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  Warlock's Last Ride

  ( Warlock in Spite of Himself - 13 )

  Christopher Stasheff

  Cristopher Stasheff

  Warlock's Last Ride

  Warlock in Spite of Himself - 13

  Prologue

  THE CONCERT MASTER WAVED HIS BOW TO TIE up the last note, and the orchestra fell silent. Then the organ began its murmur, stumbling now and then, causing Rod to bite his lip.

  Gwen placed her hand over his. "Patience, husband. The musician had other matters arising in his life than practicing these pieces you brought him."

  "Considering he'd never seen anything remotely like Bach before, I suppose he's not doing a bad job," Rod admitted.

  They stood at the back of the cathedral in Runnymede, waiting for their entrances.

  "Think instead upon how well our sons look."

  Rod looked up at the three tall young men standing at the side of the sanctuary, his sons and their lifelong friend the crown prince, resplendent in cloth-of-gold doublets and gleaming white hose. It had been difficult prying Gregory out of his usual monk's robe for the occasion, but Gwen had prevailed. At the thought, the scene blurred, and he saw Gregory as he had been before he fell in love with Allouette and went on a crash course of bodybuilding: thin and pale, seeming almost anemic.

  Then the three young men came back into focus, and Rod marveled how much the lad looked like his muscular brother, though Gregory was still brown-haired and Geoffrey golden.

  As his brother Magnus had been when he was small…

  Gwen's hand touched his arm, rested there in reassurance. "I would he were here, too, husband, healed and beside them—but we must settle for three rings, not four."

  Rod covered her hand with his own, still marveling at how clearly she could read his mind—even without using her telepathic powers. "Just so he's healed some day, dear—and this certainly is reason enough to set my heart singing."

  Nonetheless, the old anger awoke and burned—anger at Finister, the woman who had not merely broken Magnus's heart with her ferociously powerful psi powers, but mangled it, then done so again and again in different guises. As always, though, he schooled himself to forgive, for her malice had been the result of systematic brainwashing and emotional abuse by her foster parents—agents of the futurian enemies of the royal family who sought to forge Finister into a weapon to be used against the Crown and its main support, the Gallowglass family, and had succeeded far too well—but Cordelia and Geoffrey had been proof against her plots, and Gregory, though he had fallen in love with her, had still managed to defend himself against her. Gwen, seeing his despair and knowing how deeply her execution would scar him, had examined the woman's mind in depth, seen the sweet child buried under all the machinations, found the kernel of goodness that could be nourished into health, and in a marathon, exhausting night of telepathic psychotherapy, had healed her well enough to let her see the world as it really was, to cast off the false personality her tormentors had grafted onto her and, at last, discovered the name given her as a baby—Allouette.

  Gregory knew it would be a life's work helping her to develop her own true personality, but had already made great strides—so great that she had finally been willing to wed him publicly, even side by side with his brother and sister, instead of being forever content with the quiet, almost furtive, ceremony performed by a monk in a tiny village.

  Trying to put the thought aside as unworthy, Rod looked around at the assemblage gathered in the cathedral, what he could see of it from the rear. The nobility of Gramarye filled the pews—with one very notable absence. Sadness tugged at him.

  Gwen noticed. "What sorrow?"

  "That the whole family isn't here," Rod said. "Alain's uncle and cousin should be watching him marry."

  "Aye, but an attainted traitor cannot come nigh the Crown." The thought was the one shadow on a glorious day.

  Rod saw, and was sorry he'd brought up the issue. "Maybe the kids will be able to make peace even if their parents can't, dear."

  Gwen smiled at the thought, then turned all her attention toward the central doorway of the cathedral, waiting for the brides.

  Guards lined the central doorway and the path to it, as much to keep the common folk from blocking the way as to protect the brides. The commoners clustered at the other two doorways, eager for a sight of their future king and queen. Shafts of colored light filled the air above them, a shifting array of colors from the stained glass windows along the sides of the nave and the great rose window above the choir loft. The noblemen and their wives seemed to vie with one another for the glory and extravagance of their costumes, shifting restlessly now and then, hungry for a sight of the brides.

