Page 30 of The Thief’s Lord (Catkin Trilogy #3)

Epilogue

Gareth

W inter’s ice melts into spring’s blossoms. Spring’s chill warms beneath the summer sun’s warm rays.

The summer’s green harvests curl and yellow as autumn’s fogs and mists roll in.

The colorful autumnal leaves fall to be buried beneath winter’s snows.

Thus, the cycle of life turns. As the seasons change, as the days slip by, so too do our lives also transform.

From moment to moment, they are never the same. Ephemeral and precious.

So precious , I thought as I gazed at the dancers twirling around the green in the midst of the ancient stones.

Compared to the rites and rituals carried out at the Standing Stones by Rimefrost, the Baywater County Fair was provincial in its nature.

Still, there was something natural and carefree about the whole ceremony.

These stones, placed on a green promontory overlooking the ocean, were just as ancient as the monoliths raised by Rimefrost.

Fleet feet and swirling skirts of local seeresses twirled about, white and red.

In the center, two male heads bobbed. Alan, looking ferociously intent with his glasses now lightly steamed up, and Dorset, who was smiling and laughing as he joined hands with the mage.

As was tradition, most of the seeresses had chosen a god or goddess of the Pantheon, but this fair was special.

Alan and Dorset had been invited to join in the festivities as representatives of Nyria and Meryn respectively.

Alan’s light burned the brightest, but my eyes were fixed on Dorset.

It had taken Dorset quite a bit of work to learn how to touch his own inner powers and harness the magic.

Unlike Alan’s white glow, Dorset’s own magic was a purplish black, a symbol of his ties to the night and the shadows.

His darkness twined about with Alan’s and the variating light of the seeresses until the magic swirled into a single powerful sigil of blessing that hovered above their heads in the twilight of the evening.

Dorset’s brilliant green eyes now glowed with his own magic.

The joy and relief on his face was intoxicating.

I wanted to rush into the circle and whirl him away in my arms. That dance would be later, I promised myself.

I grunted a little as I realized that I had meant it.

I was going to dance with Dorset. I rarely danced. I hated dancing. But not with Dorset.

“I wish I could do that,” sighed Landis with no small amount of envy as he leaned against Corrin. “I want magic to flow out of my fingers as well.”

Corrin drew him into a tight side hug and kissed the top of Landis’s curly hair that now blazed golden in the setting sun.

“Your fingers have their own magic… and you and I will dance together. After. And you’ll be just as glorious as they are,” Corrin promised.

“I will? I rather think your toes will be abused all over again.”

“I hardly feel it.”

“Hardly feel what?” joked Landis.

Corrin silenced Landis with a long kiss. I glanced away, affording them some privacy, and realized that Hugh was also staring at Alan in a distracted kind of way.

“A lot on your mind?” I asked. “Making plans for Alan tonight already?”

Hugh flashed me a grin and winked roguishly, but beneath his cheer, there was an uncharacteristic thoughtfulness. A weight. He shrugged and sighed.

“Alan wants to try out his damn potion. It’s that or going for a surrogate.”

“He wants a kit?” I was surprised. Alan Carwick didn’t strike me as a particularly maternal tom.

“He wants Starrs. A litter.” Hugh groaned. “And I simply cannot say no.”

“So we shall see more Starrs in the future after all.” I chuckled. “One way or another.”

“Dorset hasn’t spoken of anything like that?” asked Hugh curiously.

“No.”

My gaze drifted back to the circle where the sigil now hung brightly in the darkening sky, a beacon of light across the ocean waters.

A blessing for Sumarene, for its friends, for its people.

The dance was slowing, and the dancers closed in and then out.

The rumble of drums and fifes and fiddles ended with harmonious refrains.

Dorset and Alan embraced each other. Dorset was practically bouncing up and down on his two feet, tugging on Alan who also seemed to relax with some kind of relief.

Was Dorset interested in kits? In a family of his own? I wasn’t sure, but either way I wasn’t worried. Whatever the future held, Dorset and I had each other and the Wright family and all of our friends. Life’s seasons would bring its own surprises… and maybe some Starrs should Alan get his way.

