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"Getting married."
Five days later, and loaded with trepidation, Leesil followed Karlin Boigiesque to the newly constructed dockside warehouse.
"Karlin… Magiere thinks it's a fine idea," he grumbled, "but it's not what I had in mind."
"It's the only building in town that's large enough," Karlin insisted. "You just wait, lad. You'll see."
The stout, balding baker with kind eyes was their closest friend in Miiska, and now chairman of the town council. The previous summer, Leesil had burned the town's main warehouse, trying to cover his heels as he and Brenden raced to save Magiere and escape a trio of vampires. Later, he and Magiere had earned enough coin in Bela for its reconstruction.
Made of stout pine, from the outside it was impressive-for a warehouse. But it was hardly where Leesil had expected to be married. Magiere seemed satisfied with the idea, claiming they'd come full circle. But at least the celebration afterward would take place in the Sea Lion.
"Go on, take a peek," Karlin said, and slid open one huge dockside door. "We had it cleared yesterday. Aria, Geoffry, and Darien's mother worked on the rest all morning."
Leesil stepped around the baker and his jaw dropped. "Ah, dead deities in seven hells!"
"Watch your tongue," Karlin admonished with a chuckle. "This is now a sacred place."
The high bay doors used for loading the lofts sat open, and afternoon light streamed in wide shafts to the floor. All the crates had been removed and only barrels lined the walls, but garlands and bushels of wild blossoms and spring roses were carefully woven around them and up the walls.
Clean muslin sheets hung at the front in a half-moon backdrop. To either side of this stood a linen-draped barrel supporting a decorated white vase filled with roses. Dead center between them, before the backdrop, stood a small linen-draped table. Upon it waited three white candles, an incense stick and brazier, and a long, neatly coiled strip of white silk ribbon.
"That's where you'll stand for the ceremony," Karlin said and dropped a thick hand on Leesil's shoulder. "Guests start arriving soon… too late to run now, lad."
Leesil breathed the perfume from hundreds of flowers caught in the variegated light spilling into the wide space. He couldn't wait for Magiere to join him.
Magiere hid in a back room of the warehouse. She'd relented to Aunt Bieja's insistence that it be turned into a dressing area, but now doubted her decision.
Between Aria and Bieja rushing in and out with hot irons to curl her hair, she felt… exposed. But the dressing ordeal finally ended, and Aria and Bieja went off on some last-minute task. Magiere stepped in front of the large oak-framed mirror in a welcome moment of solitude.
She hardly recognized her own reflection.
Magiere possessed only one gown-of dark blue-which her mother had worn and left to her. It fit her well and offset her pale complexion. Before do
"Beautiful!" someone proclaimed from the back door.
Magiere tensed as if trapped, then turned to find Wy
"I don't know," she said, scowling at herself in the mirror. "I look… strange."
"Well, you ca
"Why not?"
"Because Leesil will swoon when he sees you," Wy
It was Magiere's turn to stare, for the little sage had been transformed as well. Wy
Her wispy brown hair had been pi
"Where did you find the dress?" Magiere asked, suddenly happy for the first time since being hauled into this back room.
"Your aunt bought it for me," Wy
"It's fine." Magiere nodded.
They stood together before the mirror, Magiere tall and pale with dark hair and blue gown, and Wy
"Like fine ladies going off to a noble ball," Wy
The mention of dried fish brought Sgaile to Magiere's thoughts. And Wy
"Is Osha ready?" Magiere asked, as Leesil had chosen him to act as second.
"Yes"-Wy
Magiere had wanted this-the whole ceremony-to celebrate joining with Leesil. Now that it was upon her, she wondered if something more private might have been better. She took several quick breaths.
"Just keep your eyes on Leesil," Wy
They walked out and around the warehouse's front to find Leesil waiting with Osha and Chap.
Wy
"M… Magiere?" he stammered.
"Close your mouth," she said, "before you swallow a mosquito."
He made a handsome sight himself. Aunt Bieja had managed to sew him a loose white shirt, just in time, that he wore tucked into black breeches. He'd polished his boots and tied his white-blond hair back at the nape of his neck.
Magiere took his arm. "Ready?"
He nodded, still looking into her eyes.
Osha fidgeted awkwardly. Wy
"See how Magiere has Leesil's arm? They will walk in first. We wait and then follow with Chap."
Chap whined with ears perked. Wy
Magiere turned into the warehouse with Leesil, and her breath caught at the hundreds of flowers in the streaming light. She kept her poise and moved steadily forward on Leesil's arm.
Domin Tilswith waited before the muslin backing in his long gray robes. A thin trail of smoke drifted up from an incense stick in the brazier. Magiere had no idea their friends had gone to so much trouble.
The cavernous room was filled to the walls with people.
But a clear path was left for her and Leesil, and faces blurred by as she walked.
Karlin and the constable, Darien Tomik, stood with young Geoffry and Aria. Even Loni, the elven owner of the Velvet Rose I
Magiere and Leesil came together before Domin Tilswith. Chap settled right behind them, and Wy
"We come together to celebrate the joining of Magiere and Leesil in a life bond."
Magiere's heart began to pound as he leaned over and picked up the silk ribbon.
"Hold out your hands," he instructed.
He lightly tied Leesil's left hand to Magiere's right. "Magiere, do you swear to love Leesil, to stand with him, honor his heart, and care for him above all others for as long as you live?"
Magiere looked at Leesil and answered, "I swear."
"Leesil, do you swear to love Magiere, to stand with her, honor her heart, and care for her above all others for as long as you live?"