Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2010 06:36:08 EDT
From: BertMcK@aol.com
Subject: Crystal Throne/Riders of Tuatha 4

RIDERS OF TUATHA
by Bert McKenzie
Copyright 2010

Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction.  Any resemblance to any real
person alive or dead is coincidental and unintentional.

CHAPTER IV

     "Can you not see?" Rowana asked Scott.  "It is the perfect solution."
They had gone for a walk while Robin attended to his responsibilities at
court.  Rowana had suggested to Scott that the perfect solution to his
dilemma was the Tuathan form of marriage.  She reasoned that once he was so
joined with Robin, he would be free to physically journey to his own world.
Their binding would give a more permanent status to their relationship,
ensuring that they would eventually reunite when Scott had finished his
task.

     "I just don't see how this will change anything," Scott complained.
"How can a simple ceremony guarantee that I will be able to come back."

     "In Tuatha the binding is not just a simple ceremony," she explained.
"Unlike the marriage of your world, which is only of legal and religious
significance, our binding is actually a joining of two beings on the
spiritual level.  You cannot be parted after it occurs."

     "I think some people in my world might disagree with you on the
importance of our marriages, but I still don't see how my binding with
Robin will do any good," Scott objected.  "For one thing, why hasn't he
suggested this before?"

     "Because of his own feelings about his nature," she explained.
"Natural reversals are very rare in our world.  I understand it is quite
different in yours."

     "Tell me that on a long Saturday night," he interjected.

     "Well, Robin fears that binding is only to join the male to the
female."

     "How do you know?"

     "He told me," Rowana said quite candidly.

     "So you two have discussed this before?" Scott asked in astonishment.

     "Of course," she replied.  "But I have also talked with the old father
and he has agreed with me.  Although it is highly unusual, he admits there
is no valid reason why a man cannot bind with another man.  All that
matters is the love they share."

     Scott's mind was whirling.  In this land the high priest and spiritual
guide was quite willing to marry the two lovers.  It was like asking the
pope to officiate at a wedding between two men. He had to keep reminding
himself this wasn't the earth he knew.  People here were more concerned
with love and spirituality than with age old dogma.  "I just don't know if
I'm ready for this kind of commitment," he said aloud.

     "You love him.  What more need you?" Rowana prodded.

     "Well, what about this permanent idea?" he asked her.  "You said that
once we do this ceremony it can't be undone.  You don't have any divorce?"

     "Love is a permanent emotion," she answered.  "At least for us.  If
you have loved, it would be a deception to say you had not.  So why should
you want to revoke this?"

     "But what if we are no longer in love?  What if we grow apart or fall
out of love?"

     "I understand not the ways of the human heart," Rowana admitted.  "The
deep love is always present even if the surface is cloudy.  We fall not out
of love as one would fall from a tree.  I suppose this must be one of the
differences between our races."

     At this point, Robin joined them.  He was searching for Rood, his
captain of the guard.  Rowana informed him that Rood and Melcot were making
preparations for the journey that was to take place the next evening.  That
was the very thing on which he had sought to check.

     "Rowana has been talking to me about what she thinks is a solution to
our problem," Scott said to the king.

     "What of this, my lady?" Robin asked her.

     "I was suggesting a binding," she said.

     His face clouded over quickly.  "Not that again.  I have told you we
are not interested."

     "Why not?" Scott surprised himself by asking the question.  A few
minutes before he was arguing against such a move.  But Robin's disinterest
in the matter seemed almost a dismissal of their relationship.

     "We are not like them," Robin said to him.

     "Because we make love differently?" Scott asked.  "Is our love just a
temporary thing?"

     "You know that is not so," Robin said angrily.

     "You aren't ready for a commitment.  Is that it?" Scott persisted.  He
felt ridiculously like a young girl trying to pressure her boyfriend into
proposing.

     "I have made my commitment to you.  You know that well," Robin
returned.

     "Then why fear you the ceremony, lord?" Rowana butted in.

     "It has never been performed to join two men," Robin answered her.

