by M. J. Scott
Katiya nodded agreement, a smile lighting her face. The seer stepped back and looked around. "Lady Greta, do you wish to begin? As mother of the bride-to-be, you can set the order if you wish."
Katiya's mother smiled, the expression half relief, and came around to join her daughter, standing by her shoulder.
Irina said softly, "The first part is just a blessing. Then the tscherov will start."
Sejerin Nene, beaming, spoke a few short sentences in seer tongue. Unlike Silya, her voice was light and happy. There was a faint glimmer in the air around her, like sequins sparkling in the light, and Chloe detected an icy chime at the edge of hearing. Whatever magic the sejerin was using was gentle at best.
She finished speaking, still smiling, and stepped back.
"Now," she said. "Lady Greta, you can begin." She waved a hand at one of the nearest women. "Uncover the baskets."
Women moved to follow instructions, and another of the women in blue and green placed a short wooden stool in front of Katiya, who was rolling back the long sleeves of her dress. There was some sort of symbol on her right forearm, but Chloe couldn't see it clearly. Lady Greta sat down on the stool and then hunted through the baskets as each of the six was presented to her, pulling a long length of colored thread from each.
She handed one end of each thread to Katiya to hold and then began to plait them together with a deftness that spoke of much practice. Around her the other women began to half sing, half hum a melody.
"This is the tscherov," Irina said. "Each guest will make one. The song is about marriage and joy and such things. But the maker of the tscherov puts her own good thoughts into her work. Those with power add a little charm for good luck. For those without, the sejerin will add that. Watch."
Chloe leaned forward, curiosity piqued. Now that she was looking for it, she saw a faint glow around Lady Greta's hands, but any sound of magic was blocked by the singing and laughter coming from the group of women. They were repeating the first verse of the song by the time Lady Greta finished her braid, a fine length of cord now about half the width of Chloe's little finger and perhaps a foot long. From a distance it was hard to determine all the colors, but there was definitely blue and green.
She and Katiya both knotted their ends. Then Lady Greta held it up to the sejerin, who laid her own hand on it briefly before nodding and passing it back to Greta, who looped it several times around Katiya's right wrist and tied it off. It looked loose enough to slide off if Katiya wanted. Lady Greta stood, kissed her daughter's cheeks again, looking pleased, then nodded at the woman who'd placed the stool.
"That's Aunt Vilna," Irina said. "She'll go next."
"Is there any particular meaning to the order?" Honore asked. She looked intrigued.
Irina shrugged. "We start with the mother, but then it can be each woman who picks the next, or the bride might. Katiya is letting each of us choose. She doesn't like anyone to feel left out." She shook her head fondly.
"And what about the colors?" Chloe asked.
"For a wedding, we use six strands. It's supposed to be four colors to represent the four strands of magic—there are a couple choices for each of those—and then two to represent the weaver's blessing. Here at court, usually that means the two house colors. Mama did our blue and green"—she gestured down at her vest—"as you saw."
"Will you?" Chloe asked.
Irina shrugged. "I haven't decided. I'll see what song the earth sings to me."
"You hear magic?" Chloe asked. "Most people just see it."
"We are taught to listen," Irina said. "But not all can hear. I think I do because of my earth sense."
Much as she wanted to know more about earth sense, Chloe didn't think now was the time to ask. It was clearly something slightly out of the ordinary for a woman, and with a seer present, she didn't want to risk causing offense by discussing something not strictly in accordance with balance.
"You said for a wedding," Giane asked, saving Chloe. "Do you do this for other events as well?"
"Babies," Irina said. She jerked her chin toward the woman with the child. "Wee Ivan over there will have one. Those are simpler. Two strands for family, two for good wishes, usually, as no one knows what magic a baby might have. His mama would have received some from her friends and family after she gave birth. That's the only other one with a proper ritual to the weaving though. People make them for friends, too. Children mostly. But sometimes if a friend is sick or sad or for birthdays, people will make them. Especially in the smaller towns. There are different patterns that belong to particular towns or families."
