22 Nights (5 page)

“But that mockery can be undone, correct?” he asked.

“If that is what both of you wish,” the older woman said, sounding decidedly disappointed.

“Yes,” Merin said decisively. His answer and tone were echoed by Bela.

“What, exactly, is involved in dissolving this unwise union?” Merin asked. Knowing the Turis, anything was possible. Where else in the known world could he have found himself tricked into marriage?

Gayene Haythorne smiled at him, and he felt a chill. Maybe she was gentler than her children, but she was certainly not soft. “We will discuss the matter in the morning. It will be necessary for my husband and the Turi seer, Rafal, to be present when the dissolution begins.”

“How long will it take to have this done? A full day? A few hours? We must be on our way very soon if we’re to arrive at the palace in Arthes by the first night of the Summer Festival. I did take a few days to prepare, but once I was on the road, I traveled hard, and I can only assume that Bela and her chaperones will need more time than I did on my own.”

“I can travel as fast and efficiently as you, General,” Bela insisted.

“I’m sure you can.” He gave her a curt and dismissive bow.

“The dissolution process will take twenty-two days,” Gayene Haythorne said calmly.

Impossible. “That’s more than three weeks! I cannot wait here three weeks!”

Again there was that chilling smile. “Then you will escort a married woman to your emperor.”

 

IT
was near dawn before Bela was able to drift off to sleep, and not long after when she heard an insistent tapping at her window. She came awake and alert quickly, and was ready to reach for Kitty when she saw the face framed in the window.

Jocylen, poor girl, had no doubt escaped from her new home and come to tell Bela that she’d been right and a wife’s duty was a painful and horrid one. Maybe she wanted to hide here.

So why was the new bride smiling so widely?

Bela threw open the big window, and Jocylen leaned inside. “You were so wrong!” she said with a grin.

“I was not,” Bela responded with indignation.

“Well, the sex did hurt at first, like you said, and for a few minutes I thought I wouldn’t like it at all. But the pain soon passed, and it was wonderful.” Jocylen rolled her blue eyes in what looked to be sheer delight. “I have never felt anything like having Rab inside me.”

“That’s true enough,” Bela mumbled.

“Sex is beautiful and it felt good, and it was
fun
.”

“You’re jesting.”

“Not at all.”

Bela grimaced. Maybe Merin hadn’t done it right. Just one more failing to hold against him. “He’s back,” she said sourly.

“Who’s back?”

“General Merin. He arrived last night with some sort of ridiculous message from the emperor.”

“Your first love,” Jocylen said dreamily.

Bela glared at her friend. “The man who took my virginity. It was hardly love.” She sighed. Soon enough everyone would know, so she might as well tell her friend first. Jocylen would be so annoyed not to know all that had happened that night. “We’re married.”

Jocylen’s face lit up. “Last night?”

“Six years ago.”

The bride’s pretty smile faded. “That’s not possible.”

“Merin was not familiar with the Turi wedding ceremony, so he had no idea what we were doing.” Bela sucked in her bottom lip and then let it go. “And I had given him a little something to make him less than clear-headed, so he did whatever I asked without question.”

Jocylen’s normally wide eyes went wider. “You tricked him? Why? And more important, why didn’t you tell me? ”

Bela shrugged her shoulders and looked away from Jocylen’s accusing expression. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

Jocylen’s heart-shaped face was gentle and childlike and perfect in shape and symmetry. When she smiled, it was coy and knowing. “You did love him.”

“I did not! I simply wanted to get my annoying virginity out of the way. I was tired of being a maid, tired of being protected as if I might shatter if a man touched me.”

Jocylen leaned a bit more into Bela’s room. “If that’s true, then why did you choose him?”

Did it matter that she’d been young and naive and foolish? Probably not. “No male from the village would’ve done. I have no desire to become a wife, and a local man would’ve insisted upon marriage.”

“Yes, I know.”

“So it seemed only logical to choose one of the soldiers, and Merin was the most highly placed and therefore most suitable for the daughter of a chieftain.”

