Epilogue

Fourteen cycles of the moons

The eve of the summer synodic

“JUST ONE MORE FLOWER.” I EXHALED so loudly the breath sent my flower maid skittering back, her wings working doubly hard to counter the rush. Tezen shot me a dark look, then bared her pointed teeth. “No need to get elvish with me. You’re the one who insisted on weaving moon posies into your braids. I’d have been happy to sprinkle the damn sticky petals on people’s heads, then hit the kegs, but nooooooooo.”

My patience and energy were at their frayed ends. As were my nerves. I glanced skyward to view the twin moons of Melowynn slowly moving toward each other. Tonight would be the annual synodic of the heavenly bodies when the moons aligned perfectly in a show of how Danubia cradled the skies in her loving hands just as she did the woods and waters.

“I apologize,” I whispered as the pixie princess tucked yet another bloom into yet another braid. “I should just cut them all off and wear my hair short as you in the guard do.”

She preened then patted her extremely short black hair. Part of being a member of the royal guard was a military haircut on the day of commencement. Tezen had been so thrilled to be admitted that she had shaved her head with one of her hunting daggers. Her father, the king and his family, who had come to Renedith for the ceremony, were shocked. Her mother and four of her sisters fainted. It had been quite the indoctrination.

“Your husband to be would be shattered,” she teased, plucking another flower from the bouquet lying on my mother’s desk. “He talks of little else other than the glory that are your tresses. If I have to hear how erotic braiding your hair is once more, I shall knock him off his gelding on our next journey to find students.”

I wanted to argue but found that I could not. Beirach did enjoy my long hair. He loved to free it at night, grasp it in his fist when taking me from behind, and brushing it out after making love. Now, after the brief ceremony when the moons joined, he would do so as my wedded husband. My stomach churned. Why my gut was bound with nerves, I could not say. Perhaps it was the two mugs of pumpkin ale that Bissori had insisted I slug back to calm myself before getting dressed.

I’d not eaten since breaking my fast with my family. The day had flown by in preparations and final fittings for my wedding robes. I glanced down at the white frothy material that hung off my bare shoulders. The elders had done a fine job with the intricate needlework on the front, capturing the moons in all their purity. My father’s wedding robes had needed much altering to fit my smaller frame, but the older men in the village, who were responsible for the raiments worn by the grooms, had fitted it perfectly.

“Okay, last one.” Tezen’s voice broke into my wandering thoughts. “You look so beautiful. I think choosing the soft greens of the mossy violets works so well with your lighter skin tone. That big horny man of yours won’t be able to keep his hands off you through the dinner and celebration!”

“And that would be different how?” I joked. Tezen gaped and roared.

“Holy shit on a frog’s pecker, you made a joke! I am so rubbing off on you. I knew pairing me with V’alor would pay off. Now you get to have my company almost every day! Pretty soon you’ll be singing about randy fishmonger’s wives while fondling titties.”

“I doubt I will be fondling anything other than my husband. Speaking of whom…” I stepped off the small rug onto the cool dirt floor. The hum of nature danced up my legs and into my chest, reminding me that we were deep in the Verboten. The creatures and plants whispered to me, the woods and those in it, content. I’d made much progress over the fourteen passes of the moons to learn how to tamp down the voices in my head. Studying with Beirach after he had returned to Renedith had helped greatly, but it was the missives from my mother, the priestess, that had eased the furor in my skull. Now it was a soft, steady hum that only grew loud when a certain plant or beast spoke to me directly.

“Right, I know. The sooner the rope is tied to your wrist, the sooner you can get him into bed. Not that you two don’t do that all the time anyway,” she huffed, then flew in to give my cheek a peck. “I love you like a brother. I never had one of those, only my twittering giggling sisters, but I always wanted one.”

“And you are the sister that I never knew I wanted,” I parried and snickered at her mock look of shock. She giggled wickedly. The little thing was never happier than when she was leading someone down the path of pure impishness.

