Dragonfly (38 page)

"I thought you were dead," he said.

"I have been," she replied, marvelling to see how well

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he looked. "Slavery becomes you."

He laughed. "Actually I'm not a slave. I've come to offer you Holt as a wedding present. They've made me their king and the position is vacant for a queen. So, what do you think?"

Tashi shook her head in amazement. "Is this one of your jokes, Ram?"

"No, my love, I'm deadly serious." He looked at her more closely and saw that she was wearing one of his shirts and robes of the Horse Followers. "I can see that you have as many tales to tell as I do, but mercifully we have the rest of our lives to hear them. Just say that you'll be mine--that'll do for now."

Tashi felt the huge weight of despair settle on her. What he was asking was impossible for so many reasons. It was like being at the bottom of a pit, able to glimpse freedom above but with no hope of escape. "But I can't, Ram. I'm a devotee now, not a princess."

"I don't want a princess--I want you." He put his arm around her and pulled her to him. "And what's all this devotee nonsense?"

"It's not nonsense. I've been sentenced for my failings. I have to make up for my broken vows with a lifetime of maiden service to the Goddess."

Ramil wrinkled his nose. "I don't like the sound of that--and I'm sure your Goddess doesn't either. You are not destined to be a maiden, Tashi." He kissed her brow but she drew away.

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"I have no choice."

"Of course you have a choice. Your vow to me came first, remember? I'm not letting you break that." He stood up. "What do you have to do round here to get married?"

Tashi gave a weary laugh. He did not understand how impossible it was to break the Blue Crescent laws as if they were no more than cobwebs. "You find a priest, then the woman declares she wants the man as her husband, and he says if he agrees."

"Excellent!" Ramil rubbed his hands. "I was afraid there was some terrible ritual thing that would take hours."

Tashi shook her head. "No, marriage is regarded as a private matter and nothing to do with the state. But I'm in even less favor since I tussled with the First Wife." Ramil raised a curious eyebrow. "I'll explain later. What I'm trying to say is that you won't find anyone who'll dare marry us, if that's what you had in mind."

"I don't know much about your country, but the one thing I do know is that its priests are corruptible. I'll go and catch us one. You stay here."

His footsteps faded as he ran off back the way they had come. Tashi sat watching the dragonflies skimming over the pond in the garden, not daring to think, not daring to hope. Her life for the past weeks had been a desert. The only time she had felt even slightly alive was when she'd had to fight off Fergox's vengeful

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wives and that had only been temporary. Now Ramil had burst in upon her like a sudden storm. He was mad to think they could marry. He needed a political alliance to consolidate his new position; she was under a lifelong sentence.

But I prefer his madness to the sanity of my people,
she admitted. What did the Goddess think?

The dragonflies twisted over the pool in a blur of flashing wings. The Mother would prefer their offering of love to each other than the desert of dry duty, Tashi realized.

"Here she is!" said Ramil, bringing a woman in a green robe into the garden.

Tashi fell to her knees in consternation. "Second Princess!" she gasped.

"Get up, child," Safilen said, making a beckoning gesture with her ringed fingers. "I've told this young man that I will hear your vows. Not a usual part of my duties, I know, but I understand from Korbin it is quite legal."

"Does she know too?" Tashi asked, aghast.

"Of course not. But I thought I'd better check before annoying her like this.

We don't have long, so if you don't mind?" Safilen took Tashi's hand, smiling at the bewildered girl. "Do you, Taoshira of Kai, take Ramil ac Burinholt as your husband?"

"Yes, I take him," Tashi replied faintly, wondering what on earth she was doing.

"And you, Ramil ac Burinholt, agree?" The Second Princess grasped his wrist.

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"Yes, I do," Ramil said firmly.

She placed his hand in Tashi's. "As the Goddess wills," Safilen proclaimed.

"Well, that covers it, I think, though I apologize for not doing the full speech: I don't know it and it's rather boring."

"That's it?" asked Ramil, holding on to Tashi's fingers as if he feared she would slip away from him.

"Yes," said the Second Princess as she departed, "that's it."

Ramil ac Burinholt, King of Holt and heir to the throne of Gerfal, strode back into the throne room, bringing with him his dazed new wife. He bowed to the Crown Princesses.

"I apologize for leaving you so abruptly an hour ago," he said.

"It is forgiven," said the First Princess. "Now that you have spoken with the devotee, she will return to the Enclosure and we will return to our discussion of our alliance."

Ramil held on to Tashi tightly. Coming to her senses, she returned the pressure, gripping his fingers.

"Actually, your devotee is no longer suited to maiden service in the Goddess's temple as we have just been married," Ramil announced.

The courtiers rustled and whispered to each other.

"Is this true, Taoshira?" asked Marisa.

"It is, Your Highness," Tashi replied, tempted to make a run for it before she was arrested. Only Ramil's hand

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anchored her here. "I fear you will want to cast me out of the Enclosure."

"Who dared marry you?" asked the Third Princess, turning her eyes to her co-ruler as realization dawned.

"I did, sister," said Safilen, raising her hand. "Marriage under our law is a private matter and not something we put to the vote. I was quite within my rights."

Tashi began to laugh, realizing that she might, just might, be able to escape.

"And as Prince Ramil has insulted you by choosing another wife than the one you proposed for him, you'll want to cast him out too," she suggested slyly.