“He was also the most beautiful, if I remember correctly,” Jocylen said.

“You remember correctly.”

Why on earth had she gone through the steps that made her Merin’s
wife
? She’d known he didn’t have any idea what the simple gestures meant, as she’d led him through them step by step. It had just seemed right, for reasons other than her desire to be a widow.

“I suppose I got carried away,” Bela admitted. “He was handsome and brave.” And likely to die very soon, since he was already wounded and refused to spend more than a few necessary days tending to his injuries. “He was nice enough to me, and I guess I thought if I was going to offer my body to a man, there should be something more than just that one painful poke.” A poke and some blood and a startling sensation of invasion. She could not believe Jocylen said her wife’s duties were wonderful. And fun!

“One?” Jocylen asked.

“I certainly wasn’t going to allow it to happen more than once!” Bela insisted.

Jocylen laughed. “Oh, Bela, on most subjects you know so much more than I, but when it comes to wifely duties, I think you could use some tutoring from me.”

“No, thank you,” Bela muttered.

“I have to go before Rab misses me. I just had to tell you that for once you were wrong!” With that Jocylen was gone, all but skipping away.

Bela propped herself on the windowsill and watched the morning come alive. The gentle hills where she had played all her life were green thanks to spring’s rains and warmth. Beyond those hills the mountains rose majestically, cold and powerful and filled with riches and dangers. To the north the mountains were friendly and filled with gems of many sizes and colors. Those mountains were friendly, habitable, almost entirely covered with lovely and majestic green trees. Just to the south was a less friendly mountain, one as much of stone and harshness as of greenery, one where no man dared to live. It was from that mountain that Kitty had come.

Between the hills and the mountains there were many Turi farms and ranches. All those who lived here were Turi by birth or by marriage, and all looked to her father for leadership and guidance. One day Clyn would take their father’s place, but with any luck that would not happen for a long time. As a people, the Turis were quite healthy and long-lived.

This was home, and she loved it here. Perhaps she did not fit in, perhaps she was not the daughter her parents wanted her to be. But she was Turi, and this land was in her blood, as it had been in the blood of her ancestors.

Going back to bed would be a waste, since she knew she would not be able to sleep. There would be no more rest for her, not today. Merin was ignorant of the steps which would be necessary to dissolve the marriage, but she knew very well what was in store for them. Torture. Sheer torture.

Bela bathed well and combed her hair, then braided the long brown strands so they would be held away from her face. She donned a pair of comfortable trousers which had once been Tyman’s, and a once-white shirt which had seen better days. She wore sturdy brown boots instead of the pretty bejeweled sandals she had endured last night.

Two girls worked in the kitchen. They were accustomed to seeing Bela dressed as she was when she entered the kitchen each morning for cider and an oatcake. The girls greeted their employer’s daughter with a warm good morning, and if they knew what had transpired last night, they did not show it in any way. Not in a glance, not in a smile. Soon everyone would know, much to Bela’s shame.

Still, she had no one to blame but herself for this situation, and she would do what had to be done to get herself out of it. She was determined and stoic and ready to take her punishment like a man, without tears or regret.

Bela took her morning meal to the dining hall, which was large enough for a family gathering or even a meeting of elders. She sat and picked at her oatcake, silent and unusually pensive. Her father was there, drinking hot tea and eating a stack of oatcakes with yar nectar and saying not a word. Having been informed of the events that had led them to this point, he was none too pleased. The Turi chieftain was a quiet man whose few words were law. Still, Bela did not like to see him displeased.

It wasn’t long before Merin arrived, looking as if he had slept no better than she. One of the kitchen maids served him cider and a stack of oatcakes, and he ate sullenly.

Bela, her father, and Merin—all were quiet and unhappy, and none made any effort to hide their displeasure.

Gayene Haythorne was the odd one this morning. Bela could not help but notice that her mother seemed almost giddy, as if she were quite happy with the turn of events. Did she think the dissolution ceremony would change Bela’s mind about marriage? Unlikely. No, impossible!

