CHAPTER 55

The days following passed with excruciating slowness. It seemed as if the entire world was on hold awaiting the ordered execution; and though it was Xor’annan’s duty to go, as the Queen’s blade, Tianna chose not to. She spent the day in her apartments with Eveera, her emotions swinging wildly from exuberant joy from Xor’s proposal, to crushing guilt and sadness. Daemons were losing their lives this day because of her. Well, because Ar’miel had tried to kill her, but the guilt, somehow remained the same.

When Xor returned that night she realized the tole such things took on him as well. Weary and sombre he collapsed onto one of the couches and gestured, silently for her to sit next to him. When she gingerly took a seat he gave her a chiding look and pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her. He smelled of soap, his long black locks still damp. He must have returned to the house to bathe before coming to her.

“You okay?” she asked, tangling her fingers in his hair.

“I would that the world was a different place,” he muttered against her head, his voice dark with emotion.

Oh Xor.

How could she have ever thought him cold and uncaring?

“Have I ever told you the story about my childhood pig?” She asked.

“Childhood...*pig*?” Amusement lined his words.

“Well...what I really wanted was a dog, but we already had an old farm hound and my father didn’t want more dogs. He believed that if we had two they would form a pack with each other and not us. Then they would eat the chickens and chase the cows... Anyway, when I was about ten I decided that I would train a pig to do anything the dog could do. Somehow I believed that would convince my dad to let me get my own puppy.” Actually she’d seen a movie with that very plot-line and had come up with her plan from that, but she couldn’t quite explain that to Xor’annan.

“A pig,” he repeated, but she could feel humor warming him.

“Yes, I named him Sausage.”

Xor’annan’s chest rumbled.

“Pigs are very intelligent you know,” she informed him. “Well...most pigs are. I had to have picked the most stubborn, idiotic piglet of the batch. The stupid thing didn’t learn a single command, no matter how hard I bribed it. What it did learn was how to open the barn stalls and let itself...and the horses out. For years we couldn’t keep Sausage contained. He got into every sack of feed we owned until we eventually gave up. He died three years later. Probably from clogged arteries, because he was also the fattest pig I had ever seen.”

Xor’annan laughed outright.

“I have no trouble imagining this scenario,” he told her, and then sighed. “Thank you, I needed a reminder that not all the world is terrible.”

“Xor?”

“Yes, Hellcat?”

“Can we go back to the manor? I think I need a break from court.”

“The Queen has blessed our wedding, but she will insist it happens at the palace. We cannot leave before then. And we still have our public denouncement to consider.”

“Then let’s do them both. Tomorrow.”

Xor’annan sat up straighter. “Hellcat, it takes time to arrange such things. Though most of court is here at the palace due to the trial, the servants would never be able to pull off anything shorter than a week.”

“I don’t need anything big. Can’t we just...I don’t know, say our vows and be done with it?”

Now Xor’annan laughed heartily. For far too long, as far as Tianna was concerned, considering she was serious. Who cared about the rest of court? She just wanted a simple acknowledgment of their union, maybe with the very few she had become close to.

“Hellcat, you will become Hadriana, as well as keeping your title of Binessa. Court has not seen such a union since the late Queen married. We cannot escape the spectacle that is expected of us. One of the many duties of our titles, I am afraid.”

Tianna frowned. “Fine, a week then, not a day more.”

Xor’annan pulled away so that he could look down into her face.

“A week, and then I will take you away, where I can have you all to myself,” he promised. “Now, how are you feeling?”

Tianna tilted her head, “I think we’ve just established that I feel impatient.”

Xor’annan chuckled again and pulled her closer, tipping his head down and nuzzling her neck. “I have waited, since you were unwell, but if you will I would re-bond, before it becomes uncomfortable.”

Tianna tensed instinctually and then forced herself to stretch her neck out. It wasn’t the bonding that bothered her, hell, she had spent some time pondering why he hadn’t asked the night he proposed, it was just that the first bite hurt a little.

She waited, girding herself against the pain she knew was to come. Wet heat warmed her skin where her neck met her shoulder. Xor’annan licked and then placed several small kisses in the area. When his fangs pierced the skin she was too distracted to do more than flinch slightly.

Emotions echoed toward her. Some dark, remnants of the day, no doubt, but as he held her kissing and lapping at her skin that darkness faded, replaced by comfort, and something even deeper. Hope.

***

The week passed in a frenzy. The entire palace had flown into an uproar with Tianna’s timeline. The cook sat her down and had a very serious, unhappy talk with her about how ridiculous she was being, and did she think he could get the quality of ingredients for the feast expected of him out of thin air? Still, she stood her ground and the poor man left her apartments grumbling about stubborn women. And while Tianna’s dress had already been made, it seemed that every other courtier wished for something new to wear to the occasion. She passed enough haggard and stressed looking attendants in the halls to feel a moderate amount of guilt over her decision. Xor’annan and Tril were no help, even the Dowager seemed to get amusement out of watching the courtiers running amok. At first it seemed as if the week would drag on forever, then, without warning it was the day of the wedding and she was standing in a small room alcoved off of the very same throne room the trial had taken place in.

The atmosphere was, blessedly, exuberant. Enough so that it was difficult to recall what had happened the last time she was there.

