70 Calay, Main Aidenist Kirk
The preparations for Mateo's wedding day were more complex and grandiose than the plans for a large battle. Once Queen Anjine assigned her protocol ministers to the job, Mateo found the decisions taken entirely out of his hands. Vicka Sonnen didn't know what had happened either; she'd been surprised when he asked her to marry him in the first place, but she never imagined the uncontrolled hurricane that the wedding ceremony would become.
“It does us no good to fight against the queen's commands,” he told her, good-humored and resigned. He found it odd that Anjine talked very little about her own wedding; she seemed more interested in his.
Vicka's father was delighted, though a bit confused, when she told him about the impending nuptials. For months, he had remained oblivious to the attraction between the two, never imagining Mateo's true reasons for his frequent visits. Ammur Sonnen was a man who took things at face value. Now the blacksmith didn't understand the need for such complex wedding preparations, or for the tailors who continually drew him away from his forge so he could be measured for garments that befitted the father of the bride. Ammur was distressed that his output of swords and armor decreased noticeably.
Prester-Marshall Rudio consulted with Mateo and Vicka in his high-ceilinged offices inside the main kirk. In his service to the queen, Mateo had already met the old religious leader several times, but Vicka was so in awe of Rudio that she could barely stammer a few words in the man's presence. Mateo teased her as they walked out of the kirk offices. “I've never seen you speechless in front of someone.”
She just looked at him with her large brown eyes. “Pinch me, so that I can be sure this is all real.”
“There'll be time enough to pinch you later. For the time being, we have to maintain a certain sense of propriety.”
When the day finally came for the service, Mateo looked dashing in his military dress uniform, complete with his high rank insignia as well as marks from the Tierran navy. He and Vicka had rehearsed the ceremony with other presters, who guided them through the motions, preparing them for what Prester-Marshall Rudio would do. Mateo felt like a game piece being moved around a game board, but when he looked at Vicka and saw how happy she was, he had no regrets at all.
Now in the giant, crowded kirk, he walked forward, accompanied by Marshall Vorannen of the city guard, who stood up for him. As the successor to Mateo's father in the royal guard, Obertas would have been a more appropriate choice to stand beside the groom, but Prince Tomas and the royal cog had not yet returned from their procession along the coast.
With appropriate fanfare, Mateo stood at the center of attention near the great altar, where the shining half-horn of the ice dragon rested in its cradle. Among the audience in the kirk, he recognized the grinning faces of friends and comrades, ship captains, army commanders. He felt swept away by the day.
Before the ceremony started, Queen Anjine entered with her retinue of handmaidens and retainers. She was dressed in her finest gown, her golden-brown hair piled up beneath a jeweled tiara. Anjine wore an expression of complete joy. Just looking at her gave Mateo a pang; he had never realized how stunning she was. She smiled at him with more friendship than formality as she took her seat in the reserved front row on his side of the kirk.
However, from the moment Vicka glided forward in a shower of white lace, with tiny white flowers adorning her hair, Mateo could see her and only her. Wearing a gold necklace and earrings that sparkled with jewels, she walked with one hand on her father's muscular arm, the other carrying a glad spray of sweet-smelling blossoms.
Before he realized it, she was next to him, her gaze riveted to his. She whispered, “I didn't know you could be so dashing. Are you sure you're the man I agreed to marry?”
“Are you sure you're the woman I proposed to? You're so beautiful, you take my breath away!” They seemed tied together, like a ship bound to a dock. The two faced each other in front of the altar, and the prester-marshall pointedly cleared his throat to see if they were done chatting. Vicka blushed.
The audience fell silent as the old man read a long passage from the Book of Aiden. Other town presters had better speaking voices, but Rudio was the head of the Aidenist church. Mateo stole a nervous glance backward at Anjine, feeling strangely embarrassed. He wondered how he was going to feel several months hence, when it was his turn to sit dutifully in the kirk while Anjine took wedding vows with Jenirod.
Then he returned his attention to Vicka, scolding himself. He loved Vicka; he loved everything about her. She was beautiful, smart, independent, not at all shy, and ready to be his equal. She was almost everything he wanted… and she could do nothing to alleviate her lone failing, that she was not Anjine.
Prester-Marshall Rudio prayed, blessed the couple, then began a long, rambling sermon that drew parallels between the tale of Sapier and the fishhook, and how love could bind hearts together.
As the church leader continued to talk, a man entered the back of the kirk, dressed in a courier's uniform. Keeping to the side of the main chamber, he did his best to be unobtrusive, darting to the front benches, where he knelt next to the queen. Despite his attempts to be quiet, all eyes turned to the man. Rudio droned on without interruption. When the courier whispered to Anjine, her face darkened. She rose, as did her retinue, quietly filing to the side and exiting with as little fuss as possible.
On the dais next to Mateo, Marshall Vorannen tensed, obviously wanting to hear the news, but Prester-Marshall Rudio didn't seem to notice. Vicka squeezed Mateo's hand tightly, and his heart sank as he saw Anjine go. Rudio caught their attention again and handed each a large symbolic fishhook, plated with gold, four inches long. “With these, you join yourselves together.”
Vicka and Mateo linked the hooks and pulled them tight. The action forced them to face each other once more, and when he saw his bride again, his concerns faded away. His wife. Then the word was given, and he found himself leaning forward to kiss her. Ignoring all politics and other concerns, Mateo simply let himself be swept along with the celebrations.