by D. H. Aire
Ander glanced back, “Yours is… or would you prefer it to be this see through?”
“Uh, mine’s fine,” Juels said, that’s when she realized that she needed to move a bit more the left, but couldn’t. She just stared.
“Fine,” Aaprin said, glancing down, “stare. Get it over with.”
Gallen chuckled, “Aap, you should really take a good long look at Ander then and we should, uh, practice how we’re going to walk.”
“What?” he rasped.
Ander moved right in front of him. “Let me see that hand of yours.” She moved to his right side and pulled his arm around her waist and held his hand rather discretely. “I’m glad you’re not any shorter.”
Aaprin went scarlet as light rippled outward from his fingertips. “Uh, why don’t I, uh, feel the fabric?”
“Oh, my,” Gallen muttered as Ander thrust his hand aside. “Touch my shoulder.” Patterns of light cascaded at his touch. “You must feel the Elvinsilk.”
“Um, no,” he admitted, though, he thought it might be better to lie.
Juels covered her face in her hands as Ander tensed, then carefully took his right hand in hers again and wrapped his arm around her waist. “Look, I’m marrying him, aren’t I? And I’d rather some dignity.”
Aaprin coughed, “Can I have my hands back now?”
“Not yet,” Ander said as she sought to find the best position. Her breath caught and she bit down on her lip as the light intensified as did her emotions. Then she turned and half hugged him, crying.
“I didn’t know someone could blush all the way down to their toes,” Juels said as Gallen met Aaprin’s horrified gaze, flailing his hands finally settling on Ander’s trembling hips.
Gallen reached behind Aaprin and squeezed Ander’s shoulder, careful to conceal the thought that Ander might be the only hope of their having children one day. “It’ll be all right, really, Ander.”
Juels eyes widened and she struggled to pretend she had never heard that thought, ignoring the tear that dropped from her cheek.
#
Two warders appeared at the palace gate. The warder on duty stared, then bowed, “Masters.”
With every stiff step they took it was as if they jumped ahead paces. The warder watched and muttered, “We have got to learn that trick.”
Shut up and focus on the job at hand.
“Sheesh.”
One of the old Legionnaires glanced at the warder, who was inscrutable at the best of times since joining the palace detail.
#
He winced as he steered. More to the left, stupid.
"Stop calling me that," Revit rasped.
Well, you are directing the legs… Master.
"This feels so wrong," Revit muttered.
Well, this is no fun for me, either. Now you know how we felt.
“Um, Terus, how you doing over there?”
“Don’t talk… to me… we’re… busy.”
"Uh, you don’t think?" he muttered.
Revit, don’t be getting any ideas, the voice seemingly in his ear said.
He stopped. “Aliana, what are you talking about?”
There was silence a moment. Idiot, we’re about to join the wedding procession.
“So? We’re both practically kids.”
Oh, really, Master Revit? Are we still? I can control wards in here, does that make us children? And now like this are you and I going to be more truly bound?
“It’s the ‘nearly’ that’s the important part.”
Am I ever going to be able to really leave your side?
“That’s a fluke.”
Really? Like the tide were drawn to each other… I so enjoy the times its pull leaves us no choice but to attend your bathroom break.
“It’s no particular fun for Terus, or me, either.”
Welcome to life in this slice of the ether, my husband-to-be.
“We are not getting married!”
Aliana suddenly quieted. They are walking as stiffly as we are.
“What's that got to do with anything?”
Oh, you just have to be difficult… That's when he found himself reoriented. Her face pressed up in front of his. She kissed him.
INTEGRATION COMPLETE.
“What was that?” he gasped.
Oh, that was you, idiot, the part that's been trained to think human by Jeo'rj's thinking staff.
“What?”
Okay, loverboy. You, out there, identify yourself.
UNABLE TO COMPLY.
Oh, no, Revit thought as he realized he was hugging her close.
Why are you unable to comply? she asked the voice.
SECURITY PROTOCOLS.
Really, whose protocols?
QUESTOR CREW CODE REQUIRED TO OVERRIDE.
