None of these would happen. In the little oak grove, the elf king was not splendid. He dressed in gear as rough as that of any hunter in the forest, any one of his own outlaws. His lover stood as rustic as he, and the only thing to betray a softer life was the last fragrance of a soap made with Tarsian spices lingering on her skin.
“Who will wed you?” asked the dwarf. He looked askance at the king. “The woman deserves a true marriage, honest and fair.”
Gilthas smiled. “We wed each other, and ceremony isn’t necessary, though half our history is writ by ceremony. Only a witness, friend dwarf.” A witness, and stars for company, fireflies for light. “Do you witness?”
Stanach bowed with sincerity and grace. “I witness, Your Majesty.”
A queen, once a general, Laurana stepped forward. The hem of her russet woolen gown swept across a fragrant carpet of fallen leaves. Resplendent in simple wool, legend said she had been splendid in war regalia, in battle leathers and blood. She took Kerian’s hand in hers and turned toward her son.
The king looked at her long and said to her softly, “Kerianseray of Qualinesti, my Lioness, will you put your hand in mine?”
“My hand is in yours, my lord king.”
“Kerianseray of Qualinesti, my Lioness, will you weave your fate with mine, take my kingdom as you take me?”
Her heart beating hard, her throat closing up with a sweet sadness, she said that she would do these things. “I am your wife, my king. Together we will make such a light that it will stand always against the darkness.”
He let go her hands and took a ring from his finger, the old one she knew; the hands joined round the topaz. “We are joined, heart and heart, hand and hand, fate and fate. We are one, wife.” Solemnly, he repeated her vow.
“Together we will make such a light that it will stand always against the darkness.”
They were one, wed before a dwarf and before the queen mother, joined in law as they had been in body and spirit. Alone in the forest, they were wed, soon to be parted, one to return to his city, the other to take the long road away.
Yet they knew it, all of them, that dark forces pressed against their kingdom, a dragon’s greed, fate’s iron fist. They knew it, and still they rejoiced.