Two seeresses approached carrying in front of them two silver chalices filled with clear ice wine.

As the mollies dipped into curtsies, the two toms bowed low before accepting the gift.

They sipped from each of their chalices.

The seeresses passed on, and Alan and Dorset approached us, still bearing their drinks.

Coming to a stop before me, Dorset raised the chalice, sipped from it slowly, and then allowed some of his dark magic to seep out and curl like smoke over the fluid.

“A libation of the goddess Meryn, for you,” he whispered, raising it toward me.

Suddenly feeling more solemn than usual, my fingers rose to cover his. Beneath my palm and fingers, the silver goblet and his fingers were cool. I bent and sipped, enjoying the scent of his magics, the musk of his desire, and the heady essence of the ice wine.

“To the goddess, many blessings,” I said.

Many thanks and many blessings , I added with real gratitude. I had never really been one for the gods, but right now, I felt gratitude for what Fate had brought me, what Meryn had found for me. For Dorset and for everything, I would give eternal thanks.

Dorset’s fingers trembled beneath my own even as I released my hold on the chalice, allowing him to take one last ceremonial sip.

Then, alongside Alan, he poured the rest of the drink onto the bonfire that had just been lit by a host of farmers and stable hands.

After setting the goblets aside, Alan and Dorset returned.

Drawing Alan closer, Hugh heaved a sigh of relief, breaking the solemn silence with a dry chuckle.

“Well, that’s over.”

“Gods, Hugh,” grumbled Alan. “The wait wasn’t so long. It was just a dance!”

“It felt like forever,” Hugh said. “I wanted to join you so badly, but Corrin said I mustn’t. After the next dance, I hope you’ll favor me with one.”

“I-I suppose,” blushed Alan. His glasses glinted in the sun’s dying flare and the light of the blazing bonfire. “I’m practically breathless from the last one, but it’s done now… A very nice sigil, I think. Dorset did rather well, too. Did you not see?”

“I did, but I was rather distracted by the sight of your silver hair in the breeze—“

“Gods,” Alan said crossly. “Did you not notice my technique at all?”

“Er—well, your tail was swishing so nice—“

I left the two to half-wrestle it out and focused on Dorset, who twined his arms around one of mine and leaned against my shoulder. He sighed with satisfaction. His tail thumped enthusiastically against my leg. My own tail swished around to sensuously rub against his. Dorset blushed.

“Did you notice my technique?” he asked.

“Not really,” I said honestly. “It looked great from where I was sitting, but I was also… distracted.”

“By my tail?” Dorset asked cheekily and wriggling against me.

“That and some thoughts.”

“What thoughts?”

“Another time,” I promised him, leaning down to lay a light kiss on his nose.

Dorset wrinkled it and huffed.

“For now, I want to make sure you are rested before we dance.”

“We’re dancing?” Dorset’s tail rose with excitement, and his ears flickered back and forth with enthusiasm. He squinted at me suspiciously. “You hate dancing.”

“Not with you,” I said. Gods help me, I meant it. “Everything feels different with you about.”

“Really?”

“Really.” I stared at the fire that now blazed bright, lighting up the tents dotted about the large square, where the fairgoers congregated.

Beyond, lamps hanging from trees illuminated the enchanted faces of kits caught up in the Fair’s magics.

“I used to hate these things. They always reminded me of what I lost. Not anymore.”

“Because I am here,” Dorset said, wrapping his arms about my waist. “Wherever you go, I will be there. Your shadow.”

“My Little Mouse of the Shadows.”

“Gods.” Dorset poked my stomach. “Don’t say that too loudly!”

We bickered and joked lightly back and forth.

Alan, Hugh, Corrin, and Landis joined us at a table to nibble at various sweetmeats and dishes brought for our enjoyment.

Beneath the stars that now began to peep out, we sat together and made plans for the future.

Whatever awaited us, I had no doubt that we would find our path. Together.