Now they both grew silent. They felt themselves entwined with little sense of up or down. For the first time, Revit felt her fear. She thought she understood, but had only been distracted from realizing how different her existence was always going to be.
“Shh, it’s all right,” he promised. “Questor's the ship that brought our human ancestors from the stars.”
CREW CODE REQUIRED.
I thought I understood, Revit, but…
“We’re together. Bound as one warder like the two of you were.”
Revit, I need to talk to my brother.
“He's here. You know that,” Revit said.
I don't want you to go.
“I'm here now and, well, I don't see why I can’t come back.”
Being with her is… awkward. She nuzzled him.
CODE REQUIRED.
She kissed him and he saw… his temporary assigned Terran University archeology department research code spill from memories of working with Staff.
ACCEPTED. I AM YOUR ONBOARD COMPUTER BACKUP SYSTEM. PRIMARY SYSTEM’S OFF-LINE. UNABLE TO INITIATE ANY OF THE AUTOMATIC CONTROLS. EMERGENCY MANUAL SYSTEMS IN ACTIVE MODE… DETECTING EARLIER REQUEST.
What? Aliana rasped. What did you do, you idiot?
COMPLYING… SYSTEM RELEASE PROTOCOL INITIATED.
Swoosh…
“Hey.”
“Ouch.”
“Uh, where did you two come from?” the Carthatan guard asked, staring at them sprawled on the floor.
“Hey, are you in the groom’s party or the bride’s?” another asked.
The gaping redheaded girl beside him, naked as he was, hastily drew up her legs, sitting there on the floor beside him.
“Uh, we’re with the Highmage,” Revit said, staring up at them.
“Then you’d best hurry, he’s just started the processional.”
A warder mage appeared beside them, helping them to their feet. “I can’t go out there like this,”Aliana whispered.
Revit took a deep breath, “You bound to me or not?”
WE ARE LINKED, she winced, hearing echoes through her thoughts.
“Uh, who said that?” the warder mage asked, urging them forward just as Juels was about to follow Aaprin.
The girl glanced back and stared. “Come on, Juels,” Ander whispered, then saw Revit. “What are you doing here? I thought…”
“Uh, I’m better now and I, uh, brought someone,” Revit said lamely as Aaprin’s warder turned the corner to take up the rear and stopped cold.
The redhead Aliana lowered her hands, brow furrowed in concentration, then grabbed Revit’s arms and wrapped them around her slim waist. She suddenly glittered. “My Elvinsilk gown arrived a bit late… Let’s go, Revit.”
“Who was that?” Ander rasped as Juels frowned, uncertain, as she urged Ander to catch up to Aaprin, who offered her his right arm, which she, in turn, wrapped hastily around her waist.
Revit and his companion, followed by the two warders marched down the processional as a herald rushed to Herald Varian and pointed at the girl at Revit’s side then the list. Varian shrugged and waved to Carwina and Sianhiel and the Lady Rowena forward beside a rather self-conscious elflord who had inherited his family’
s properties during the recent unrest. Behind them marched the smiling faeryn archmage, Talik, Lord Lyai’s older cousin and heir, and the woman he would contract a child, though, he would have much preferred the young elflady, who looked distinctly unhappy about her family’s choice.
Behind them Belina walked beside Lord Westerleaf, who glanced at her with evident disdain and superiority. He did not even offer her his hand.
#
There was a great deal of murmuring around them as the Highmage passed, arm in arm with two Cathartans, followed by two more and a child.
“Well, at least no more parents are asking us how their sons are doing at the Academy,” Donnialt whispered as Aaprin began the procession, which was causing its own scandalous remarks.
Master Stenh gaped, glimpsing… “Donnialt.”
The Dean of Students of the once more prestigious Mage Academy turned and stared, “What’s Revit done?”
“Where’s Terus?” Stenh whispered back, ignoring the murmuring the Highmage’s passage evoked.
“Those are about to be rather more than Cathartan bodyguards,” Count Tristan muttered to those nearest. “He’s even brought a little girl… I cannot believe the Empress will countenance such joining him as a bed warmer.”