Last to arrive was the seer. Rafal Fiers was a creepy man of indeterminate age. He’d been an old man for as long as Bela could remember. He’d made it clear on more than one occasion that he did not approve of Bela’s less-than-feminine ways, and he sometimes seemed annoyed that Kitty had chosen her. The old man probably wished to possess Kitty for himself, but what he apparently didn’t realize was that no one
possessed
Kitty. The magical sword chose a partner, and she had chosen Bela.

Fiers refused his hostess’s offer of oatcakes and directed them all into the main room, where last night Tyman had nearly taken Merin’s head. When everyone was positioned as he directed, the seer removed a length of braided cloth from his bulging leather bag. Red, white, and black cloth had been plaited together to make a sturdy rope of sorts. The rope might’ve been twice as long as Clyn was tall, and the colors which swirled together symbolized aspects of marriage.

Poor Merin, he watched the seer closely, but he had no idea what was coming. He wasn’t going to be happy about this.

Neither was she.

Rafal chanted in an ancient language only a handful of Turis remembered. Bela understood not a word. As the seer chanted, he gradually herded Bela and Merin closer together. He flicked his fingers, which were wet with some fragrant substance, at them both. One drop caught Merin on the lip and he sputtered, making Bela smile for a brief moment.

Rafal shouted one curt, ugly word at the unhappily married couple and did an unpleasant shimmy. His eyes rolled back in his head. Then he took one end of the rope and wrapped it around Merin’s waist. Rafal skipped once, he hopped and turned around, and then he tied a sturdy knot. He then presented himself to Bela, who sullenly but obediently raised her arms. The other end of the braided rope was tied loosely to her waist. About half the rope was used in circling her and Merin’s waists and forming the knots, which meant a mere six or seven feet separated her and Merin.

Great.

Then the little old man, who was significantly shorter than Bela and much shorter than Merin, planted himself before them and tilted his head back so he could look them in the eye. His arms rose slowly, palms up.

“A husband and a wife sometimes grow apart. They drift. They become strangers. They forget to appreciate all that the other does in the name of their union, day after day.”

Merin pursed his lips but remained silent. A muscle in his jaw clenched.

“For the next twenty-two days and twenty-two nights, you two will be linked by this cord, which symbolizes all that marriage is. When one toils, the other will assist. If one becomes ill, the other will tend. Every burden will be shared, as will every joy.”

“I’m supposed to stay bound to Bela for
twenty-two days
?” Merin shouted.

“Yes,” Rafal said calmly. “If either of you removes the rope I have used to bind you, there will be no dissolution of the marriage.”

“Traveling like this is going to be a nightmare,” Merin said under his breath.

Rafal shook a bony finger at the general. “Oh, no, you may not travel. The termination proceedings must be well supervised, and when the time is done, those who witnessed the knotting of this rope will also witness the severing of it. Until that time arrives, you will remain bound together.”

The general did not look so pretty at this moment. There was a mighty crease between his dark eyes, and a grimace on his fine lips. “Are you telling me that if we untie ourselves for any reason, we have to start the twenty-two days all over again?” he asked, obviously annoyed and bordering on horrified.

“No,” Rafal answered. “If the link is undone, you cannot attempt to dissolve the marriage for another three years. Then, as long as there are no children of the union, you will be free to try again.”

LEYLA
had checked the contents of her two large bags twice, and she’d said her good-byes to most of the servants in her employ. She’d had her last argument with her grown stepson, Wybert. She would miss the servants much more than she’d miss Wybert Hagan, who was her only family. She had no close friends in Childers, but she’d said farewell to those few acquaintances who might miss her now and then. It had not been her imagination that many of them were eager to be rid of her. Some were openly relieved.

Coming to Childers nearly fifteen years ago had been a horrible mistake. Marrying a wealthy man old enough to be her father, enduring a loveless marriage, and then watching him die slowly had been a mistake. If she mentally listed all her mistakes, she’d be here all day, and the traveling party was set to begin their journey after the midday meal.