Hastur Lord

The wedding was the highlight of the autumn social calendar. Every Comyn and city dignitary in Thendara received an invitation, as did the Terran Legate. When the first guests arrived, Danilo stood in his prescribed place, a pace behind Rinaldo. This way, he need not respond overtly to any greeting, although many guests included him by a glance or a word. It occurred to Danilo that these people valued him in his own right, not merely for his role as paxman to Regis and now to Rinaldo.

Regis and Li

Warmly, Regis wished his brother every happiness. Li

Regis paused before making way for the next guest to greet the groom. Unlike the Crystal Chamber, this room had no telepathic dampers. Regis had kept his thoughts shielded, but as his eyes met Danilo’s, he lowered his barriers. Li

Bredhyu!

Then Regis was turning away, Rinaldo had already begun his formal greeting to the Terran Legate, and the fleeting rapport disappeared.

While Dan Lawton offered appropriate congratulations, his wife beamed at Rinaldo. Danilo needed no psychic abilities to detect the bond between the two. Was it the sort of flirtation a couple, each married to someone else, might enjoy? No, the co

The crowd quieted as Bettany entered, accompanied by Crystal Di Asturien and Java

As she halted beside Rinaldo, Bettany’s gaze met Danilo’s. A glassy light filled her eyes. For a moment, she seemed not to know him, or anyone. Her thin fingers plucked at the lace of her gown. Then she sniffed, lifted her chin, and turned away, as if Danilo were beneath her notice.

The ceremony itself was longer and more complex than Danilo had ever witnessed. As Lord Hastur, the Head of his Domain, Rinaldo must be wed by the ancient Comyn tradition of di catenas. He insisted on a religious rite as well.

Rinaldo had asked Regis to officiate for the first portion. The honor should have gone to Ruyven Di Asturien, but no one thought any the worse of Regis for it. For Regis, it was no privilege but a humiliation, a public reminder of his lesser status.

Regis carried out his part with quiet dignity. Li

The chamber dimmed in Danilo’s sight; he felt a surge of—was it welcome? acceptance?—from Li

Then Regis was clasping the catenasbracelets on the wrists of his brother and the new bride. Danilo’s vision sharpened. One of the fabulously expensive Arcarran rubies set in the bracelets sparkled. It reminded him, uncomfortably, of freshly spilt blood.

The participants rearranged themselves for the religious ceremony. Tiphani Lawton stood directly behind Bettany. Had he not known Rinaldo’s adherence to cristoforomorality, Danilo might have suspected him of marrying both women at the same time.

The cristoforopriest, a slight man with a straight line for a mouth, intoned the nuptial benediction. Tiphani closed her eyes and swayed dramatically in time with his words. Rinaldo bowed his head as if receiving absolution. Bettany looked blank, her face the color and immobility of a wax doll.

Watching her, Danilo was suddenly overtaken by the certainty that this wedding was a serious mistake, one they would all come to regret. The girl was not bored, as it first appeared. She was trembling. Overwrought, confused. Near tears. Perhaps even aware of the spectacle of Tiphani Lawton behind her.

How could her family have done this to her?Danilo thought angrily. Anyone else would have known the marriage was a sham, her husband incapable of giving her children. Rinaldo was marrying her not for love but out of religious duty and as a way of slacking his long- repressed desires without guilt.

Well, Danilo thought, it was no business of his whom Rinaldo married or why. He did not know whether he pitied more the bridegroom with the glowing, beatific smile or the frightened child who was now his wife.

Or, he added to himself, Tiphani Lawton. The woman had retreated to a corner and was holding forth to a rapt audience. Danilo could not catch her words, only her animated features.

Danilo was more interested in the sight of Li

The witnesses drifted toward the ballroom, where the reception and dancing would take place. As much with his mind as with his ears, Danilo overheard Regis murmuring to Li

A surge of agreement from Li

“Perhaps.” Regis did not sound convinced.

Regis, Danilo thought with a private smile, had never waited passively for the world to do as it willed.

Following the knot of guests, Dan Lawton maneuvered to walk beside Danilo. “Can you get a word to Regis? Every message I’ve sent has been refused.”

Danilo kept his gaze ahead, his expression guarded, and said nothing..

“At least he looks well enough. I feared—” Dan broke off as they came into the ballroom itself. The guests parted to allow Rinaldo and his new bride to enter. “If you can, let Regis know the genetic tests confirmed Rinaldo as a Hastur, so we’ve had to accept his credentials. I won’t be able to ignore him if he starts pressing for Federation membership.”

In the ballroom, the musicians had tuned up and were waiting for the newly married couple to begin the night’s dancing. Rinaldo had given strict instructions as to which dances and songs were acceptable. There would be no wild mountain secainnor any modern, licentious off-world gyrations and especially no Sword Dance. Danilo remembered how Dyan Ardais, in a brilliantly barbaric costume from the Ages of Chaos, had brought a fierce masculine grace and barely sublimated sexuality to the ancient steps. No, this evening would be one of sedate formal dances, preferably ones in which men and women danced only with one another and touched no more than their fingertips.

Rinaldo had clearly been taking lessons, for he squired his new wife through the measures of the opening dance, a promenada,without hesitation. Bettany, now the center of attention, smiled up at her husband with the first expression of happiness Danilo had yet seen in her.

The dance concluded to restrained applause. Rinaldo was so pleased with himself that he bade Danilo to dance with any lady he liked. There were not many women with whom Danilo was on cordial terms. Java