“One last thing,” she reminded me. I sighed as I lifted the tiara woven from ancient redwood vines that held a single pink gem, smaller than the holy gem that had been taken by Maverus but just as beautiful. Small buds of summer wisteria hung down the back, wound around ribbons and strings of spring juniper beads. “I know, but if I have to wear this,” she jerked a thumb at the petite silver coronet perched jauntily on her purple hair, “then you have to wear yours.”

“I understand. But just for the joining. Then we return to being just a lowly druid and a royal guard. Agreed?”

“Agreed.” We spit on our palms and shook hands to seal the deal. Tezen had learned that from the guards in the barracks. She’d learned a great many things that the king and queen of her people would be highly scandalized about. The fact that she was a guard had sent her mother into a fit of the vapors that lasted a tenday. If they knew she played strip five copper gleek every Friday night after wages were handed out, they’d both pass over in sheer mortification.

“Shall we?” She zipped to the front door of my father and mother’s house, in her hands a silken white cord. I bobbed my head, picked up the robes over my ankles, and followed her out into the inky night. The air smelled of climbing wild night snake plants that opened their blooms only once a year, on the night of the mating moons. The scent was rich and sweet. It clouded upward, calling forth all the lunar moths that flitted about, seeking the heady vines that clung to the trees.

We hurried through the village toward the temple. My people, dark olive faces alight with joy, were lined up in two rows that I walked through, tossing freshly cut pine boughs before my bare feet. The boughs were to pad the path to a new life. Each step released the clean fresh smell of evergreen. I breathed it in, the soles of my feet now tacky with pitch, as I made my way to the temple.

The moons were so bright and high in the sky that no torches were needed. The domed shaped building stood ready for our joining, the first wedding to take place inside it since it had been rebuilt. It had been a long process with much backbreaking work, not just in this camp but in all the druid villages throughout the Verboten. But my people were nothing if not stubborn. They persevered. Now we had a new temple to Danubia with a burbling fountain with a pink stone that beckoned to one and all to come sit with the goddess.

I dropped my robes to cover my feet as I entered the temple. Beeswax candles, gold and aromatic, sat along the lip of the fountain as well as on the rounded stone benches. This was a simple temple in comparison to the one at Black Lake that had living quarters. Those quarters were now being slept in by a novice druid that had taken over after Beirach had asked to be released from his bond. A simple thing, really. One just sent a missive to the nearest priestess to request permanent leave. Since the nearest high priestess was my mother, his plea to be replaced was speedily filled with an older elk clan druid, freeing Beirach to move to Renedith. He’d done so but had taken several days and nights to spend with Maverus after placing him in the celestial grove near the ruined temple. I’d not questioned him about his time with his son, or what he had done when we were separated. That was his time with his child. Someday he would tell me, or he would not. It mattered not to me.

What did matter was that he had come to the city. For me. And for the good of all elves, as he fit into that category even if his veins were flowing with only half elven blood.

I’d set into petitioning Umeris and the Renedith city council daily. Many, including the grand advisor, termed my dogged pursuit of new terminologies and ideals pestering. Mostly, the old elves used that word. The younger ones, and that included Aelir, pushed hard for the removal of the word Rhaes from all prayer, medical, and textbooks. That had not passed yet, but many were behind it. Small steps, Beirach liked to remind me when I grew aggravated with the snail’s pace that change crept along at. With the heir to Renedith behind us, I had no doubt the change would come. It might be when Aelir was a man grown but we would continue on with our projects. A new course of study for the younger elves that included druidcraft was being penned and presented to Umeris at the next open court. Beirach and I would be there to fight for it. Our wedding journey to the Black Sand Isles to confer with a small group of druidic Sandrayans would be over by then. We were thrilled to be chosen by the king to lead this diplomatic outreach program.

But we were even more excited to be joined on this most mystical of nights. I found him standing on my mother’s left in robes of deepest green with fine gold shot through the sleeves and high collar. He too was barefooted, as were all in attendance, so that we might soak up the goddess’s power from where flesh touched ground. My brothers flanked him, as did my father, all in soft pink robes. Esther, Eldar’s chosen wife, stood with the visiting dignitaries, wearing a delicate gown of light yellow that did little to hide her swollen belly. Their first child was due before the next full moon.

