by D. H. Aire
#
Lord Lyai was chatting with Lord Niota, who according to his bard was actually Count Niota by default, something the Empire would be loath to acknowledge. Had his keep been located in another province, Thomi would likely have been assassinated. Well, if you discounted his rather large and ever faithful bodyguard.
The ogre in question tapped a wall and nodded as he got a return tap. Lord Lyai didn’t find that particularly comforting, but ogres in the secret passages meant no enemies were, either.
“Thomi, no one’s really told you about High Elvin weddings, have they?”
“Not really. I just assumed they were like… really magical.”
“Yes, uh, Esperanza and I chose a private ceremony since, well…” too many people wanted to kill us, he thought, went without saying.
He paused and stared at the young man in his elvin chain mail that actually wasn’t, but served the same purpose. “Thomi, you didn’t wear clothes at your ceremony, did you?”
Blushing, Thomi shook his head, “It wasn’t… I mean, we had a very private ceremony.”
“Uh huh, well, a High Elvin wedding is a rather public one… particularly when the Empress is involved.”
Thomi frowned.
“Public and a little different from the private one you and I experienced when we got married.”
“But… I’ve seen the gowns being delivered.”
“That’s part of the magic… Thomi, what I’m trying to say is as a married man; don’t stare at the Empress in particular. I also won’t recommend looking at Je’orj the wrong way, understand?”
Walsh made a noise.
They turned.
Walsh was hacking away, then choked out, “Only… bride… groom?”
“Uh, no, Walsh,” Lee answered, “the bridal and groom party… are made up entirely of those who are not married, but if touching at its conclusion will be… So, don’t stare,” knowing it couldn’t be helped that the Elvinsilk was rather mesmerizing.
#
“What?” Ruke shouted.
“What exactly did you say to the girl?” Terhun demanded.
He did, answering Terhun’s every question for details.
“Master Terhun, what do you mean she’s getting married tomorrow?”
“Well, I only learned of it before you got back, which is why I was sending Clawd to find you.”
“Marry? Who?”
“Well, since I doubt she’ll elect to marry Revit or Terus and Aaprin was on hand for your little meeting… I’d say she’ll be standing behind him.”
“She can’t!”
“Ruke, I’m sorry, but… you can’t interfere with this. It will ruin everything with the Cathartans.”
“But they’ve adopted her.”
“Cle’or adopted her. They aren’t of the same politics at the moment and… you’ll make Ander a target. I’ve warned you about that. No one can know how you feel about her. If our enemies know you love her, they won’t hesitate to use her against you.”
“But they could do that using Mahr.”
“And how would that affect you?”
Ruke hesitated, “She beautiful… and terribly self-centered. I’d get her back, though.”
“Yes, by playing it smart. Not stupid.”
“But I can’t let Ander marry Aaprin.”
“Does she love him?”
“Hell, no.”
“So the day you tell her that you can never tell anyone you love her, but her, what’s going to happen?”
Ruke’s eyes widened. “We can’t just hide the fact that her children by Aaprin haven’t any elvin blood in the veins.”
“But they will…”
“Huh?”
“Ander’s eyes.”
“She’s beautiful eyes.”
“Yes, just tinged with elvin somewhere in her background and Aaprin doesn’t do magery, so who is to know.”
“I can’t just let her marry Aaprin.”
“You must… it could save her life and those of your children.”
“But you’re asking me to make her marriage to Aaprin a lie.”
“Somehow, I don’t think he’s going to mind… or do think my judgment wrong in this?”
Ruke blinked. “By the Empress’s… uh, no, I don’t think it will at all. Not if I tell him first…”
Frowning, Terhun nodded, “I hadn’t considered that angle. It could prevent, um, anything untoward from happening by accident.”
“And it’s the only way I’ll agree to any of this.”
Terhun nodded. “Get out of here before I reconsider. But not a word to Clawd, understand?”
“Yessir.” He hastened out, leaving the spymaster to slowly smile, wishing the lad better luck in love than he had ever had.
#
Ruke was not one to like using front entrances. With the warder getting into the palace was easy. The warder’s magic was a plus, but the warder being an Imperial pass personified made things simple. Now he did not have such a pass and thinking about Ander motivated him to get back downTier as quickly as possible.
He headed through the palace kitchens only to find his way blocked by Cathartans. He paused, then turned on the balls of his feet only to find himself completely surrounded. “Ruke, the Mother Shaman said we’d find you here.”
“Uh, it must be fun having the all-seeing-eyes thing going for her.”
The black robed Cathartan with her hand on her dagger hilt smiled, “She’d like to see you.”
Ruke considered his options and realized, going with them was really the fastest way to get back downTier. Problem was could he get away?
#
“See, Mahr, Ruke’s back safe and sound,” De’ohr said, standing there in the dining room of the old manse in the Seventh Tier.
The Cathartans in the coach with him all the way back from the palace, kept smiling at him. Only one spoke to him, telling him how worried Mahr was getting after they lost track of him.
“Oh, Ruke!” she cried, rushing into his arms.
“Uh, I’m fine, Mahr… really.”