"Oh, undoubtedly," murmured Ramil. "Do cast me out."

Safilen hid her smile with her fan. "Yes, begone, uncouth Prince," she said, waving him away.

"I obey," said Ramil, turning Tashi round and marching her from the room.

"Excuse me while I abduct myself a princess."

"Uncouth!" snapped Korbin, glaring at Safilen. "They are both a disgrace."

Safilen rose and spread her fan, then leant down to her sister on the Throne of Justice.

"But uncouth is fun," Safilen whispered in Korbin's ear. "The Goddess laughs with us when we are happy, remember that. Come, sister." Safilen beckoned to the terrified new Fourth Princess.
"I
want to have a private word with you about love."

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Ramil escorted Tashi aboard the flagship of his fleet of captured pirate vessels.

"I can't believe you just did that," Tashi said, reliving the moment in the Hall of the Floating Lily when Ramil had claimed her as his wife.

"What
we
did," Ramil said, squeezing her hand. "You Blue Crescent women can't pretend to be mere chattels of your husbands. I seem to remember
you
took
me. A
very novel way of marrying for us Easterners." He stroked her cheek. "I'm looking forward to finding out more about my rights later." He was pleased to see he had made her very embarrassed at the thought.

"I apologize it's not up to Crescent standards," he continued, leading her to his cabin through the ranks of grinning sailors. They whistled and cheered their new queen. "It's now manned by volunteers, but we've not had time to change the decorations."

The walls of the captain's room were covered with carvings of gruesome faces, buxom wenches, and graffiti. It was vile, but at least the sheets on the bed looked clean and the place smelt of pinewood. Ramil guided her to a chair and placed a paper dragonfly on the table in front of her.

"See, I kept it."

She pulled his horse from her pocket: it was an unrecognizable wad of paper after its dunking in the river. Her hand was shaking with a mixture of excitement and fear. Surely someone was going to stop them?

Ramil closed his fingers over hers.

"Don't, my love, it's going to be all right."

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Tashi shut her eyes: everything was happening so quickly she felt as if she had left her common sense back at the palace. "Tell me what's been going on. I've been locked away from news--from everything--since I came back.

How is your father?"

"Victorious, thanks to you. The Blue Crescent arrived in time to swing the battle in our favor. We suffered many losses but Gerfal did not fall."

"And what happened to Fergox?"

"I killed him." Ramil watched her anxiously. He knew he had rushed her into this marriage, but there had seemed no other chance to snatch her away from that oppressive court.

"Gordoc? Melletin? Yelena? The professor?"

"All alive. Gordoc is training my army for me--he's now General Ironfist and loves his uniform. He sends his love. Melletin is my prime minister and a very fine one he is too--I hardly have to do a thing. Yelena would have headed my government, but it appears that she and Melletin are due to have an addition to their family in the New Year so she suggested I pick him. I'm sure her turn will come. My grandfather is looking after Thunder and my throne for me while I go and find myself a wife."

Tashi put her hands to her cheeks. Yesterday she had been a disgraced devotee; now she was wife to the ruler of most of the known world!

Ramil hesitated, then continued.

"Duke Nerul is back in charge of Brigard. Merl has been injured in a duel with a jealous husband, but not seriously."

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Tashi chuckled softly. "No more than he deserves."

"And I've sent Professor Norling to be the new Inkar of Kandar. I think in a few years they'll be the best educated of all our subjects."

"You have been busy. I am amazed and humbled. And definitely not worthy of you." She opened her eyes and turned them on him. "Thank you for rescuing me again."

Ramil pulled her onto his knee. "I was only returning the favor. You've rescued me more times than I can count. I need you with me, Tashi. I can't do this on my own. I want to be a good king and make Holt into a free country, where people can worship their own god--or goddess--and not be afraid." He put his hand on hers, pressed against her stomach. "I want lots of children to fill the palace with life and laughter." He kissed her neck. "But most of all, I want to be your husband and make you happy." He smiled. "I've got to get that bit right, or one of my generals will thump me."

Tashi stroked the back of his hand thoughtfully. "But, Ram, you must know that things are different now. I bring nothing to you--no position, no alliance."

"Hush," he said, kissing her lips, "just as well I married you if you're going to bring up all sorts of ridiculous things like that."

She pushed him away, hand flat on his chest. "But it's true."

"Oh yes, as you well know all I ever saw in you was your navy." Ramil rolled his eyes.

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"I'm being serious. I'm not your equal now."

"No, you're far better than me. I'm still struggling to catch up with you. You'll make a brave, generous, kind queen: that's what our people need. They're lucky I've got such good taste."

She raised a sceptical brow.

"Look, Tashi, I'm not doing this as a favor to you; I'm doing it for me. I've known for months now that I can't live without you. Will you be so cruel as to deny me my happiness?"

Put like that, she knew she could not refuse. They'd have to risk failure together. Or maybe, with him at her side, even success? Tashi bent her head towards him.

"I love you, Ram."

"And I love you, my dragonfly princess."

The sounds of the ship leaving harbor filtered through from above. The room began to sway. Ramil met Tashi's eyes with a mischievous look. "Now, wife, we have a long voyage ahead of us with no interruptions, no affairs of state to sidetrack us." He brushed his fingers against the lacings at her neck. "Isn't it time you returned that shirt to its owner?"

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