Dark Lord's Wedding

by A. E. Marling

“She wasn’t doing any harm,” Hiresha said.

  “Feasters are never Innocent,” one Bright Palm said. “Twelfth tenet, stanza eight.”

  The Bright Palm’s face stayed serene as she lunged with the mallet. Hiresha let it hit against her will. The mallet broke.

  All the women on the street saw it. They had also seen Hiresha bring the girl back from death. Power had been proven to the populace as well as to the Purest. Tethiel had arranged the meeting with the latter. Tonight of all nights she had been close enough to save his Feaster. The coincidence sent a ripple of dissonance through Hiresha. She could not help but speculate that risking Minara’s life had also been part of his plan.

  Jerani blinked awake, and the lady was leaning over them in the tent. She gripped Celaise. Jewels flared against her, and Celaise’s skin shone purple. Her eyelids fluttered open and closed. Her fingers clawed at the blanket.

  “What’re you doing?” Jerani pushed out of his sleep fog and gripped his spear. He couldn’t strike the lady, could he? His muscles shivered and screamed.

  “I cannot have her limping around when there’s work to be done,” the lady said. “I must attend to her now. Opportunities for an uninterrupted morning will only become scarcer. The Dominion of the Sun will have begun its hunt.”

  Celaise slackened with a hissing wheeze. The lady put a big blue jewel on Celaise’s chest. Celaise floated to the center of the banyan grove. Her eyes never opened.

  Jerani scrambled after the lady. “You’re going to heal her?”

  “I’ll need to rebreak her bones. You should not watch.”

  “I’m staying with her.” Jerani gripped Celaise’s claw hand.

  “That will take the most time to repair.” The lady nodded to the hand. “At present, she’s unconscious and beyond pain. Observing would only discomfort you.”

  This was really happening. Celaise would be remade. She wouldn’t need her crutch. Her days wouldn’t hobble her. They wouldn’t torture her. Even with her twisted bones, even with her agony she was amazing. What could she do with straight flanks?

  Jerani might be dreaming this. He had before. Even if it wasn’t real, it was a good dream. It needed to last. He had to see Celaise standing on her own two legs and smiling her black-stone smile up at the sun.

  He couldn’t go back to the tent like the lady wanted. Closing his eyes might make this dream end. How could he sleep anyway with his heart racing? “I can’t leave her.”

  “Perhaps admirable, if technically untrue.” The lady pounced on him, her hands spread with jewels like angry-spider eyes.

  Jerani had to let go of Celaise. He needed to dodge to the side. He meant to, but he spun toward the lady instead. He fell into her arms. The coldness of her jewels pierced through his chest and bones.

  His heart stopped.

  What was happening? He should’ve got away. He was fast. Only, the jewel beneath his arm had tugged him toward her. He had put it there, and it had pulled on his skin and stopped him from getting away. He had crossed the lady. Would he live?

  Blackness spilled into his eyes. He sagged against her. He became weightless. He was drifting away.

  His heart beat, once. Maybe he wouldn’t die.

  Jerani thrashed upright in the tent. He tried to think how much time had passed. Had it been a dream? His spear rested beside him, and Celaise … and Celaise.…

  She was there, and she was whole. Her ankles, both true. Her back, straight in her sleep. She always lay curled on her side. Sometimes her knees touched her chest, but there she was, flat and peaceful.

  She had to be alive. The jewel on her chest was moving, shedding fleas of light across her. That meant she was breathing. It was the huge blue jewel that looked like a pyramid, with smaller pyramids in rows across each side. The lady had really done it. She had healed Celaise.

  She would be able to walk and dress herself and tend the herd all alone. She wouldn’t need him. Celaise would leave him.

  No, no she wouldn’t. Celaise would still need him to start a family. They would make fire together. He was already stirring at the thought.

  Her hands, so lovely. Jerani cupped the left one. Not a claw anymore, it was soft. The nails shone like polished horn. Her fingers slid between his. Jerani’s were darker, but their palms were the same color of pink. He pressed them together. Her hand pulsed with life.

  His eyes filled with warmth. Everything went blurry, and he had to blink and blink. Hot streams ran down his cheeks.

