Page 16 of Monster Married
“I’ll get him one.” Nokim rolled up his sleeve.
“Is it okay to just take one out?” I didn’t want to get arrested on the same day I was getting married. It would make the day even more memorable, but not in a good way.
Lissir nodded. “They say this is fine. They understand the situation.”
Vergis cackled and leaned over Nokim’s shoulder. “You could fall in. It’s customary for the drunk uncle to fall into the fountain at weddings, I think.”
I rubbed my suddenly sweaty palms on my new pants. “You know, Vergis, you seem to know a lot about wedding customs for someone who doesn’t want to be at one. I had no idea I needed a silver coin.”
Vergis didn’t let me faze him. “I also know a lot about dressing and skinning and deboning dinner, but this seemed more useful in the situation. Unless you want me to demonstrate?”
For once, Vergis didn’t scare me. “Nope, thanks. I was just trying to pay my hangu of honor a compliment.”
Lissir anxiously watched Nokim, who was leaning precariously on the rim of the fountain. “Yes, you’re almost there, Nokim. Vergis, accept a compliment. I don’t ask you to do it graciously, just accept it. I myself am sure your deboning skills are just as amazing as your wedding planning skills.”
Lissir, not a bagu to half-ass a put-down, barely even acknowledged Vergis as he said that. Most of the leads I’d performed with as background shrubbery could take a leaf out of Lissir’s book when it came to diva-ing the hardships of day-to-day life.
Your fault, Vergis mouthed in quiet acceptance of my compliment.
“Hah!” Nokim pulled back and splashed water on our two accidental wedding helpers, both of whom laughed and brushed the droplets off their arms and chests.
There was a bit more conversation, Lissir and Nokim thanking those two bagua probably, and then Nokim presented me with a small stone about the size of a quarter of my palm. It shimmered pale green, and when I held it up to look through the hole time itself had drilled through it, I spotted a pale streak of blue in the glassy material.
“Oh, he’s at it again,” Lissir said when I lost another tear or three.
“I’m fine. We can go now. I need something blue to tie it all together.”
Lissir rubbed my back. “You’ll scare Inkiri with all the crying, you know. But we’d best hurry.”
We waved goodbye to the two helpful bagua and walked toward a stone building at the other end of the square. It wasn’t large, just three stories about the size of the church at the Hill of Tara, but with wooden architecture dominating in Esaka, it stood out.
I was so excited. My heart was racing, and tears kept falling. I was clutching my tokens of good luck, and my legs were rubbery even though I wanted to get to where we were going, where Inkiri was waiting to marry me.
By the time we walked into the building, I had the jitters, almost as if I’d overdosed on espresso. I held my adder stone and coin to my heart, my borrowed handkerchief wound around my palm. We took a left into a neat office, and there was Inkiri, and all the nervous energy just became too much.
I ran toward him. His wide eyes and surprise at seeing me barely registered, and then I grabbed him around the middle, and he wrapped me in his arms, and everything was as I knew it should be.
“Sadir,” he said. “My sweet thing. So happy to see me?”
Which was when the waterworks picked up steam.
Everyone in the room was immediately concerned. Well, not Vergis, but everyone else, especially Inkiri, Fellisse, and another bagu I didn’t know.
The strange bagu came over. “We fetch a medicine?”
“Sweet thing, what’s wrong?” Inkiri cradled my cheeks, his fingers catching the fat tears that streaked down them.
“He looks flushed. Was he in the sun very long?” Fellisse asked, and boy, I was going to regret ever telling that bagu about sunstroke.
“Vergis says it’s normal for a human when they’re very happy, especially before they get married,” Nokim said.
I managed to nod. “Yeah. Tears of joy. Sorry.”
Time froze. Inkiri looked deep into my eyes, and…it was so silly, but I felt him. Knew him. Not all the things about him I was going to get to discover, but that he was my person, my friend, and I his. He’d shielded me from a rain of bullets, and I knew he’d do it again, knew he’d do it as often as he had to or until he wasn’t able to anymore, something I didn’t want to ever live through. If our places had been reversed that day at the Stone, I’d have done the same; offered my body as a shield to protect him.
I sniffled. “I can really only give you myself, you know. Sorry, but I don’t have anything else left anymore.” I had a trust fund, but money wasn’t worth much these days. Hadn’t been in so long. I held up my snotty handkerchief, the stone, and the coin. “But I have something old, something new. I borrowed the ’kerchief, and you’re blue. And an Irish coin, not in my shoe. Maybe that’ll do.”
Inkiri smiled at me. “I’ve read of that tradition. I never thought to make this like a human wedding for you, Sadir. That fault is mine, and you are right to remind me.”