"It looks complicated," Chloe said.
"Not really. Well, some patterns might be, but at the heart of it, it's just a braid." Irina glanced up at Chloe's hair, where she'd wrapped two braids around her head as a quick and simple option to keep it out of the way. "If you can do that, you can do this."
Chloe looked at Irina's braids, which were arranged in a far more complicated manner than any Illvyan hairstyle she'd ever seen, involving not only a plethora of fine braids but ribbons and glass beads. Or perhaps they were gems. Many of the women had jewels sparkling at their throats and wrists and ears. Showing off their kingdom’s wealth, perhaps? "I think Andalyssians might take braiding more seriously than we do."
Irina snorted. "Small children make these. Just watch, you'll see how it's done."
She subsided back into silence, and they watched the next few women take their turn. The song changed a few times, and as Chloe studied each woman, she could see that each moved her fingers in slightly different ways. After five bracelets, Katiya held up her hands, laughing and flexing her fingers. "Time for a break. And wine."
Chloe glanced at Honore. The colonel was starting to look less interested and more like she was thinking of the no doubt long list of things she should be doing rather than watching thirty women repeat a ritual thirty times. According to the clock sitting on the mantel, they'd arrived a little over half an hour ago. At this rate, the ceremony would take at least three hours. It would be midday before they got to the treaty talks.
She shifted her feet and rubbed her hands together, glad of the chance to move. The room was warmer now that everyone had been standing around for some time, but not by much. Time for that warming charm again. Servants were circulating with glasses of wine and cups of what smelled like tea. No sign of kafiet, thank goodness.
Tea in hand, she wandered over to the window, ignoring the cooler air as she took in the view. From this side of the palace, she could see only a slice of the city below, and if their schedule continued to be as busy as it had been so far, she doubted she would be seeing much more than that. Perhaps after the wedding itself. The month of ceremonies to follow was less frantic. Of course, they would still be focused on their mission. But to make up for her frustration at not being able to get to know the city, there was, at least, a breathtaking view of the mountains. Their lower reaches were wooded, and there was the odd patch of green here and there above the tree line which must be valleys or small plateaus, but the peaks seemed to stretch forever into the distance.
"Enjoying the view?" Katiya asked, coming to stand beside her.
"It's beautiful," Chloe said. Beautiful and wild and not a little intimidating. There was a harshness to the mountains. An unmistakable air of “enter at your own peril.” As she had no intention of venturing farther into them on her own, she could ignore that and merely enjoy the spectacle.
"And the ceremony?" Katiya said with a smile.
Chloe turned back from the window. "It's very interesting. We don't have anything like it back home." She gestured down at Katiya's arm, where the five tscherovs she'd acquired hung in a rainbow band of color. "What do you do with them afterward?"
Katiya giggled. "Traditionally, I'm supposed to hang them on the bedposts on my wedding night. But Misha's bed is carved from stone. It doesn't really have bedposts."
Chloe raised an eyebrow but refused to be drawn into the subject of how famili
ar Katiya was with the king's bedchamber. "Is that a tattoo on your forearm? If you don't mind me asking?"
"I don't mind." Katiya held her arm up, shaking the bracelets back toward her elbow. “It's my zaka. We get them on our Ascension to mark our connection to the goddess."
The design was a stylized tree and moon in shades of blue and green that were very dark against Katiya’s pale skin.
"Does everyone get the same one?"
"No, there are variations for house and personal taste. Most people use elements from their house marks to work into the design. You've seen some of those on our robes. Each house has a few key motifs but plenty of other symbols, so very few zaka are the same." Katiya smiled. "They're not the first we get. Those are the keya." She dragged a finger across her left bicep. "Around our arm here when we turn thirteen and pledge loyalty to the House. Those tend to be more similar."
Intriguing. There'd been nothing about tattoos in the briefings. "Are there more tattoos?"
"Well, the marriage mark," Katiya said. "That one goes here." She touched her chest above her heart. "First drawn in indigo dye. Then, once the marriage month ends, it is made permanent and tattooed if the couple don't change their minds."
