Shadow Over Kiriath (57 page)

Once ashore the prisoners were marched to Wetherslea and thrown into the deepest dungeon. Many were offered the opportunity of receiving the Star, but few accepted. Meanwhile the slaves who had formerly rowed in the galleys Katahn had given Abramm at his coronation were freed, while the sailors from the Kirithian navy who’d volunteered to row with them were released from the service and paid handsomely. Then after a few days of suffering the hardships of Wetherslea, all the Esurhite soldiers healthy enough were pulled out and chained to the oars in their places.

The stolen guardstar was sent back to Avramm’s Landing and set on its platform, unlit but ready should Eidon deign one day to reveal the secrets of how it worked. For now, Abramm had something more important on his mind: Maddie.

Since her return, Maddie had become something of a people’s celebrity as the stories of what had befallen her on Chakos and what she had done to save the guardstar circulated ever more widely. Perhaps it was the hideousness of the affair with Briellen, or the fact that many of the common people knew her, thanks to her two years of roaming the inns and byways of the city in her search for information about the Pretender. Or maybe it was the fact that everyone knew by now that their king was madly in love with her and had gone to the Gull Islands himself primarily to rescue her. Like it or not, she had become a part of the legends surrounding him, and people wanted to see them together. Even his privy council voted to accept her as First Daughter and to ratify the treaty between their two countries by a marriage after all. Ironically, the only remaining obstacle to Abramm’s dream being fulfilled was Maddie herself.

He knew Leyton had told her of the First Daughter option shortly after they’d taken Chakos. At which point she’d shut herself into the quarters that had been provided for her on the island and avoided Abramm as assiduously as Carissa ever had. Yes, she’d stood dutifully beside him on the deck of the Chesedhan flagship for their homecoming, but she’d spoken to him only as required, and that with cool formality. Once they came ashore in Springerlan she virtually disappeared from public life.

For the first three days, he was busy enough he had no time to think of her and the proposal he had made to her through Leyton. But on the fourth, he awoke restless and uneasy, wondering why she hadn’t answered him. Had he hurt her more than he thought? Had she not understood his rationale as much as he supposed? On his morning ride through the green hills and newly leafed-out trees of the royal preserve, he spoke at length to Eidon about it. He’d originally declared that he would stay out of it, giving her the same freedom to decide that his Lord was. Would it now be a violation of that decision to summon her and ask what was going on?

By the end of the ride he had concluded that it would be and was resolved to rein in his impatience and wait it out. Eidon would bring him the answer in his own time, and he would trust in that. Thus he was startled—even shocked—to return to his apartment and have Haldon inform him a young woman was waiting for him in the study. Even then he had the half-cocked notion it would be someone else—Leona, perhaps—and so was schooling himself not to show his disappointment as he walked through the doorway. But it was, indeed, Maddie who stood at the window, her back to the room as she stared out over the valley and bay below.

Seeing her was shock enough, but even more disconcerting was the heat that flared through him. One that sprang not from embarrassment or fear but from sudden and intense desire.

She wore an ivory gown of fine linen, piped in blue and gold, with panels of gold satin slashing the full skirt. The sleeves were short and gathered, with ribbons of gold dangling from them, the neckline scooped low and wide, even in the back. Her hair had been plaited into multiple braids caught up in interwoven loops at the back of her head, tendrils of it dangling fetchingly from her nape.

He crossed the room to stand at her right shoulder, glancing briefly at the view outside before his eyes returned to her, admiring the lovely glow of her skin as he wondered again how he’d ever thought her plain looking.

“So then, my lady,” he said softly. “Does this mean you’ve decided?”

She whirled to face him, her eyes locking on his as a red flush spread over her face and chest, the color setting off the blue in her eyes, which were very wide. Her hands came up to her waist, the fingers interlocking. And then she burst out, “Are you sure about this, Abramm? Because, really, I don’t think you understand what you’re asking of me. What you’ll need of me. And I just . . . I mean . . . You know how unsuited I am to courtly life, and I can’t imagine why you would . . . why anyone would . . . I mean, I’m too blunt. I loathe small talk and big parties and getting dressed up. . . . Really, I’m just . . . I’m not . . .” She trailed off helplessly, fingers working back and forth.

