The King's Challenge #146 and #147

TKC 146 and 147

Into the silence after Lyra’s confirmation, the three forms materialise. There is a way through the curved shield, the central one says, although we do not hear his words with our ears.

Horin mutters, “I seem to recall we could not shatter it before.”

That is true, but time has revealed certain flaws.

“Surely we shouldn’t trust these entities?” Kay rasps. “Are they not Glonu slaves?”

We are indeed, young sir, but we did not start out as Glonu. Although the slaving manipulation bends minds and engenders greater atrocities among the slaves become light beings, some of us have maintained our original beliefs and loyalties.

“And we must take your word for it?” Siri blurts.

Until now my sister has been markedly silent, but she is correct. I nod. “How do we know you are not duping us?”

Ask Lord Makar to check his orb.

All eyes swivel to Horin. He offers a sheepish smile. “I was content with ‘Horin’.”

By the stars, this just gets weirder by the moment. I shove up from the table and stalk out into the night air. At this point I have had enough of revelations and such. It is the simple things that create a life, not these mighty tales of a past no one now remembers. I wish with all my heart I had never left Grenmassin. I wish I had wed Lyra when the time came for our nuptials, and if it meant we all died when the bloody rock in the sky hit our world, that too would be fine. I would have died a happy man, with my beloved at my side.

Her hand on my shoulder tells me she has followed me out. “At times like these we wish for what was,” Lyra murmurs in my ear.

I swing around and grab her hands, enfolding them into mine. “Marry me, Lyra. Here, now.”

The blue of one eye is bright in the moonlight, while the green seems to vanish for a while. “Yes.”

My heart thumps hard. “Yes? Really?”

She laughs, a tinkling sound. “Under these stars with these witnesses, yes!”

I haul her in and hold her. Never have I been this happy. I have no ring to give here, but my heart is hers and my lips will seal the sacrament. Lifting her face to mine, I kiss her as if it is the first time, with all tenderness and awe.

She sighs against me after, resting her cheek upon my chest.

We have our witnesses as the other leave the confines of the cottage. I kneel and say, “Lyra, with all my heart, soul and body I love you. You are my wife from this day forward before these witnesses.”

Hanna gasps and then grips Joseph’s hand. “Fantastic,” she breathes.

Lyra kneels also. “I love you with all of me, Damin. You are my husband from this moment on, even if only the moon and stars know it.”

Siri sighs. “How romantic.”

Horin kneels then to face both of us. “We witness your nuptials. You are now husband and wife.”

Laughter and applause then fills the night air and suddenly everyone embraces and speaks words of love and fellowship. My focus is for Lyra alone, though, and to that end I step into our first kiss as a formal and decreed couple with all the fervour a long wait has endowed me with. She does not disappoint in her response, and both of us are quite breathless when we reluctant break our communion.

“Right!” Kay hollers. “We are sleeping outside tonight! The love birds need their privacy!”

Laughing, I lift Lyra into my arms and head for the cottage. The Lord Makar steps into my path.

We stare at him and eventually he bows and moves away. He may no longer claim the blood of a true brother, after all.