  So was Rod.

  Anxiously, he scanned the three young men waiting eagerly and apprehensively at the stairs to the altar, then turned to look back into the recesses of the foyer. "We shouldn't have left the girls to dress themselves!"

  "They have three maids apiece to help them, husband," Gwen said sternly. "We brought them here, after all. We can allow them some measure of independence." Nonetheless, she was tense enough herself—poised, no doubt, to dash to answer a daughter's call, to resolve last-minute misgivings.

  Then the organ broke from Bach and stilled. The orchestra began again, a joyous but stately promenade, as the queen herself stepped down the aisle escorted by her younger son, Prince Diarmid. She was spectacular in embroidered silk, but wore only a few gems, her notion of not outdoing the brides. She paced the length of the aisle in stately fashion, stepped into the larger of the two carved and gilded chairs by the altar, and sat as her son went on to stand beside his childhood friend Gregory—interesting that he was best man for his friend instead of his brother, who had to make do with the young Duke of Savoy.

  It should have been Magnus ...

  Rod threw off the thought and turned to watch as the bridesmaids came down the aisle like a train of spring flowers, all members of Quicksilver's former outlaw band—and needed, for Quicksilver, Cordelia, and Allouette would all have served as each others' maids of honor, if they hadn't been marrying at the same ceremony.

  Then came the ring bearer, proud of his place at seven years old and carrying the satin cushion as though it were the crown itself; after him came five girls of the same age, strewing rose petals. As they came to the head of the aisle, their mothers steered them toward the altar.

  Then ten trumpeters brought their long straight horns to their lips, and the fanfare flared out over the crowd. As its strains died, the organ pealed out the opening notes of the "Wedding March." and there they came, a trio of veiled young women in shimmering white, Cordelia in the center and a little ahead. Rod knew her by the way she walked, the way she held herself, by the hundred and one little signs he and Gwen had learned over the years of rearing her. Behind and to her right, Quicksilver marched with head held high, almost defiantly. To the left, Allouette matched her pace, but with a diffident, hesitant stride, seeming almost to question by her very carriage whether she deserved to be there.

  Rod erased that doubt from his own mind as he fell in beside his daughter, beaming down at her, then over her head at Gwen as she took Cornelia's other arm. They exchanged a brief glance that made the rest of the world seem to go away for a moment. Then, resolutely, Gwen turned to pace the aisle with her daughter.

  Rod lifted his head as the "Wedding March" filled the cathedral, albeit with a few small errors that he was sure only he noticed. With avid eagerness, the nobility turned for a glimpse of their future queen.

  In stately procession, the three young women paced down the aisle, bouquets clutched tightly in their hands, Quicksilver flanked by her mother and little sister, no
w almost as tall as she; each seemed awed and awkward despite her finery, shooting anxious glances at the grand people about them, for they were, after all, only a squire's wife and daughter, and unused to such pomp and ceremony.

  Allouette had no one but Gregory—they had never managed to find her true parents, from whom she had been kidnapped as an infant—so beside her came the king himself, Tuan Loguire, for, ever quick to prevent embarrassment when he could, he had claimed the right of escort as her liege lord.

  Quickly Rod faced front again, trying to give some reassurance of his own by his mere presence. Cordelia walked with head erect, with pride, but he could feel her hesitance.

  Then the young men stepped out to the center of the sanctuary, and Cordelia almost stopped, staring at Alain's magnificence. Rod gave the lad a glance, saw his eyes wide in amazement at the most beautiful sight of his life, and with a covert smile urged his daughter forward. Up the steps they went, up to Alain, who proffered his arm with a look that said he wasn't worthy.