     "But the high priest is willing if you truly love each other."

     "You have spoken with him?" Robin asked incredulously.

     "What about it, big boy?  You gonna' make an honest man of me?" Scott
asked in English, using his best Mae West impersonation.

     "You know not what you ask," Robin replied in English.  "You are human
and I am of Faerie . . . "

     "So that's it," Scott said angrily.  "It's plain old prejudice. Just
like you're white and I'm black, or you're Catholic and I'm a Jew."

     "It is different," Robin answered.

     "It's no different," Scott retorted.

     "We are not just unlike in race or ideology as your examples," Robin
said gently.  "We are two different species, two different types of
animals.  Your blood is red and mine is blue."

     "I know," Scott said, remembering a similar discussion they had had in
his bedroom a lifetime ago in the other world.  "You are an eagle and I am
a dolphin.  But do you really love me?"

     "You know the answer to that," Robin said, holding him gently.

     "And I love you," came the reply.

     "Very well, I suppose we shall bind.  After all, you are my idiot."
Scott laughed and hugged Robin, forgetting all his earlier reservations.

     Rowana had not followed any of the conversation once the two had
lapsed into English, but she caught on when she saw them laugh and embrace.

     "I shall go talk to the old father," she said excitedly and turned to
leave.  "There is so very much to accomplish."

     "My lady," Robin called, stopping her.  "You realize we have no time
for a royal binding.  If we are to have this, it must be a private
ceremony."

     "You would cheat your friends and your people so, my lord?"she asked
disappointedly.

     "We would need decorations and formal receptions to satisfy the
people.  There is no time to prepare or invite the delegates from the
kingdoms.  We must depart tomorrow night.  Therefore, the ceremony must be
private and must take place tomorrow at noon."

     "Very well," she agreed. "May I invite your closest friends?"

     "By this you mean not the entire palace?" Robin asked.

     "Just Melcot, Clive and Ellenia," Rowana smiled.

     "Very well. Go make what preparations are required," he told her.

                               * * *

     Jennifer sat at her desk, trying to balance her check book.  Try as
she might, it would not cooperate.  Of course, her mental state was not
helping matters any.  She kept thinking about the image she had seen in the
crystal ball.  She was certain it had been just a trick of the dim lighting
and her overactive imagination.  She had not seen Scott since that fateful
night when he had disappeared.  A bolt of lightning struck the spot where
he and his friend had been standing.  They both disappeared in the
explosion.  The police who had been present at the time did not know what
to make of the occurrence.  There were no bodies as one would have expected
if they had been killed.  The official report stated that they were
destroyed by an explosion that occurred when the lightning struck a statue
Scott's friend had been carrying.  It was thought to be made of some form
of unstable or explosive material.  Even so, Jennifer thought there would
be some evidence of remains, no matter how gory.  But there was nothing.

     Scott had told her a tale of a parallel world, one from which his
unusual friend had come.  The man with Scott had certainly been strange
enough.  Aside from his extremely attractive features, he had a pale,
almost luminescent quality to his skin, and his very pale blond hair was
almost white.  But the oddest thing about him was the shape of his ears.
Troy had actually been the first to discover that they were pointed at the
top, looking exactly like the Vulcans in the science fiction programs.
This had convinced Troy that the mysterious stranger was an alien from
outer space.  But Jennifer thought he was just very peculiar.  Still, she
had no rational way to explain the disappearance.

     A year had gone by and still Jennifer often thought about her absent
friend.  She wanted to put the whole strange affair out of her mind, but
that was next to impossible.  Unable to make it alone, Troy offered her a
partnership in the curio shop that he and Scott had run.  Also, Scott's
will had given her his house, a large, old, three-storied Victorian home on
the east side of town.  She moved in and even did a little redecorating,
but it was still Scott's house.  She expected to see him sitting on the
couch in the drawing room, or fixing lunch in the kitchen, and she often
felt like an interloper.

