Chapter Thirty
Chapter
Thirty
Gossamer in the Darkness
Satrine
Hawkvale
Dalwin Castle
Cottishwell
Region
“If you’re nice to Valentine, she’ll bring
you peanut butter,” the Winter Princes of Lunwyn, Sjofn Drakkar, known to those close to her (which I now
was) as Finnie, said. “And marshmallow fluff.”
“Nice to her and give her diamonds.”
“Or emeralds.”
“Or pearls, rubies, sapphires or gold, she isn’t picky.”
They all laughed.
“They all” encompassed Cora, Circe and Maddie, otherwise
known as Lady Ulfr, the wife of the head of the most powerful House in Lunwyn. Her husband, incidentally, being the dude with the
kickass name of Apollo. The man Loren had mentioned those weeks ago he was
partnered with in some business ventures.
I mean, there was pretty much no better name than Loren
Copeland (in my opinion). That name screamed badass, vigilante rock star
(again, in my opinion).
But “Apollo Ulfr” was pretty danged cool too.
And Finnie’s hubster’s name was Frey Drakkar.
That rocked as well.
What rocked more was that the dude commanded elves and…
Wait for it.
Dragons!
There were a couple of those beasts up on the craggy cliffs
just north of the castle right now. The first time I saw them, I kid
you not, I nearly passed out. They were mammoth, scaly, scary AF.
And insanely awesome.
As a gift from Frey and Finnie, they were going to do
something after the wedding and I…could not…wait.
Update: Cora, the Gracious was from my world. Dahksahna Circe was too. As were the Winter Princess and
the Lady of the House of Ulfr.
Yep.
All of them.
Although that seemed rather a coincidence, as far as they
knew, we were the only ones. And Valentine kept an eye on these things. It had
just been so long since anyone had traveled between worlds, she wasn’t paying
as close attention as she used to, and Mom and I slid under the radar.
“She’ll also bring you letters from people you love,” Circe
said, regaining my attention.
“Yeah, those are the best,” Cora noted softly.
I bet they were.
However…
“Will Valentine bring people to visit, if you pay her, of
course?” I asked.
“Yes,” Circe answered. “Dad has come several times to be
here for important things for the kids.”
“And my mom and dad have been here too, not loads, but our
babies know their grandparents from both worlds,” Cora said, but then she
warned, “We have to be really careful though. My this-world parents are around
too, and we have to handle it so no one who shouldn’t sees
them both together. Things could get a little freaky if people were to figure
it out.”
“And dangerous,” Circe put in. “The other me lives in New
Orleans. She’s hitched to the other Lahn. They’ve never visited because she
never wants to return, but also because all hell could break loose.” She
grinned. “I mean one Lahn is enough for any world.”
We all laughed because she told no lies with that. Her guy
was a lot, and fortunately it was all good.
But…yeah.
Loren had cautioned me about that before he told me I wasn’t
the only one from my world living in this one.
It had been another Loose Lips Convo where he went on for a
while even though I got it.
Queens and princesses and wives of powerful Houses were from
a parallel universe. If that got out, considering how magic was looked at in
this world, and just how crazy it was on the whole, shizzle could get real and
quick.
“Do you go home?” I queried.
Update Number Two: Mom and I had gone back.
Our trip was okay, but fast, and mostly sad. Furthermore, if
Valentine wasn’t with us and she didn’t do some of her mojo, I’m not sure we
would have been able to convince folks we hadn’t lost our collective minds.
But in the end, it was good-bye, and not an I’ve Decided to
Be a Beach Bum in Thailand Good-bye where we were far away, but they could send
emails and do Facetime and had an opportunity to visit us and get some
authentic tom yum goong in the process.
It was a serious good-bye.
And those always sucked.
The women glanced at each other like they were trying to
decide who was going to deliver the bad news.
It fell to Finnie, who I’d found out had been there the
longest.
“First, it is really important that no one learn
about that world,” she said carefully. “So going back and forth, us there or
people we love here, isn’t the smartest thing to do. For any of us. Second,
Loren might feel differently, but we’ve all been separated from our guys in one
way or another. So, although they could come with, a total and complete absence
like that, of one but especially both of us, could be noticed. It’s been
decided amongst us that it’s better not to court that danger. It also must be
said that it takes an extreme amount of magic to travel between worlds.
Valentine is powerful. She goes back and forth like it’s nothing to her, but it
is. She doesn’t have a neverending reserve of power.
