Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 137958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 690(@200wpm)___ 552(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 690(@200wpm)___ 552(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)
This the women had done prior to me arriving. It was part of the ceremony, I’d been told.
No, this wasn’t all so bad.
It was when I saw the squat gilded table at the top that had a bowl of ice, a bowl of clear liquid in which there were several needles, and a number of bright white bandages, I became nervous.
Queen Elpis sat on a cushion at the head of the pedestal, and next to her was Nyx, a Firenz woman I had met that morning, Lorenz’s wife.
Behind the table, Zosime, Guard’s wife, who I had also met this morning, sat on a cushion of her own.
And around the pedestal, all seated on pads, were my mother, Queen Mercy, Farah, Sofia, Ophelia, Elena, Ha-Lah and Elena’s precocious ward, Dora.
I thought perhaps Dora shouldn’t be there, but she was not my ward, so I said nothing.
As I’d been told to do, I walked to the end of the pedestal and Zosime and Nyx rose as I did.
They joined me there and took my hands as they helped me step up on it, turn, and then all the women reached out to assist me as I aimed my behind to the plinth.
Once I was down, I fell back, stretching out.
Apparently, what I lay upon was stone. I knew this because it was hard and not very comfortable, even with all that silk and the petals.
But the pillow was nice.
Nyx and Zosime moved to the head of the pedestal while Elpis arranged my hair over the edge of it, and the minute the two women sat, Queen Elpis started speaking,
“Silence of the Dellish, Countess of the Arbor, betrothed of the King of all Firenze, today you prepare to take the most sacred of vows you’ll ever make. More sacred than those to your father. More sacred than those to your mother. More sacred than those to your children. More sacred than those to your nation. They are the vows you will take in joining with your husband.”
I pressed my lips together and slid my eyes right, catching my mother’s gaze.
She gave me a nervous smile.
I took a deep breath.
“This will be cold, mia figlia,” Elpis murmured.
After she said that, I felt the cold of the ice all along my ear.
“In all,” Elpis continued, “you stand by your husband. In all, you give him your ear. In all,” I saw another hand come toward my face (Nyx’s) and felt the ice held to my nostril, “you give him your thoughts. In all,” another hand was added (Zosime’s) and ice was held to my lip, “you give him your honesty.”
Well then.
That was rather profound.
Not to mention beautiful.
“To remind you these are what makes a strong marriage,” Elpis intoned, “you wear the wedding chain. You wear it daily. You wear it so your husband can see he can share anything with you, and you’ll listen. He can be far away, but he’ll be in your thoughts. And he can count on you telling your truths to him, so he can know your mind.”
Yes.
This was rather beautiful.
“In turn,” Elpis went on, “he will wear his chain as his vow to you to listen, to hold you in his thoughts and to share his soul.”
Oh my.
Very beautiful.
So much so, I might even cry.
“You will take my son’s chain at your wedding, and you will hold it dear. He will take your chain at his wedding, and he will hold it blessed. Until your last breaths, it symbolizes not your union to those who look upon it. But your intimacy toward each other. He will be but yours, and you will be but his, in heart, in mind, in speech, forevermore.”
All right yes.
I might cry.
They’d told me how this would go (though obviously not the words).
But I hadn’t asked if I could show emotion.
Therefore, I held back the tears.
“Do you understand this, Silence of the Arbor?” Elpis asked.
“I do,” I answered, my voice sounding husky.
It was then, Elpis leaned over me and looked into my eyes.
Her thoughts had always been deftly concealed.
And they were right then.
Until they were not, and I saw tenderness sweep in.
“I am glad, mia figlia,” she whispered. “Now you will be pierced. Are you ready?”
Carefully, so as not to disengage the ice held to me, which it must be admitted, was so cold, it was getting uncomfortable, I nodded.
“As this is so, we shall commence,” Elpis told me. “All four. At once. So it will be over quickly.”
I nodded again.
It was then I saw, for the first time, my soon-to-be mother-in-law’s eyes smiling at me.
They disappeared.
The ice disappeared.
I heard the sloshing of liquid.
And then I felt the tips of the needles at upper ear, lobe, nostril and lip.
Faith.
I held steady.
“Lei è coraggiosa.” This came in a whisper, I thought, from Nyx.
She is brave.
How lovely.
I drew in breath when the needles pierced my flesh.