The Dawn of the End Read online

  She turned and her head twitched slightly with how close he was.

  “True, you know that I wish…have wished…have been waiting much time to—”

  He turned to her nightstand, bent to it, opened the drawer and pulled out a long ebony box.

  When he straightened, she was staring down at it with eyes wide and lips parted.

  “I asked Elpis before we left Firenze to find one that would suit you. She brought me five,” he told her. “I selected this one.”

  And with that, he thumbed open the box which inside had a Firenz marital chain from which hung diminutive emeralds, topaz and rubies.

  “The emeralds might be of Firenze, but they also signify Wodell, in a way,” he carried on.

  Slowly, her gaze drifted up to his.

  “The rubies are definitely of Firenze, your land, a part of you,” he continued.

  Her eyes started to grow bright with tears.

  “The topaz,” he grinned, “well, they just reminded me of your beautiful eyes.”

  “True,” she breathed.

  “Will you wear this for me, my bride?” he whispered.

  A tear tracked down her cheek.

  Then another.

  “I didn’t think—” she began.

  “You are Firenz, this is your custom. I know it means much to you, so it means much to me too.”

  Another tear fell.

  “Please, do not weep,” he said quietly. “I had hoped this would bring you joy.”

  “It would be the greatest honor of my life to wear your marital chain,” she replied.

  To that he did not grin.

  He smiled.

  “Elpis tells me they are not slept in. Therefore, I shall put it on you tomorrow, hmm?”

  Two more tears dropped as she nodded.

  Then she bent her head and reached out tentatively to the chain, like it was the most precious thing to touch her fingers.

  He very much liked she felt that way, for it wasn’t even his custom, and he felt the same.

  “Can I have a kiss now?” he asked throatily.

  She looked up at him, still weeping, but dashed a hand along her cheek, the other, before she shook her head.

  True was surprised at this response, for she had never, not once, denied his embrace.

  “No?”

  “No,” she whispered, slid out from in front of him and walked right out of the room.

  He stared after her.

  She was not gone long.

  And she came back with the fingers of her hand not coming out of her sling closed around something.

  He turned her way as she approached him.

  “Farah—”

  “I shall say this fast.” She stopped in front of him. “I was going to wait. But after that,” she gestured to the box still in his hold, “I will not wait. Because of what this is. Because of what this day was meant to be. And because you deserve to have all of it the way she intended.”

  She intended.

  Oh, shite.

  “Farah—” That came out gruff.

  “Your mother told me that a Dellish husband and wife give gifts to each other on their wedding day. She told me, without a doubt, you would adhere to this custom. And I am not surprised, as she would not be surprised, that you did. This is not my custom, so she helped me. And she…and she…” her voice broke as she lifted her hand, opened her fingers, and in her palm was a golden band set all around with emeralds, “gave me this to give to you.”

  The contradictory mixture of immense joy and colossal sorrow was such, True closed his eyes and dropped his head, doing so wondering how he managed to keep his feet.

  But he had no problem wrapping his arms around his wife when she burrowed into them and he heard at the same time he felt her deep sob.

  “I-I-I l-love that you will wear it and th-think of her at the same time you think of me,” she blubbered. “Your queens.”

  His queens.

  True took one arm from about her to set her marital chain aside then lifted his left hand between them, fingers extended.

  “Put it on,” he said hoarsely.

  She did not delay in sliding it to the base of his ring finger.

  “It’s beautiful,” she whispered, her hand wrapping around the side of his palm.

  It was.

  Outside his wife, it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

  “I’ll never take it off,” he vowed.

  He felt her eyes on his face, so he took his gaze from the ring and looked to her.

  Her long lashes were spiky with wet, her cheeks drenched in it.

  He cupped her beautiful face and slid his thumb through the evidence of the depth of her emotion. Emotion he loved just as much as, in that instance, for part of the reason she was feeling it, he hated.

  “I am most happy to be your wife, True,” she said softly.

  “And I am most happy to be your husband, Farah,” he replied in the same tone.

  “Can I kiss you now?” she asked.

  “Hell yes,” he answered.

  She got up on her toes.

  True met his wife halfway.

  88

  The Test

  Queen Ha-Lah

  Guest Bedchambers, Southwest Turret, Birchlire Castle, Notting Thicket

  WODELL

  I wandered to my king after leaving him abed so that I could clean up after making love.

  I saw in the lantern light that he seemed what he did not while his hands and mouth were on me, his shaft moving inside me.

  Distracted.

  As my husband had become wont to do, the instant he gave me his attention, he cleared his expression as if naught was pressing on his mind, and he gave me a lazy smile.

  “My husband,” I murmured, sliding in beside him only to be quickly claimed and pulled under him even as he shifted the covers up to his shoulders to keep us both warm. “You do not hide from me.”

  “Do not hide what?” he asked, lying poorly.

  I simply stared at him.

  He withstood it for an admirable amount of time before he sighed and rolled to his back.

  I went with him, perching on his wide chest and looking down at him resting on the pillows.

  “I am torn,” he said to the ceiling.