  Celaise’s bones had been reshaped by the lady. Where had she gone? Jerani pushed back the tent flap. The grove was empty except for the piles of polished crystal. The lady had been gone for days, then swept in on them sleeping.

  He shivered. The place her jewels had touched him still itched with coldness. He pulled at the gem on his side, the one that had reeled him toward her. Tugging it moved his rib beneath, like the gem had burrowed into his skin and latched on. Jerani might not even be able to cut it out. In a way, the lady was as ferocious as the lord.

  And as powerful. She had reset Celaise’s bones. Had they cracked under the gems? Had there been a sound? He should’ve been there for Celaise. She hated being helpless. Even if he could’ve done nothing for her, even if she couldn’t know he was there, he should’ve been. The lady had been wrong.

  She had been gentle. Celaise wasn’t even bruised. He checked every part of her. The side of her foot she’d had to drag over the ground was callused. It scratched his fingers.

  “Celaise, you won’t have to walk on your ankle anymore.”

  She didn’t stir.

  Her bones had been rebroken. Touching them might’ve hurt her. He hadn’t thought of that. “Celaise?”

  She lay still, her lips in a cute frown. She didn’t moan or toss about. The gem on her chest twinkled. It might have been pinning her in deep sleep.

  Jerani should check on the llamas. He should look into the fox’s burrow, see that the little monster was sleeping. He should feed his bull-rumbling belly. But he couldn’t leave Celaise, not again. When she opened her eyes he would be there to tell her she was well.

  All their struggles in strange lands had been worth it. The lord hadn’t been all bad. The lady had paid them with a miracle. With the crook-limbs gone, Celaise looked like a young woman. Celaise was a young woman. She and Jerani could build a future together.

  “We only have to finish this last task. Then the lord promised he’d let us go.”

  And how hard could a wedding be? The lord only had to give the lady’s family some cows, and they would have no trouble somersaulting between a bull’s horns. Could be they didn’t have a cow grand enough. They might want to do the marriage in some other—

  A llama cried out in a loud moaning. Then another did. Oh, no, not the fox again.

  Jerani stepped out of the tent. Dusk had fallen over the grove. The crystals hadn’t yet lit. The lady wouldn’t be back until midnight. How soon was that? He had lost track of time beside Celaise.

  The fox pattered around him then jumped at Jerani’s chest. Jerani caught him. “Wait, if you’re here …”

  Boom! It sounded like a drum beat, out in the jungle. Boom! Boom! Clack! Sharp splitting noises echoed. Was that tree trunks being split? Clack!

  Jerani leapt over the lotus pond. He raced onto the path out of the grove. He couldn’t leave the llamas with whatever that was. They were braying for their lives.

  Clack! The sounds might’ve come from one thing or many all around him. Boom!

  Jerani spun about. Celaise still lay in the tent. All the noise hadn’t woken her. He couldn’t leave her alone.

  The fox sprang away and hid under a root. If only Jerani could’ve found as safe a spot for Celaise.

  The high pitch of a human cry bounced off the trees. It might’ve been a child. Something must be attacking the village.

  Jerani gripped his spear and war club. He pressed them against his brow. His teeth scraped against each other. He couldn’t cower in this grove while
llamas bawled and people cried. He might be far from the grasslands and his tribe, but he was still a Great Heart.

  One more look to Celaise, and Jerani drove himself from the grove. The forest was dark and dripping. No good choices here. He ran away from the llama’s pleas and toward the village. Lights burned at its center.

  People held torches. They were the villagers, huddling together. One scrambled back into a hut only to be dragged out again by a warrior.

  “Outside, outside.” The warrior waved his spear about with its green band. “All together.”

  “But they’re terror birds.” A woman gripped her torch in both hands. It was just a smoldering log. “They’re terror birds.”

  Jerani should’ve known. The Clack! Clack! was from their beaks. He shouldn’t have left Celaise. A terror bird could be bending over her now, hooking out her insides.

  “They’re not birds,” the King’s Spear said. He kicked two women. “Shut up! Will you just—”

  “Terror birds. Can’t you hear?”

  “Macco hears drums and sticks banging trees. No birds.” The King’s Spear pointed to the long feather draped over his chest. “The king might’ve only trusted Macco with you ant diggers, but he knows his terror birds. These are raiders.”