“Do shut up,” Master Ofran, Head of the Healer’s Hall, said from among his staff members. “That girl is his familiar. She is bound to his household… and not for marriage.”
“Oh, sorry, I stand corrected, Highmage’s with, what, a familiar as if he were some kind of witch. That sounds so much better.”
Lonny glanced at him and gnashed her teeth as she passed Tristan, who instinctively took a step back, “I say, I think that one would bite me.”
Oh, please try to betray the Empress, oh, please… she thought.
:Uh, Lonny, lovely thought, but do not try to canter, we’re not in a rush to reach the dais.:
#
The mistress frowned seeing the redheaded elfblood. “It can’t be.”
“Can’t be who?”
“One of the girls I… one of my students who left for another school a few weeks ago. But she would be a bit younger, though, not as nicely… developed as that elfblooded young lady. Who is that she’s going to be engaged to?”
“Hmm, that’s one of the Highmage’s apprentices. Though, I thought he was a bit younger and he’s not known for going anywhere without his friend. They call them twins, but that they aren’t. That boy must barely have any elvin blood in his veins.”
The mistress frowned. “What an odd patterning for an Elvinsilk gown?”
“You’d almost think those were freckles and she was walking naked besides him. But, I dare say the pink look and sparkling is… rather exotic looking.”
“Likely, due to embarrassment,” the faculty member whispered, “an outcome of her family’s choice to ally themselves with the Highmage.”
“I wonder what family has.”
The mistress frowned, “She really does remind me of that girl. Ah, but we’d so many elfbloods and they look so alike even if they are from different lines.”
Chapter 10 - Ceremony
Upon an inner facing balcony of the Great Hall, Mother Shaman, De’ohr, stood watching with two graying haired black liveried Sisters at her back as the musicians began playing stringed instruments that had she asked, George would have called similar to chellos, signaling the processional was about to begin. Elflords, dwarves, a few humans of the Fifth Tier Elite, the wealthiest of the merchant factors, were allowed seats in the back of the hall.
An ogre stood guard behind the groom’s side of the dais, a warder mage at his side as the doors opened and in marched the Highmage. On the Empress’s side, stood her elfblood servant, and another warder mage. As the processional commenced the candlelit chandeliers changed color, casting the ceiling in a burgundy hue.
There were gasps as people did not know what to make of his walking hand-in-hand with two human women in Elvinsilk. Behind him followed another and what appeared to be an elfblood one bearing the Highmage’s suddenly glowing staff, which radiated a stream of light, which bathed them and those who marched with him in a warm and revealing gleam. No one could question his observance of the primary strictures of the wedding, though he was clearly acknowledging the Cathartan nature of his household bonds.
“Lord Je’orj, you honor us,” De’ohr whispered.
“Cle’or’s shifted her bonding?”
Cle’or smiled, “My daughter knows Lord Je’orj must need her more.”
De’ohr made no comment, sensing there was more to than that. Behind her she sensed that her guests had arrived. “Mahr, just in time, your mother is coming down the aisle with Lord Balfour. Ruke, oh, look, there’s Gallen with her mageling, Aaprin.”
He came forward and saw Ander rush up the aisle, catching up. She looked… beautiful. Hair flowing behind her, patterns of light seeming to cascade across her lithe body. He winced as she did not stop until she reached Aaprin’s side and wrapped his arms around her waist, using his hand to help cover what she could.
“Ah, he’s marrying Cle’or’s adopted foster-daughter… So much the better,” De’ohr said, loudly enough that it echoed in his ears.
#
Terhun watched from an inner balcony across the Great Hall. “Well, Verny, doesn’t the Mother Shaman appear rather pleased?”
“That she does… There also seem to be quite a lot of Cathartan guards on protective detail throughout the palace.”
“Why, Lady Se’and and her Sisters are binding themselves to the Empress,” Terhun replied. “How could Her Majesty not accept the offer of assistance, supplementing our old group of Legionnaires armed with bane swords?”