"You can do that?" Chloe asked, startled.
Katiya laughed and sipped her wine. "Well, it would be a vast scandal if I did, so it's just as well Misha and I know we suit. But in the towns and villages, sometimes a couple will realize something isn’t right. That's why we have the month. Here in the palace, it's full of ceremony and ritual now, but out there, it's mostly for the newlyweds to spend a lot of time together. There are a few simple ceremonies over the weeks, but it gives them time to be alone and know they've made the right choice."
And have plenty of sex, Chloe imagined. That would be a luxury in a small village where everyone worked hard. A month to spend just with your new wife or husband would be a break from the hard work of day-to-day life. Particularly in such a climate. "What about people who change their minds after a longer time?"
Katiya frowned, shaking her head. "We don't have divorce as you do. If there is cruelty or violence, then the priests will sometimes grant that the marriage be dissolved. But it can be hard to marry again after that. It's not balanced to do it. And it rarely happens in the sixteen houses." She grimaced, as though the subject was uncomfortable.
Time to change the subject back to something lighter. She was spoiling Katiya's fun.
"And other than the marriage mark, are there more?"
"Some people get more. Men, in particular. Some women get them for children or when somebody dies. The seers and the svasyas have their own traditions, too, but some of them are secret."
Of course they were. "Sejerin Neni seems...more approachable than Sejerin Silya."
"Neni is a sweetheart," Katiya agreed. "She's my second cousin. Or maybe it's third. I lose track. Between the houses, sometimes it seems like everyone starts being a distant relation somehow or other. The House Namenmeisters keep track to make sure no one is marrying too closely."
She'd never thought about that in the aristos back home. Illvya was, of course, a much larger country, and there were more of them, so maybe it wasn't a problem.
"I suppose you would have to," she said, fascinated despite herself.
Katiya smiled. "Is this why you like to do what you do, to learn about others?"
"It's part of it," Chloe said.
"It is a long way to travel. So far from home to find out about tattoos and silly braids."
"Not so far. And not forever. I like to see the world. If I didn't leave home, I wouldn't get to see this." She gestured at the towering snowcaps, blazing white in the sun.
"I've been to Elenia but no farther." Katiya smiled lopsidedly. "The houses keep their daughters close."
"But you'll be queen soon. Will you and His Majesty see more of the world then? You have other neighbors to deal with besides the Elenians. Near and far."
"Perhaps. In time. I think Misha has more concerns with those at home right now." She took another sip of the wine. "To be a young king is not always easy."
Was that a subtle way of raising the subject of House Elannon? Not the place for such a discussion. But perhaps it was acceptable to reassure her that they didn't want Mikvel to fail.
"He was raised to the job. From what I've seen of him, he is strong and clever. Well suited for his task. And he clearly has good taste to want to marry you." Katiya had a spine of steel beneath her snow-maiden exterior, Chloe suspected. If she didn't, she wouldn't be risking the slightly disapproving looks some of the older women were directing their way because they'd been talking so long. Irina was still chattering enthusiastically with Giane a few feet farther away.
"I'm not sure it's a matter of taste. Our families came to this arrangement when we were young. But we were fortunate. We were friends as children and, over time, came to find something more." Her smile was more relaxed now, more natural. "I will marry the man, not the crown. I think, perhaps, that is a good thing."
"I think, perhaps, you are right," Chloe said. "It is the man who matters, not titles and trappings." Though it might not always be entirely possible to separate the two when the man was a king. Politics was part of that life, and Katiya would need some of that steel to see it through.
"Have you never been tempted to marry again, Lieutenant?"
Chloe still wasn't sure what Katiya knew of her history.
"No, not so far. I loved my husband." Which was true, if not the entire truth. Better to be thought the long-grieving widow than a betrayed one.
"I am sorry." Another sip of the pale green wine, making the row of woven bracelets slip down her arm in a flutter of color. "It is a long time to be alone." Her mouth quirked again, and the glance she gave Chloe was somewhat wicked.
