Of the New World

Chapter 1Tony and Cerdic kissed to seal their vows before turning to face the multitudes, their ribbon-bound hands raised, signaling the end of the Handfasting ceremony. The multitudes were the reason it had taken much longer than Tony had wanted for him and Cerdic to be wed. It seemed that they couldn’t have a nice private ceremony, the way Tony’s brother, Daniel, and Seneschal Randel’s daughter, Elvina, had. Because he was the king, Cerdic felt it was incumbent on him to invite all the citizens of the Isle of Felhone. That meant they had to plan everything down to the minutest details, from where to hold the wedding, as the castle certainly didn’t have room enough to accommodate the masses, to making arrangements for the more private wedding feast, to where to house the most prominent elves during their stay in the capital city of Ishfalone—and ad nauseam. “Did we have to invite everyone and their brother,” Tony had asked more than once over the three months it had taken between the announcement that they were going to be married and the actual event. “My love, you know if it were up to me it would only be our nearest and dearest, and the council,” Cerdic replied on one such occasion. “However, as I am the king it is expected of me, of us, to make this an event that will live in the memories of my subjects forever.” “He is correct,” Lord Randel said as he was there, helping them with the planning. He smiled, adding, “Be thankful, Tony, that we are a small kingdom. There are some whose populations are three times ours.” “Good Gods. Okay, I guess I should consider myself lucky I ended up here, not on one of them.” Cerdic lifted one blond eyebrow. “You think you might have fallen in love with whoever was king there?” Tony hugged him, laughing. “Not at all. There’s only one king I could love and you know who that is. He’s sitting right here.” Cerdic feigned looking around the sitting room in the royal wing then grinned. “I guess you mean me as I am the only king in the room.” That had earned him a teasing kiss to prove he was correct. Most of their planning had to take place in the evenings. Cerdic and Lord Randel, as the ruler and the seneschal of Felhone, each had duties to perform during the days which concerned the running of the kingdom. Tony, on the other hand, spent his days in Esholone. He was helping the merchants there to bring the southern city back to its former splendor after the lust for wealth of Mage Jeroen, and his collaborators—Galen, the former mayor of Esholone, and four of its prominent merchants—had come close to devastating the city and almost caused Tony’s death. * * * * Meanwhile, in the weeks following his own wedding, Tony’s brother Daniel had looked for work, eventually getting the position as the head chef at the Golden Oak, one of Ishfalone’s best inns. It was a job he had a great deal of experience with as he had been the chef at the restaurant he and Tony had owned back on Earth—the world where they used to live. “I did it,” Daniel had finally been able to announce, bursting into the Great Hall at the castle moments after the castle residents had sat down for dinner. He’d stopped long enough to give Elvina a hearty kiss before explaining that he was now “Gainfully employed.” Once everyone had congratulated him, Lord Randel had said with apparent seriousness, “I do hope this means you will be able to afford a home of your own so that I may have my quarters to myself, again.” “Father…!” Elvina shook her head. “It is not like I have not been living with you since I was born.” “True, but it was only you and no one else after your mother’s death. Now there is him as well.” Randel shot Daniel a sour look, instantly followed by a laugh. “I am teasing. I have quite enjoyed your company.” “Thank you, sir; however, to answer your question, we will look for a home of our own as soon as possible.” They did, and found one a month later; thanks in part to what Lord Randel claimed what his overdue dowry gift to Daniel. It was a small house on one of the many roads that branched off the main thoroughfare through the center of the city, within walking distance of the Golden Oak Inn and not too far from the castle. * * * * “Everyone who was officially invited has accepted your invitations,” Lord Randel told Tony and Cerdic, three weeks before the wedding. He ticked the names off on his list. “The mayors, Brion of Rerenlion, Vullian of Esholone who was more than pleased to be asked to attend as he is new to his job, Zelphar of Lelanore, and Haemir of Shalona. Then there is Wulf, of course, representing the south-eastern shifter