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“Ah.” Andi sobered. “What has my baby sister done now and how can I be of assistance?”
~ 8 ~
The day theDasnarian delegation arrived, Jak thought he’d sweat right through his fine clothing from nerves. Fortunately, some of their friends were already in residence. Rhy and Lena had arrived first, leading the onslaught of wedding guests, and most welcome ones. Stella, especially, had been deliriously happy to have Lena to confide in, and Jak had to admit it was good to see Rhy again.
The two of them had changed over the last half-year. Lena’s tan had once-again deepened during her time in the Aerron desert, her flowing hair that always reminded Jak of caramel candy streaked with pale gold from the sun. Most of all, she glowed—not so much from the sun, he supposed, as from being finally and peacefully reconciled with the one great love of her life. Lena and Rhy had always been for each other and their estrangement had been unnatural and agonizing for them both.
Rhy looked surprisingly steady and confident, having spent the intervening months training with Harlan in the obscure and demanding Dasnarian philosophy of the Skablykrr. Despite their occasionally thorny relationship, Jak and Rhy embraced with real enthusiasm, pounding each other on their backs, then retiring to drink the excellent Branlian whiskey Rhy had brought as a gift, while Lena and Stella caught up on girl talk.
Astar and Zeph arrived with High Queen Ursula and Harlan, the entourage smaller than it might have been, to compensate for the numbers of the arriving Dasnarians. Even at the negotiated reduced number—notably minus certain uncles—theDasnarian contingent would be large. Though some of Ursula’s private guard, the Hawks, would be lodged in the township and surrounding countryside, there were still attendants that needed to be lodged in the castle. Every single person, down to the smallest child, had been accounted for in the exhaustive room planning, with everyone who could be coaxed or forced to double-up—or more—doing so. Jak was grateful that he and Stella, retained the solitude of their chambers at the top of the tower. Stella needed that and no one questioned it.
Zeph and Astar had cheerfully agreed to share rooms with Lena and Rhy, saying it would be like old times and they could work out a rotation for when each couple needed privacy. Queen Amelia, overhearing this—as she refused to leave Astar’s side, declaring that she needed intense makeup time with her oldest son, given his extended absence—sweetly offered something for the couples to hang on the door. Such was the benefit of a hostess who was also the avatar of the goddess of love. For her part, Zeph cheerfully abandoned Astar to the labor of attending his mother and took herself off to gossip with Stella and Lena. Despite the cramped accommodations, everyone was happy to be together again. The only shadow on the building holiday joy was that they all missed Gen and Isyn, keeping their old quest team from being complete.
When theHákyrling, and the small attendant fleet of Dasnarian sister-ships, was sighted, everyone had descended from the castle in a formal procession, well-bundled against the brisk winter air. The skies held clear, thanks to Lena’s wedding gift. That was the primary reason she and Rhy had arrived early. According to Jak’s plan, Lena had been working her weather magic for days, clearing the skies and calming the seas, so that theHákyrlingcould sail close to the rocky coast below Castle Windroven. They’d anchored a good distance from shore, and asmall fleet of tenders were rowing out on the unnaturally glassy water to bring their guests safely onto land.
Stella stood by his side, hand looped through the crook of his arm, her attention on Lena. Holding Lena’s hand, Stella was channeling magic into the weather sorceress to augment the immense effort of stilling the waves. This section of coastline was not hospitable for landing ships. That geography had protected Windroven, and Avonlidgh, from attack since before Uorsin forcibly united the twelve kingdoms during the Great War. On Lena’s other side, Rhy held the Star of Annfwn, using the jewel to focus the magic he’d only recently discovered he possessed and learned to use, giving that also to Lena.
Ursula flanked them on the far side of Rhy, frowning at the group as if she could ensure their success by force of will. She hadn’t liked this solution, but finally conceded to it as the best of an array of unpromising options. She had, however, insisted on several backup levels of safety measures, issuing dire threats about the results of drowning the entire Dasnarian royal family in the frigid seas off Avonlidgh. Ursula had gotten her way in everything except having Queen Andromeda there for additional sorcery. Andi had said she and Rayfe would be at Windroven in time for the wedding, but she was far too busy to come before that. No amount of badgering from the high throne had moved her.
