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Between one breath and the next Jeb had the noble raised a foot off the ground with a growl. “You do not speak to or about my lady that way!”
No one moved or spoke as Jeb continued to hold him above the ground.
“Don’t think you understand what I’m saying.” His voice, though level with only a hint of the growl it had started with, seemed to echo around the completely still room. “You,” he shook his captive slightly, “you, yellow-bellied, frog-nosed, puss pocket, do not speak of my lady that way. You are lucky you’re even allowed to breathe the same air as her, you do not speak about her in anything less than polite terms. Are you starting to understand?”
“Commander Cain.” Jeb tilted his head slightly to show he was listening to the queen but didn’t break eye contact with the man he was holding. “I do believe you should put him down.”
“Not till he understands.” Jeb didn’t even hesitate with his answer. “Make it an order if you have to, and I’ll take the punishment.”
“What did he say?” DG demanded somewhere to his right. Jeb’s jaw clenched but he didn’t answer. “Cain, what did that sleaze ball say? Don’t claim up on me now Tinman. I know you heard him.”
“Princess, I wouldn’t call Zero the names he was calling your sister so why would I tell you? Jeb, I don’t think he understands quite yet.”
Jeb grinned at his father’s words and knew he was showing too many teeth. “I was just thinking the same thing.” He removed one of his hands from around the man’s collar, and still holding him aloft, sent a swift jab to his unprotected face. Jeb felt bone crumble under his fist as blood sprayed from the now disfigured nose.
The man grabbed at his face with a cry as Jeb let go causing him to land hard on the unforgiving marble.
“Think that will help him understand?” Jeb asked his father as Cain came up beside him.
“Might. Might even help him remember.” Cain answered Jeb in the same tone he would use for discussing the weather as both men looked down at the noble as he struggled into a sitting position.
“You can’t do this to me!” The noble yelled, holding his face with one hand and using the other to stagger to his feet.
“Think you’ve got your answer son,” Cain told Jeb in the same casual tone. “Seems that he doesn’t understand, and I’m thinking that nose isn’t going to be a very good reminder.”
“I am a noble! My family have been nobility since Queen Dorthey!”
Jeb nodded to his father, ignoring the noble. “Seems he really likes to talk though.”
“I will have your head for this, you commoner scum!”
“Reckon he might remember a might better if he could hear what you’re saying,” Cain told Jeb.
For a second he contemplated that statement before he nodded. “Reckon your right.”
Once again, he struck.
His right hook connected with the man’s jaw, snapping the noble’s head around as for the second time that day Jeb felt bone give way. The noble went down like a bag of bricks and Jeb whipped out a hand to catch his collar, keeping the noble’s head from connecting with the floor. A guttural sound emerged from the noble, his face too distorted from the damage to be capable of forming words.
“Think he can hear me now?” Jeb asked Cain.
“Should even be able to understand you since you kept his head from cracking on the marble.”
“Right then Mr. Noble, I need you to listen real good, 'cause if I have to tell you this again, you are not going to like what happens. You listening?” Jeb waited for his frantic nod then gestured toward where he had left Azkadilla when he had gone after the noble. “That young woman up there, your Crown Princess, is a woman of strength, integrity, and honor. While you were still figuring out how to add and subtract she was already fightin’ the Sorceress. When you abandoned your people, the ones you vowed to protect, she was trying to figure out how to keep as many of her people alive as possible.
“While you cowered she was doing everything she could to trick someone who was powerful enough that the only thing the Ancients could do was trap her, just to keep one more person alive. Every single fight the Resistance fought ended one way or another. We got to breathe, to rest, to remember what it was we were fighting for, that woman up there,” he gestured to Azkadilla again, “didn’t get that. She had to fight every day, every night for fifteen years just to stay sane enough so she could help where she could. She didn’t get a break, she didn’t get a rest.
