Dari knew the moment the crowd left that word had been spread all over Eyrie. People from the far reaches of Dyn Ross to the borders of Dyn Mab and beyond had to be talking about the flight of the Sabor—and they spoke not only of the gryphons in the sky, but how they heralded a strange wedding at Stone on Judgment Day, in the midst of a war.
Dari treasured the next quiet days and nights she spent with her new husband in a private cottage amongst the sheltered, anonymous, with no concerns save for attention to their meals, and to each other. Those were the most peaceful and hopeful moments she had ever known, perfect but for Kate’s absence in her life, and the fact that she had those days only to give time for word of her marriage to reach hostile armies.
She loathed having to rise the morning of the fifth day, eat her breakfast quickly as Nic drank a large dose of elixir to help him with the rigors of travel, and prepare for their departure. Nic, however, remained as steady and positive as he always did, and Dari allowed his buoyant mood to sustain her.
Before the sun finished rising, Darielle Ross-Mab rode forth from Triune with her husband, who had donned the dark ruby robes befitting an heir of Dyn Mab. They traveled between Lord Cobb, Lord Ross, and their personal Guard regiments, and a small group of Stone Brothers and Sisters that included Aron, Stormbreaker, and Snakekiller. Merchants stood at the sides of the outer byway as they passed, and some released messenger passerines before the rear guard even cleared the main gate and keep. Soon, everyone from Can Rowan in Dyn Mab to Can Elder in Dyn Ross would be wondering about the quiet, newly banded young man traveling beside his bride, under the banners of Dyn Ross, Dyn Cobb, and Dyn Mab.
It was something, the goodfolk would be saying.
A union of Ross, Cobb, Mab, and Stone—did you see?
I heard one of the Stones used to be a Brailing—and that other boy, the one who looks like he had an accident—he must have Mab blood.
That girl, the one wearing those scandalous breeches and tunic like a man—she has to be a Ross. And she’s traveling under protection from Lord Ross! What does that tell you?
“Do you sense it?” Nic asked her, edging his mount closer to hers as they traveled upward on the byway, moving slowly out of the valley that cradled Triune. His speech was slurred from the elixir. “A wedding on Judgment Day, and now this. I can almost feel the air humming with rumors and reports. We couldn’t have attracted more notice if we had released a thousand flocks of passerines.”
“We pretty much did that,” Dari said as another few passerines streaked past them. “The whispers will fly with the speed of birds on the wing.”
The thought scared her and made her proud.
The armies would know that their quarry had departed Triune, and that they were moving east at some speed, in the direction of the combined Altar and Brailing forces marching south to meet them. Mab’s armies might join the fray, as scouts placed them not a day’s ride from the main portion of the Altar and Brailing warriors.
As for the Thorn Guild traitors and their stolen children, or Canus the Bandit and his rogue army, Dari couldn’t begin to imagine where they might be, or what they might do with this information. She turned her attention back to riding beside Nic and savoring the weight of the simple crystal band at her ankle. So long as they both lived, the new bands would keep them joined. She would always be able to find him, and he would always be able to find her.
When Nic smiled at her, Dari wondered why it had taken her any time at all to understand that he was her destiny. Had she known, as Aron had known, but just refused to acknowledge it in her heart until Nic came to her room, flushed and breathless and stammering out his feelings? At least then it had been clear to her that she belonged with him, that Nic brought her a contentment and wholeness she found with no one else, not even her family, or her lost twin. Dari wished the world could fall away from them, and she could go back to doing nothing but spending time with Nic.
“Soon,” he said, as if reading her