EPILOGUE – Part 2 #2
I nodded and thanked her again. Hopeful that this time with Donavyn would be even more precious than I’d anticipated, and grateful to the queen for making it possible. But I couldn’t deny the niggle…
“Your Majesty,” I asked her quietly when the maids were on the other side of the room. “May I ask a question?”
“Of course.”
I swallowed hard. “Can you tell me… Why are you doing this?”
Diaan went very still and I almost abandoned the query, but no… it had to be said. “I’m very grateful for all that you’re doing, and this feels very precious. But I’m surprised. Why would you… Are you… I know you wanted him—”
Diaan snorted to interrupt me. “Dear girl, that was months ago. And I wanted what I did not have in a husband of my own—as we can all see now.” She waved a hand as if shooing a fly, but I didn’t miss the pinch around her eyes.
“I am trying to offer what I wish had been offered to me… back when I still had hope.”
She stared at me baldly—a little bit as if she challenged me to challenge her. But I’d spent enough time with her recently to know that she was vulnerable, not lying.
I was touched. “Thank you,” I repeated.
“No, no, thank you,” she insisted. “There are women pouring into the palace, and indeed, the Keep, every day since they’ve heard about the female Furyknight.”
That killed some of my joy. Not because the women were here, but because I was no longer unnoticed. “I can’t imagine where they heard about that?” I said dryly.
Diaan flapped a hand again and winked at me.
“I wouldn’t know, but I can’t say I am disappointed.
Be happy, Bren. You are leading into the future—a future where women will work alongside men if they so choose.
And will be respected for their merit, rather than their fertility.
If I cannot have a loyal husband, I can at least usher in a new age of unity. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“I do,” I said, and smiled.
“You should be proud of yourself, Bren. Very few men will ever tell you to value what you’ve achieved. Even fewer will acknowledge it at all. But I see what you’ve become—and perhaps more importantly, what you will become. And I applaud it. Keep going.”
I was touched. I didn’t know what to say. Before I found words, there was a knock at the door and we both turned. A moment later, the maids ushered in Ronen who looked very smart in a nobleman’s suit. And who I’d chosen to walk me through the chapel to Donavyn for the vows.
I blushed when I saw him, not because he looked so handsome—though he did—but because his eyes grew round at the sight of me.
He muttered something about looking sideways as he bowed over my hand, but I didn’t quite catch it, then he straightened and gave me a hug.
There was a great bustle and hum as the maids straightened my train and gave me advice on how to sit, and hurriedly warned Ronen not to step on my skirt, but then, finally, the queen hurried off ahead of us so she could be seated in the place of honor, and Ronen ushered me out the door and down the hallway.
We’d been instructed to walk slowly, so the queen wouldn’t be flustered when she reached the hall. So Ronen kept our pace slow. We didn’t talk much at first as I tried to tell myself this was all real.
Donavyn. I was going to marry Donavyn.
I walked through the palace feeling pretty. And we would have a week to spend alone in the hunting cottage? I couldn’t quite breathe through the thoughts.
But then my heart sank, because I realized… I was marrying Donavyn. A moment I’d dreamed about since I was a young girl…
Ronen cleared his throat. “Why does your face look sad, Bren?” he asked me quietly, eyeing the guards along the wall as if they’d try to intrude. “I know the bond is already concrete, but if you don’t want to do this—”
“No, no! It’s not that. I can’t wait to marry Donavyn,” I said honestly. “It’s just… this whole day has been with the queen and maids and… I wish my mother were here. That’s all.”
Ronen frowned. “I wish you’d said something. We could have sent her a message.”
“No,” I shook my head. “I did think about it, but no. She wouldn’t have been able to come without bringing my father. And I don’t want him here.”
“Ah, well… in that case. I’m glad to say that the queen was right,” he said with a small smile.
“Right about what?”
Ronen’s smile grew as he led me around a corner in the grand hallway—near the doors into the royal chapel—and there was a small cluster of people there.
“About this,” Ronen said, then opened his arm and the clutch of people parted to reveal my mother, standing there with a bouquet of flowers, her hair done and wearing a simple but beautiful navy dress, weeping.
“Mother!” I gasped and ran for her, almost tripping on my skirts as I ran into her arms.
“Bren!” She squeezed me so hard I couldn’t breathe. But it turned out, I could cry.
We held each other for long minutes, both weeping, whispering as I asked her if Father was here and she assured me that he wasn’t—that the queen had summoned her.
“I thought I was to be judged or… or imprisoned!” she said, pulling away from me, laughing through her tears and wiping her eyes. “Would you believe, they sent armed guards and they held me in a carriage!”
