Dark Moon Defender (Twelve Houses) (72 page)

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Authors: Sharon Shinn

BOOK: Dark Moon Defender (Twelve Houses)
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At least, that’s how Justin would have felt in the same situation.
 
 
“They’re coming,” Cammon whispered. Moments later, Kirra swept into the room. She was wearing Danalustrous red in some plush winter fabric. Her ruby pendant hung against her skin just above the deep neckline of the dress, covering the housemark branded into her flesh. Senneth followed, and everybody looked away from Kirra to watch her. She wore a dress that shimmered between blue and silver; her normally untidy hair had been bound with ribbons of a matching color. Justin thought Kirra must have found or produced cosmetics, for there was more color than usual on Senneth’s cheeks and eyes and lips. The only jewelry she wore was her grandmother’s gold pendant, hanging, like Kirra’s, just where her housemark would be. Justin noticed that, for this occasion, she had even taken off her moonstone bracelet. Maybe that, more than anything, accounted for the color in her face. Her magic had been unchained; the heat that always ran in her body was burning just under the skin.
 
 
The music stopped. Faeber lifted his hands and spoke more formally than Justin had ever heard him. “You who have chosen to marry should come stand before me and tell me your names and stations.”
 
 
Tayse caught Senneth’s hand in his and they shared a private smile before turning to face the magistrate. “My name is Tayse. I am a King’s Rider.”
 
 
“Senneth Brassenthwaite. Serramarra of the realm.”
 
 
Justin heard Marney’s quick gasp; Faeber looked briefly startled, though he recovered quickly. Clearly they had had no idea how exalted some of their guests were. Probably didn’t know Kirra’s heritage, either—though, with the way she was dressed tonight, they would likely figure it out.
 
 
“What is your purpose in coming here tonight?”
 
 
“To marry,” they replied in unison.
 
 
“Tayse, why would you take Senneth to be your bride?”
 
 
Tayse turned to face Senneth and pulled her hand so that it rested against his heart. “Because I love her.”
 
 
“Senneth, why would you take Tayse to be your husband?”
 
 
Justin could see the smile that touched her lips then as she gazed back at the Rider. “Because he knows my secrets. Because he knows my strengths and weaknesses. Because I know his. Because he will hold me if I fall. Because he will turn to me if he is falling. Because my life is not complete if he is not in it. Because I love him.”
 
 
“Have you brought friends who will act as witnesses to your wedding? Who will counsel you when you quarrel, rejoice when you celebrate, and comfort you when you grieve?”
 
 
“We have.”
 
 
“Let them identify themselves.”
 
 
Tayse glanced back at Justin, who had to keep scowling in order to control his expression. “I’m Justin,” he said.
 
 
The others spoke up in turn. “Cammon.”
 
 
“Donnal.”
 
 
“Kirra.”
 
 
Faeber consulted a book open in his hands. “Let all of you be bound together in fellowship in recognition of this compact. For a marriage is a living thing and must be tended. You who bear witness bear also the responsibility for reminding this man and this woman that marriage is not a step undertaken lightly. Remind them to seek reconciliation when they are far apart, to sue for tenderness when they are tempted to be unkind, and to cherish each other no matter what trials or troubles the outside world affords.”
 
 
“Well, that should be easy enough,” Kirra said under her breath, and the rest of them, even Faeber, had to fight to keep from laughing.
 
 
The magistrate poured wine into a goblet and offered it to Senneth. “First you drink. Then Tayse. Then pass the cup among your friends.”
 
 
She drank from it as if tasting nectar for the first time and handed the goblet to Tayse. He turned it so that his lips rested exactly where hers had, and he took a single sip. Impossible to believe, but the goblet seemed to be trembling in Tayse’s hand as he held it out to Justin, so Justin took it quickly so nobody else would see. A swallow, then he handed the cup to Cammon. Each of the others drank, and Kirra handed the cup back to Senneth.
 
 
“Bound together in friendship,” Faeber said, and it was true. Justin felt peculiar, light-headed, as if there had been some additive in the wine—as if, for a moment, he could see and hear the people around him with the same heightened perceptions that guided Cammon. Not Faeber and Marney—only the other five, the Rider, the mystics. He could sense Tayse’s heartbeat, steady and strong but a measure too fast, that iron will concealing a rising excitement. Senneth was a blaze of heat, red-gold and ecstatic; Kirra stood quietly, so pleased she was almost purring. From Donnal there emanated a low, silent hum of happiness. From Cammon, deep delight barely held in check. Justin wondered what the others were picking up from him.
 
 
“Bound together in marriage,” Faeber was saying now. He had laid one hand on Tayse’s head, one on Senneth’s. “From this day forward, you will be known as husband and wife.”
 
 
There was a moment’s silence, and then Cammon released a whoop of excitement. Marney’s hands crashed down on the keyboard in a chord of celebration, and then she was playing some kind of skirling music. Justin supposed people were meant to dance to it. No one did, of course. Kirra had thrown her arms around Senneth and seemed to be crying into the carefully styled hair, while Donnal and then Cammon came up to shake Tayse’s hand. Kirra pushed them both aside so she could hug Tayse, whispering something in his ear that made him laugh. Donnal and Cammon moved to stand on either side of Senneth, first one of them kissing her on the cheek, then the other.
 
 
Justin shoved Kirra aside so he could take Tayse’s hand. They beamed at each other like idiots; no wonder the king didn’t want his Riders getting married in Ghosenhall. The whole lot of them would look like sentimental fools.
 
