Page 32 of The Scattered Bones

“I know.” He caressed my cheek with hesitant fingers. His expression was filled with nerves, and I noticed how flushed he was.

“Are you well?” My hand flew to his forehead to test his skin, but he caught my fingers and brought them to his lips.

“I am.” He kissed my knuckles. “I should stay away, but Sellah, my goddess, there’s something I want to do. Something we won’t have time for once we flee Szent.” He released my hand and cupped my face in his calloused palms. “Once we escape, we’ll always be on the run, looking over our shoulders. We may find sanctuary in the presence of a lesser but sympathetic god, but it’s not a life I would have chosen to give you. It’s the only one I can, though, so I’ll embrace every hardship with gladness. Our first months together will be filled with fear and struggles. We won’t have time for what I wish to do. We’ll weave through humanity, becoming new people, and losing all traces of this life. I cannot wait to live the rest of my days with you, but I need to do this right. So, will you climb with me one last time to our roof?”

I nodded, wondering what he had in mind, but I followed without question. He’d tell me when he was ready, and his urgency told me to be patient. The climb took longer than usual since we had to avoid the constant patrols, but we eventually reached the roof. The moon bathed us in her ethereal light. The crisp harvest air brushed against our skin, and I shivered at the coolness.

“Most travel to their temples to recite their vows, but we can’t. The gods aren’t bound by flesh and blood or stone, though, so while it’s tradition to pledge this at their altar, some still speak their promises in the old way.” Kaid smiled nervously, taking both of my hands in his, and I stared at him with curiosity. “Before the birth of mankind, two deities fell so in love they forsook their own names, choosing to be called by one name instead.” My heart stumbled in my chest when I realized what vows Kaid was referring to. “Elskere, the wed gods, became husband and wife under the moon’s light in that first age. They vowed their undying love with both their words and bodies, with only the heavens as their witnesses. Centuries later, they are still one, still lovers, and all who wish to marry journey to their shrines. But there are those who still wed below the moon and stars with both their words and bodies, praying for Elskere to bless their union.” Kaid paused, as if to gather his strength, and then he reached out, brushing a thumb over my cheek. It was only when his skin touched mine that I realized I was crying.

“Sellah, my best friend, my entire soul, marry me? When we flee this place, I want it to be as husband and wife. I want to wed you in the name of Elskere and make you mine until death claims me.” A tear rolled down his cheek, and I leaned forward, capturing it with a kiss.

“I’m already yours,” I whispered against his skin. “Of course, I’ll marry you.”

Kaid wrapped me in his arms, almost strangling the breath from me.

“I’ve never seen a wedding,” I said between suffocated breaths, and he loosened his relieved grip.

“I have,” he said. “I know the words, but even if I didn’t, I don’t think Elskere cares how we say it. They abandoned their first names to become one. No one remembers what they were called before they joined, not even the gods. I trust they only care if those evoking their blessing have the same fierce love they do.”

“They already know I love you like that,” I said, and Kaid kissed me, unable to stop himself. When we finally broke apart, I was breathless and panting, yet so full of bliss.

“Come.” He knelt in the moonlight, pulling me down before him, and clasped both of my hands in his. “Are you ready?”

“Marry me, Kaid.”

“Elskere, I call upon you to bless my vows,” he said with a smile bright enough to challenge the sun, and then he nodded at me.

“Elskere, I call upon you to bless my vows,” I repeated.

“I am your humble servant Kaid.”

“I am your humble servant Sellah.”

“And from this day until the end of my days, I forsake that name so that I might be called husband.”

“From this day until the end of my days, I forsake that name so that I might be called wife.”

“As you became one, so will I become one with Sellah.”

“As you became one, so will I become one with Kaid.”

“With your blessing, my love for her will be unending.”

“With your blessing, my love for him will be unending.”

“In the name of Elskere, Sellah, you are my wife, my love, my present, and my future. I reject all others for you, and I pledge my body, my soul, and my being to you and only you.”

“In the name of Elskere, Kaid, you are my husband.” I paused, trying to recall the vow, and Kaid mouthed the rest of the oath with me.

“With this kiss, Elskere.” Kaid released my hands and cupped my jaw, his face never so beautiful as it was under the moonlight as we wed. “I seal our vows.”

He kissed me, and my arms wound around his waist as I poured all my love into our embrace. I meant every word of our promise. Kaid was my husband, and I was his wife, and as we married beneath the moon, a strong wind blew through Szent, extinguishing every torch in the city. As the world plunged into darkness, I pulled at my new husband’s shirt. Elskere had blessed us with this blackness, I was certain of it. It would take time to relight every torch and fire, granting us perfect secrecy. No one would see us as Kaid and I completed the vows of our words and began the vows of our bodies.

Ten

Iwake with a scream on my lips as my brain registers the agony radiating from my right thigh, and with shaking muscles, I struggle to sit up. My strangled cry is inhuman at the sight, for the outside of my thigh is ripped open and pumping blood onto the stone. The crimson pool spreads alarmingly fast, and I yell as my fingers force my gaping flesh together.

I’m sitting on the hidden path, but I must have hit a protrusion as I fell, blacking out temporarily as the stone sliced through my leg. The wound is deep. Too deep, and my shaking hands don’t slow the blood spurting from my veins. This wound will kill me, and I already feel the effects of the blood loss. I’ve nothing in my pack to stop the bleeding, and even if I did, there’s no way I could climb on this ruined leg. My vision blurs, unable to focus on my weak fingers failing to pinch my flesh closed, and my cries echo off the edge of the world. I didn’t even find him. If I must die, I want to hold a part of him, but I’m alone, always alone. I have been since the day I was born, kept separate and untouched until him. I guess it’s my fate to perish lonely, too.

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