I turned, looking for the queen, but of course, she would be inside by now. I had to remember to thank her later. I took my mother’s hands and laughed through more tears. “I’m so glad that you’re here!”
She pulled me into another hug, then stepped back to wipe my cheeks for me, smiling. “I knew he was a good one,” she whispered, her eyes welling again. “I’m so glad, Bren. So glad you chose him.”
“I didn’t,” I said honestly, shaking my head. “He chose me.”
“Then, that’s even better,” she said softly, then held my face as she kissed me on both cheeks. “May God smile on your marriage and bless you every day of your life together.”
She whispered the benediction so only I would hear it, and my heart swelled. New, fresh tears falling, but the music was beginning in the chapel and Ronen stepped forward, offering me a handkerchief so I could wipe my cheeks one last time.
“If you’re ready, I’d like to walk both of you,” Ronen said with a sweet nod at my mother.
“Yes. Yes, I am now,” I said, hurriedly blinking.
Then my mother offered me the bouquet, and then we faced the doors together. Ronen offering me his arm, and my mother linking her elbow with mine on the other side.
Then the doors opened, and we walked forward into my new life.
~ DONAVYN ~
When the doors opened and Ronen proudly walked Bren towards me, I almost wept like a child.
She was a vision. I couldn’t stop staring. Saw nothing but her.
When she reached me and Ronen passed her over, I barely registered the warning in his eyes, desperate to pull her to me the moment her mother had laid a final kiss on her cheek.
‘Are you well?’ I asked her, hoarse even in the link.
Her eyes were wide and reddened, but she smiled as if I’d handed her the world. ‘Donavyn… you’re shaking.’
‘It’s anticipation. And gratitude and…’
When the cleric began to speak, I didn’t hear a word, just stared at her.
Drinking her in—until he turned to us and said the time had come for vows.
I had to clear my throat and take hold of my balls, because these words were important, and they all needed to hear me.
So, I gripped Bren’s hands and spoke to her with every ounce of authority and power ever bestowed upon me.
“Before all gathered here, and any witness hereafter, I take you, and bind myself to you,” I said, clearing my throat again because it was gruff. “My body is yours and yours alone. My soul yours, shared only with God and our dragons.”
Bren’s tears spilled over, but she beamed at me. I squeezed her hands and kept going.
“You will have me as counsel in trouble, an ally in battle. We will share the table at feast, or in famine.
“All that I am, I give freely to you. What I become, I will become beside you.
“Where you walk, I will not stand behind you in fear, nor before you in pride, but at your side in strength.
“If darkness hunts you, it will find me also.
“If glory finds you, I will lift the first cup in your honor—and be last to let you boast of it alone.
“From this day until my final breath, you are home. You are love. You are fire in my veins.”
I took a deep breath and locked eyes with her, leaning in. “Brennan Kearney… I Choose you, as surely as any dragon. You are mine.”
~ brEN ~
Donavyn stood over me, red-eyed and solemn.
And so handsome. His voice was hoarse, and he’d had to keep clearing his throat through the vows.
It made my vision blur, but I couldn’t stop smiling.
I almost kissed him when he finished and leaned over me, but I knew it wasn’t time.
So, I nearly bounced on my toes with eagerness to claim him, forcing myself not to speak over the Priest so I wouldn’t embarrass either of us.
Then he said, I Choose you, and those words broke my heart a little bit—with the beauty, and because I knew they were true.
I clung to his calloused hands and wanted to throw myself into that broad chest, but I had to give him everything he’d just offered me. So, beaming, with my voice cracking, and without hesitation or fear, I told the world.
“Before all gathered here, and any witness hereafter, I take you and bind myself to you. My body is yours and yours alone. My soul yours, shared only with God and our dragons.
“You will have me as counsel in trouble, an ally in battle. We will share the table at feast, or in famine.
“All that I am, I give freely to you. What I become, I will become beside you.
“Where you walk, I will not stand behind you in fear, nor before you in pride, but at your side in strength.
“If darkness hunts you, it will find me also.
“If glory finds you, I will lift the first cup in your honor — and be last to let you boast of it alone.
“From this day until my final breath, you are home. You are love. You are fire in my veins.
“General Donavyn Arsen, I Choose you. You are mine—today, and forever.”
“Forever,” he breathed back as the applause rose in the chapel, so loudly the priest had to call over it.
“I now declare you, before God, throne, and people, to be husband and wife.” Then he winked at Donavyn. “You may kiss your bride.”
And then my husband did exactly that… and as he kissed me tenderly, deeply, insistently, the song of dragons rose outside, led by Kgosi, and Akhane.