pack, and Folen, the Alpha of the north-western pack. All of them are council members as well, as are the mages Leofric, Itham, and Pilore, who replaced the bastard Jeroen.” “Not hard to do, since Jeroen’s dead. Pilore deserves to take his place as he’s a fairly powerful mage in his own right,” Tony pointed out. “You know, you should consider adding Kymic to the Council.” “I have asked him more than once, but he refuses,” Cerdic replied. “He says he is quite happy being a lieutenant in the guards and does not want to deal with the stress of being a council member as well.” “Can’t blame him for that, I suppose.” “I also received word from the owner of the Golden Oak Inn, where Daniel works,” Randel said. “He has reserved all his rooms for our honored guests and their families for the week of the festivities.” “Damn, Daniel’s going to have to be on his toes, creating meals to suit their elevated tastes,” Tony muttered. “I will arrange with the castle’s chief chef to lend your brother his assistant, in exchange for Daniel’s helping with your wedding dinner here for your honored guests.” “That should keep him busy since he’s also going to be my best man.” Cerdic chuckled. “It will keep him out of trouble. I can only hope having Leofric as my best man will do the same for him.” * * * * Two weeks before the wedding Tony’s stress level reached its peak. He had spent part of his day in Esholone, where his job had expanded over the past two months into working with several of the merchants, showing them how they could improve their businesses for their own good and that of the city as well. He’d been successful, but it had taken its toll on him physically and mentally. To add to that, Zelphar, the mayor of Lelanore, had recently requested his assistance in doing the same for the merchants of his town. It hadn’t surprised Tony that they needed it. The town in the mountains had been trapped in Stronghold, the magical prison for the kingdom’s shifters during what had become known as the Troubles. It was taking time to recover, in part because of its remoteness which made trading with the kingdom’s other cities difficult. Thus, he teleported there, where he had spent the afternoon meeting with the mayor and the town’s merchants, listening to them voice what they considered to be the main problems they were facing, not the least of which was the lack of adequate roads through the mountains. Tony arrived home at the castle that evening in a dour mood. It didn’t help that, after he and Cerdic had eaten supper, they had to spend time with the royal tailor. He and his seamstresses had created their wedding robes from the designs he’d shown Tony and Cerdic several weeks previously and he wanted them to try them on, to be certain they fit perfectly and wouldn’t need any alterations. When Tony had seen the designs for them, it hadn’t sunk in exactly what was being used to lavishly decorate them. Now, as the tailor carefully laid the robes out on the bed, Tony understood and it infuriated him. “There’s a fortune in gems, gold, and silver on this,” he exclaimed angrily, picking up his robe. “A fortune that could be put to much better use somewhere else, like…like paving the damned roads. In a few weeks we’ll be in the autumn rainy season, according to several people I’ve talked to in Esholone, and now Lelanore. The roads outside the cities will be muddy tracks, and then frozen ones as soon as winter hits. How can they expand their trading when that happens?” “They have survived for eons without paved byways,” Cerdic responded calmly. “It is the way of things.” Throwing the robe back on the bed, Tony rounded on him. “That doesn’t make it right! These people need help, not…not us wearing these for an hour for the Handfasting ceremony so they can admire how marvelous we look before the robes are put away and only brought out for some other special occasion, if that happens.” “It is the way of our world,” Cerdic protested. “Yeah? Well, f**k that.” * * * * Tony stormed out of the bedchamber and the royal wing before Cerdic could reply. He turned to the stunned tailor, saying, “Perhaps we should do this tomorrow evening, after I have gotten him calmed down.” He had the feeling the tailor was thinking, ‘If you can. He is not one of us who understands our ways.’ He hurried after Tony, following the sound of his footsteps as he pounded down the staircase and through the Great Hall to the hallway leading to the gardens. When Cerdic reached them, Tony was nowhere in sight and he wondered if his betrothed had teleported to who knew where. Then he heard the nickering of the horses in the stables behind the gardens and felt certain that was where Tony had gone. He was correct. Tony was saddling the bay he had developed a fondness for soon after Cerdic had taught him how to ride. That had happened a week after they’d announced their betrothal, when Tony had said it would be nice if they could have time for themselves away from the city. Cerdic suggested they could ride, to which Tony had replied, “I don’t know how. Besides, most horses are afraid of shifters because they can sense our wolves.” As it turned out, Tony was correct, with one exception. The bay had been leery at first, but had eventually accepted Tony in spite of his wolf, unlike the other steeds. Even Cerdic’s large golden stallion was skittish each time Tony neared him, but he would calm under Cerdic’s firm hand. When he reached the stables, Cerdic heard Tony grumbling as he tried to cinch the saddle, “If you don’t stand still I’m going to ride you barebacked, which would undoubtedly end up with me making a fool of myself, or worse.” “He is probably feeling your anger,” Cerdic said quietly as he went to get the saddle for his horse. “The gods know I did.” Tony sighed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have blown up like that but damn it, I wasn’t wrong and you know it.” Rather than argue, Cerdic saddled the stallion and mounted, waiting for Tony to climb onto his bay. “Where are we going?” “Out there.” Tony waved his hand toward the seashore to the north of the city. A few minutes later, they were riding side-by-side along the shore, away from the city. The full moon’s light sparkled off the water and lent an eerie glow to the fields and trees that surrounded Ishfalone. As he admired the scene, Cerdic suddenly realized why Tony was so tense. Part of it, of course, was the whole situation, the stress of planning their nuptials while his lover was also working hard to better the lot of the people who lived in Esholone and now Lelanore. Added to that, he was certain, was the fact that Tony’s wolf was calling to him as always happened when the moon was full. They had ridden about a kilometer when Cerdic pulled to a stop. “I think you need to run as your wolf.” Tony nodded slowly. “It might help.” “You know it will. When you finish, then we can talk about what made you explode the way you did.” They dismounted, Tony hugged him tightly for a moment, and then whispered, “You know me too well,” before he shifted, his dark-furred wolf standing where he had been seconds before. “Go, I will be here when you return.” Firmly holding the reins of the horses, who were reacting to the wolf by trying to dance away, Cerdic watched as it raced into the darkness between the trees. “When I fell in love with him,” he said to them, “I knew how different we were, but this? This emphasizes it in a way nothing else can.” His stallion nickered as if agreeing with him, while Tony’s bay, being the calmer of the two, began to graze on the long grass. Cerdic sat, leaning back on his hands, watching the waves softly beating the shore and a small covey of sandpipers searching for food. He closed his eyes, dozing off, and jerked awake when he heard Tony say with a trace of amusement, “Sleeping on the job?” Springing to his feet, Cerdic pulled him into a tight embrace. “Feeling better, now?” “Much. Thank you for seeing what I hadn’t. I really am sorry for blowing up, even if—” he paused to give Cerdic a kiss, “—I was right.” “You were, and I admit it, which is hard. I am so used to how I live, the extravagance of it, I am afraid I never truly thought about how much it costs and how the money could be better spent. That said, we will wear our robes with all their jewels and gold and silver for our Handfasting, but…” Cerdic held up his hand to stop Tony when it seemed as if he would protest. “When it is over, I will have the tailor remove the decorations and I will put them to use as you so wisely suggested, to fund the paving of the roads between the cities and towns.” Tony smiled in obvious relief. “I knew there was a reason I fell in love with you.” Cerdic laughed. “Because you can manage me the way you do everything else?” “Well, maybe.” Tony grinned. “But more because you’re willing to listen to reason.” “When it comes from you, I always will, although it would be easier if you presented your case calmly instead of scaring me half to death wondering if you were going to walk away and vanish forever.” “I would never do that. I love you too much. You’re my other half.” “As you are mine.” He kissed Tony deeply, a kiss that was returned as given, with love. Then, as it was quite late, they returned home.