

  His stomach rolled at that. ‘Pardon?’

  She nodded. ‘We have different customs to the humans,’ she said, stroking the hair at the nape of his neck. His haircut was already growing out. ‘For one, the ceremony takes place mostly in the water. And secondly, after we’re joined, we swim off together-and spend a year touring the villages populated with our people.’

  Lincoln couldn’t believe his ears. ‘A whole year?’ he asked numbly. ‘Swimming around the world?’

  Ivyanne nodded again. ‘Is that something you can do right now? Especially considering that your dad is wanting to retire?’

  Lincoln thought about it, his dreams of a shotgun wedding with Ivyanne vanishing as he realized just how hard that would be. As he’d just said, everything at the resort seemed to be on tenterhooks due to all the drama he’d created. How could he explain taking off for a full year to his already overworked father?

  ‘I just don’t know,’ he eventually admitted, hating himself. For the first time, he was the one who needed to slow things down. ‘There’s no way around it?’

  ‘No,’ Vana said quickly. ‘A few people are going to have their noses out of joint that she’s not marrying a Marked son as it is-if you start changing the customs too, which have never been overlooked, it will make people nervous.’

  ‘I also believe that taking a year off together as newlyweds is a necessity for a successful marriage,’ Ash said quickly. ‘It gives you a chance to get to know your subjects, as well as focusing on one another.’

  ‘So it’s not just a royal thing?’ Lincoln’s voice was practically a squeak.

  All three Courts’ shook their heads. ‘No. All of us do it-it’s the same as a human honeymoon, but more specific.’

  Lincoln leaned back into the couch. ‘Maybe in a month, three max,’ he said slowly, thinking it through. ‘But not now. I just can’t leave him yet…’

  ‘I understand,’ Ivyanne said softly. ‘But I’m also kind of glad. I think if we wait three months, it will give things a chance to calm down.’

  ‘I agree.’ Lux piped up. ‘Wait at least three, for perspective.’

  Lincoln shot Lux a dirty look. Perspective? What was her problem?

  Ivyanne was staring at her too, annoyed, as though unaware that they were speaking for the same side of the argument.

  Vana got to her feet, replacing the crown in its box. ‘Okay, well if you can agree upon that, I suppose it will have to do.’

  ‘Can we at least announce an engagement?’ Ash asked, still looking perplexed. ‘I want the people to know that Ivyanne has decided on a course.’

  ‘You can,’ Ivyanne said, stroking Lincoln’s back. ‘If that’s okay with you, Link.’

  Lincoln almost laughed at how quickly everything was happening. He turned to Ivyanne’s father. ‘So I have your permission to ask for her hand, I presume?’ he asked dryly.

  ‘Of course, son,’ Ash patted him on the back again.

  ‘Good,’ Ivyanne got to her feet. ‘So it’s settled.’

  But Lincoln caught her hand, his heartbeat accelerating. ‘Actually, not quite.’

  She glanced down at him, her brow furrowed. ‘Oh?’

  Lincoln nodded, reaching into the pocket of the shorts he’d carefully carried the whole way there three days before, when Vana had summoned him to inform him that Ivyanne wasn’t with child. He pulled out the small glass box, smiling when he saw that seawater was still leaking from the the joins-it seemed appropriate somehow. He slid off the couch, getting to one knee in front of her.

  ‘Ivyanne Court…’ his voice almost broke on her name, but the way her eyes widened in surprise got him through the potentially overwhelming moment. ‘You’re everything, sweetheart. My past, my present and my future, are all tied up in you….’ he popped the box open, showing his mothers eternity ring, which glinted brilliantly in the sun streaming through the windows. He’d begged it from his father four days after he’d been turned, hoping against hope, that it would end up on her delicate finger. It was a thick white gold band studded with diamonds and in the centre glinted a large oval ruby, which was framed with a flattened, circular ring of even more diamonds. It was vintage, but the design was a beautiful mix of antique elegance and modern bling-sort of like Ivyanne, who seemed to belong to every era.

  ‘Will you marry me, my beautiful mermaid?’ he asked softly. ‘Will you save me again?’

  Ivyanne’s lips were trembling, eyes sparkling with tears. She nodded wordlessly, and Lincoln could have fainted with elation.

  ‘Of course,’ was her gentle reply. She beamed at him, and he grinned, slipping the ring easily onto her left ring finger. He was on his feet in a second, lifting her up and spinning her around, laughing and slightly weeping, pressing his face into her damp hair, savoring the moment.

  ‘I’ll be damned,’ Vana’s voice suddenly broke in. ‘He was one step ahead of me honey. That almost never happens.’

  ‘Well I’m
glad it did,’ was Ash’s reply. ‘Hate to think that you and I are as clever as it gets around here.’

  Lincoln looked up and saw that Ash had moved next to his wife, encircling her shoulders in a hug. He grinned at his fiancé’s father and kissed the top of Ivyanne’s head feeling safer, and more content than he had in years. Now he could hold her whenever he wanted and know that she wouldn’t pull away. She was destined to belong to him-finally. He could have taken flight.

  ‘Oh…..’ a voice at the front door croaked. ‘Not…...good…..’

  Lincoln turned towards the doorway, just in time to see a soaking wet and trembling boy stumble naked into the room, catching himself on the corner of the kitchen bench.

  ‘Bad timing,’ the boy’s darkly tanned shoulders shuddered with a cough. He lifted his dark grey eyes, looking past Lincoln, to Ivyanne. ‘I should go….’

  A shock ran through Lincoln. ‘No way…’ he breathed, almost wanting to rub his eyes to erase the image away. He looked down at Ivyanne, and saw that she had gone white as a sheet.

  ‘Ardhi?’.

  16.

  Ivyanne knew the others didn’t believe their eyes. But then again, they hadn’t daydreamed about this moment as she had. Everything added up quickly to her-and she was instantly amazed that she hadn’t seriously considered the possibility of Ardhi’s continued existence before then.

  His parents screamed and staggered forward, instantly weeping and crying out his name, but Lux held them back, a concerned, shocked look on her face- nodding at Ivyanne to handle the situation, to test the waters, like she understood that Ardhi’s arrival could be akin to a bomb being detonated, instead of a miracle.

  Ivyanne stepped forward, slowly, purposefully, calculating what had transpired in her head. Ardhi was a mystic. He had turned Lincoln, and lived. But what about the dolphin she and Lincoln had both seen? Was her childhood friend as powerful as her grandmother? As Roan?

  ‘Ardhi….are you okay?’ Ivyanne spoke softly, not wanting to spook him. She had no idea what he was thinking or feeling, but he hardly looked ‘with it’ enough to pose a threat.