“I’m surprised Her Majesty hasn’t begun giving them the damn things.”
“Verny, don’t give her any ideas.”
#
Lucien Summerfelt stood beside his pregnant wife, Irin, who held the half asleep Ri’ori in her arms as they watched his son walk the processional. “I can’t say I’m surprised he’s marrying Gallen,” he whispered, noting, not unhappily, that the dwarves around them seemed to disturb the snooty elfblooded guests seated around their section.
Grinning, Irin nodded, “Those two have become inseparable. I’m just surprised at those two with him… I mean, from what you told me, he’s basically marrying them, too.”
The dwarf Stieven’s wife held Rachiel tenderly. “Oh, isn’t this grand,” she said, bouncing the baby, so her parents could see their child and much as she them, “look there’s your mother and father, now.”
“Ander and Juels? They’ve been adopted Cathartan by Cle’or… Juels is too young to…”
Irin glanced up at him.
He cleared his throat, “As you can plainly see, she’s just a child.”
“Which, Ander, certainly isn’t.”
“No, and, he walking very… uh… possessively of both Gallen and her.”
“Rather gallantly, I think. Remind me to thank you for marrying me in the Temple and not making me walk practically naked here.”
Stieven glanced at his father-in-law, Master Fronkwin, “You’re not supposed to stare so long.”
Fronkwin blinked, “I am not. It’s just so odd, seeing the Cathartans like this.”
Irin chuckled, “You mean without being armed to the hilt?”
He shook his head, “Cathartan are never unarmed.”
“You sound like you speak from experience?” Lucien chuckled.
Hesitating a moment, Fronkwin said, “It is an old adage I heard in my youth.”
Lucien nodded, craning to get a better view of his son, who seemed quite uncomfortable holding his lady friends so. That’s when he glimpsed the redhead at Revit’s side. He blinked. “Oh, my.”
“What?”
“Uh, hmm, uh, Revit’s engaged.”
“Anyone we know?”
“Uh, yes, actually,” he glanced across the hall at the Legionnaire sergeant who had suddenly stiffened in sho
ck. “She’s a lovely girl from a very good family…”
#
They haven’t guessed, she mentally said, holding him close, feeling… safe… and wonderful. Yet knowing this could never last, if not for the reasons Terus did.
Ri, that’s because no woman in their right mind would walk the processional naked… What could have possessed her? He wondered.
Are you staring at her butt?
I’m trying not to trip… or would you prefer I stare more at Ander’s?
She didn’t know how to respond to that in the least. Stare at Juels for all I care.
They stumbled.
Ri… don’t be like that.
Sorry, I don’t know why I said that. Not that she would want to admit to him, at least, or herself. She nuzzled close and relaxed allowing him to walk them. Her fingertips felt along his back. She could feel his cheek against hers.
With a sigh, she took control of their left eye, leaving him the right to steer by. The Lady Carwina walked arm in arm with Lord Sianhiel. Beyond them she glimpsed others, then… Belina? Belina was here!
What’s wrong?
Wrong? Grendel’s daughter, Lady High and Mighty, is in the processional!
Okay, so what?
So, Terus, you idiot, she wouldn’t be here unless there’s something afoot… Rexil, Rexil! Why didn’t anyone warn us that Belina’s here?
Uh, Rexil’s occupied, a voice with the cultivated accent she’d been carefully schooled to speak replied. Our old friends aren’t pleased, but they’ve been watching her. Apparently her grandmother’s been trying to make a match… being related to a traitor seems to have soured some of their better prospects at Court.
But she’s here and you and I both know what that little minx is capable of.
Ri, believe me, I’ve been watching her every step.
Uh, what are you two talking about?
Terus, watch your step as we ascend the dais, she unconsciously pressed herself as close to him as she could in their sliver of the etherworld. That girl’s always up to no good.
Good thing she’s getting married then, right?
I suppose.
Juels gestured as Revit and his fiancée took a position right behind Je’orj as the two warders took up protective positions along the platform, leaving Terus a view of Ander that was better than any he might have dreamed.
