“Will the bride and groom step forward, please?” The priestess nodded to Simti and Ilu.
“Later,” I whispered to him.
“Okay.” A nervous smile flitted across Dagan’s face as he looked at Ilu across the platform. Ilu flashed him a wink as Simti stepped forward, a dazzling smile on her face to meet him in front of the priestess.
Dagan and I joined hands with Nanaea and Iltani and closed the circle around them both as Ilu draped a bride-price necklace around Simti’s neck. Ilu’s mother dabbed at her eyes, and mine filled, too. We’d be losing her from our home this night. We’d spent so many evenings together, cooking, laughing, building a new life free from the threat of Alu’s terrifying customs. It was tough to let her go. But Simti and Ilu had fallen deeply, wildly in love within a moon of our arrival, so how could we not agree?
I raised my hand linked with Dagan’s and we all sang a collective praise to Linaza for joining these two. The priestess poured the honied drink on Ilu’s tongue, then Simti’s, so their words to one another would be sweet for the rest of their days.
When Ilu bent to kiss Simti and she wound her fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck, the priestess declared them wed. As the crowd cheered for their union, Dagan looked at me with such heat in his eyes, what he’d been trying to say before the ceremony was suddenly as clear as the river on a hot summer day.
He’d been trying to ask me to marry him.
He wanted this moment on the dais for us.
TWO HOURS LATER, the wedding had exploded in celebration. The musicians pounded their drums and strummed their lyres with flashing hands. Nanaea was dragged to dance by nearly half the men of the city, and Iltani played game after game of twenty squares, taking everyone’s coins right out of their purses.
Sandals kicked off near the gambling tables, curly hair bouncing, Kasha danced with a group of boys. I spied a table with platters of fruits and eased myself down in front of it as I watched him play. Back in Alu, he’d been taken from us and had been forced to live in the Palace to replace the lugal’s son. But now he could just be a boy.
And though he could be carefree, I could not.
Swiping a handful of grapes, I popped them into my mouth and surveyed the rest of the crowd, my thoughts straying to Mirrum.
I’d left her for far too long.
I looked at the full moon shining overhead as I forced myself to swallow. A half an hour more. That was as long as I could possibly stay. A tug in the center of my chest connected me to her as though she were an anchor and I was the boat.
“There you are, Favored Dancing A-zu of the North.” Dagan ducked around the tent’s flaps. “May I have the honor of your presence?” He bowed graciously, arms wide like Linaza’s wings, and I smiled at his attempt at the Manzazu tradition.
“You may, Oh Great Farmer of the Fields.”
He laughed, and I placed a hand over my heart, grinning at our game. He made me happy, and had, for a long time.
Dagan settled in and grabbed some grapes from the platter, and we talked about the wedding. I grew more relaxed, less worried, the more we talked. I studied his broad shoulders as he leaned back on his elbows. Watched his mouth move as he popped the grapes in one by one and chewed. He caught me studying him, and the air around us shifted. I could smell the faintest touch of Aleppo soap on his skin. See the reflection of the torchlight shining in his eyes. Suddenly, what he’d been trying to say before the ceremony became a candle flickering between us, bright and hot.
“What are you thinking about, Arammu?” He nudged me with his knee.
So he’d play this game. Get me to bring everything up before he would. It was his favorite way to talk about something he wasn’t sure I was ready to discuss. I dodged the question with a distraction.
“Mirrum. Kasha and Nanaea. And…kissing you.”
He shrugged casually, but his eyes tightened at the corners. “That doesn’t have to be a thought, you know. I am, after all, sitting right here.” He opened his arms, a challenge in his eyes. An attempt to call my bluff.
But it was no bluff. A flush moving up my neck, I slowly leaned over, keeping my eyes on his, and kissed him. It was soft, at first. But just like always, our kiss deepened, and within a few moments, it grew feverish.
All thoughts of Mirrum, Kasha, Nanaea, the rest of my responsibilities, melted away as he grabbed my hips and tugged me onto his lap. The air buzzed with nothing but him as he slid his hands up my sides, and I wrapped my arms around his neck. After several moments of his warm mouth on mine, my body pressing against him—closer, closer—I broke away, breathless.
“Arammu,” he whispered. His breath was ragged on my cheek. “Let’s not play these games. You know I love you with everything in me. And that I would not fail you. Not ever.”
He cupped my face in his hands. Kissed my forehead, both cheeks. My lips.
He’d ask the question. My heart pounded as I held on to his wrists for dear life. What did I want? A life with him? Surely. But I already had one, no wedding required, though I’d yet to lie in his embrace.
The thought heated me from chest to cheek.
“And I love you, too,” I answered, breathless, as he kissed me again. And again.
“Then—”
“A-zu?”
A throat clearing and a jangling of weaponry brought my eyes up to two fierce Koru warriors: Commander Ummi and a tall, lean woman with sinewy muscles named Humusi. They stood purposefully outside the tent, knowing eyes fixed on Dagan and me.
I scrambled off his lap, adjusting my tunic, a flush spreading hot up into my hairline.
“I’m sorry to interrupt.” Ummi’s sparkling eyes made her look younger than she was. But I’d witnessed her deft use of a battle-ax in the throwing fields. She was no child.
“It’s not a worry.” My voice squeaked at the end.
“Sarratum Tabni asked us to stop by to see if you were well.”
I sighed. The honor of the scorpion necklace was one thing. This checking up on me constantly was something else. They’d been following me since that night, stationing themselves outside our little home, accompanying me into the Libbu. “You mean to protect me? I told you before that I don’t need it. What harm could come to a healer in this city?”
Ummi straightened her boxy frame, her armored tunic chinking against her breastplate. “My orders come from my lady, so if she tells me to protect you and Arwia and anyone else, I will.”
Arwia had been taken under Sarratum Tabni’s wing when we arrived, her mother being a former childhood friend. In fact, the queen had invited her to stay at the Palace, but Arwia had said she’d prefer to live with us. Sarratum Tabni had disapproved. Said it was her duty to protect the rightful queen of Alu and her friends, but I often wondered why she was so intent on it.