"Then why wait?" Merrill tossed a hand in the air. "We can do it now, in absentia. Honestly, I have no desire to stand here and watch her weep while you force this on her."
"Merrill, this is for her own good," Wlodek declared. "And for the good of the race, as well. Tell me this is not so."
"What is good for the race and good for Lissa are two separate things in this case," Merrill argued.
"She will be treated gently and with care," Wlodek argued back. "I will make sure that Charles is available, whenever possible. Radomir and one of the other Enforcers will accompany them to keep her safe."
"We'll be her jailers," Merrill growled. "We already are, only this will be worse. Are you saying that she'll never have any freedom? That she'll be under the Council's thumb from now on? That all her decisions will be Gavin's to make?"
"I will not be that terrible," Gavin was now growling at Merrill's accusations.
"This argument will stop immediately!" Wlodek thundered. "We will hold the ceremony here and now. Gavin, if you do not already have the ring, you will provide it when she returns. She will be brought to me and I will inform her of what her life will be. She already despises me. Nothing will change in that respect."
"I already have her ring, it is at Merrill's home," Gavin muttered.
"Very well," Wlodek said, reeling his temper in a little. "I declare your marriage to Lissa Beth Workman Huston active, Gaius Livius Montanus, now known as Gavin Montegue, for a period of one hundred years. I expect you to treat her well. My blessings on your union."
Gavin had stood for the pronouncement, and now he bowed deeply to Wlodek. "My thanks, Honored One," he said. Merrill was still frowning and wanted more than anything to speak with Griffin about this, but his friend was not available.
"You do not have anything to say, Titus Marius Merula?" Wlodek glared at Merrill. Merrill hadn't heard his Roman name in a very long time and wasn't sure he appreciated Wlodek using it now.
"What can I possibly say? You have decided; I cannot gainsay it now." Merrill had his arms crossed tightly over his chest. Wlodek knew he was furious. "I know the race must be protected and I have never felt so angry over having to do so. I hope you are prepared for what will come," Merrill handed Gavin a grim look. "She may never smile at you again, unless you place compulsion." He went so swiftly out the door he lifted papers off the desk in a swirl and eddy.
"We will do our best to make her smile," Wlodek said softly. Gavin was staring at the door that Merrill had just flown through in his haste to leave.
"I'll need a ride, Honored One," Gavin turned back to Wlodek. Wlodek nodded.
* * *
"Attack me, Lissa!" Dragon was grinning as we sparred with wooden practice swords.
"Honey, I don't want to hit you," I said.
"If you hit me, maybe I deserve it," his grin widened.
"Unbelievable," I said, blocking his blows. I could see them coming easily.
"Come on; just give me a small attack."
"I sure hope Karzac is in the mood to fix you up," I grumbled and went after him. When I whacked him the second time, he laughed and stopped the bout.
"Until now, only my brother has managed to get a blow in," Dragon said. "Feel up to turning to mist and getting us both home so we can clean up there?"
"Sure," I said. I'd already cleaned the dojo; Dragon had stuck around and rested a little so we could spar. The door was locked up and he'd had an alarm installed the day before. Things with Solar Red were getting a little strange; they were withdrawing from the public for some reason and nobody could figure out why. Perhaps it was because of the legislation that had been drafted condemning the religion, but I wasn't so hopeful that the current political climate was the reason. Yeah, I didn't trust those Solar Red guys. Not at all.
We cleaned up our practice blades and returned them to the racks inside Dragon's office before going to mist and heading home. Karzac was just finishing some sort of stew that Dragon apparently liked; he got a bowl before going to clean up, even. I went to take a shower and drink a little extra blood; I wanted to go pay the temple a visit and see if I could tell what was going on.
"Honey, are you okay?" I asked Karzac when I came out, clean and a little damp around my hair, which was growing out nicely. He was sitting at the kitchen table still, his empty bowl in front of him.
"I am fine, but looking forward to this being over," he said, his green-gold eyes betraying a bit of concern. Dragon was now in the shower after eating two huge bowls of stew. "I never thought that returning to my home world would be so exhausting."
"They just run you ragged, don't they?" I rubbed his back a little. He smiled up at me, and Karzac doesn't smile all that often.
"If we could ask for the M'fiyah, I would certainly consider it," he said.
I had no idea what he was talking about, so I gave him an extra pat. "I'm going to mist over to the temple and see what those red devils are up to," I said. "Go to bed early, doc." I misted away.
* * *
Life is strange, even wondrous at times, but there are days when you experience something so horrible it leaves its mark upon you and the memory lingers, vivid and terrible, for the rest of your days. That's what I witnessed that night. I found a group of perhaps fifty priests, dressed in their finest red robes, gathered around a single man. He looked like a man. He just wasn't—he was Ra'Ak. I could tell by the scent. And he was performing some sort of ritual that would have made me gag if I'd been in solid form.
A Ra'Ak, in humanoid form, still has the long, snaky tongue that they have in their other form—I learned that right away. And he was kissing those priests, one at a time, his tongue going right down their throats and staying there for seconds. Dragon, he's kissing them—the priests, I sent, still trying to quell a non-existent gag reflex.
What? Who's kissing the priests? Dragon's voice came back to me.
A Ra'Ak. He's sliding his tongue down their throats, I returned.
How many priests?
About fifty.
Lissa, the Ra'Ak can only do this if they refrain from manufacturing poison for three weeks. This Ra'Ak is virtually helpless. Do not think him unguarded, though. Be assured there is another there, somewhere. Do not approach him. Come home now. We will deal with this. Dragon wanted me to leave. Honestly, I was glad to—I couldn't stay and watch this much longer. It took a few minutes to get home and I was heaving the moment I came back to myself.