A Sky of Spells (Book #9 in the Sorcerer's Ring) (11 page)

But Alistair was backing
away, preparing to leave.

“I’m sorry, I did not mean
to interrupt,” Reece said, looking back and forth between the two, realizing
too late.

Alistair shook her head,
leaving.

“We shall finish our
conversation another time,” she said. “I must return to Erec. Until next time, my
brother,” she said, turning and quickly hurrying off.

Thor was disappointed; he
had been desperate to hear what she had to say about their mother, about where
she lived, about what she had left her.

Reece was jubilant beside
him, eager to talk, and Thor turned to him, overjoyed to see his friend, too.

“I have heard of your journeys,
my friend,” Thor said with admiration, “to the depths of the Canyon, to retrieve
the Sword. I heard of the fine work you’ve done to save our kingdom. I would
expect nothing less of you.”

Reece shook his head humbly.

“And I have heard of yours,”
he said admiringly. Then his face darkened. “I’m sorry I could not be there for
you. And I’m sorry to hear what happened to you. You have suffered greatly for
all of us. I am thrilled you have returned to us. And I’m glad you are alive!”

They clasped forearms.

“And what of our other
Legion members?” Thor asked.

“All alive,” Reece answered
proudly. “They have all returned with me, and are here.”

Thor shook his head in
admiration.

“You’ve done a fine job
indeed, to descend to the bowels of hell and return alive.”

Reece laughed, and clasped
Thor on the shoulder.

“I have exciting news for
you, and a question to ask you.”

Thor studied his friend,
curious; Reece’s face was beaming and his smile was contagious. Thor had never
seen him this happy, and he wondered what was going on.

“Anything for you,” Thor
said.

“Will you be my best man?”
Reece asked.

Thor stared back, his eyebrows
lifted in surprise.

“That’s right,” Reece added.
“I intend to marry Selese.”

“Has she said yes?” Thor asked.

“I’m going to ask her now.
She does not know yet. But I wanted to tell you first,” Reece said.

“I would be honored,” Thor
said, overjoyed for his friend. “I am so happy for you. You have made a wise
choice. My answer is yes, on one condition: if you will be my best man, too?”

Reece looked back, confused.

Thor nodded.

“That’s right. I’m asking
you to be my brother-in-law. My
real
brother.”

“Have you proposed to Gwendolyn?”
Reece asked, excited.

“I am about to now.”

Reece cried out in joy and embraced
Thor.

“It was what I’ve always
wanted,” Reece said. “From the day I’ve met you. For you to be a
true
brother. Nothing makes me happier!”

Thor beamed.

“I am happy for you as well,
my friend. Go to Selese. Don’t keep her waiting. I wish you luck.”

“And you, go to my sister.
Perhaps we shall have a double wedding!”

Thor warmed at the thought.

“Perhaps we shall!” he said.

Reece turned and rushed off,
and Thor turned and looked back up across the courtyard, inspired, searching
for Gwen.

He spotted her amidst the
crowd, finally emerging, a cheer greeting her.

The time had come to make
her his wife.

Reece hurried across the
courtyard, making his way past all the revelers, not stopping to celebrate with
all of his friends. He was on a mission. He clutched his mother’s ring in his palm
and walked with single-minded intent, searching all the faces for Selese. His palms
were sweaty despite the cold, and his throat was dry. Reece had been
single-minded his entire life, quick to decide on everything and quick to
follow his passions. He never liked to hesitate, on anything. He decided his
best friends instantly, and he decided the girl he loved instantly, too—and he
never looked back. Reece already felt he had waited too long, and he was
determined not to let anything get between him and asking the love of his life
to marry him.

Suddenly, his heart pounded
as he considered what might happen: what if she said no? What would he do then?
Would he be making a fool of himself? What if, despite saving him, she did not
feel as strongly for him as he did her? Was he misreading the situation?

Reece marched on,
determined, one way or another, to find out for himself.

After asking several people,
Reece finally learned that Selese was with Illepra, the two of them on the far
side of King’s Court, still tending to the wounded, who had been filtering in
throughout the day. The war had ravaged the Ring far and wide, and not everyone
arrived back at King’s Court at the same pace.

Reece passed through the
huge, stone archway that led to the northern side of King’s Court, a grass
courtyard framed by crumbling stone walls, and as he did, he was shocked at the
sight before him: in stark contrast to the revelers on the other side of the
wall behind him, before him there were laid out hundreds of wounded. They were
lined up in neat rows, moaning, being tended to by dozens of royal healers. It
was a humbling sight; Reece was glad he was not among them.

Reece navigated his way in
and out of the rows, scanning the faces of the healers, most on their knees,
tending to the soldiers. He searched everywhere for Selese. This impromptu
infirmary was vast, and Reece was beginning to give up hope—when finally, on
the far corner of the courtyard, he spotted her, leaning over a soldier,
placing a liquid on his tongue. Beside her was Illepra, tending to a soldier
who had lost a leg.

