Chapter 5 #3
Lissir, not a bagu to half-ass a put-down, barely even acknowledged Vergis as he said that. Most of the leads I’d performed with as background shrubbery could take a leaf out of Lissir’s book when it came to diva-ing the hardships of day-to-day life.
Your fault, Vergis mouthed in quiet acceptance of my compliment.
“Hah!” Nokim pulled back and splashed water on our two accidental wedding helpers, both of whom laughed and brushed the droplets off their arms and chests.
There was a bit more conversation, Lissir and Nokim thanking those two bagua probably, and then Nokim presented me with a small stone about the size of a quarter of my palm.
It shimmered pale green, and when I held it up to look through the hole time itself had drilled through it, I spotted a pale streak of blue in the glassy material.
“Oh, he’s at it again,” Lissir said when I lost another tear or three.
“I’m fine. We can go now. I need something blue to tie it all together.”
Lissir rubbed my back. “You’ll scare Inkiri with all the crying, you know. But we’d best hurry.”
We waved goodbye to the two helpful bagua and walked toward a stone building at the other end of the square. It wasn’t large, just three stories about the size of the church at the Hill of Tara, but with wooden architecture dominating in Esaka, it stood out.
I was so excited. My heart was racing, and tears kept falling. I was clutching my tokens of good luck, and my legs were rubbery even though I wanted to get to where we were going, where Inkiri was waiting to marry me.
By the time we walked into the building, I had the jitters, almost as if I’d overdosed on espresso. I held my adder stone and coin to my heart, my borrowed handkerchief wound around my palm. We took a left into a neat office, and there was Inkiri, and all the nervous energy just became too much.
I ran toward him. His wide eyes and surprise at seeing me barely registered, and then I grabbed him around the middle, and he wrapped me in his arms, and everything was as I knew it should be.
“Sadir,” he said. “My sweet thing. So happy to see me?”
Which was when the waterworks picked up steam.
Everyone in the room was immediately concerned. Well, not Vergis, but everyone else, especially Inkiri, Fellisse, and another bagu I didn’t know.
The strange bagu came over. “We fetch a medicine?”
“Sweet thing, what’s wrong?” Inkiri cradled my cheeks, his fingers catching the fat tears that streaked down them.
“He looks flushed. Was he in the sun very long?” Fellisse asked, and boy, I was going to regret ever telling that bagu about sunstroke.
“Vergis says it’s normal for a human when they’re very happy, especially before they get married,” Nokim said.
I managed to nod. “Yeah. Tears of joy. Sorry.”
Time froze. Inkiri looked deep into my eyes, and…
it was so silly, but I felt him. Knew him.
Not all the things about him I was going to get to discover, but that he was my person, my friend, and I his.
He’d shielded me from a rain of bullets, and I knew he’d do it again, knew he’d do it as often as he had to or until he wasn’t able to anymore, something I didn’t want to ever live through.
If our places had been reversed that day at the Stone, I’d have done the same; offered my body as a shield to protect him.
I sniffled. “I can really only give you myself, you know. Sorry, but I don’t have anything else left anymore.
” I had a trust fund, but money wasn’t worth much these days.
Hadn’t been in so long. I held up my snotty handkerchief, the stone, and the coin.
“But I have something old, something new. I borrowed the ’kerchief, and you’re blue.
And an Irish coin, not in my shoe. Maybe that’ll do. ”
Inkiri smiled at me. “I’ve read of that tradition. I never thought to make this like a human wedding for you, Sadir. That fault is mine, and you are right to remind me.”
I shook my head. “That’s okay. This is perfect. A little bit of this world, and a little bit of Earth, right?”
“Right.” Inkiri tilted his head. “Why would you need to give me anything else, Sadir, when I have you? You are the greatest gift.” He kissed me, briefly. “You are my mate and accept me. There is nothing more I could want, not in either world.”
“He has not sick, is?” the strange bagu asked. That one was dressed in black, a sleek and formfitting robe that complemented his dark blue coloring.
I looked at him. “You speak human? I mean, English?”