  Privately, Rod agreed, of course—no man could be good enough for Cordelia. But he knew she was really in love with the prince and had decided not to hold his royal blood against him. Not without reservations of his own, Rod let her walk from his arm and Gwen's, to take Alain's. He stood beside his wife for a moment, drinking in the sight of bride and groom, then held out his arm to Gwen. She laid hers on top of his and turned with him to walk back down the steps to the pew that awaited them. As they entered, she exchanged a tremulous smile with Queen Catharine across the aisle. For a moment, their eyes held, old friends in league again, and Rod would never have believed the dozen confrontations the two women had had, over the details of the wedding, Gwen politely and tactfully holding firm for Cordelia's choices through every one of Catharine's tantrums.

  Then Toby stepped up beside Geoffrey, and Quicksilver's mother joined them in the pew as Tuan took his place beside Catharine in the lesser gilded chair. They turned back to the sanctuary, where the archbishop was coming down from the high altar, resplendent in gold and white of his own—a gilded chausable over a snowy alb, his high-peaked mitre also gilded, so that Rod wondered how the man could hold up his head with all that weight. Maybe he was really leaning on the elaborate crozier, the very ornate shepherd's crook that is a bishop's staff of office. The three couples drew up before him, Cordelia and Alain in the center, Gregory beside Allouette at their left, fairly oozing reassurance, and at the right, Geoffrey offering his arm to Quicksilver, who took it but returned a challenging glance. Her reply was a look of adoration, and she whipped her gaze back to the archbishop, almost totally unnerved.

  Gwen was murmuring to Quicksilver's mother, hand in hand, projecting reassurance of her own. Rod exchanged a glance with Tuan; as one, both smiled, then turned back to the altar.

  The archbishop intoned the old words in a voice that carried through the cathedral. Rod had offered a tiny microphone and public-address system, but the prelate had refused them. Somehow the words blurred in Rod's mind—he could tell only that the archbishop shifted from English to Latin and back—and felt a sudden aching wish that he could have given Gwen a wedding like this. Unfortunately, he had been a wanted man at the time, scarcely daring to show his face in a village church, let alone the cathedral of the royal capital. He squeezed her arm, gazing at her with apology—but she gave him a look that was almost merry, and he knew that she regretted nothing. She might have been married by a wandering monk instead of an archbishop, but she'd had a flower-filled glade instead of a cathedral and a crowd of elves instead of nobility. Her dress had been stitched by a score of elf-wives and had outshone even her daughter's royal gown, and the King of Elves had given her away.

  Rod wondered if, in spite of all his precautions, she had guessed that Brom O'Berin was her father.

  Rod glanced around, wondering if Brom was here to see his grandchildren wed—but there he was by the king and queen, of course, for his elfin nature was secret; they took him for a mortal dwarf, and he who had been jester to Catharine's father had become her privy councilor. Rod knew the gray in his hair was carefully contrived, for Brom, like all elves, would still be living when the rest of them had been a century in their graves.

  He turned back to the altar, determined to banish so melancholy a thought—just in time, for the archbishop had stepped up by Cordelia and was asking, "Who gives this woman to this man?"

  Last-minute panic rose in Rod, but he overrode it to say with Gwen, "My spouse and I!"

  Then the archbishop moved on to Quicksilver and asked again, "Who gives this woman to this man?" and her mother and sister answered, "We do!"

  On the archbishop went to Allouette, who stood rock-firm but with a trembling bouquet, and intoned, "Who gives this woman to this man?" and Tuan and Catharine answered, "As her liege and sovereign, we do!"

  Then the archbishop returned to stand between the line of young women and the line of young men to ask, "Do you, Cordelia, Quicksilver, and Allouette, take Alain, Geoffrey, and Gregory for your lawfully-wedded husbands, for better or for worse, to have and to hold, to love and to cherish, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?"

  Cordelia's answer pealed forth: "I do." Quicksilver answered a beat later, "I do!" Allouette swallowed thickly but glanced at Gregory and froze, her gaze on his as she whispered, "I do."

  Gregory seemed to glow.

