Mercedes Lackey: The Gates of Sleep

And with Lady Elizabeth in charge of the wedding itself, she’d had only to make easy decisions, and now had nothing to do but enjoy herself to the uttermost.

Drifting through the open window she heard the sounds of the string quartet beginning the melody that would end in the processional. It was time to go.

She gathered up her skirts in both hands and led the way out to the gardens, trailing brightly gowned girls like streamers behind her.

It was a real pity, she thought, that so few of her guests could see the other guests—fauns peeking out from every possible vantage, Sylphs hiding in the trees, a trio of Undines sporting in the fountains, and a veritable bestiary of other creatures of myth and legend hovering at the edge of the human crowd. She beamed at all of them, and if her un-magical guests thought that her smile was a bit unfocused, well, that was to be expected in someone who was only minutes from being married.

The processional began. Andrew was led to his place in front of Mr. Davies by Uncle Thomas (who was wearing what could only be described as a smirk) when suddenly, Marina lost her smile, and stared—

For there were three figures, not one, on the little podium where Clifton Davies stood waiting to do his duty.

For one brief moment, the two of those figures who shone with their own light smiled with delight on their daughter. Holding hands, Alanna and Hugh Roeswood made a gesture of scattering rice, and tiny sparks of Earth-magic flitted from their hands to land on the heads or the hearts of each of the guests in blessing—and two of the largest, flitting like flowers in the wind, settled softly over Andrew’s heart, and Marina’s.

Then they were gone. But Marina knew what they had left behind with her.

Love. Love she could accept with a whole and full heart, at last.

And she stepped forward with the first bars of processional, and into a life she had not even imagined the day she was taken from Blackbird Cottage—and this time, it would not be alone.

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Epilogue