Bones of the Dragon - Margaret Weis [108]
A hush fell over them. Customarily, Draya would have been escorted into the grove by her father or another male relative. She had no male relatives now living, however, and she had asked Sven to serve as her escort.
Sven walked ahead of Draya, carrying a sword that was the bride’s traditional gift to the groom. Skylan had eyes more for the sword than for his future wife. Whereas the sword a groom gives his bride is ancestral, the sword a bride gives the groom is supposed to be newly forged.
Admittedly Draya had not had time to have one specially made for her husband, but she could have purchased or bartered a sword from a clansman. Skylan glanced at Draya as she walked behind her escort, and he was amazed to see she wore her hair unbound, as a maiden would do on her wedding day.
Draya’s pale hair was long and fell about her shoulders. She wore the traditional crown woven of sweet-smelling grasses adorned with flowers. Her cheeks were flushed. She looked pleased and happy. Skylan trusted he and she would get on well together.
We will, he decided, so long as she leaves me alone and does not interfere with my plans.
Skylan studied the sword. Sven stood opposite Skylan. As Skylan eyed the weapon critically, he met Sven’s gaze. Sven looked very stern and grave, as befitted his solemn duty as escort. He could see Skylan’s interest in the sword, and the older warrior must have known what Skylan was thinking. Sven slightly altered his grip on the sword’s hilt so that Skylan could get a good view of it.
Seeing Skylan’s frown, Sven gave a half smile and a small shrug and said softly, “It will look well hanging on your wall, lord.”
The sword, with its jeweled hilt, was a lovely thing, but swords weren’t meant to be lovely. Skylan could tell from looking at it that it would not go two rounds with an enemy before breaking. He suppressed his disappointment, reminding himself that he was now wealthy enough to commission his own sword, have one made to his liking.
Draya came to stand at his side. A Bone Priestess came forth to conduct the ceremony. Skylan was startled and displeased to see it was Treia. Draya smiled meaningfully at him as Treia came to stand before them, and he realized that she had selected Treia as a compliment to him and his clan.
Treia conducted the joyous ceremony with a chill formality that left everyone gasping, as though they’d been doused with icy water. Usually the wedding would have begun with the formal conclusion of negotiations between the families for the dowry, the bride-price, and so forth. Since this was not an arranged marriage between families, none of that was necessary. Skylan obtained the lands and property in the lord city of Vindraholm that were designated for the Chief of Chiefs. Draya, as Kai Priestess, had her own wealth, though most of it was bound up in the Kai.
Treia began by calling the attention of the gods to the ceremony. She did this in a condescending tone that implied she would be astonished beyond measure if the gods actually responded. Taking a bundle of sage, she dipped it in mead and then splashed the mead on Draya, then on Skylan. She next splashed mead on the bride’s party and then on the groom’s. In ancient times, the liquid would have been blood from a sheep or some other animal that had been sacrificed to Torval. That practice was now considered barbaric and had been outlawed.
Skylan began to blink. Treia had flung the mead into his eyes, and it stung. Treia, having called upon the gods to be witness to the couple’s union, now turned her unfocused gaze on Skylan. He knew a moment’s panic. She was waiting for him to say or do something, but he couldn’t remember what.
Garn bumped Skylan’s hand so that it brushed against the hilt of his sword, and Skylan remembered. He drew the ancestral sword and, holding it by the blade, presented it hilt-first to his bride.