  I could imagine.

  I’d been fully apprised of all that was happening…everywhere.

  He looked to me. “I promised everyone everything.”

  “You cannot give everyone everything,” I murmured truthfully, but drattedly unhelpfully.

  “I do know that, my wife,” he replied on a sigh.

  I tucked my lips between my teeth.

  “We all meet tomorrow, and I must know before then what I will do,” he shared. “I have made my promise to Cassius. We’ve known each other for years. His rule is in jeopardy before he’s even officially assumed it, and half the population of his realm is in the same position, have been for centuries, and if he’s defeated, will remain thus. Mars may no longer be able to provide the support he promised as well, and with what happened today, knowing this Rising is at work in his land, I cannot blame him. Cass’s capital city is under siege. I cannot not offer him my armadas now that the unrest has sprung forth to actual campaigns. Especially as they’ve started with Sky Bay, where my ships might be of service.”

  “Yes,” I agreed.

  “But True’s mother was killed today and this Rising is an issue, we know, in at least two realms, and I cannot imagine the infiltration of it in Firenze and Wodell has not happened as well in Airen. Indeed, with the deviousness of this lot, they may even be operating on our island.”

  I hated to admit it, but he might not be wrong.

  “Yes,” I repeated.

  His visage shifted to a scowl. “You are not being helpful, Ha-Lah.”

  “This is not true. I am,” I refuted. “For I do not know these answers. I do not know what you should do. Both choices are the right ones, and from what Serena told us of the little s
he and Chu have been able to learn, I too fear for our own land. However, you are but one man and we are but one nation. Even the vastness of our armadas could not cover three realms as well as continue to protect our own.”

  I pressed closer to him when I finished what I wished to say.

  “What I can do is listen to you as you speak of it, share what limited advice I may have, and in this way, help you work it out on your own.”

  “You have much more to give than that, my queen,” he returned, and the manner in which he did made me grow still. His hand came to my cheek and he dropped his voice when he went on, “You have had many opinions in the past, and showed no reluctance in voicing them. But now, when we have been made very aware of what is at stake, you have little to say.”

  This was true.

  But I was stung.

  “It is not easy, what destiny has tasked us to do,” he said carefully, his warm brown eyes on my face just as cautious. “So many see the castles, the grandeur, the riches, and think they have all the answers so it will not be difficult to live in luxury and rule. They do not see the decisions we make have ramifications, in some cases, for centuries. And thus, we must weigh them to the utmost of our abilities before we carry them through.”

  He was very right, and until that day, seeing Mercy seated in her pew, staring unseeing at the vaulted ceilings of that temple, arrows protruding from her bloodied chest and throat, I hated to admit it, but I couldn’t escape it…

  I had felt I had all the answers.

  I as well had no problem sharing I felt as such.

  And now, I was not nearly as certain.

  I nodded to what Aramus had said.

  My husband continued speaking.

  “Thus, I understand your hesitance in providing guidance. When there seems nothing at stake, it is easy to offer your opinion. But when you realize just how much weight any decision carries, I fully understand why you would hesitate.” He shook his head. “But this is not the time for hesitation, my Ha-Lah. Do we give all we have to one, while protecting our own shores? Or do we divide ourselves amongst many…?” He grinned. “While protecting our own shores.”

  At his encouragement, it took a moment, but I reflected, then I waded in.

  “I do not think this Go’Doan faction has a hold in our realm, Aramus,” I noted.

  “I wish to agree, but with all that has happened, can we take that chance?”

  I grew silent for I did not think we could.

  I broke my silence and shared, “We are too long gone from our own realm, my king. These delays mean we will not be gone three to four months, but much longer. We’ve already been away three and with what’s happening with Airen, we cannot know when Cassius and Elena will wed.”

  His eyebrows went up. “Abandon them all and go home?”

  “No,” I replied. “As we have seen, and from what Serena shared, the situation in Wodell and Firenze is insidious. What you could offer them is ships to sail their rivers, or provide presence at ports, perhaps men to bear arms, but what they need is spies. Our skin is not the same color as theirs, not to mention, none of our people, to our knowledge, practice this religion. Our people have no hope of successfully spying on this Rising.”

  “Mm,” he hummed.

  “On the other hand,” I continued, “we can offer significant assistance in Sky Bay. Even if just to bring food and supplies. You can’t lay siege to a city that is fed and watered and whose citizens that need to leave can do so, just aboard a ship.”

  “This makes sense,” he murmured.

  “And Firenze has the mightiest warriors of all realms. They do not need us. Not really.”

  My husband’s head nodded on the pillow.

  I got closer to him. “But we must go home. Our people must see in all that is happening across Triton, that you and I feel they are what they are. Our priority. And in so doing, we can send men to discover if this Rising has somehow taken hold on our own shores. Airen is but a day’s sail away. Sky Bay, I do not know. Three days? Four?”

  “Five,” he informed me.