     Putting aside the check book and columns of figures, Jennifer walked
to the big, east window and looked out.  She could see the reflection of
her own face and upper body in the glass, but that was it.  She didn't like
the way she looked.  Her face was a bit too round for her curly hair style
and she felt terribly fat.  The truth was, Jennifer was just slightly
overweight, but her broad shoulders and 5'8" height made her feel bigger
than she was.

     Through the glass everything was dark outside.  The light in the small
park just across the street had burned out, and the city had yet to replace
it. She felt a strong desire to go for a walk in that park.  If it weren't
so overcast, the full moon would have provided plenty of light.

     As she stared at the glass, her face seemed to change.  It grew
thinner, less round, and the hair seemed to shrink to a shorter brown from
her shoulder length auburn.  She was looking at Scott!  It was his face
that was reflected in the glass!  "Scott," she said as she watched the
image.  His mouth opened as if he was trying to tell her something.  But no
words came out.  Then just as suddenly as the image appeared, it reverted
back to her.  A car drove down the street outside, its headlights breaking
her concentration.  As the lights disappeared, the reflection returned to
normal.

     Putting aside such imaginative fantasies, she turned out the lights
and went up to bed.  Undressing, she climbed between the soft sheets and
tried to clear her mind.  The images of Scott she had seen in the window
and in the crystal kept chasing around beneath her closed eyelids until she
eventually drifted off to sleep.

     A loud crash awakened Jennifer.  She was not sure if she really heard
it, or if it was a fragment from a dream.  She sat up in bed and tried to
focus her mind on what she thought she had heard.  As she sat in the
stillness she detected the distinctive sound of the front door opening
downstairs.  She quietly got out of bed and throwing on her flannel robe,
she crept down the dark hallway to the top of the staircase, wishing she
had a weapon of some sort.  No other sounds came to her, so she quietly
headed down the stairs.  At the landing she looked cautiously around.
There was no sign of movement and no further noise.  Just then a loud creak
came from the hinges of the front door, causing her to jump and almost fall
down the remaining flight of stairs to the floor.  She could see the door
move.  As she watched in silence she saw it was slowly swinging from the
gusts of wind coming in from outside.  She dashed down the stairs and
slammed it shut, throwing the dead bolt.

     Once she was leaning against the closed door, her heart racing, a
dreadful thought came to her.  What if whoever opened the door was still in
the house.  She dashed to the wall, and threw the switch, turning on the
overhead chandelier and illuminating the room.  At first she didn't see
anything out of the ordinary, and then she spotted the overturned table
beside the door.  The small vase that she kept on it was in pieces, the
silk flowers that it held were strewn about on the floor.  Jennifer quickly
ran into the drawing room and turned on the lights there.  Books had been
taken from the shelves around the room and stacked in neat piles nearby.
Going directly to her desk, she called the police.

     Ten minutes later, the officers came to take her statement.  There was
no evidence of the door having been forced. Jennifer was certain she had
locked the dead bolt, but the police were obviously skeptical.  They
practically accused her of lying and deliberately leaving the door open.
Since nothing had been taken they assumed the sounds of her moving about
upstairs had frightened the burglar off.  In a short time they finished up
and left.

     Too keyed up to go back to bed, Jennifer thought she would call Troy.
It was very late, in fact it was early, but she really needed to hear a
sympathetic voice.  She let the phone ring eight times before hanging up.
Remembering his date, her first thought was that he was probably still out.
He would no doubt be a mess at work the next day.  She then thought it was
odd that the answering machine didn't catch the call.  Maybe that meant
that he was home and just soundly asleep.  She was about to try calling
again, when she thought better of it and decided to go back to bed.  She
selected a book to take up with her, knowing she wouldn't get much sleep
this night.  Leaving all the lights still on, Jennifer climbed the stairs.