“The gods don’t have the right to speak a harsh word about her let alone condemn her, and you, you no good slimy sorry excuse of a thinking being, don’t get to say anything about the last fifteen years unless it’s praise for her survival and thankfulness for everything she’s done for this country, and if I ever hear you say anything even remotely like what you said today, I will do much, much worse to you.”
Jeb stood up straight and tall as he looked around at the gathered nobles. “Six and the Unnamed God hear my words, as of this moment I claim Princess Azkadilla’s honor as my own. A slight upon her is a slight upon me.”
“Heard and witnessed,” Cain said from behind him the moment he had finished speaking.
For several seconds there was silence.
“Heard and witnessed.” Jeb glanced over to see Glitch whose fists were clenched at his side even as he stepped forward.
“Raw hear and see. Is witnessed.” Raw’s voice was a rumbling growl from where he stood behind Azkadilla’s seat near the throne.
“Heard and witnessed!” As one every guard sounded off from around the room causing their words to echo and the nobles to move away from the edges of the room where they were stationed.
Silence for a few moments before the sound of boots echoed off the walls as DG walked toward Jeb. He froze, tensing. If she refused, as Azkadilla’s sister and the only other princess of the realm…He couldn’t bear to contemplate that thought. She stopped inches from him, and he saw his father reach for her before stopping and restraining himself before his hand got more than an inch from his side.
For several long moments, she studied him then her magic washed over him.
It was not the light magic he had seen her use with Azkadilla before, it was dark, primal, and spoke to something deep inside of him that had begun to stir in the months since the eclipse since he had first laid his eyes on the real Azkadilla.
The magic was in, over, and through him, as DG spoke, her voice came out as many voices and carried something ageless and dark, older than time, and infante in its vastness, as her eyes changed and became a kaleidoscope of colors that whirled and danced from one corner to corner of each eye. “We have heard your vow Protector, and it has thrice been witnessed, here Us now. The road you have chosen will not be an easy one for you have vowed yourself to Lady Light, and We anoint you now as her Protector and the keeper of her honor. We will awaken the gifts you have been given and restore to you the blessings your family was given as they were when they were first given. Be warned for there is a price for everything and as your gifts are restored so to is the price.”
The magic retreated, leaving him, and DG’s head tilted to one side as if listening to something. “You have a strong defender in Our Lady Night,” the voices finally said. “She has brought to our attention that the vow you made, the vow We have heard, was not meant to tie you to this and that, perhaps, you might one day resent Us or your Lady for what we now do so we ask you now…” The Voices stopped and once more DG’s head tilted. This time she frowned before slowly nodding. “Yes, that would be better.” Jeb glanced up at her and DG’s face grinned down at him. “Lady Night has suggested a change to the traditional vows, and We are inclined to allow it as We believe it will be better for both of you. Kneel, Jebidiah Cain, if you wish to swear your vows.
Jeb allowed his knees to buckle but continued to look into the ever-changing eyes.
“Will you vow to be a shield to Lady Light, to protect her from all that would do her harm and allow yourself to be shielded in turn?”
Jeb blinked then grinned. Now he knew what DG had done.
“I swear.”
“Will you, Jebidiah Cain vow to be a sword to Lady Light, to strike down her enemies and allow her to do the same for you?”
“I swear.”
“Will you vow to stand behind her, to so that you might better aide and guide her and in turn trust her to lead you ever forward?”
“I swear.” He hesitated for a moment then added. “I swear that I, Jebidiah Cain will to, Lady Light Azkadilla be shield and to be shielded, to be sword and to allow her to be mine, to guard her back and trust her to lead us true.” Jeb took a deep breath then continued. “I swear that I, Jebidiah Cain will to, Lady Light Azkadilla be shield and to be shielded, to be sword and to allow her to be mine, to guard her back and trust her to lead us true.”
DG’s head gave a solemn nod. “Rise Protector of Light, let none but Lady Light, Lady Night, Our children six, and myself, the Nameless one, judge you for the actions you take to keep your pledge, and know should ever you turn away from your pledge, should ever you break your vows, it is to US that you shall answer.”