  I nodded shortly. “Thus, if Cassius needs you, you can be there.” I slid a hand up his chest and rested it at the base of his neck. “You can leave some men for True, but the war he must wage is not about swords, lances and cavalry. And you can leave behind some of our ships to patrol their rivers, guard their ports. This way, you can share your support for True and his people. Mars does not need it. Send ships to open up Sky Bay, if by some slim chance they have it blockaded. And we can go home with Cassius knowing you will personally come to his aid and can be there in a short amount of time if this is needed.”

  “That wasn’t so hard, was it?” he whispered.

  I blinked into his face.

  And I did so understanding why he’d seemed distracted earlier.

  “You were testing me?” I asked dangerously.

  He grinned. “Not as such. I’d come to much the same conclusion. However, I intended to stay with Cassius while sending you home with some of my men to see to our people. Now, I agree it’s best for us both to go home, at least for a time.”

  “But mostly, you were testing me,” I noted, still dangerously.

  His lips were quirking with amusement as his hands slid up my back. “My Ha-Lah.”

  “A woman lost her life today, Aramus. A woman. A wife. A mother. A queen. She lost it in this wretched web being woven around all of us. And you play games?”

  “Yes, baby, if you must call it that,” he said softly. “Because you are my woman, my wife and my queen. I had no mother alive to help you learn your role. You are proud and you are fierce, and I believe to my soul you were born to be queen. But that doesn’t mean you cannot learn all the ways there are to be a good one.”

  I did not like that this answer was also a good one.

  Aramus rolled me to my back, pressing into me and looming over me.

  “I have often failed at being a good king. I will fail again, even if I strive not to. I have definitely failed at being a good husband, and I will do what I can not to repeat these mistakes or make others. But I fear, being human, I will fail again. What I know, through it all, as your king and your husband, is that I will need you at my side not hesitant, not worried about what your opinion might bring. Honest. Open. Sharing. Guiding. In the short period of time we have been true husband and wife, or moving in that direction, I have learned one thing for certain about you, Ha-Lah. Would you like to know what that is?”

  “Yes,” I mumbled.

  His lips quirked again before he bent and touched his mouth to mine.

  Lifting away, he shared, “Having you at my side, I do not know how I ever did this alone.”

  Immediately, I melted underneath him.

  “Aramus,” I whispered.

  “Now, no less important is that we are in accord about what will come next for the both of us.”

  He was too clever by half, my husband.

  “And thus, after a rotten day, we will rest easy,” he finished.

  Yes.

  Too clever by half.

  “Before we go, I must ask for you to give me some time, as much as I may have, with the Sisterhood of the Beast,” I requested.

  His brows drew together. “The Sisterhood of the Beast?”

  “Silence, Farah, Elena and I,” I educated him.

  “Yes, I could put that together, my wife, but you’ve…named yourselves?”

  His body felt like it was shaking.

  With laughter.

  This meant my brows drew together. “I don’t know why it’s amusing. For the Beast brought we sisters together, and together, we sisters will defeat the Beast. The name is fitting.”

  “It is. Right on the nose,” he muttered, his words also shaking.

  I decided to ignore his continuing humor.

  “I wish to tell them my command of the seas and my kinship with its beasts.”

  Aramus did not find that particular morsel amusing.

  “N
o,” he denied.

  “Aramus—”

  “No.”

  “Your men know,” I pointed out, for they did. We’d told them (and I’d shown them, covertly) along our journey to Notting Thicket.

  “My men are my men. I know them to their bones. I barely know Silence, Farah and Elena.”

  “Well, I know them.”

  “Barely.”

  “Aramus—”

  “Ha-Lah, no,” he stated implacably. “I forbid it.”

  By the seas.

  He did not just forbid something.

  I stared at him.

  He withstood it for such an admirable amount of time, it was I who broke the silence.

  “We must know our own powers. We must know our own strengths. We must know the weapons we can wield. And in knowing, understand our weaknesses.”

  “This is not a weapon you will wield,” he retorted. “It is a gift you have that you will not share…with anybody save those that already know, who are those I know I can trust.”

  “Aramus, you, the king of the seas, me, harnessing the powers of them, you must understand this is why we’re destined to save Triton from the Beast.”

  “And should that need ever come about, and as days wear into weeks that are currently wearing into months, it seems it won’t, if things deteriorate to a point of concern where they’re needed, then we will unleash your powers and thus share them. Not before.”

  “What I wish to say is, Elena, Farah and Silence might have similar powers. Elena does not hide hers, but there might be more we do not know. And you saw yourself what Farah could do today. That was formidable.”

  “And the powers you don’t know about, I can assure you,” he pressed deeply into me, “absolutely assure you, my queen, their men have forbidden them to share for the exact purpose I do the same.”

  Mars, I could see this.

  Cassius and True?

  Not a chance.

  “Aramus—”

  “No.”

  Oh dear.

  Now I was getting angry.

  “Aramus,” I said slowly, my new mood vibrating in his name.

  “Ha-Lah, you will be at risk. This power will be coveted. I will protect you and the knowledge of it until I have no choice but not to.”

  You do not have to protect me. You don’t because you don’t understand just how powerful I am, as I’m mermaid.