No arrangement could have pleased Aruk more, to have the people he loved best in the world gathered together. And so proud he was to introduce his brother to his wife, Queen Jalisa the Ironskin—though some within the palace also called her The Queen Who Rode Her King Into Righteous Battle. No one in Savadon missed her father’s rule, and the pretty princess they’d once called spoiled and selfish and difficult had other new names, such as Jalisa the Kind and Jalisa the Generous.
And soon she would also be called a mother.
Of their sacred duty, Strax told him the gauntlet was still safe in Khides’ keep. Aruk gave to his brother the news that, eight months before, Solegius the tyrant and all of his warlords had been killed, freeing Aremond from the sorcerer’s rule. He saw the look that passed between Strax and his wife, and knew there must be a story there. But Strax laughed and said that a long story it was, and would take perhaps five days to tell—and so for the next five nights, together Aruk and Jalisa sat back, relaxed, and unwound while Strax and Mara spun a tale of a sorcerer’s trap and a midnight wedding, of poisoned lips and skull cliffs and wolf brothers.
Happy months passed in Savadon, with healthy babes born to both couples before Strax and Mara left for her home. But no sad parting it was, for only a few weeks’ journey separated their kingdoms, and Jalisa eager to travel and visit.
As the years passed, that journey Aruk and Jalisa took many times with their four children—and other adventures they had, too. Only once did Aruk’s duty call him again. Just as she had promised, Jalisa accompanied him—and great dangers they faced along the way. But that is a tale for anothertime and anotherwhen. Rest assured that all turned out well, as it always should in such tales.
But this one must come to an end.