And she does take payment, but really, even if she hides it, she has the
kindest heart you could know, and one of the fiercest. In the end, no diamond
is worth the magic she expends to bring us something from home. It’s a
sacrifice for her. One she makes because she cares for us and looks after us.
So please, be aware of that.”
She paused there, probably because all that was important,
and she needed me to acknowledge it, so I nodded to her.
Then she continued.
“And last, our men know what we’ve given up for them. Our
worlds and everything we know, which is a really big deal. It hurts them to
think we pine for it, when we don’t. I love my friends.” She smiled. “I love
fluffernutter sandwiches. But I love Frey more than anything on two worlds. And
I can’t say I don’t experience nostalgia every once in a while, but there’s
nowhere I’d rather be than here, with him.”
“Yeah,” I whispered with feeling.
“It’s up to you, of course,” Cora chimed in. “We just ask
that you be very, very careful.”
“Kingdoms depend on it,” Circe added.
“And think of Valentine,” Finnie concluded.
“Yeah,” I repeated.
There was a knock on the door.
“Yes?” I called.
Idina stuck in her head. “It’s time to get ready, Lady
Satrine.”
My heart jumped with happiness.
“I’ll be right there,” I told her.
She shot me a huge smile and ducked out, closing the door.
I looked to Finnie. “Please tell me they breathe fire.”
She shot me a huge smile too. “Oh yes. They breathe fire.”
“Awesome,” I whispered.
Circe shifted forward, lifting up her coupé glass
(obviously, since it was my wedding day, and I was sitting around, gabbing with
my gals, we were drinking champagne).
“To savages in savage lands,” she toasted.
Cora sat forward and raised her glass. “To men on
horseback.”
Maddie did the same and offered, “To breeches and boots.”
Finnie mirrored her friends and said, “To love that spans
worlds.”
It was my turn.
My glass high, I offered, “To gossamer in the darkness.”
Joyous, knowing smiles before we all clinked.
And then we all drank.
“Idina,” I called when I made it to my rooms after
leaving the women.
Well, not my rooms.
My rooms were our rooms.
It was just that, I’d asked one thing of my world from Loren
for our wedding, and that was that he wouldn’t see me until our garland was
wound around our arms before we walked to the altar at the temple.
So last night after dinner, I left him and slept in these
rooms, which Idina had set up to be Get Ready Central, and he went to ours.
He had not liked it, like really, and that was
sweet.
But he was Loren.
I’d been right those many weeks ago, he couldn’t deny me
anything.
So he gave me what I asked.
“Idina?” I called again when she didn’t answer.
And she again didn’t answer.
She, and Mom, and obviously Mary, were self-appointed
Wedding Planners Extraordinaire. Therefore, she was probably off doing
something wedding related.
But she’d be back because my hair had to be done, and no way
would she fall down on that job.
Mary, by the by, had been filled in about everything, and to
say she was shocked was an understatement. But in the end, Edgar being a dick
times two, and this spanning entire worlds, wasn’t surprising to her. She had
adored Corliss and was glad to have a version of her, even if she couldn’t have
the real thing. And she regarded me as a bonus.
Plus, she was an extreme patriot and would do nothing to
endanger the kingdom, so she’d vowed in her inimitably dramatic way to keep her
mouth shut.
And obviously Ansley knew, because Tor and Loren let him in
on it, and his fealty to crown and country was even stronger than Mary’s. But
more, his son was in love with a parallel universe chick, and in his way, he
was too.
In other words, we were good on that score.
FYI, Ansley requested us to delay the wedding another two
months, because, after the goings-on at the magistrate’s court, Mom and I got
super-famous and super-popular, and Ansley and Loren already were. This meant
Ansley was getting some pressure to make this a grander, more political affair,
and as such, since it took forever to get anywhere in this place (they didn’t
even have trains), we needed to give time for the invitations to go
out, and more time for people to show up.
Loren wasn’t a fan.
But, shades of that aforementioned fealty, I could tell
Ansley struggled with not doing what was requested by his king for his country,
and it had to be said, just to be polite, so I talked my man around.
I could wait. I had him. And I knew he wasn’t going
anywhere.
I moved to the window and looked out.
It was now nearly winter, and we were in Dalwin
Castle, which was situated on the northeastern cliffs of Hawkvale.
Loren told me we were parallel to Bellebryn, which
was at the same latitude, just on the western coast.
I probably didn’t have to say, castles were da bomb-diggity-bomb-bomb.
Talk about fairytale.
It had turrets and banners and moats, the whole shebang.
It was everything.
Adding to the ambiance, it was chilly and crisp here. I’d