“Not just tidewardens,” Jimny said. “All military services.”
“Unlikely, but possible,” Ang allowed.
“So where does the silver dragon come into all this?” Jimny asked.
“By the Gods, I’d love to see that.” Fenwick being wistful was new.
“That I really don’t know,” I answered Jimny. “Llwydadain didn’t have an answer when I asked about it.”
“So what do we do now?” Gahunia said. “Should the rest of the Fortress be told?”
“No,” Ang said. “These are suspicions only. Clearly Llwydadain doesn’t have any solid proof. Yet. No, for now, we keep this between ourselves. We’ll watch and wait, and if something comes to light, we’ll know who to notify.”
“Not Zemick,” Fenwick snarled, his face red. “Never liked that rodding—”
Jimny cut him off with a hand over his. “Now, husband mine, don’t go giving yourself a heart attack over it. I want you around with me to fight the rod when necessary.”
Fenwick smiled softly at the younger man. “Yes, dear.”
“Which reminds me,” Ang said. “There’s one more question.” He looked at me. Very seriously. “Are you going to marry me?”
Chapter Twenty-Four
I said yes.
Of course I said yes.
There was no priest constantly stationed on Unkea, one of the few benefits of the place. So we didn’t officially marry, but we did make vows before the rest of the men, signifying everything that mattered to us.
“Ang?” I said as we lay in bed some hours later, sated and recovered.
“Yes.”
“I love you.”
His chuckle bubbled from a place of joy. “I love you too. I’ve loved you since the moment you slipped off Dora holding a tiny bundle of energy determined to shake this fortress to its foundations.”
“Oh, come on. Fin wasn’t that bad.”
“Bad?” Ang said. “He was exactly what this place needed. He was exactly what I needed. What I needed to remind me that there is a world outside of this storm-drenched island fortress worth fighting for, and that the control that has been my watchword my entire life sometimes has to go.”
“As long as you’re letting it go in the empty corner of the room, that’s grand.” We both laughed at that. That corner was scorched top to bottom by then.
“The scarf,” I said a few heartbeats later.
He frowned and turned to me. “What about it?”
“When I saw it, I thought of you. When I gave it to you, I realised I was giving you my heart along with it. I resisted it for the longest time, I know. I was foolish to do so, but I wasn’tready to admit what I felt, what I was. But that was when I knew.”
“You’ve admitted it now. That’s what matters,” Ang told me softly. “In fact, you’ve declared it to the whole fortress.”
As if they hadn’t all known, anyway. “I only wish Fin could have been with us for the ceremony.”
“One day we are going to have to make it official, and he’ll be there for that.” He leaned over and kissed me. “We’ll make sure of it.”
For a while, we lay in silence. But even with him idly stroking his fingers over my shoulder, I knew his mind was working away.
“What’s wrong, Ang?”