She peeked out of the door and found herself trying to swallow back her panic.

If possible it seemed that even more Daemon crowded the floor than at the trial, their colors bright and cheerful. Swaths of pale white fabric decorated the walls, hung like streamers and joined together at the center of the room far above their heads. Tiny lanterns hung from them, like fireflies in the early evening air. Music played softly from the platform which had been transformed with an enormous pool of water in front of the orchestra. There were tables of food everywhere, the most fanciful and beautiful foods Tianna could have imagined. It seemed the cook had made due, too bad her stomach was in knots and she wouldn’t be able to touch a bite.

“It isn’t so bad,” Tril soothed. She wore a fabulous bronze creation that made her look like a shining statue. And where Tianna wore the white sparkling skin paint once more, Tril had been decorated with enough gold dust to give her an exotic and exciting look. “The ceremony is simple and then we will do the denouncement, after that you will be free to mingle and it will be no worse than your introductory banquet.”

“Great,” for some reason, Tiannan didn’t feel comforted. She looked down at the white shimmering gown that Xor’annan had had made for her, the detailed stitching and red gems...it was like the gown of a fairy-tail princess, and she was wearing it.

“Here,” Tril said, holding out her hand. Tianna opened her palm and a small simple ring set with dark stones, onyx maybe, fell into it. “It was my mothers. I think she would have wanted you to have it.”

Tianna’s throat closed as she tried to swallow around the lump there.

Tril’s mother...Xor’annan’s mother. The beautiful woman in the portrait in the attic. The first thing she was going to do when they returned to the manse was to pull the picture down and hang it above the fireplace in the main entrance.

Tianna studied the ring, it caught the light of the lanterns and gleamed at her, as if wishing her well. She wished that the woman who first owned it could be there to see her son wed. She wished her own mother could see her.

“Hey now,” Dowager Savitik chided, striding through a side door, Eveera on her hip. The baby reached for Tianna but the Dowager expertly turned and distracted her with something from one of the tables. “You cannot cry now, Binessa, the wolves are watching.”

“Sorry,” Tianna sniffled, and more tears fell.

The Dowager sighed, handing Eveera off to Tril and pulled out a soft handkerchief, carefully dabbing beneath Tianna’s eyes.

“Tril just took me by surprise is all,” Tianna tried to explain. She studied the ring once more before slipping it on her middle finger. Maybe, in a way, both of their mothers would be witnessing this event.

“Best stand sturdy, girl, they are about to start,” the Dowager smiled kindly, but her eyes were sharp with tears as well.

The music in the throne-room changed, and the Daemon fell silent.

“Go,” the Dowager patted her right arm and Tril leaned sideways to grasp the left.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do without you two,” she admitted. Retreating to the manner had seemed like such a peaceful idea...

“Nonsense, you will be busy with your husband and baby, making a home, you will hardly notice we aren’t there. Besides, mid-winter will come soon enough and you will be wishing you could get rid of us. Now go,” the woman gave her a little push out the door.

Tianna managed a smile. The Dowager was right, it was only until mid-winter, and then both she and Tril would be joining the household until spring when court would re-initiate. She kept her thoughts firm on that, on how that beautiful house would be full of light and hope as she began her way through the crowd.

The Daemon around her wore a variety of expression, most curious, a few disproving, but some appeared to be truly happy about the event. So many Daemon filled the room it was impossible to make out any individuals, they all seemed to blur into one another.

That was, until Xor’annan stepped out onto the floor from his own alcove opposite hers. His suit was simple, and yet devastating, silver and black, his hair tied behind his head, his horns decorated in the same colors. Her breath caught, and when his eyes met hers and he stopped stupidly, his expression for once open and completely awed, she realized that she was the luckiest woman in this world and the next.

Then he started toward her, graceful...predatory. She realized that she, too, had stopped in the middle of the throne-room floor, struck dumb. She forced herself forward, each step of hers matching one of his, the beat of the music guiding them, until they stood on opposite sides of the crystal clear pool.

“As we are bound to life, so we are bound to death,” the Queens voice rang out and she appeared to the side. “As we are bound to pain, so, are we bound to love. Through fear and through hope, and all that is to come, do you promise to remain, bound to each other, so that all things that come to be will fall short against the strength of your union?”

Xor’annan’s eyes were luminous, searching hers. Tianna stepped forward first, as she had been directed and accepted a golden chalice from the Queen. It was heavier than she thought, and she almost fumbled it as she bent down and scooped some water from the pool before her. It was water, she had been told, but colored to represent the blood that joined them, joined all Daemon kind. It was real enough to induce a slight shudder within her, but she carefully approached Xor’annan and held the cup to his lips. He sipped the water, his eyes never leaving hers.

The Queen stepped forward and took the cup from Tianna’s hands, passing it into Xor’annan’s. He then mimicked her actions, scooping up water of his own and pressing it to her lips. She forced her lips onto the cold metal, allowing the liquid to cool her mouth and throat, a little relieved when it was, in fact simply water she tasted.

“It is done,” the Queen held the Chalice above her head to the roaring of the Daemon courtiers. She looked between Tianna and Xor’annan. “All is now as it should be.”