Читать книгу Knight, Heir, Prince - Morgan Rice - Страница 6

Even without every noble in Delos staring at him, Thanos would have felt the nerves of a groom on his wedding day. He stood by the altar that had been set up in the castle’s largest feast hall, and somehow he managed to stand perfectly still – but only because his soldier’s training kept him from showing any fear. Standing out in front of all of them, he could feel his stomach knotting with the pressure of it.

Thanos looked about while awaiting his bride. The feast hall swam in white silk and shone with diamonds, hardly a surface there that didn’t glitter. Even the servants attending the nobles wore clothes that would have shamed most merchants. As for the nobles themselves, today they looked like something out of a bard’s tale, dressed in silk and velvet, dripping with gold and silver.

To Thanos, it was far too much; yet he hadn’t exactly been given a say in it. Delos’s royals had gotten the wedding the king and queen decided they should have, and anything less than perfection would have disappointed his bride. He glanced over and saw them: King Claudius and Queen Athena, sitting together on thrones carved from ironwood and covered in gold leaf. They sat proudly, obviously delighted by his decision to accept their choice of bride.

The high priest, decked in a robe of gold reflecting the rays of the sun, stood beside him. He seemed like a kindly man, and Thanos, feeling more alone than ever, wanted to take him aside and ask him: What do you do when you aren’t sure that you belong somewhere?

Yet he could not.

It wasn’t just that Thanos was nervous about the wedding. It was so many other things as well. There was the fact that back on Haylon, the rebels there were relying on him to help them to free the Empire. That thought brought a flash of determination with it, because he would help them, whatever it took. Yet here he stood in this hall, surrounded by the enemy.

There was also the fact that Lucious was here, standing in the corner, dressed in royal purple and silver, smirking as he eyed the serving girls. Thanos had to fight to keep from walking over there and strangling him with his bare hands.

And then there was the thought that would not let him be:

Ceres.

That brought with it a spike of pain that felt, even now, as though it might burst through his chest. He could still barely believe that she was dead and gone, lost on a prison ship while he’d been on Haylon. Just the thought of that threatened to drag him back toward the darkness that had consumed him when he’d heard the news.

Stephania had pulled him out of that. She’d been the one shining point in it all, the only person in Delos who had brought him any happiness when he had wanted to end it all, when he could not envision a life without Ceres.

It was not that he did not love Stephania; he did. He had come to love her. It was, rather, that he could not let himself forget Ceres. It was as if the two loves still co-existed in his heart. He could not understand it all. Why had Ceres been meant to come into his life only to leave it? Why had Stephania been meant to come into his life at the moment she had? Had Ceres come to him to somehow prepare him to accept Stephania? Or had the two nothing to do with one another?

Music stirred. Thanos turned and his heart caught to see Stephania arrive to the strains of lyre music. His heart beat faster as she walked, all the nobles standing as she went, accompanied by handmaidens who threw rose petals and rang bells to drive away any lingering bad luck. Her dress was a pure, elegant white that made it look as though the whole room had been designed around it. She wore a diamond-studded caul over her golden hair, flowers worked into it with elaborate grace. The veil that covered her face shimmered with silver thread and tiny sapphires that mirrored the shade of the eyes beneath.

Thanos felt his fears melt away.

He watched as she approached, seeming to glide her way through the hall to the altar. She stood before him, and Thanos lifted the veil from her features.

He felt his breath catch. She was always lovely, but today she looked so perfect Thanos could barely believe that she was real. He stood staring at her for so long that he barely heard the priest begin the ceremony.

“The gods have given us many feasts and ceremonies in which to reflect on their glory,” the high priest intoned. “Of these, marriage is the most sacred, for without it there would be no continuation of humankind. This marriage is an especially glorious one, between two of the great nobles of this realm. Yet it is also between a young man and a young woman who love one another deeply, and whose happiness should find a place in all our hearts.”

He paused to let the words sink in.

“Prince Thanos, will you present your arm to be bound to this woman for all time? To love her and honor her until the gods take you from one another, and to see your families made one?”

He’d hesitated before, but now he didn’t. He extended his arm toward the high priest, palm up. “I will.”

“And Lady Stephania,” the high priest continued, “will you present your arm to be bound to this man for all time? To love him and honor him until the gods take you from one another, and to see your families made one?”

Stephania’s smile was the most beautiful thing Thanos had ever seen. She placed her hand in his. “I will.”

The high priest wrapped a length of pure white cloth around and around their arms, the wrapping both traditional and elegant.

“Bound together in marriage, you are one flesh, one soul, one family,” the high priest said. “May you be happy together always. You may kiss.”

Thanos didn’t need to be told. It was awkward, bound together like that, but that was always one of the minor amusements of a wedding feast, and they found a way. Thanos tasted Stephania’s lips against his, melting into her, and for a moment at least, he could put aside all the other concerns in the world and just be there with her. Even thoughts of Ceres faded into the background, consumed in Stephania’s touch.

Of course, Lucious would be the one to break the magic of the moment.

“Well, I’m glad that’s done,” he said over the silence of the crowd. “Can we start the party now? I need a drink!”

***

If the wedding ceremony had been opulent, the feast that followed was spectacular. So much so that Thanos found himself wondering about the cost of it. It looked as though half the profits from the latest raids had gone into it, with no expense spared. He knew that the king and queen were paying, as a way of showing how happy they were about the wedding, but how many families in the city could something like this have fed?

A glance around let him see tumblers and dancers, musicians and jugglers entertaining knots of nobles. Nobles danced together in swirling circles, while food was spread out in what seemed to Thanos like small mountains of pastries and sweetmeats, oysters and rich desserts.