"I think, perhaps, that is a conversation I'm not supposed to be having with the king's bride-to-be," Chloe said. She wasn't about to discuss any other aspects of the few men who'd passed through her bed in Anglion with an Andalyssian who was supposed to be a virgin. She and the king seemed genuinely in love, so who knew if she had managed time alone with him before their wedding, but given the gaggle of women surrounding her today, it seemed unlikely.
Katiya snorted. "I'm not ignorant, Lieutenant, of what happens between men and women."
Chloe glanced back over her shoulder. "I think perhaps this is a conversation not to have in a crowd. And if you're going to ask me about these things, I also think you should call me Chloe." And that Katiya should stop drinking wine and switch to tea.
But then again, Chloe wasn't the one about to marry an ice king. If the wine and some risqué conversation with a foreigner eased any nerves Katiya might be feeling, then all well and good. There would be nerves, of course, no matter how in love Katiya was. Chloe herself had nearly thrown up the night before her own wedding, despite the fact that she'd been certain marrying Charl was the right choice. Perhaps she should have listened to her stomach after all. Imogene, too, had threatened to flee Lumia and make a run for it two days before her marriage with Jean-Paul after a particularly fraught exchange with his mother.
Katiya had to be nervous, no matter how she felt about Mikvel. She wasn't just getting married, she was also becoming a queen. Chloe hadn't been present when Sophie and Cameron married, but she and Imogene had kept Sophie company in the days before her coronation, and there'd been wine and tea and more required to keep the young queen on an even keel. Sophie hadn’t been raised to know she would take on the crown as Katiya clearly had, but the responsibility—and the risks—were the same. Royalty was no guarantee of love and happiness and a long and healthy life.
"Katiya, we need to keep going," a voice called from behind them.
Katiya nodded at Chloe, then turned to take her place back in the chair.
Chapter 17
The ceremony went on for most of the morning. Katiya stood after every five or so braids and mingled with her guests but didn't come back to speak to th
e Illvyans until what Chloe calculated should be the last break. Irina still hadn't taken her turn, and she stepped forward to study her sister's arms.
However the magic bound into the braids worked, the colors of the threads almost glowed in the sunshine. Katiya was glowing, too, smiling, cheeks flushed. Irina gestured to the nearest servant and pressed a cup of tea into her sister's hands.
"Drink that. Any more wine and you'll fall asleep, and then I'll get in trouble for not watching you." For a moment, she sounded like the responsible older sister rather than a younger one. "I don't want to spend the rehearsal this afternoon being lectured by our mother and Sejerin Silya. They'll give us that speech about queenly responsibilities again."
Katiya laughed but took the tea, the tscherovs sliding down her wrists. Chloe leaned in to examine the patterns.
"Would you like to try?" Katiya asked.
"Is that allowed?" Chloe asked, surprised. "Isn't this for your friends and family?"
"It's for people who wish me well," Katiya said. Chloe noticed Honore listening a few steps away. "You wish me well, don't you, Lieutenant de Montesse?"
"Of course," Chloe said, meaning it. Whatever troubles Illvya and Andalyssia had had in the past, she had no desire to see them spill back over into the present. Katiya deserved as happy a life with her king as it was possible for royalty to have. Joy to offset the duties and protocol that would rule a lot of her time. She glanced over Katiya's shoulder at Honore, who raised one eyebrow slightly but didn't shake her head or give any other indication that she thought Chloe should decline. “I’d be honored to try.”
"Good," Katiya said, smiling. "You can go second last, before Irina. She can help you."
Chloe gestured at one of the more intricate patterned braids. It was striking, weaving two shades of pale blue, a deep brown, white, a deep green, and red into an almost sinuous repeating wave of color. Chloe had no idea how the pattern was achieved with mere braided thread. "Well, I can't guarantee I'll produce anything as complicated as that, but I'll try my best. And the good wishes part will be easy, Lady Katiya."