He frowned at her. “Are you telling me you don’t want to be my wife, Maddie?”

“Oh, plagues, no!” She turned away from him, laying her hands flat on her fiery cheeks, only to drop them and turn back again. “I love you more than I ever thought I could love anyone. The idea of living without you is unthinkable. I
do
want to be your wife! I just . . .” Her face grew pained and her fingers, interlocked once more, worked furiously in her agitation. “I just don’t think I can be a queen.”

He snorted softly. “I didn’t think I could be a king, either, when people first suggested it.”

“Yes, but you were obviously made to be one, whereas I’m—”

“Exactly what I want.” He smiled. “Exactly what I need.”

The color drained from her face. “I don’t know. . . . I just . . . I don’t see how I can do it.”

“Maybe you can’t, but Eidon can. If he could make a king of me, he’ll have no problem making a queen of you.”

“But . . . I . . .”

He slid his hand down her arm and took her hand. “You don’t have to do it yourself, Mad,” he said. “That’s one thing I’ve definitely learned. He does it while we’re not looking. We just have to be willing to let him work.” He chuckled. “And I, for one, am absolutely confident you’ll be a magnificent queen.”

“Oh, Abramm . . . are you
sure
?”

At that he sobered and brought her hand up to lay his lips upon the backs of her trembling fingers, his eyes never leaving hers. “I have never been more sure of anything in all my life.”

She caught her lower lip between her teeth. Tears glittered on her eyelashes. She took a deep breath, started to speak, and then gasped, “Oh, heavens!” She took another breath, pressed her fingertips to her lips, and finally nodded as the tears spilled down her cheeks. “Yes. I’ll do it. I will be made First Daughter and I will marry you, Abramm Kalladorne. Eidon help us all.”

For a moment he could hardly believe she’d said it. Then, nearly whooping aloud, he caught her by the waist and pulled her to him. He brushed the tears from her cheeks, then bent and kissed her as if she were the only woman he had ever kissed. Or ever would. And after a moment her arms came up around his neck, clinging to him with a vigor that belied all her former fear and indecision.

Sometime later Byron Blackwell’s startled voice interrupted them.

“Oh. Excuse me, sir. I didn’t . . .”

Abramm pulled his mouth free of Maddie’s to glance over his shoulder as his secretary reached for the door. “Wait a minute, Byron. I want you to summon the court.”

Blackwell turned back to him, his face devoid of expression. “Summon the court, sir?”

“We have an announcement to make.”

A moment more Byron stared at him, as if he could not have been more stunned. His eyes flicked down to Maddie, secure in Abramm’s arms. Finally understanding registered and a smile broke onto his pasty face. “An announcement, sir. Very good, sir.”

————

It was the most surreal thing Maddie had ever done, standing there at the top of the king’s gallery stair, her hand in Abramm’s as she listened to him announce to the gathered courtiers that she had consented to be his wife. She still couldn’t believe she’d said yes. And yet, hard as it had been, the moment she’d done it, she’d known it was the right choice. As much as the prospect terrified her, as impossible as it seemed for her to ever be what Abramm really needed, at the same time she realized this was the reason Eidon had sent her to Kiriath: to marry Abramm, to bear his heirs. To be queen to his people.

It took her breath away and made her legs shake when she thought of it, though that was nothing compared to what she felt when pondering the truth that all she had dreamed and longed for these last months was coming true.

After the announcement they retired to the lower court, where the nobility came to offer their congratulations. Carissa could hardly contain her enthusiasm, and Maddie lost count of how many times she expressed disbelief that her brother had finally done something so imminently sensible. Even Trap and Simon were chuckling, and it was the first time Captain Channon had ever looked at her with anything save a hostile glower.

The other courtiers offered congratulations that ran the gamut from cool propriety to genuine and almost rowdy enthusiasm. Byron Blackwell was one of the former, and his sister Leona went through like a sleepwalker, shaking Maddie’s hand and speaking the proper words without ever making eye contact. She gave Abramm the same treatment but then stood in front of him afterward, looking up at him with a lost and confused expression until Byron finally pulled her away and she fled the hall altogether.