Jeb bowed his head slightly to acknowledge that he had heard and rose to his feet.
DG turned to his father and spoke. “We would offer the same to you, Wyatt Cain, for though Lady Light has much to tend to it is our Lady Night who must fix what has been broken. She would not have this forced on you or upon any that would walk the path to come with her.” There was a small smile. “We have not had a Lady Night as good and pure as this one since We first gave mortals the charge of keeping the balance. Sadly, the balance was too long weighed to light and that which was the work of the betrayer you know as Sorceress has caused harm to both light and dark.”
Slowly she turned to look around the room as what had to be the Unnamed God continued to speak. “The magic released when the suns did not stop has coated the land and all the things the betrayer had condemned to slumber are now beginning to awake. Creatures of light and dark many of which will awaken angry and hurt for the betrayal handed to them by one who should have been their voice and their friend. She will need to go to them, to speak to them and prove herself friend and ally or the balance will tip and darkness will fall. This is Our Lady’s task. Who will walk this path with her?”
Jeb watched as his father’s knees hit the floor, his head bowed, and felt pride swell in him.
“I, Wyatt Cain, swear to be Lady Night Dorthey-Glinda’s shield and sword, to fallow behind her wherever her path may take her, to allow myself to be protected, to share our enemies and friends, and to trust, that while I guard our backs, she will protect our front. I swear her honor will be my honor, every vow she makes will be echoed by my lips, and all she upholds so will I. Of my own free will, I swear these things and ask for nothing but to stay by her side for as long as the road goes on, wherever that may be. Thrice I swear these things, thrice I offer myself to her.”
Jeb watched tears fall down DG’s face and knew it was not the Unnamed.
“I,” Cain’s head jerked up at the sound of DG’s voice, “Dorthey-Glinda Lady of the Night and Darkness do so swear to the Protector of Night and Darkness Wyatt Cain, that I shall be his shield and sword and allow him to be mine, to lead him will, to share our enemies and friends, and to trust that he will guard our backs as I will protect our front. I swear his honor will be my honor, that every vow he makes will be echoed back by my lips and all he upholds so will I. Of my own free will, I swear these things and acknowledge and accept the vows that have been given me for as long as the road goes on, wherever that may be. Thrice I swear these things, thrice I offer myself to him and thrice I accept him as equals in all things.”
She offered her hands. He grabbed them in his own slightly shaking hands, bowed over them, then turned each palm up and pressed a kiss into each palm before allowing her to help him to his feet as they offered each other shy smiles.
At that moment, Jeb felt like a truck had run him over, backed up over him, and went forward once more.
He had just watched his father get married and to a princess no less.
No sooner had that thought hit him than he had to wonder if DG actually knew just what it was they had done.
“Raw hear and see all vows. Raw witness to all who ask.” Jeb’s mouth snapped closed losing the words he had summoned to urge his dad to get them and their respective ladies out of there so they could make sure DG understood what was actually happening.
“Heard and witnessed.” Glitch chimed in the second Raw had finished and Jeb closed his eyes.
“Heard and witnessed and let any who doubt come to me.” The Consort’s voice was harsh as he spoke.
“Heard and witnessed!” Once more the guards responded as one.
“Heard and witnessed,” called one of the nobles. The call soon spread amongst everyone present and for several long moments, the room was a cacophony of sound.
A hand on his arm drew his attention to one side and he found himself looking straight into Azkadilla’s eyes. Eyes that had started to hold warmth and even the occasional teasing light, were now guarded more fiercely than the emerald had been before DG had gotten it.
“I think,” she said just loud enough for him to hear her over the noise, “that we should make our escape and take the newlyweds with us.”
Jeb gave her a small hopeful grin. “I was just thinking the same thing, Princess.”
“I think,” she said slowly. “That after a vow like that it would be better if you stuck to Az."