  “There’s one.” Another warrior shook his axe at Jerani.

  “That’s the jaguar man, you blood bag.” The King’s Spear grimaced at Jerani. “Can you fight?”

  He asked that with Jerani holding a weapon in each hand. “What’re we fighting?”

  “Raiders. Must be from the clan lands.”

  That didn’t make sense. All these people were together in the Dominion. But then, the Great Hearts had needed to defend their cows from other tribes in the Empire.

  “Hope there won’t be too many to fight,” one warrior said.

  “There will be.” The King’s Spear kneaded his potbelly. “But Macco has a charm in him.”

  The drum beat from the jungle darkness. Boom! Boom! Boom!

  From the trees stretched shadow men. Or men’s shadows. They carried spears and shields and nets. They were real people, and too many to fight.

  “Shit!” The warrior lowered his axe. “We can’t—”

  “Get into the grove,” Jerani said. “We can defend the grove.”

  “You think?” The King’s Spear had backed behind the villagers.

  “Yes.” Maybe. Jerani needed to go there to protect Celaise anyway. “Go.”

  “Shield our backs then,” the King’s Spear said. He pulled up a woman by the hair and shoved her toward the grove.

  They left Jerani. How was he supposed to stop all those warriors? He couldn’t, not with fighting. He had to scare them.

  A villager had dropped a torch. Jerani picked it up and held it with his spear. What was he doing? Now they would only be able to see him better to aim.

  “What’s that?” One of the enemies pointed to Jerani. Feathers splayed out on shoulder guards. He took a step back.

  Jerani charged at all of them. He howled. He roared like a lion. Like a jaguar too, if they even roared. That’s what these men saw him as, jaguar skinned.

  “Obsidian Jaguar!” Jerani screamed and threw his war club.

  An enemy dropped.

  “Jaguar! Jaguar!” What was Jerani even saying? Any of them could spear him, and then he would be dumb and dead and Celaise would have no one.

  The enemies scrambled away, bumping into each other. Two fell over. The rest raised their weapons against Jerani. They didn’t run.

  That meant he would have to. He tossed his torch into their faces and sprinted. Between the trees and through the darkness and to the grove.

  The King’s Spear was pushing the last of the villagers past the banyans. “You,” he said to Jerani, “go in with the others. Keep the raiders from climbing in.”

  Jerani scrambled past.

  “Macco the King’s Spear will have to hold the way.” He angled the point of his weapon and its poison at the root gateway. “All by himself.”

  Inside, children wept. The fox twittered and leaped. A warrior hefted crystal slabs and passed them up to the women in the trees. “Hurl ’em down at anything, bird or man.”

  Celaise was still in their tent, and that’s what mattered. Jerani just had to keep her safe until midnight.

  He sprang from branch to branch. Torchlights flickered behind in the grove. He couldn’t see anything in front, just a stirring in the darkness. Just a snick, a scrape from men creeping up the banyans.

  His spear caught them. His spear found them. His spear saw them as if it had eyes all its own. It pulled him from banyan to banyan. Jerani could barely keep up. Who knew how many enemies there were, but Jerani and his spear were always there.

  Then his spear broke. Again. He held the splintered shaft. A shield must’ve shattered it. Or a warrior had dragged it down with him and cracked it against a branch. Jerani had slid back into the grove, he remembered doing that. He was leaning against a tree, gasping. He couldn’t catch his breath. The air was too thick and too wet. His lungs stung like they were full of glass shrub.

  He had no weapons.

  The King’s Spear was shouting. He stumbled into view, falling into the lotus pond. He screamed, cradling his arm against his chest. “That crystal witch! Her charm didn’t work. Where is the whore?”

  He clutched his spear with his left hand. His other arm bent in a wrong place. Bludgeoned and broken.

  Jerani shook himself to his feet. “Give me your spear.”

  “What? It’s mine. Macco is the King’s Spear. Where’s that witch, Resha?”

  The crystal plates were still dark. Jerani shook his head. “Not up yet.”

  “Burning shit! Where is she?” The King’s Spear kicked at the tent. He stared down at Celaise. Or maybe the big jewel. “By They of Jade Skin, what’s that?”