My mother smiled at me, flowers weaved into her hair, her eyes aglow. All my kin wore the redwood crowns.

To my mother’s left was Beirach. To his left stood Umeris and Aelir Stillcloud, clad in rich red velvet trousers and jackets. Hovering midair beside the Stillclouds was the queen of the pixies, wearing a sparkling crown atop her bright yellow head and a gossamer gown of pink. The air around her sparkled with pixie dust as she dabbed at her eyes. Bissori and Agathe were behind the nobles. Bissori’s rather large nose was red from his sniffles of joy. He listed slightly into his wife. Perhaps a sign he had partaken of too much pumpkin ale.

I nodded at the heir to the vills of Renedith. Aelir had grown a full head in the past fourteen moon passes. He still had the face of a child, but one could see the classic beauty of an elven man beginning to show. He was a kind, smart young man. I could not have been prouder of how he was progressing if he had been my own son.

Umeris was unimpressed with our temple and being barefooted where one could step on excrement, but he had been polite enough. His carriage and guards waited just a stone’s throw away so that once the vows were completed he could return to the city. Aelir would go too but he had been vocal about losing this chance to get to know his forest cousins better. Yes, that boy was going to make Renedith a better place in the future. I could sense it just as I felt Nin in the trees overhead.

“Come forward, Kenton and Beirach, so that you may make your vows before myself and the goddess,” Mother called, her voice light and lyrical.

I stepped forward, meeting Beirach, then taking his hand. His eyes shone with love as he led me to my mother. The flowing water behind her filled the temple with the rhapsody of nature’s melody. Tezen handed the cord to my mother, curtsied, and then rejoined the wedding party off to the side. Mother lifted the white cord into the air, the moon’s glow now rich and vibrant. It shined through the small opening in the top of the temple. The moonbeam lingered on the cord, infusing it with white light as the two moons slid one behind the other.

“Your hands,” Mother said as she lowered the nuptial cord, then laid it gently over our clasped hands. “With each pass of this cord, your lives will be tied together. By the grass and seeds, the trees and beasts, the water and mountains, I pronounce that you two have been joined together in the eyes of Danubia.”

With our hands lightly bound with shimmering cord, I rose to my toes to meet him for a kiss that sealed our troth. Mother stepped up to us and gave us a sapling, a thin and reedy white oak in a cloth ball, its roots damp.

“Take this to your new home and plant it. Watch it grow and shade you from the heat, protect you from winter’s bite, and offer you a woodland soul to commune with. May it take firm hold of the ground that you live upon, and may your love grow outward and be as strong as the roots of this sapling.”

We took the sapling, thanked her, and then turned to the guests gathered. Each one, from the pixie princess who was sobbing into her dainty handkerchief, to the dwarven beer brewer also sobbing into a dainty handkerchief, to every elf in the glen, including Umeris and Aelir, tossed pine seedlings and flower petals at our feet. We thanked them all and then were whisked to the clearing where a fire pit roared and kegs of ale and wine waited. Music broke out, mugs were raised, and food filled the long tables that the twin moons happily lit.

“I feel as if I may burst…my heart is so overjoyed to have you as mine, finally, in the eyes of the goddess and our people,” Beirach said as he captured me in his arms then led me to a seat beside the firepit. “Tell me what I may do to make this night the best it can be for you.”

I placed my tired and dirty feet onto his lap with a laugh. “Rub my toes, husband.”

“So bossy and just wed.” He dramatically sighed. “I see my life will be filled with fetching and foot rubs,” he teased as he lifted one foot to his lips to press a kiss to the arch. Birds shifted in the trees overhead, unhappy about the sounds and brightness while they tried to sleep.

“I love you so, Beirach,” I whispered as a pair of sleepy grouse in the nearby oak began to coo, the sound soft and gentle, much like the call of one white dove to another.

“And I love you, my pastel prince.”

Oh yes, dreams could come true. And often with no magicks required.