  The archbishop turned to the three young men. "Do you, Alain, Geoffrey, and Gregory, take these women Cordelia, Quicksilver, and Allouette, to be your lawfully-wedded wives, for better or for worse, to have and to hold, to love and to cherish, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?"

  Alain stammered, "I do!"

  Geoffrey, his gaze burning through Quicksilver's veil, said, "I do!"

  Gregory, unable to take his eyes away from the veil that hid the face he loved so well, breathed, "I do."

  "Then I now pronounce you husbands and wives."

  The three couples stood, unbelieving, for a few seconds.

  Gently, the archbishop explained, "You may kiss the brides."

  The women lifted their veils, radiant; their husbands stepped close. As their lips touched, twelve trumpets pealed their joy. The archbishop cleared his throat and turned away, taking off his mitre and handing it to an acolyte, then trudging back up the stairs to the high altar to begin the nuptial Mass, as more acolytes brought out six kneelers for the brides and the grooms.

  Either the Mass was short—which Rod doubted, since it was a solemn high Mass—or his time sense had slowed down, making everything a blur; it seemed only minutes until the three couples were standing, the women relaxed and joyful with their veils folded back, and the organ burst forth in Mendelsohn's notes of rejoicing, as the three grooms, laughing and chatting with their brides, descended the stairs to the aisle and fairly floated down that long avenue to the great oaken portal.

  THERE WAS MUCH more, of course—a banquet in the Great Hall of the royal palace for all the nobility; dancing afterwards, with the three young couples leading and Rod having his first waltz with Cordelia since she had grown too big to stand on his toes; the wine flowing freely and the younger nobility becoming rather rowdy, on the verge of bearing the three couples away to a bridal night that would have had spectators—a must for royal weddings in the middle ages, when virginity was vital to be sure the heir was really of the royal line. But at that point, Gwendylon wound her way magically through the throng and assembled all three couples on the dais that held the high table. The bridesmaids and other young women lined up facing them, chattering eagerly, forcing the young men back a little, and the throng began to count: "One … two … three!"

  All three brides tossed their bouquets high, and the young women pushed and shoved to catch them. Then, the ceremony of the garter not having spread to Gramarye, the three young couples waved at their contemporaries, calling their thanks and farewells—and with the resounding of triple firecrackers, disappeared.

  The hall fell silent
for a moment, for even the people of Gramarye were still unnerved by teleportation, or any of the other psi powers they thought of as witchcraft.

  Besides, they'd been robbed of the erotic riot they'd been planning.

  So talk began, gathering anger—but King Tuan stepped forth, smiling with good cheer, hands upheld, and the crowd grew silent. "Each bride has gone with her groom to the love nest each couple has selected," he explained, "but there is wine aplenty and sweetmeats besides, so though they may seek their beds, there is no reason why you should. Musicians, play!"

  A sprightly tune sprang up from the musicians' gallery, and the nobility turned, not without a little grumbling, to the quick steps of the dance. In minutes, they had forgotten their disappointment at having been robbed of their shivaree and were cheering with gladness.

  "It is done, then," Gwen said, her hand on Rod's arm. "We have spirited them away to privacy, thank Heaven!"

  "Not without quite an input of psionic power from their mother," Rod said with a knowing smile.

  "I may have helped in some small way," Gwen admitted. "Lead me back to our place at the high table, husband, for I am rather weary."

  "Not surprising, with months of planning and fixing and defending," Rod said, gazing down at his bride, with a look that echoed those his sons had given their brides. "And capped with a day that must have been the most strenuous of your life."

  Gwen gave a little laugh, then said, "Well, there was that night when Magnus was ten, when he woke with the nightmare, and Gregory had colic and was screaming, and woke Cordelia who joined him, and Geoffrey was determined to have his share of attention …"

  "Yes, but there were two of us to sort that out," Rod said. "This you pretty much had to do alone."

  "Not without a great deal of moral support, husband," Gwen said, with a look that renewed her wedding vows.

  But she stumbled as she climbed the steps to the dais. Rod steadied her with his arm and tried to laugh it off. "More tired than you thought!"