A man in a robe of brown trimmed with green came down the steps of the Great Hall. Around his neck was a golden torque decorated with a single emerald. His smile was friendly but Cai noticed that the smile did not quite reach the man’s steady, dark brown eyes.
“Ah, Glwys,” Diadwa said. “Glwys, you know Cai, King Uthyr’s Captain. And this is Gwydion the Dreamer.” She named the other companions then gestured to Glwys. “This is Glwys ap Uchdryd, my Druid.”
Glwys bowed, the smile still pasted to his face. “You are all welcome on this day. And the ceremony is about to begin.” He gestured to the bottom of the steps. “Please stand there, to one side, if you will.”
Amatheon nudged Rhiannon. “Maybe after this wedding is over I could have the Druid do ours. Interested?”
Rhiannon turned to Amatheon and batted her lashes. “My goodness, you are the third man this month to ask me that.”
“But definitely the most attractive.”
“Of course.”
Behind them Gwydion scowled ferociously. Cai smiled to himself.
At the Druid’s gesture, the rest of the folk in the courtyard grew quiet and came to gather around the steps, parting in the middle to leave an aisle for the couple to walk. Glwys took his place at the top of the steps and Diadwa followed him, standing off to one side.
At Glwys’s nod, a man exited from the teulu’s quarters. He wore a tunic and trousers of dark red and a crown of sweet alyssum around his brow. He was a small, slender man with unruly, sandy hair and pale green eyes. He carried an alder branch with large, saw-toothed leaves. He fairly brimmed with contentment as he tried to suppress a jaunty grin, but failed utterly as he made his way through the crowd and ascended the steps, coming to stand before Glwys.
Again the Druid nodded, and a woman exited from Diadwa’s ystafell. She wore a gown of dark red, and her pale blond hair was crowned with a chaplet of red snapdragons. She carried a vine of ivy in her tiny hands and her smile, which she could not suppress, was sweet, turning her plain features into a face of beauty. Her fine amber eyes were alight, and she could not stop gazing at her intended husband as she, too, ascended the stairs and came to stand before the Druid.
Glwys took the ivy vine from her hands and loosely bound the bride and groom’s left hands together with the vine. Jonas and Canna clasped the alder branch as one with their right hands.
At the Druid’s gesture, the two of them spoke: “As we are bound hand to hand, so we are bound heart to heart.” Jonas’s clear voice trembled, and Canna’s was virtually inaudible. “In each turn of the Wheel I have looked for you. Blessed be to Aertan, who has guided us to find one another again. At every return may I find you. And may we meet again in Gwlad Yr Haf as the children of Annwyn, together forever.”
Cai, remembering speaking these words to his wife, Nest, on their wedding day, swallowed hard, his heart full. For, never had he loved a woman as he loved his wife, never had he even thought to be so happy, even after over ten years of marriage. He was a lucky man and he knew it.
He glanced around at the others. Trystan’s green eyes were dark with longing as he looked at the couple, no doubt thinking of Esyllt, who was married to another. Trystan would not, Cai thought, understand for some time why Esyllt refused to divorce her husband. Poor boyo, perhaps he would never understand and remain in thrall for the rest of his life. Cai hoped not, for he liked Trystan very much.
Achren looked up at the couple with an indulgent smile that seemed to say marriage was all very well and good for those with nothing better to do.
Angharad and Amatheon eyed each other through the ceremony, though only when the other wasn’t looking and Cai bet himself that it would not be much longer before those two were sharing a bed.
Gwydion, on the other hand, seemed to be ignorant of that. He had no idea that his brother’s interest was in Angharad, making the mistake of thinking that Amatheon was really interested in Rhiannon. Gwydion had clearly mistaken the tone of the teasing relationship Amatheon and Rhiannon had formed and was just as clearly jealous.
The Druid took the ivy vine and the alder branch from the couple and gently laid them on the stones at his feet. He then stretched out his hands over the heads of Jonas and Canna. “Blessed be to Cerridwen and Cerrunnos, the Protectors of Kymru, whose steadfast love and partnership protect us, their children. So too may you protect and cherish each other and your children.”
Diadwa stepped forward and gave each of them a gold ring. The couple placed the rings on each other’s fingers then spoke together. “I wed you now, with this symbol of the Great Wheel, of death into rebirth, of endings into beginnings. I pledge to keep faith with you now and in the lives to come.”