“Mahr leave the two of us alone for a moment.”
They left and Ruke just watched the older woman as she looked at him like a falc eyeing a squirrel.
“Ruke, I am going to tell you something I ought not… which you should feel free to pass on to the spymaster.”
He tried not to wince.
“I have these visions. I know things I should not. I knew when my brother was about to be murdered and as you know was well prepared for my House’s escape… I knew where we were going and why. Lord Je’orj has changed our future and my nephew, Vyss Secondson, will bring about the prophecy and save Cathart… though, the price will be high for this Shattered House… and you, lad, have your part to play.”
“Me?”
“Oh, yes, you… father to be.”
Ruke shook his hand, “I haven’t—”
“You haven’t yet, though, Mahr has been doing her very best… as are her friends, who would bond you.”
“Bond me? You mean like—”
“Precisely, Lord Ruke, though with you, no lord will wave their hand and make a gift of the bond… no you will earn it the old-fashioned way. You will father a rather lovely baby boy.”
“I will not.”
“Oh, yes, you will and soon… very soon. Tomorrow is rather auspicious, actually. Do not think to escape your fate. I would not want you to have to break Mahr’s heart.”
“I want no part of this.”
“Fate has chosen you, Ruke… and in return one day I foresee you will be granted your most fervent wish.”
He paled.
“Oh, I do not yet know what that is. I only know that if you fight your fate, and it will not be at all unpleasant, I promise you, the price will be something you wish never happened.”
Swallowing hard, Ruke said, “Then I have conditions.”
De’ohr frowned, “Urchins… what is it about you and your friends that you think to w
in the most unexpected concessions from me?”
“Gallen has rules…”
“Apparently… what conditions?”
Ruke sighed and told her.
Chapter 6 - The Night before the Wedding
Sacks of flour, salt, fruits and vegetables were being carted in to the Empress’s kitchens. Count Tristan, from concealment from his third floor room in the guest wing, watched all of it enter without the wards flaring in warning. When the stasis boxes filled with the fish delicacy arrived, the wards did flare sensing the magery. One of the dratted new warder mages checked the seals and pronounced them untampered with.
The warder gestured and the dwarves that bore it continued to the kitchens.
Tristan continued to watch, knowing the Mistress of Scryers and the spymaster were watching his every move. He did not smile, just feigned boredom, knowing that the human mage would not live to see his wedding bed.
#
Je’orj was settling to bed, not wanting to think about the coming day and all the attendant fanfare. He paused to wonder why Raven was pacing. “What’s wrong? Hey, where’s Ri’ori?”
Fri’il and Se’and walked out of the adjoining room in their livery, daggers drawn. They stopped facing him as he sat on the edge of the bed, then crossed their arms, facing forward. Behind them a naked slightly nervous looking Cle’or entered the room. She bowed, “Milord, I come before you and make my allegiance known.”
“Um.”
“This is all I am… I shall die in your service. Shall bear you… daughters,” which rang in his mind as something she dreaded.
His staff stood poised in the center of the room and suddenly flared, creating a bubble of privacy. The matching, actually, identical crystal anklet about their right feet glowed, too, as Raven bounded into the adjoining room and slammed the door shut with a kick of her hind legs.
“Uh, Cle’or, I really don’t want to make you do anything you don’t want to do.”
“Honor binds us,” Cle’or said.
“Uh, not in every way,” he said, looking hopefully at Se’and, Cle’or’s half-sister.
“Je’orj, we’ll all be your wives in truth, not just by bond, tomorrow… Some things are… expected.”
“Not by me.”
Fri’il chuckled, “You do not regret our Ri’ori, do you?”
“No, not in the least. I love our little girl.”
“We know where your heart truly lies,” Cle’or said as Se’and blushed. “But we do not expect fidelity as you seem to.”
“Not between Sisters,” Fri’il said. “But look at another woman beside the Empress, our new sister, or Lonny…”
George shook his head, his shape changing battle steed a problem he did not want to think about, as Fri’il smiled and made a twisting gesture with her daggers.
:George, you’re a goner,: his computer staff said, enrapport.
“Lord Je’orj,” Cle’or said, “I have guarded this Household and have watched over your heart-brother Balfour with all my heart.”
“What she means is…” Se’and began.
“I know what she means.”
“Then you accept my bond fully and accept that we’ll be married?”
:When in Rome,: Staff sent.
Cle’or’s anklet twinkled as she slowly smiled, then took a step forward and leaped into his arms and kissed him. “UMMMM.”
Se’and and Fri’il dropped their daggers, began tossing off their livery. Cle’or ripped Lord Je’orj’s newest night jerkin. “Se’and, help me get this bodice off!” Fri’il rasped, face flushed, “I tied it too tight!”
George gasped for breath, trying to edge to the far side of the bed. Se’and was suddenly at his back, “Sorry, Fri’il, can’t help you… Now, Je’orj, this is your last night as a bachelor, or so, Staff told me.”
“What? Staff, when did you—oofff.”
:Surprise, George, I planned you a bachelor party.:
“By all the Lords, Se’and, I had to cut the bloody bodice string! Oh, my, Cle’or, you’ve got to teach me that…”
‘Help.’