Reece walked quickly to her,
and as he did, he suddenly worried if this was the wrong time or place to
propose. The atmosphere was so somber, grim, in stark contrast to the
festivities in the adjacent courtyard. Selese, too, was hard at work, and he
did not want to take her from her duties; she also appeared to be in a somber
frame of mind.

Yet still, Reece could not
stop himself. He had to be with her, and he was intent on finding out whether
she wanted to be with him, too. He felt compelled to show her how much he loved
her, to demonstrate to her as much loyalty as she had shown to him. After all,
she had saved his life, and had risked her life to do it.

Reece’s heart thumped in his
chest as he approached her. He knew he could not waste another moment. He had
always been taught that the only way to face your fears was to march right up
to them—and asking Selese was more terrifying for him than facing a thousand
warriors.

Reece approached her as she
began to stand from her wounded, wiping her hands on her smock. She looked up
and saw Reece approaching, and her eyes lit up with surprise and joy.

Reece came to embrace her,
but she held up dirty palms.

“My Lord, I would hug you,
but I am hardly dressed for the occasion,” she said, smiling.

But Reece did not care; he
stepped up and hugged her, and she hugged him back.

“You seem nervous,” she
said, examining him with a smile.

Reece stood there, staring at
her, his heart pounding, unable to say anything. He was unable to smile or do
anything, and he suddenly felt awkward. Was he ruining it?

She looked back at him with
concern.

“Is everything all right?” she
asked.

Reece could only nod, the words
stuck in his throat.

Illepra now rose and turned,
and she, too, stared at him with a puzzled look.

Reece looked all around, anywhere
but back at Selese, and he saw all the wounded and sick, and he knew this was
the wrong place to ask her. He impulsively reached down and took her hand.

“Would you come somewhere with
me?” he asked.

“Now? Where?” she asked,
baffled. “I must tend the wounded.”

“There will always be more wounded,”
Reece replied, tugging her hand. “Come with me. Just for a few moments. Please.”

Selese turned and looked at
Illepra, who nodded back her approval.

Selese untied her bloody smock,
brushed back her hair, and walked with Reece, linking arms, smiling, a bounce
to her step as they strode away from the courtyard. Clearly, she was relieved
to take a break from her somber duties.

They walked through an
arched stone gate, leaving the perimeter of King’s Court, and out into the
countryside. They walked through a knee-high field of winter flowers, bright
white, with large petals, a foot long, swaying in the wind and brushing up
against their thighs. These winter flowers were dainty, light as a feather, and
each time Selese reached down to touch one, they fell apart, their petals
lifting up into the air, carried on the wind, and raining down all around them.

“Aren’t you supposed to make
a wish on these?” she asked, smiling, as they walked through the field of
white, petals twirling all around them.

“My wish has already come
true,” Reece said, finally able to speak again.

“Has it?” she asked,
smiling. “And what wish is that?”

Reece stopped and turned to
her, deadly serious.

“That we would be together
again.”

Selese stopped and stared
back at him, and her smile fell.

“You mock me, my lord,” she
said.

He squeezed her hands
earnestly.

“I do not,” he insisted,
earnest. “I wish for nothing more.”

Reece reached out, raised a
hand to her cheek, and looked into her eyes with all the seriousness he could
muster. He was more nervous than he had ever been.

“Selese, I love you,” he
said. “I have from the moment I laid eyes upon you, back in your village. From
the moment I first heard your voice, I have thought of nothing else. In all my
travels throughout the Empire, in all the people I’ve met and lands I’ve seen, I
have thought of nothing but you. I owe you my life. But more than that, I owe you
my heart.”

Reece took a knee, held her
hands, and looked up into her eyes as he smiled. His heart was pounding so
strongly he felt he might have a heart attack.

She looked down, smiling,
puzzled.

“Selese,” he asked, his
throat dry. “Will you marry me?”

Reece reached into his
pocket and took out his mother’s ring, shining even in the field of flowers.

Selese gasped.

She raised one hand to her
mouth, and her eyes filled with tears. She rushed forward and embraced Reece,
hugging him tight, her tears pouring down onto his neck.

“Yes,” she whispered in his
ear. “A thousand times, yes!”

They leaned back and kissed,
and they held that kiss for as long as they could, white flowers raining down
all around them, Reece not feeling the winter wind, as he finally had
everything he ever wanted in life.

