The river is red. For one nervous beat, I’m reminded of the way the water glistened crimson with blood and fire the day I met Tovian, not quite a year ago.
I turn to find him staring at me with a soft smile on his lips. Memories shift to happier thoughts, twinkling with bright starlight. We’re waiting for the moon to rise high enough in the sky for the ceremony to begin. Until then, it’s us, garbed in elaborately embroidered spidersilk.
Red means good luck. I twitch my sleeve aside and thread my fingers through my husband-to-be’s. The boat rocks gently, tethered to the deep riverbed as the waterfall’s force pushes our vessel downriver. Music echoes gently over the water.
“How will you stop the waterfall?” Tovian asks.
“We don’t, really. We temporarily redirect the flow.”
He scans the ferocious waterfall, trying to figure out how that’s possible. I can see his clever mind working. Feel his steadfast presence. Tovian is my rock. I am his water. We shape one another’s path through life. Time will change us, direct our route, but we will remain united despite the uncertain future.
My heart is so full I can hardly breathe.
“What are you thinking, Sunshine?”
I smile and glance at Tovian.
“I’m thinking that I’m so happy we’re here together.”
He squeezes my hand. Silver bangles jingle, reflecting moonlight. It’s almost time.
“I’d follow you anywhere, Raina.”
My vision mists, as it always does with strong emotion. I rise on tiptoe. He turns his head in time to catch my kiss, a quick, chaste press. We have an audience, after all.
“Good. I have many places I want to take you.”
His quirk of a smile tells me he picked up on my double entendre.
The music stops.
A murmur sweeps across the river, silenced by the clank of chains. Enormous chains, which are ordinarily pulled by teams of strong men. Since River Bend, like all of Auralia, lacks able-bodied men, others have been pressed into service. The operation isn’t as smooth as I remember from past ceremonies.
It’s okay. I’m honored that everyone came together to continue this tradition.
Even Brenica and a contingent of the Ansi are here on their own red-bedecked boat. They brought Garnet, too. My little dragon is as long as my forearm now. Tovian catches sight of them and waves. I wave, too. Honestly, after the year we’ve had? Fuck formality.
The moon shines brightly on two enormous slabs parting the waterfall. When they extend far enough out, a second mechanism slowly raises them outward. It’s a long process, requiring enormous strength. This is what my people once went to war with Zosia’s tribe over: access to the Moon Temple. We won, and in the process, forfeited our access to the Sun Temple for five centuries.
Our civil war drove the tribes apart, and the Ansi into isolation.
I hope we can continue the process of bringing this country’s five tribes together again.
A memory of Zosia, dressed in leggings and a sweater, laughing, burns into me. That hole remains a wound in my heart, unhealed.
I’m sorry. You deserved better.
Most of all:I pray you’re not dead.
I have little hope on that score. She wouldn’t have hidden for this long. If she’d been taken captive, the Skía would have tried to ransom her—or worse—by now. They wouldn’t have been silent.
Mentally, I recite the Mysec prayer for the dead. Tonight, I’m letting her go.
Just as she always wanted.
Maybe she ran off. She could be out there, living free, anonymous. If she is, I want to tell her we’ll be okay. The country might fall but we’ll pick up the pieces and build it anew. The worst that can happen, already has. Tovian and I will do our best to carry the torch of leadership forward and lead Auralia in her absence.
She can rest.