 
“A splendid day,” Justin said, still smiling broadly as he dropped Tayse’s hand.
 
 
“The standard by which to measure them all,” Tayse replied.
 
 
Senneth came up behind him, put an arm around Justin’s waist, and kissed him on the jaw. “Next we’ve got to see to your wedding,” she murmured. “But I have a feeling you’ll come back to Ghosenhall a married man.”
 
 
That made him want to blush, but he concentrated and the heat receded from his face. “Oh, but I liked this,” he said, pointing his finger around the room. “The binding with all the friends present.”
 
 
“We’re already bound together,” Senneth said. “Nothing else could make the circle stronger.” She kissed him again and released him. “So go ahead and marry her in front of her family. Just in case you weren’t sure what to do when the moment arrived.”
 
 
CHAPTER 36
 
 
THEY ate the wedding feast, they offered an increasingly sillier litany of toasts to the newly wedded couple, they complimented Kirra on her couture and Faeber on his ritual. Despite the availability of the wine, none of them drank much, except the host and hostess. The rest of them planned to leave in the morning. They wanted their wits at their sharpest as they navigated the dangerous lands here in the southern territories.
 
 
Eventually Tayse and Senneth left them for the bridal bower, which Justin imagined was just the room they’d been sharing for the past few days with perhaps a few of Marney’s potted plants scattered around to add ambiance. Kirra declared she was too excited to sleep, so she found a deck of cards and convinced Cammon and Donnal to play with her.
 
 
“I’m hot,” Justin said. “I want to take a walk outside.”
 
 
“Cool you off fast enough,” Donnal commented, shuffling and dealing. “It’s pretty cold.”
 
 
“He’s been cooped up inside for days,” Kirra said. “I’d be going crazy myself.”
 
 
But Cammon looked up at him quickly and looked away. Cammon knew where he was going.
 
 
Donnal was right—it was downright freezing on the deserted streets of Neft. Justin hunched his shoulders inside his coat and went face-first into a driving wind. His muscles didn’t respond as quickly or as effortlessly as he would have liked, but they were working. The deepest wound, the one on his chest, cramped in protest, but he ignored it. He’d have Kirra douse him with a little magic tomorrow before they started out, accelerate the healing process even more. He was in better shape than a man would be without sorcery, but he was still weaker than he liked. He hated the sensation of being anything but entirely healthy.
 
 
It didn’t take too long to find a cross street that he knew— he’d never been to Faeber’s house before, but Neft wasn’t that big—and then head in the direction he wanted. Two turns, and then up the hill, until he was standing right outside Jenetta Gisseltess’s house.
 
 
All the rooms that faced the street were dark. The shrubbery shivered in the rattling wind, and even the wrought-iron fence looked cold. Justin wrapped his hands around two of the thin black poles anyway, staring at the house, willing someone to be awake and watching for him. He knew which room was serra Paulina’s, and he kept his eyes on the drawn curtains, wanting with all his heart to see them stir and be pulled aside.
 
 
The curtain fluttered. A shadow stepped to the window and glanced out.
 
 
Justin caught his breath and stood there motionless, afraid to move or otherwise draw attention in case it wasn’t Ellynor at the window. But it was. She pushed the curtain back farther so he could see her face; she lifted her hand and flattened her fingers against the glass. He knew she could see him and so he raised his own hand and held it out as if, across the whole courtyard, he was touching his palm to hers. They stood that way for a long time, hands outstretched, Ellynor in the house and Justin at the gate. As if reminding each other that they had closed the distance between them once before. As if promising each other that they could do so again. As if pledging devotion. As if sealing a pact.
 
 
Despite the bitter chill, Justin would have remained there all night, hand lifted to his love, but something inside the house caught Ellynor’s attention. She turned her head, then dropped her hand and let the curtain fall. Justin waited another fifteen minutes, another thirty, but she did not reappear. Slowly, because he did not want to go, he turned and headed back to his own solitary bed for the night.
 
 
IN the morning, he rose late to find everyone else packed and ready to go. Except for Donnal, who had left with the dawn. Marney had made the rest of them breakfast and prepared food that they could take with them on the road. He couldn’t thank her because she was nowhere in sight.
 
 
“Ellynor’s not back yet,” Kirra informed him, licking honey off her thumb. She was sitting at the breakfast table, finishing what looked like a pretty substantial meal. “Marney’s gone to get her. Ellynor doesn’t have any bags to pack, but Marney’s put together some odds and ends of her own clothing and Senneth stored them with her things. We can go as soon as she’s back and you’ve eaten.”
 
 
“Five minutes and I’ll be ready,” he said. He didn’t even bother to sit down to consume his breakfast. He made it a hearty one; when you were traveling, it was impossible to guess when your next meal might arrive.
 
 
Senneth, Tayse, and Cammon came in through the kitchen door. “Horses are saddled and ready to go,” Tayse said. “All you need to do is throw your saddlebag on the back of yours.”
 
 
“Didn’t know I had a horse,” Justin said with a grin. “I think I lost mine somewhere in the woods around the convent.”
 
 
“Faeber kept him for you all this time,” Cammon said.
 
 
Justin finished his food and set his plate on the table. “Can’t wait to get out of Neft,” he said. “I have been here far too long.”
 
 
Kirra said, “That’s how I feel no matter where I’ve been, if I’ve stayed longer than three days.”
 
 
“Yes, but you’re a rootless and somewhat shallow girl—” Senneth started, but then Cammon whirled around to face the door. Everyone fell silent. Justin and Tayse drew their knives and dropped their hands to their sword hilts.

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