Thorgrin made his way
through the thick crowd of well-wishers surrounding Gwendolyn, hundreds of
soldiers and subjects and nobles and lords and council members, all pressing on
her, blocking her from all directions, all wanting to wish her well or to be
heard about something. They all clearly looked to her as their queen now. As well
they should, Thorgrin thought. Gwendolyn had led them through hard times, had demonstrated
self-sacrifice and unwavering leadership, and had suffered travail in her own
right, at her people’s expense. She had stared suffering in the face, and had
not crumpled in the face of adversity. She had led her people to victory and had
come out the other side.

Thor recalled what a great king
her father had been, and it was clear to him that Gwendolyn was an even greater
ruler. He was proud of her, so proud, as he pushed his way through, finding it
difficult to even get close to her in this throng. She was clearly loved.

Thor did not want to take
her away from all this, but he had to. He could not wait a moment longer. Now was
the time to ask her.

“Gwendolyn,” he said, coming
up beside her, Krohn at his heels.

She turned to him, and
others parted ways as he stepped forward and stood beside her.

“Can I steal you away for a
while?” he asked, smiling.

She smiled back. She leaned
in and whispered in his ear: “I was hoping you would.”

Thor’s heart beat faster as
he reached out, took her hand, and led the way through the thick crowd, their
all parting ways for them, Krohn following. Gwen turned to her people, all
watching, and said: “Go on, enjoy the festivities. I shall return in a while.
Go on! Enjoy!”

There came a cheer from the
crowd as the music started again, and the people turned back to themselves.

Thor took Gwen’s hand and led
her away, the two of them walking faster, both of them giddy, like kids skipping
school, Krohn nipping at their heels, finally breaking free from all of their
duties and responsibilities for a time. It was the first time Thor had managed
to get time alone with her since their landing in King’s Court. Thor felt as if
they were dating again—and he felt just as elated to be with her now as he did
then. He could sense from her grip that she felt the same way, too.

They passed through the high
stone gate leading out of King’s Court, in disrepair yet still standing, and took
the path heading west. This road, Thor noticed, once meticulously paved with stone
and gravel, littered with holes and overgrown with weeds.

“Where are we going?” Gwen
asked, excited.

They rounded a bend and Thor
stopped and looked up to the cliffs before them, shining in the sun, and Gwen
followed his gaze.

“The Kolvian Cliffs,” she
said. “But why?”

Thor held his tongue,
wondering how much to say. He did not want to give it away. What he wanted to
say was:
because it is the high ground, with the most beautiful view in the
kingdom, overlooking King’s Court. Because it is a quiet and romantic place where
we have been together before. Because it is a place that means a lot in our
lives. Because it is where I want to ask you the most important question of my
life.

But he could not see any of
this. So instead, he said: “There is something up there I’d like to show you.”

“
Show
me?” she asked
with a laugh. “All the way up there? Is it another pet leopard?” she asked, as
Krohn ran before them.

Thor smiled.

“No, not quite,” he said.

Thor took her hand, and together
they hiked up the cliffs; as they went, he noticed Gwen was more out of breath than
usual, and that she stopped to rest more often than she had. He was growing concerned.

“Are you okay, my love?” he
asked.

She nodded back to him.

“You keep grabbing your
stomach,” he observed.

Gwen blushed and looked
away.

“I’m sorry. I’m just tired.
And I have not eaten. I am fine. Let’s continue.”

They hiked up the rest of the
cliff with renewed energy, until finally they reached the top of the highest
peak. As they reached it, they turned and looked out.

Thor was in awe at the
vista, and he could see that Gwendolyn was, too. He had seen it many times, and
yet it never grew old: there, below them, was King’s Court, glorious even in
ruin, the afternoon mist embracing it like a shroud. Thousands and thousands of
people celebrated, their distant cheers and music audible even from here. It
was frustrating for Thor to see King’s Court destroyed, yet it infused him with
hope: it was both a vision of what had once been, and a vision of what could
rise again.

“It’s beautiful,” Gwendolyn said.
“Is this what you wanted to show me?”

She turned and looked all
about her, searching the plateau, as if wondering if Thor had some surprise
waiting for her.

Thor suddenly became
nervous. His throat turned dry, and his heart pounded in his mouth. He reached
up and patted the ring inside his coat, to make sure it was still there. It
was.

Thor opened and closed his
mouth several times, and he felt his knees grew weak. He was wracked with fear.
He’d never felt this way in battle, not while facing an enemy. But now, here,
facing Gwendolyn, he felt more nervous than he had ever been.

“Well, actually, it’s not
something I want to show you…but, well, um—”

Thor cut himself off, looking
down and kicking the dirt, his heart pounding, having difficulty getting out
the words, as his breathing shortened.

“It was—is—um…it was more a
kind of, um, well…sort of something I um—”

Gwen laughed. It was a
carefree laughter, a sound he hadn’t heard from her in what felt like years,
and while he was happy to see her so elated, it also made him blush.

“I haven’t seen you this
nervous since the first time we met,” she said.