“Little,” he said. “You well is?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Just so happy it hurts a little.”
Which seemed to confuse him, but Lissir jumped in to explain in LaGuardia.
Inkiri clicked at me. “This is Hove, the, uh, first after the magistrate in English.” Inkiri ran a hand down over my throat, then cupped my neck.
“I thought we should do this as soon as possible. I might have died when the Koa Esher attacked, and then you would’ve been left without the Raiken recognizing you as my mate.
I’d have failed to take care of you even in death. ”
Which—and that was so Inkiri’s fault—made me totally tear up again.
“I don’t want you to die, you know.” I buried my face in his chest.
He hugged me close and licked my throat with his rough tongue. “I don’t mean to. I want to be with you for a long time. Come, let’s get this done so I can find a way to make you smile again.”
“Start now?” Hove tilted his head. “Good. It simple. Mates of Raikenga are Raikenga, but may office only after tests.” He looked at Inkiri.
“That means you have the privileges all of us do, but unlike us, you are not eligible for any kind of public service unless you show you have the required skill level by passing whatever the relevant exam is for that position,” Inkiri said.
I nodded. “Don’t love exams. Where do I sign?”
“Almost,” Hove said. “For House issues, House of Livim rules apply first.”
Inkiri went on. “That applies to family issues. You remember my fathers? The ones I exchange cordial letters with?” I nodded.
“My hangu father heads that House, and they have long followed Raiken rules for all but minor issues. So it’s mostly the same, but the House’s legal code supersedes the Raiken in all issues concerning the House. ”
I’d get him to explain whenever I needed to know more. “Sure, whatever. Where’s the dotted line?”
Hove laid out a document, which had been printed.
In English. There was one in the unfamiliar LaGuardia script too, but damn.
They were printing stuff and doing translations.
And they had cars. At this point in time, Aer sure seemed like a nicer place to be than Earth.
And I was marrying someone from here. I guessed nothing was standing in the way of me emigrating here.
I looked the English version over, but it pretty much said what Hove had. I filled in my full name on both forms then signed. Inkiri did the same.
“Welcome to the Raiken,” Hove said, and Fellisse, Nokim, and Lissir broke out in hollering cheers. Even Vergis ended up clapping. And while I wasn’t completely sure it wasn’t a moor ghost, I thought he even smiled.
Inkiri pulled a thin scarf from a pocket in his very new and very shiny black clothes and wrapped it around my neck twice.
Then he pulled out the brooch Nokim had made for me, the one I hadn’t dared ask about because I’d been afraid I’d lost it during the gunfight.
The brooch was a cross between a phoenix and a kantik, the Aer bird thingy supposedly watching over lovers.
“Your old scarf was ruined.” Inkiri fastened the brooch. “So I got you this one. Pale green, to match your beautiful eyes.”
“Scarves are important, aren’t they?” I asked, tears threatening to brim over again.
Inkiri hummed. “Hangu with mates often choose to wear them. Not always. But only a mate should ever remove his hangu’s scarf.”
I didn’t care that he was still—after all my efforts to clarify about my anatomy—calling me a hangu, never mind that I so did not own a uterus. I didn’t care. I’d be his hangu.
I slung my arms around my monster’s neck and kissed him, the human way, but he ended up pushing my scarf aside and lavishing attention on my throat, and darn, I was so happy. I’d gotten hitched! To someone blue, new, and so not borrowed, but all my own.
When the others calmed down and started chatting with Hove, I gently pushed Inkiri back.
“Wait, hold on. Didn’t you say Houses were like ruling families or royalty?”
Inkiri nodded. “Maybe a little similar.”
My eyes widened. “And your dad rules his own House?”
Inkiri tilted his head. “He doesn’t own it as such, but yes, technically.”
My jaw dropped. “Wait. Wait. Did I just marry a charming blue prince?”
Behind my back, Vergis chuckled. “Fuck, you really are slow, aren’t you?”
This time, I had to give it to Vergis, my foulmouthed hangu of honor. He was completely right. I’d married a prince, and I hadn’t even noticed.