Christopher Stasheff: Warlock's Last Ride

Then King Tuan handed her to Magnus, the archbishop questioned them severely as to their realizing what they were getting into, and satisfied that they meant it, asked for their vows. She stared at Magnus as he swore lifelong love and loyalty, then found herself stammering as she repeated the same vow, felt his ring slip over her finger, then placed hers on his hand. The archbishop allowed them a kiss, and she meant it to be chaste, she really did, but three weeks of waiting in increasing tension welled up, and the only reason she finally broke away gasping was because cheering rang in her ears.

Then the archbishop intoned his way through an interminable Mass, but Alea was only aware of the masculine presence that seemed to burn beside her. At last the priest blessed them one more time, and the trumpets blew, the organ crashed the first chords of the recessional, and she and Magnus found themselves pacing down the aisle, grinning into one another's eyes like a prize pair of idiots.

Then, of course, came the feasting, and the greeting of guests, and the circulating among them—so when at last the door of the bridal chamber closed behind them, she was stumbling with weariness—stumbling straight into Magnus's arms, and he held her up, but also held her tight against him.

Alea stared up at him, riveted, frozen, though her lips parted ever so slightly—and ever so slowly, he lowered his own lips over hers in a kiss that began quite chastely. But the brushing of his lips electrified her, and she returned it with ardor, her own lips opening, and the feather touches of the tip of his tongue sent fire racing her veins, and her lips opened farther almost without her knowing. The kiss lasted and lasted as her blood grew hotter and hotter, banishing weariness. Finally Magnus lifted his head to catch his breath, gasped, and said, "You must be exhausted. We'll sleep in the same bed, but I'll leave you alone."

"Don't you dare!" Alea snapped. "Not after that kiss!" And she pressed close for more.

Magnus lowered his lips again, and kiss led to caress, and caress to undressing, then to more caresses that led to the final intimacy that had been so long delayed, an intimacy that loosed raging passion in them both, passion that built to wave after wave of ecstasy.

IN THE WOODS beyond, Evanescent lay with her eyes closed, purring, as she read the amazement and joy of her two humans, and decided that living on Gramarye could make her choose to prolong her life indefinitely. Then her eyes opened, and she lent just a little more power, a little more energy, to a darkened corner of Magnus's mind.

ALEA AND MAGNUS lay naked and stunned in the light of a single candle, gasping in the aftermath of passion, gazing at one another with wide and wondering eyes—but as they did, an image grew in the flickering shadows, a presence, one that only Magnus could see, for it came from the depths of his mind—a tubby red-nosed man in a fusty bottle-green tailcoat and battered top hat, who shook his head and sighed, then stepped forward.

Magnus stared, then caught the blanket to pull it over himself and Alea.

"What is it?" She darted a glance that followed his but saw nothing and turned back, caressing his face as she asked in a voice soft with concern, "What is it, love? What could affright you so?"

But the rag-and-bone man dropped a bit of glittering metal into the hollow of her throat, then turned away, sighing and shaking his head, to disappear forever into the shadows from which he had come.

'Tell me!" Alea seized Magnus's face in both hands, really alarmed for him now. "Whatever phantom assails you is my enemy too!"

"But you have already defeated him." Magnus laughed softly as he relaxed beside her. "Fought off my old nemesis, and he has given you what he knew you already had."

Alea frowned. "What riddle is this? What did I already have?"

"Only a key," Magnus said, and kissed her again.