                               * * *

     "This is not what I meant by a private ceremony," Robin wind whispered
to Rowana as he mounted the dias at the worship grounds.  She merely smiled
and shrugged her shoulders.  The old priest and his assistant stood before
the altar with Scott and Ellenia.  Robin and Clive joined them.  Standing
at the foot of the raised area were Rowana and Melcot.  Rood, captain of
Robin's palace honor guard, and his best friend Akuta, also a member of the
honor guard stood nearby.  The two of them might have been Robin's
brothers, so similar were they in physical appearance with the same light
golden skin and pale blond hair.  Akuta's hair was slightly longer and
lighter in color than Rood's, but they were both very evidently members of
the highborn race.  Several other servants and staff to the king's
quarters, and most of the high council were also in attendance.  Rowana's
father and Scott's friend Maynar had also invited a large group of
merchants from the red tower.  Clive, likewise had brought several friends
from the greenwood tribe and the green tower.  All in all the sanctuary was
pretty full.

     The old priest came forward and began the ceremony.  "Who brings this
lady to . . ." He suddenly, stuttered, and began again.  "Who brings this
lord to give over to this . . . man?" he asked.

     "I, Ellenia Highborn," the girl said taking Scott's hand and giving it
over to the priest.

     The old man looked quickly at the scroll his assistant held out, shook
his head, and began again.  "And who brings this lord to give over to this
. . . other man?"

     "I, Clive Greenwood," the woodling answered, taking Robin's hand and
giving it to the priest.  The old father joined the two hands and taking a
white sash with golden embroidery, carefully wrapped their hands and
forearms in the same way he had done for all the other traditional couples
he had joined.

     "May you be forever one," he said as he turned to step to the other
side of the altar.  "May the taste of this life giving food bind you as
one," he said handing the trays to Clive and Ellenia.  They passed the food
to the couple who ate and shared it with each other.  The old priest
continued the ceremony as he handed out the goblets of pure water.  "You
may now declare your bonds."

     "I pledge you my love and my life," Scott said from memory as he gazed
deeply into Robin's intensely green eyes.  He spoke from his heart as he
felt himself pulled into the twin verdant pools.  "I will join my life to
yours and be one with you always. I will accept your world as my own, and
your people as my family.  I will keep you in my heart forever."

     Robin smiled, staring back into Scott's grey eyes.  "I pledge you my
love and my life.  I shall join my soul to yours and our hearts shall beat
as one.  I shall smile with you and grieve with you, our minds and spirits
linked in unison forever more."

     "As I remove this outward symbol," the priest said as he unwrapped the
sash, "be aware that no one can remove the inner bond which it represents.
Be forever joined and celebrate your oneness of mind, body and spirit."
Robin pulled Scott to him and crushed their lips together.  They then
turned to face the assembled guests.  Several of the older council members
appeared slightly uncomfortable, but just about everyone else rushed
forward to hug and embrace one or both of the couple.

     "We have a small reception prepared for you at the green tower," Clive
said.

     "This was to be a private ceremony," Robin protested again.

     "Just a few friends, lord," Ellenia said as she pulled the two of them
off the dias and on through the crowd.  The old priest rerolled his scrolls
and handed the trays of food to his assistant to take to the green tower.
He watched the retreating couple and again shook his head, marveling at the
ceremony he had just performed.

     As the party entered the main hall of the tower, Robin was surprised
to see Old Thomas standing at the foot of the stairs.  This was the first
time he had come from his chambers in many weeks.  Robin smiled at the
thought that the old man had come to acknowledge their bond.  He rushed
forward to greet him.  "My father," he said smiling.

     The old man's face contorted in a look of disgust. "Do you realize
what you've done?" he asked.  "Do you actually realize the gravity of this
rash deed?"

     The happy crowd dropped to silence at the sound of contempt in the old
man's voice.  "My father, this is not . . ." Robin began.

     "Get away from me!" Thomas yelled as he pushed Robin back.  "You
betray my trust and your world be making a mockery of your own religion.  I
want no part of you!" he shouted.  He turned to leave, then grabbed his
chest and collapsed.  Robin reached forward to catch the old man as he
fell.  Tears streaming down his face, he looked up to Scott standing beside
him.

     "Forgive him, lord.  He does not understand our religion, even after
all these years in our land."  It was the old priest who spoke.  He now
stood beside the king.  "Let us take him back to his chamber and call the
healer.