Then suddenly here was Leyton, cutting a swath through the crowd to stop before them, staring first at Abramm, then at her, his blond brows arched above eyes so wide the whites showed. “It’s true, then?” he blurted at Abramm. “She’s agreed?” But before Abramm could answer him he turned to her. “You said yes?”

She lifted her chin. “I did.”

Leyton’s brows drew down. “You don’t have to, you know. Father will accept the treaty without it.”

“I know.” She turned to look up at Abramm. “I want to.”

“You want to submit to him? Obey him? Give up your freedoms and your independence for him? All those things the Words command a wife that you swore you’d never do?”

She smiled at her betrothed. “Yes, all those things. So far as I am able.”
Though really,
she thought,
I don’t think it will be that hard. He’s already asked me to do the hardest thing he could have asked, and I did it
.

Leyton rocked back on his heels, and for the first time in Maddie’s memory, looked thoroughly surprised. “Well.” He cleared his throat. “I don’t know what to say.”

“How about congratulations?” Abramm suggested.

They were married a week later on the wallwalk at Graymeer’s because workers had only just begun to rebuild the Hall of Kings and would not be finished for at least a year. Thus it was that she stood before Abramm on the ramparts beneath the bright spring sunlight and joined her life with his, as Kesrin wrapped the traditional binding around their clasped hands. Only this time he used not the silk ribbons that were the norm but the bottom of her bedgown, given to Abramm as her token before he’d faced the morwhol.

Then she looked up into his eyes and said the vows that sealed the binding, meaning them with all of her heart and soul. After that he kissed her and the multitude gathered in the fortress yards and on the wallwalks raised their voices in a thunderous cheer as the bells were rung and the cannon fired. She hardly heard any of it.

They left the fortress in the wedding carriage, the road back to Springerlan lined with well-wishers who cheered and waved and cast handfuls of flower petals over them. And in all that wide blue sky and magical day there was no sign of Shadow and not even the distant silhouette of any dragon. The only disruption occurred when Eudace burst in upon the wedding supper, shrilling out a prophecy that Abramm would be destroyed because he had joined himself with this Chesedhan witch. The holy man was shouted down and dragged off to the prison for his impertinence, and the party continued with hardly a break. The bride and groom barely knew he’d been there, too caught up in one another to trouble themselves with happenings at the other end of the Great Room.

Finally, after the feasting and the singing and the joking and the dancing were completed, the royal couple was brought up to the bridal suite, where Carissa, Peri, Elayne Cooper, and Liza took Maddie into a separate chamber to prepare her. There they stripped off her wedding gown, robed her in fluid, white silk, and unpinned her waistlength hair, all the while offering a steady stream of advice. She hardly heard it, so focused was she on what was to happen next. By the time they delivered her over to her bridegroom, waiting in the adjoining bedchamber, she was shaking with nervous anticipation.

As the door closed and the women’s teasing voices faded, she stared at him in wonder. He stood at the room’s midst, robed in white, tall and strong and unbearably handsome in the candlelight. Suddenly her heart felt as if it might beat its way out of her chest and she couldn’t find her breath. And though she thought surely her legs would give way at any moment, somehow they brought her to stand directly before him.

He looked down at her soberly, his eyes shining dark blue in the shadows of those stern brows. She lifted her hand to touch his face, tracing her fingers along the scars from brow to lip, then continuing down through the narrow beard, along the corded neck, and coming to rest at last upon the shield glittering over his heart. All the while he watched her, unmoving. “Heart of my heart,” she murmured, quoting from their marriage vows.

“Bone of my bone,” he responded. “Flesh of my flesh. Love of my life.”

And now his fingertips brushed her cheek, Light spangling from his touch as he smoothed the hair back from her face. “The impossible
is
possible,” he murmured.

By then her feelings had grown so intense they hurt, and she swayed toward him. Surprise flashed across his face. Then his hand slid about her waist, pulling her to him, and she lifted her lips to his, letting the fine sweet fire of his embrace sweep her into her destiny.

Afterward it was said that many took the Star that day, which may have accounted for why, on that very night, the guardstar at Graymeer’s blazed to life for the first time in three hundred years.