Unable to frame a reply, I kissed her long and deep. When we came up for air, I set her on her feet and surveyed the area. We both retrieved our swords.
“Why did yoursword work and mine didn’t?” I wondered aloud.
“Salena’s rubies, I think,” she replied. “The thought came into my mind, bright and clear, that the rubies would disperse the magic. I needed magic and that was the only thing I could think of.”
“You think Salena infused them with some sort of defensive magic?”
“Why not? The Star certainly is magic. And our mother was very specific about thoserubies being distributed among her daughters. We know Salena saw far into the future.”
I took her hand and we turned toward Ordnung’s white towers, climbing the hill together. People streamed past us, going to collect the fallen.
“You’re going to marry me tonight, yes?” Ursula asked, though it sounded more like a demand than a question.
“It’s not the best decision for the throne, for the alliancewith Dasnaria,” I cautioned her.
She threw me a blazing look of scorn. “Do you have any other objections, besides that?”
“No.” I raised her hand and turned it over, brushing a kiss over her callused palm, delighting in the shiver that ran through her. “In this, as in all things, I am yours to command.”
