Bishop rose and tapped his knife handle several times against a goblet from the Rhineland, one of Lord Vellan’s prized possessions.
He waited until there was complete silence in the great hall, all faces turned toward him. He raised the goblet. “Here is to the end of the Penwyth curse. It is over and gone.”
There was wild cheering and everyone drank.
Bishop smiled down at his wife. “I am the fifth and final husband!”
There was more wild cheering.
Merryn rose to stand beside Bishop. Everyone fell silent again. “No more curses to haunt Penwyth!”
Bishop said after they’d quieted a bit, “All have wondered why people live so very long here at Penwyth. I will tell you. It is because anyone who loves Penwyth, who is utterly loyal, deserves a long life. And so it is.”
“—I can’t lift my sword but I am alive, aye!”
“—All of us deserve long life!”
Everyone was cheering and laughing and talking about the four husbands who’d all toppled over dead so quickly after their marriage to Merryn.
“No more curse!”
“No more curse!”
“Long life to those who love Penwyth!”
Lady Madelyn said, “I wonder if there truly was a curse. One that came from the ancient Druids? From the Witches of Byrne? No, I don’t think there ever was a curse.”
“Of course there was, Grandmother,” Merryn said. “Bishop and I broke the curse.”
Lady Madelyn just shook her head.
Vellan looked at his wife of so many years he would need more fingers and toes to count than were in the great hall, and said, his voice thick with disbelief, dread, and a dab of pleasure, “What do you mean, Madelyn?”
“I poisoned Arlan de Frome, that’s what I mean. Then I prayed that the others would die as well since I couldn’t manage to poison them. My prayers worked.”
Epilogue
Sometime Else
THE PRINCE STOOD BESIDE Brecia, his hand lightly touching her shoulder, pointing. “See, yon, my love, is where we will live when we are not in your fortress in the oak forest.”
They’d just stepped out of the prince’s cave and were looking toward a promontory in the distance. On its very edge stood a large white structure that soared toward the heavens. It was like nothing Brecia had ever seen before. He said, “My parents wanted it like this. You see, my father said that an ancient people called the Greeks built many beautiful structures like this for their gods and god-desses. Now we have one as well.”
“It is beautiful.”
“Our son will grow up here. He will learn who and what he is within these walls,” the prince said.
Brecia turned to rest her cheek against his shoulder. “What will we name our son?”
He kissed her beautiful red hair, pulled her closer. “We will see,” he said, his voice a whisper of sound against her temple, his breath warm and sweet as the incredible scent of the blossom he’d just plucked for her and woven into her hair. “He will be known forever, that I do know. We will select a name to fit him.”
“Thank you for coming to me in the oak forest,” Brecia said.
He remembered for a blinding instant lying there on his back, evidently sleeping just outside her forest, Callas standing over him, and he’d had no idea how or why he was there. But maybe he had known and just forgotten. Whatever had happened, it didn’t matter. He smiled, stroked his fingertips over her smooth cheek. “Aye, I came for you. Thank you for saving my miserable wizard’s life.”
She laid her hand over his, both lightly set against her belly, now swollen with their son. They looked toward the beautiful white fortress that wasn’t really a fortress at all, and felt the sunlight warm them.
His hand stilled. “I can feel that all is well,” he said, and smiled. “In all times.” He looked back at his cave, and his smile widened. Then his full attention was on her. “Do you know, I feel like making you yell to the heavens.” He leaned over