Stella had theorized—and Jak agreed—that Andi wanted to give the younger people, particularly her son, Rhy, a vote of confidence in their abilities. It had been a powerful gesture on her part, so much so that even Ursula had backed off, stopping short of making Andi’s attendance mandatory via royal command.
So far, all was going well. Jak was less worried about their guests drowning than he was about what would happen when they made it onto land and inevitably opened their mouths. He’dspent time with his Dasnarian aunts and uncles over the years and, while he loved his family, they just didn’t always play nicely with others. There was a reason the Konyngrr family crest been a steel fist for so long, however it had been modified since.
“It will be fine,” Stella murmured, sending him a wave of love that palpably warmed him. “Everybody has family issues of one kind or another.”
“Did I audibly sigh?” he asked in a similarly low tone. He’d been trying to keep a cheerful demeanor.
“No.” She had a smile in her voice. “But you are leaking a lot of emotions. I’d offer to cancel the wedding, but—”
“Don’t even start,” he warned her in a quiet growl. He still couldn’t quite reconcile that, after all they’d been through, she’d actually believed he’d left her.You could have left a note.Why hadn’t he left a note? It simply hadn’t occurred to him. Of course, he had been three sheets to the wind when he hit upon the solution to resolve their argument, that he needed to go get the black diamond and all would be well. By the time he’d sobered up, in the midst of a blizzard no less, realizing he might not have made the wisest decision, rather than reverse course and crawl back to her, he’d instead doubled-down and stubbornly stuck it out, determined to return in relative glory.
Stella giggled—the love giggle that was his alone—and he found he regretted none of it. His star insisted he hadn’t needed to prove anything to her, so maybe the challenge had been to prove something to himself. Regardless, they were stronger together than ever. And she finally,finally, trusted him—outside of bed as well as in it.
“In just a few days,” he breathed, covering her hand with his, “we’ll be on one of those ships, sailing away.”
“Into the rest of our lives,” Stella averred, glancing over at him. “It’s going to be remarkable.”
“Yes, we are.” He grinned, more sure of that than ever.
~ 9 ~
The morning ofthe midwinter solstice, the shortest day and longest night—and, not incidentally, Stella’s wedding day—dawned late and stormy. Fortunately all the guests had arrived and everyone who was supposed to be ensconced inside the castle was safely within. At the feast the evening before, Queen Amelia had confirmed the arrival of the last-expected guests and declared that Lena could officially relax, that the snow could fall as it liked.
Whether it was because Lena did release her control of the weather, with obvious relief, or because a storm had been waiting to pounce, gaining strength the longer it was postponed—possibly both—a full Mornai storm had immediately descended with a vengeance.
“We’ll be snowed in for weeks,” Zeph said mournfully, tossing her glossy black hair and peeking past the tapestry at the whiteout.
“At leastyoucan fly out of it if you need to,” Lena pointed out wryly, sprawling languidly on a low settee and looking glamorously voluptuous, nursing a cup of hot tea. She was still tired from the magic output, despite having slept twelve hours straight. “You’re letting cold air in.”
“In theory, yes,” Zeph replied, dropping the tapestry back into place and pacing restlessly toward them. It was far too early for Stella to begin dressing for the sunset ceremony, but her chambers were currently the least occupied in the entire sprawling castle. Also, Ami had commanded that Stella and Jaknot see each other since the night before, so they’d all rearranged lodging, with Jak bunking in with Rhy and Astar, while the girls had spent the night with Stella. It had been a fun revisiting of all the times they’d shared a room on their journeys, staying up late talking. Except that Gen wasn’t there. “But flying in a blizzard like that is zero fun,” Zeph continued. “I had enough of freezing on our quest. Besides, what’s the point when everyone I love is here?”
“Packed like grains of sand into small capsules,” Lena agreed on a sigh. “Perhaps we’ll all emerge from this pressure-forged into glass.”
“Noteveryoneyou love,” Stella pointed out.
“Oh, Nilly.” Zeph gave her a look both exasperated and sympathetic. “I know you wanted Gen and Isyn here, but they said from the beginning there was no way.”
“I know, I know.” Stella waved her hands, determined not get weepy. If she started crying now, she’d be an utter mess by nightfall. They’d all made a pact: no tears. “Their wedding was just so lovely, you know? With the eight of us together in that courtyard. It was perfect.”