There was wine, of course, enough that as the festivities continued, things grew wilder. The dancing sped up, with people spinning between partners almost faster than Thanos could follow. The king and queen had already retired, along with some of the older nobles, leaving the room. It was like a signal to the partygoers to put aside those inhibitions that remained.

Stephania was currently being whirled around in the traditional farewell dance, where the bride danced quickly between all the eligible young men in the room, before she would head back to Thanos’s arms at the finish. Traditionally, it was a way for the bride to show how happy she was with her choice compared to all she was rejecting. More informally, it gave the young men a chance to show off to any of the other young noble women watching.

To Thanos’s surprise, Lucious didn’t join in the dance. He’d half expected the prince to do something foolish like trying to steal a kiss. Although, compared to the part where he’d tried to have Thanos killed, that would have been relatively innocuous.

Instead, the prince swaggered over while the dance was still in progress, pushing his way through the crowd with casual arrogance as he held a crystal goblet of the finest wine. Thanos looked at him and tried to find any similarity between them. They were both the king’s offspring, but Thanos could never imagine being anything like Lucious.

“It’s a beautiful wedding,” Lucious said to him. “All the things I like best: good food, better wine, plenty of serving girls around for later.”

“Watch yourself, Lucious,” Thanos said.

“I have a better idea,” Lucious countered. “Why don’t we both watch that lovely bride of yours, spinning between so many men? Of course, with it being Stephania, we could have a small wager on which of them she’s slept with.”

Thanos’s hands clenched into fists. “Are you just here to cause trouble? Because if so, you can get out.”

Lucious’s smile widened. “And how would that look, you trying to throw out the heir to the throne from your wedding? That wouldn’t go well.”

“Not for you.”

“Remember your place, Thanos,” Lucious snapped back.

“Oh, I know my place,” Thanos said in a dangerous voice. “We both do, don’t we?”

That got a faint flicker of reaction from Lucious. Even if Thanos hadn’t known it, it would have been confirmation: Lucious knew about the circumstances of Thanos’s birth. He knew they were half-brothers.

“Curse you and your marriage,” Lucious said.

“You’re just jealous,” Thanos countered. “I know you wanted Stephania for yourself, and now I’m the one marrying her. I’m the one who didn’t run away in the Stade. I’m the one who actually fought on Haylon. We both know what else I am. So what’s left for you, Lucious? You’re just a thug the people of Delos need protecting from.”

Thanos heard the crack as Lucious’s hand tightened around his crystal goblet, squeezing until it shattered.

“You like to protect the lesser orders, don’t you?” Lucious said. “Well, think about this: while you’ve been planning a wedding, I’ve been crushing villages. I will continue to do it. In fact, while you’re still in your marriage bed tomorrow morning, I’ll be riding out to teach another bunch of peasants a lesson. And there is nothing you can do about it, whoever you think you are.”

Thanos wanted to hit Lucious then. He wanted to hit him and keep hitting him until there was nothing left but a bloody smear on the marble floor. The only thing that stopped him was the touch of Stephania’s hand on his arm, approaching as her dance ended.

“Oh, Lucious, you’ve spilled your wine,” she said with a smile that Thanos wished he could match. “That won’t do at all. Allow one of my attendants to fetch you more.”

“I’ll get my own,” Lucious replied with obvious bad grace. “They got me this one, and look what happened to it.”

He stalked off, and only the pull of Stephania’s hand on his arm stopped Thanos from following.

“Leave it,” Stephania said. “I told you there are better ways, and there are. Trust me.”

“He can’t just get away with all he’s done,” Thanos insisted.

“He won’t. Look at it this way though,” she said. “Who would you rather spend the evening with? Lucious, or me?”

That brought a smile to Thanos’s lips. “You. Definitely you.”

Stephania kissed him. “Good answer.”

Thanos felt her hand slip into his, pulling him in the direction of the doors. The other nobles there let them pass, with occasional laughs about what would happen next. Thanos followed as Stephania led the way to Thanos’s rooms, pushing the door open and heading in the direction of the bed chamber. There, she turned to him, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him deeply.

“You don’t have any regrets?” Stephania asked, as she stepped back from him. “You’re happy you married me?”

“I’m very happy,” Thanos assured her. “What about you?”

“It’s all I ever wanted,” Stephania said. “And you know what I want now?”

“What?”

Thanos saw her reach up, and her dress fell from her in waves.

“You.”

***

Thanos woke to the first rays of sunlight spilling through the windows. Beside him, he could feel the warm pressure of Stephania’s presence, one of her arms thrown across him as she slept curled against him. Thanos smiled at the love welling up inside him. He was happier right now than he had been in a long time.

If he hadn’t heard the clink of harness and the whinnying of horses, he might have curled up against Stephania again and gone back to sleep, or woken her with a kiss. As it was, he rose, heading over to the window.

He was just in time to see Lucious leaving the castle, riding at the head of a group of soldiers, pennants flying in the wind as if he were some knight-errant on a quest rather than a butcher preparing to attack a defenseless village. Thanos looked out at him, then over at where Stephania was still sleeping.

Silently, he started to dress.

He couldn’t stand by. He couldn’t, not even for Stephania. She’d talked about better ways of dealing with Lucious, but what did they involve? Politeness and offering him wine? No, Lucious had to be stopped, right now, and there was only one way to do it.

Quietly, taking care not to wake Stephania, Thanos slipped from the room. Once he was clear, he ran for the stables, shouting for a servant to bring him his armor.

It was time for justice.