Epilogue

After hours of feasting, music, and dancing, when night had finally swallowed the last rays of daylight, Seth found himself standing in Eirika’s bedroom.

The room was several times larger than his modest quarters had been, and that was aside from the antechamber where she could comfortably receive several guests. The walls, where they were visible between thick tapestries that helped keep out draughts, had been covered with wood panelling. An oak writing desk loomed in the corner and a dressing table with a silver-framed mirror glinted to one side. There were several padded chairs and a small table nearby and, on the back wall to one side of the door, a pair of tall dressers, the one filled with her gowns, the other with his new collection of courtly outfits. His few belongings, which had been brought here during the ceremony, seemed hardly noticeable in all the splendour. His regular clothes had been transferred from the plain wooden box in which he’d stored them to an ornately carved one. His sword and scabbard had been hung from a stand next to her bed– their bed, he reminded himself, after tonight.

It rested in the centre of the room, against the back wall, a handsome four-poster bed, its thick draperies flung open, the embroidered blankets turned down and rose petals sprinkled on the sheets – all for the newlyweds.

Feeling rather conspicuous as he stood in the middle of the room, waiting for his wife to appear, Seth’s stomach fluttered unpleasantly. As a general he’d been afforded a private room, small and plain as befit a soldier, but his nonetheless. The luxury of her royal apartments seemed somehow intimidating. He’d discarded the armour he’d worn for the ceremony and remained in a fine but plain shirt and breeches, but all at once he felt naked without the protection of his armour.

Would it be rude to sit? Displacing anything seemed untoward, yet it was hardly sensible to remain standing stiffly in the middle of the room. Wiping slick palms on his thighs, Seth reminded himself that they were married. He was not an interloper in the princess’s quarters, but her groom waiting to consummate their marriage.

Seth’s heart leaped into his throat as the door opened and he spun to see Eirika enter. She shut the door behind her, smiling nervously as she met his eyes. Her attendants had helped her out of her wedding dress and she now wore only a simple white gown, hardly more than a nightgown. It hung about her so lightly that he was certain it would fall away if he only brushed it off of her shoulders; his blood stirred as he realized that that was likely the point.

For a moment she remained standing near the door, biting her lip. All at once he realized how much more nervous she must be and his fears melted away to be replaced by an urgent need to reassure her, to set her at ease. He crossed the room and pulled her into his embrace.

"Seth," she breathed. He thought he could feel her racing heartbeat.

When he drew back to look at her, he could not keep from smiling like a squire who’d just been praised by the king. "We’re married," he said, feeling the joy of it rush through him. He had dreamed of this so often, for so long, and now it had come to pass.

His good cheer seemed to calm her, for she smiled as well. "We are. And everything was perfect."

He raised an eyebrow. "Even when Forde was so distracted by Innes and Vanessa that he nearly bowled you over while you were dancing with your brother?"

She laughed. "Yes, even that." She dropped her eyes for a moment, looking serious once more when she spoke. "Seth, could I ask a favour of you?"

"Anything."

"Could I... see your scar?" The gravity of her tone could not but affect him. He let his fingers trail over her cheek and nodded when she looked up at him.

When she had made such a request previously, he had only unlaced his shirt enough to pull his collar down over his shoulder, but now he stepped back and pulled off his shirt completely. Her cheeks flushed, but her eyes fixed on the scar on his right shoulder where Valter’s lance had struck him the night they’d fled Renais.

She reached out and then paused, looking up at him. "May I?"

"Of course," he said, catching her hand in both of his and brushing a kiss over her fingertips. He then placed her hand on his bare skin.

Her fingers traced over his scar, a stark white tear in the fleshy part just beneath his shoulder and collar bone, where the lance had slid into the gap in his armour. She was so intent, her brow crinkled, her eyes fixed on the pale skin; she could have no idea how her touch tingled through him, sending shivers of delight down his spine. It was an exercise of will not to pull her against him, but her troubled air tempered his passion and finally he placed his fingers beneath her chin and tilted her face up. "Eirika, you owe me no debt for this wound. You know that."

"I know, but..." She shook her head. "Even so, I’m grateful for what you did. And I’m grateful that we’re both alive and... that we can be together like this." He put his hands on her shoulders; she was trembling. "Seth, listen to me," she said, looking up at him earnestly. "I want this to be the place where we can always be ourselves, not the Princess of Renais and the Silver Knight, but just us. Here, this room, I want this to be our place."

"Eirika," he breathed.

She leaned close and pressed her lips against his scar. His arms wound themselves around her and for a moment they remained in that pose, closer than they had ever been even on the night they’d fled Renais together.

It was she who finally stirred and raised her face to kiss him.

Her touch was like fire on his bare skin; her lips, hungry for his own, were soft. As he pulled her close against him, the dips and curves of her body made his blood race. And though when they walked the halls of the castle in the day they would have to be knight and princess once more, here, he knew he had leave to forget his duties, to set aside his rank. Here she was his to hold, to love as he had wished to that night– that night when all he’d wanted was to spirit her away to someplace where they could be together. And now, after all this time, here they were.

THE END