Cle’or laughed, “Now, Je’orj, we’re always here to help.”
#
Juels lay down in bed as Ander tried to stifle her tears. She rose and went over to her friend’s bed and said, “It’ll be all right.”
“That’s easy for you to say. You’re not marrying Aaprin.”
Juels frowned. “No, I suppose I’m not, but you’re not marrying one of the terror twins, either.”
“They look so much older than they were.”
“Only by a year or so,” Juels replied. “They are still just kids.”
“Kids who are going to be walking, naked, right behind us, while we’re dressed in what are basically living gowns.”
“Whose warder keeps them better in line than Aaprin ever did.”
She wiped her tears. “That’s true enough, but they’re going to pull something.”
“It’s Revit and Terus. Of course, they’re going to try to pull something. They like you.”
“Oh, don’t I know it and tomorrow I not only get to see them in all their glory, but I get to glow while being seen in all mine.”
“It won’t quite work that way… Elvinsilk is said to shimmer or something. We won’t be naked.”
“But yours at least will cover you better,” Ander said
“As a girl, it will become more dense, be less, well, transparent, according to what Spiro told me, but…” Juels said. “Well, it’ll still form on me like a second skin.”
Ander shook her head.
“But that’s not really what is bothering you.”
“I hate him!” Ander rasped. “How could Ruke just not love me anymore?”
Juels frowned and nearly said, “I know that’s what he told you…” Instead, she lied, “I don’t know. I wish he hadn’t.”
“So tomorrow, I marry Aaprin and as an adopted Cathartan, get to sleep in his room with him and Gallen, in his bed.”
“Have no fear, I guarantee you that you won’t be sleeping in that bed,” Juels said.
That brought a chuckle from Ander, “No, Gallen’s not Cathartan, is she?”
“No, she not,” Juels replied. “She’s his true love and no one else will ever be in his heart.”
#
Clawd found himself woken in the middle of the night, which was not unusual.
“You will come with us.”
He hurriedly sat up and considered reaching for the dagger under his pillow, then noticed it was in the black liveried young woman’s hand.
“Uh, Master Terhun is expecting me.”
“He has been informed that you will be missing the wedding today.”
“I am? But I’ll miss all that food!”
“Can we just tell the Mother Shaman we couldn’t find him?”
“Boy,” the other young woman said, “believe me, you’ll see food aplenty. Now, be so good as to put on some clothes.”
“You always sleep without any clothes?” the other asked.
“Only when I don’t have a real bed to sleep in,” he replied.
When they saw the state of his clothes, they dragged him, naked, from his room and called out, “We need jerkin and a skirt for this one.”
“Skirt?”
“I don’t think you’d want to wear one of our bodices, boy.”
“Who you calling, boy!”
He got a slap on the back of the head, “You.”
#
Aaprin was staring at the ceiling, Gallen’s arm across his chest. “Go to sleep.”
“I can’t… Don’t you feel it?”
“What?”
“Well, my barriers aren’t as strong as yours, but Bal’s… uh, romancing Me’oh, Raven’s prowling the halls since Revit and Terus are up to something, which is driving you know who half crazy, which is driving our warder crazy.”
“Uh, well, it’s not like we knew this was going to happen,” Gallen said.
“No, but somehow I can’t help thinking this is all my fault.”
Gallen nuzzled close and kissed his cheek, “Admit it, what really worries you is getting married to me tomorrow.”
He scooted over and met her gaze, “Gallen, I love you… but I’m getting Ander in the mix and she’s…”
“One unhappy young lady,” Gallen admitted. “But she is my friend and you will not abuse the relationship.”
“But what if one day she expects me to – you know – perform my duties as a spouse to sire children.”
Gallen swallowed. “Um, would that be so bad?”
“Huh?”
“One day, you’re going to want children, Aaprin. You’re a natural.”
“So are you, mother of an urchin clan.”
She nodded, “But, uh, what if I can’t have children?”
“That’s not going to happen.”
“Aaprin, not every woman can and elvin unions depend on a lot of other factors, which is why mixed race children are prized, whether the Great Houses will admit it or not. What if… what if the only way to have children is with Ander.”
“That’s crazy talk.”
“She’s human, Aaprin. You’re an elfblood… and you know I am. There may come a time when… when Ander will be able to offer you what I can’t.”
He met her gaze and reached out and touched her chin, “How about we cross that bridge when we come to it?”
“Fine… just know that she is not sharing our bed tomorrow, likely not ever.”
“Uh, not a problem.”
“So, don’t be pulling any of Lord Je’orj’s prime functionals that require her body warmth to bring your temperature back up.”
“Okay… as long as you don’t, either.”
She blinked. “Uh, that was an accident.”
“You needed more warmth than I could provide.”
“We agreed never to have this conversation again.”
“You brought it up, not me.”
She laid back and stared at the ceiling. “Now I can’t sleep.”
“Sorry.”
She smiled, half turned. “I can’t say that the way you warmed me up that time, uh, wasn’t without merit and… well, we’re officially getting married tomorrow.”