After the end of the war and the shift in the world’s religions, Queen Anjine had many loose ends to tie up while she and her functionaries also planned for her grand wedding to Mateo Bornan.
Criston Vora insisted that the queen need not trouble herself with the formalities of rewarding him, but she insisted. She sent a royal summons to him and the thirty remaining members of his crew, and they dutifully gathered at Calay Castle, whose turrets had been bedecked with ribbons and streamers. Well-dressed merchants, destrars and representatives from all the five reaches were arriving for the wedding. Even so, Queen Anjine found time to bring Criston and the Dyscovera sailors into the throne room.
City guard captain Vorannen had already given each sailor a large purse of coins, twice the payment they were originally promised. In addition, Anjine sent her tailors to see that each crewman had a new set of clothes for the occasion.
The fidgeting and nervous seamen now stood behind their captain, looking up at the throne. Criston bowed to the queen. He had come here many years ago with ship models and plans, proposing to build the Dyscovera so he could continue his voyages of exploration. That seemed so long ago, in a different world, and he had been a different person.
“Captain Criston Vora, we welcome you and your crew back to Tierra and give you your gratitude for all the discoveries you have made. This is a most unexpected joy.”
He bowed farther. “Thank you, Majesty.”
She signaled him to rise. “King Korastine sent you on a quest to find Terravitae. That was his longtime dream, and you accomplished it. I wish he could have lived to see this day.” Anjine gave him a bittersweet smile. “You have done everything we asked of you. Name your reward, Captain, and as queen of Tierra I will grant it. What do you desire most—a chest full of gold coins? Lands? A title?”
Criston had not considered any reward beyond the generous payment she had already given him. In a very real sense, the Dyscovera and his quest had brought him back to life, saved him from the emptiness that had smothered him for years. He straightened, though, as the answer occurred to him. “What would please me most, Majesty, is another ship.”
During the weeks of the queen’s wedding preparations, Soldan-Shah Omra dispatched emissaries from Ishalem, whom Anjine welcomed. Ur-Sikara Kuari herself accompanied Prester Ciarlo to the great city of Calay. Ciarlo had already been designated the next prester-marshall—after all, the Traveler himself had befriended him.
He and Kuari preached in the square before the main Aidenist kirk, then walked through the streets of Calay in a great procession, spreading the word. By order of the soldan-shah, and following the wishes of Urec as spoken by the ur-sikara herself, they addressed any remaining ra’virs who still hid among the Tierrans. Kuari raised her voice and spoke to all the Tierran faces in the crowds, telling them to put aside their training, relinquish their missions, and plan no more harm to Calay or any other Tierran city.
“That time is past,” Kuari shouted in the main square. “The Teacher is no more. You served Urec in the best way you thought possible, but Ondun Himself has given you a new mission. Live your lives as who you are, with no more secrets, no more retribution.”
When she delivered the message, Ciarlo didn’t expect indoctrinated young men and women to appear out of the crowd and reveal themselves as ra’virs who had lived in Calay all this time. He hoped, at least, that the hidden saboteurs would quietly go about their true lives, and no one need be the wiser.
Nevertheless, the ur-sikara’s words were powerful and compelling; to Ciarlo, they demonstrated that the world had changed in a fundamental way.
By the queen’s order, the wedding itself took place with a minimum of confusion and contradictions. The event would be like salve on a painful wound for the people of Tierra—and then the healing could begin.
Enifir fussed over Anjine for hours on the day of the wedding, primping the queen’s dress and hair, coloring her lips and eyelids, adding a wreath of flowers instead of a crown. “The people need this as much as you do, Majesty. Please be patient.” She tucked an imagined loose strand of Anjine’s hair under the floral wreath.
Anjine had heard that a bride-to-be was supposed to be nervous on her wedding day, but she was entirely content. With or without her handmaiden’s fussing, she had to admit that she felt beautiful and, beyond that, truly happy. She felt the baby inside her, strong and growing.
Loud bells rang out from the highest tower of the main kirk, accompanied by the brassy songs of bells in the other kirks throughout Calay.
When she and her procession made their way to the kirk, walking through the main doors and marching down the grand aisle, Anjine looked ahead to the altar. The split horn of Raathgir had been restored to its stand, but she concentrated only on the dashing and handsome figure of Mateo waiting for her.
Fully healed now, he wore a formal military uniform without rank insignia or medals. His service was well respected, as was that of all the soldiers of Tierra, but the provocative glories of the long and bloody war were best kept safely locked away. Mateo grinned at her just as he had as a young boy.
The people in the crowded kirk rose to their feet as the queen passed. Anjine saw Ammur Sonnen in the front row, his eyes filled with tears and a wistful smile on his face. The big blacksmith showed no anger or resentment, only a genuine pleasure to see the queen and Mateo being wed.
Prester Ciarlo and ur-Sikara Kuari stood together at the altar, with the ancient leather-bound book between them, the Captains’ Log, the new Book of Aiden and Urec that Captain Vora had retrieved from Terravitae. They had opened the tome to passages with which they were only just now becoming familiar. The two had agreed on verses that would be appropriate for the queen’s wedding ceremony.
When Anjine and Mateo stepped up to the altar together, the two religious leaders held out the silver-and-gold chains, interlocked fishhooks and fern spirals, one linked to another. Ammur Sonnen himself had crafted the intricate new chains of their wedding bond, following the special new design that Kuari and Ciarlo had created.
Amid the background noise of fanfare and applause, Anjine heard Mateo mutter just for her, “I hope they don’t go on too long. I am very anxious to be married to you.”
She smiled at him. “I gave them explicit instructions to be brief.”
Ciarlo and Kuari opened the ceremony by each reading a verse from the new book, then they directed Anjine and Mateo to link their delicate chains, fishhook and fern.
The couple spoke the sincere vows they had crafted together, but from that point, it was all just words, for in their hearts, Anjine and Mateo had been married for a very long time.