  “Celaise!” Jerani knelt by her. She should be up by now, but her eyes still hadn’t opened. Maybe they couldn’t. “Celaise! We need you. There are warriors, they—”

  “Come out,” a voice called from outside the grove. “Come out, or we burn you out.”

  “They won’t,” the King’s Spear said. “They need us alive for the knives. They’ll send us to the capitol so they won’t have to send their own.”

  “Not going to the sun city.” The axe warrior had blood all over his body. He dragged his weapon with shaking arms. “They’ll pull out my heart for the dragon.”

  The priest rose from the villagers with his rain stick. “It’s an honor to feed the sun—”

  “Shut it!” The King’s Spear kicked him. “They’re not taking you, and you know it.”

  These men were as scared of being sacrificed as Jerani. And this was their home.

  “Come out.” The enemies outside banged their drums.

  “They won’t burn us,” the King’s Spear said.

  The smell of smoke scratched at Jerani’s nose.

  “They can’t burn us,” the King’s Spear said. “It’ll take days to fire these trees.”

  Chopping sounds rang out through the forest. The enemies were collecting wood. What could Jerani do? He knelt over Celaise. The fox hopped to them. His whiskers twitched as he snuffed Celaise’s ear.

  Jerani lifted the fox. He rubbed his fur, got it good and bloody. Uh oh, the lady wouldn’t like that.

  The fox jabbered up at him. The jewels in his collar flashed purple.

  Jerani dropped him. All the piled gemstones lit the grove with a burst of violet.

  “They’re burning us.” A woman shielded her eyes.

  “What’s happening?” The warrior dropped his axe. His eyes were full of purple light. “What’s this?”

  Jerani swayed to his feet. “Midnight.”

  The lady dove from the sky. She plummeted. She careened to the ground.

  She touched down. Her landing made no sound, except the tearing of fabric from her robe flying apart. Her gloves peeled off, and her jewels glared.

&
nbsp; “Lady,” Jerani said, “the raiders, we tried to—”

  “Everyone, down.” The lady lifted her hands, and the crystals soared.

  The slabs of gemstone whirled above her like a flock of mad flamingos. The world seemed to spin in the opposite direction. The sparkling weight of the magic pinned Jerani to the ground.

  The villagers had flung themselves down. The axe warrior covered his face with his hands. Even the King’s Spear took a knee. He gaped up at the storm of gems. His gaze flicked toward the lady, and his face twisted with what might’ve been greed. Jerani elbow-walked past him to the tent to hold Celaise.

  The lady pointed, and gemstones flew together and stuck. Their spearhead sides locked edge to edge. They stacked into two pillars. She could build a house of purple crystal. They had enough gemstones to seal off the grove. Weapons would break against the walls. Their crystal house wouldn’t burn.

  The lady built higher. Gemstones hulked up into the canopy. Jerani could only wonder what she was making. The pillars might’ve been tree trunks. Their sharp roots dug into the ground.

  Crystal pebbles fit between glistening plates. The larger gems slid over each other. The towers of gemstone was moving. Was it falling? Jerani grasped Celaise’s shoulders, pulling her away. Branches snapped. Banyans creaked. Leaves rained down.

  The pillars bent. They were the legs of a crystal giant. They lifted. Those weren’t roots but claws. The gem-scaled monster turned. A mouth of amethyst spikes opened. It was a crocodile. No, a crystal dragon.

  A cavern of fangs opened to roar. No sound came out, but its silence blasted down on Jerani. The gaze of its tiny glint eye smashed him flat. His chest would break. His insides would squeeze out. The dragon’s scales reflected faces stretched in awe and terror.

  The dragon dragged itself through the banyans. Tree limbs snapped. Leaves rained down. It didn’t have any back legs or tail. Unfinished, its insides were hollow. That didn’t seem to slow the dragon down. It gave chase with a clattering rush. The lady leapt after it. She and the dragon left the grove. Then the screams began.

  She must’ve let the raiders run. Their cries faded into the misty distance.

  When Jerani picked himself up and crept out, he didn’t find many bodies. Bark had been scraped from trees. The dragon must’ve slithered between. It returned to loom in glittering star shine. The lady fluttered around the dragon. She traced a hand over its scales.