oh, but I forget, she wasn't allowed any! She stood barefoot in front of the Inkar of Kandar as
that woman tried to kill her and Tashi still refused to fight for Holin--that was the strength of her
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faith!"
Silence fell in the chamber as Ramil struggled to control himself.
"Where is she?" he hissed.
"You cannot see her," said Marisa, frowning at this outrageous display of emotion. "She is in the Goddess's Enclosure."
"I'm seeing her if it's the last thing I do. Send your guards to cut me down if you wish, but I didn't come all this way for nothing." Ramil moved towards the door.
"What you propose is sacrilege!" Marisa objected. "We refuse to allow any more invasions of the Enclosure."
"Then bring her here to me. One way or another, I'm seeing her." Ramil clenched his hand on his sword hilt and stared down the eldest Princess.
"I say we should let him see her," Safilen said gently. "Let the Goddess punish him if it is wrong to do
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so. Far better that than to start a war with a man who killed Fergox Spearthrower."
Reluctantly, the First Princess nodded and summoned a priest. "Bring the Devotee Taoshira here
at once," she ordered.
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Ramil paced between the thrones of Nature and Justice, making both occupants very nervous.
The newest Princess could not hide her fear as the man they said was to be her husband fumed
beside her. Then a door
opened at the far end of the chamber and a little procession of priestesses entered, a fair-haired
girl in their midst. Ramil held his breath: it was her. He could hardly believe it.
The devotee looked up and saw him standing in the middle of the chamber.
"Ram!" Tashi cried. Breaking with all conventions, she pushed through the priestesses and
sprinted the length of the hall. Reaching him she wrapped her arms around his waist, burying
her face in his neck. He hugged her tight, stroking her hair and kissing it.
"Excuse me, ladies, your devotee and I have some catching up to do," Ramil announced, lifting her up and carrying her out of the chamber. He blundered through the corridors until he found a
quiet garden and ducked into an arbor, hidden away from anyone pursuing them. He lowered
Tashi onto the bench and sat opposite her, just staring. He reached out and brushed her cheek.
"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
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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?"
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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
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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.
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"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."