Thor took a deep breath, finally
mustered the courage, and he looked Gwen directly in the eye. What if she said
no to him? His whole world would collapse.

“Gwendolyn, I love you,” he
said, stepping forward and grabbing her hands.

She looked at him, baffled.

“I love you too,” she replied.
“Have we come all this way for you to tell me this?” she asked, a twinkle in
her eye.

Thor shook his head.

“I
truly
love you,”
he said.

She stared at him, smiling.

“What has gotten into you?”
she asked.

Thor shook his head again.

“Gwendolyn, that’s not what
I’m trying to say.”

He cleared his throat, and
took another deep breath, and she looked back at him in wonder.

“Are you sweating?” she
asked.

Thor reached up and wiped his
forehead with the back of his hand, and realized that he was sweating, despite
the winter day. He cleared his throat again and faced her. It was now or never.

“Gwendolyn,” he said, “you
mean the world to me. I want to be with you for the rest of my life. All of my
days. I have felt this way ever since the first day we met. I’ve never seemed
to have the right moment to ask you. But now that moment has come. There is only
question that means anything to me anymore.”

Thor took a knee, reached
into his shirt and pulled out his mother’s ring. It was spectacular, huge, its
precious jewels glowing, sparkling in the sun.

Gwen’s eyes grew wide in
wonder as they flooded with tears.

“Gwendolyn,” Thor continued.
“Will you marry me?”

Gwendolyn rushed forward,
into Thor’s arms, and she hugged him so tight, he could barely breathe. He
stood and hugged her back, and she cried and cried, hot tears flooding his
neck.

“Is that a no?” he said.

“Yes,” she said in his ear. “Yes
yes yes yes yes!”

Gwen leaned back and kissed
him all over his face, and he kissed her back, again and again.

Finally, he smiled, looking
down.

“You forgot to take the
ring,” he said.

Gwen laughed, and as she
leaned back, he placed his mother’s ring on her finger.

She looked at in awe.

“It fits perfectly,” she
said. “Where did you get this? I have seen royal jewels all my life, yet I have
never seen anything like this.”

“It was my mother’s,” Thor
said. “It is meant for you. For you, and none other.”

Gwen looked up at him, her
eyes filled with tears, and they kissed. They held the kiss for as long as they
could, and finally, they embraced, holding each other tight.

“Thorgrin, my love,” she
said softly, pulling back and looking at him. “There is something I wish to
tell you, too.”

She pulled back and looked
into his eyes, and Thor looked at her and wondered what it could be.

“There was a reason it was
hard for me to climb these cliffs,” she said. “A reason that I have not been
myself.”

She reached out and held
both his hands and smiled.

“Thorgrin: I’m with child.”

Those words struck Thorgrin
through the heart, coursed through his whole body, made him lose all sense of
time and place. He was beyond elated. He felt as if he were part of something
bigger than himself, something deeper in the universe. He felt his entire world
spinning. He was overwhelmed with joy and gratitude.

“A child?” he asked.

She nodded, smiling.

He looked down at her
stomach, and gently rested his palm on it. As he did, he felt an incredible
energy racing through his entire body. He could feel the child spinning and
moving, the slightest tremors in his palm. He felt a love and joy beyond what
he ever thought capable of experiencing.

He embraced Gwendolyn,
hugging her tightly, and she hugged him back.

“I love you,” he whispered into
her ear.

“I love you, too,” she
whispered back.

Thor draped an arm around her
shoulder and pulled her tight, and the two of them turned and looked out at the
vista, both suns sitting low in the horizon, King’s Court awash in scarlet and
violet twinkling in a thousand points of light. It felt to Thor like the Ring was
being reborn, slowly coming back to life. All around them winter flowers bloomed,
fields glowing white, and against the backdrop of the second setting sun, it
was the most beautiful thing Thor had ever seen. It was an ideal moment, the
perfect moment for his proposal, and he wanted to freeze it forever. It was
magical. Just like his entire relationship with Gwendolyn.

As they looked out at the
horizon, at the distant road to King’s Court, Thor saw an endless caravan of
humanity coming towards this city from all directions, some on foot, others
leading horses, carts, cattle. They were all heading to the same place, all
coming to celebrate the new Ring, all coming to celebrate hope.

“A stream of humanity,” Thor
observed. “People of all walks want to come back to King’s Court, to celebrate.
They all have faith in you.”

“We will rebuild it,” Gwen
said. “Stone by stone. We shall make it as great a city as it ever was. And the
centerpiece of all the celebrations will be our wedding. It will be the most magnificent
wedding the Ring has ever witnessed. It shall be followed by our baby. Everything
will be new again, and our people will rise from the ashes. We will do it together.
Our love will build it.”

They leaned in and kissed,
and they held the kiss as the final light of the setting sun washed over them. Thor
only wished he could hold the world this way forever.