The man's words touched Lyall's heart. Who would have known that a troll would know so much about love?
"Love is all well and good, but it doesn't protect your kingdom," King Balen said firmly.
Lyall exchanged a smile with Brianna, but let the man speak instead. "It saved this one. Watching the four people here, who were prepared to choose love over power, is what stopped this war. When I saw all four of them together, I realised that they, of all the people in this village, would understand our plight and might be sympathetic to it. We oppose the twin law for just that reason. People have the right to choose who they marry, whether they've been born at the same time or not."
"You should know, Father," Lyall added. "Look where marrying for power got you. If you'd married mother in the first place, not caring about her low power, then things would have been different for you."
"It's not that simple." King Balen shook his head. Did Lyall see regret in his eyes? "If I had bonded with your mother first, I wouldn't be as powerful as I am now. Other mages, those with more powerful wives, could have challenged me and perhaps wrested the kingdom from me. It's happened before, and it's never peaceful. Power helps keep the peace."
"We have more than enough power," Brianna said firmly.
"Maybe," his father agreed. "Lyall is certainly the most powerful mage on Isla de Magi, but that's just for now. New mages will grow into their power and bond, and who knows what the infusion of these new people will bring. There could come a day when someone will be powerful enough to challenge Lyall's power. Do you want to risk that someone killing him?"
Lyall remembered Brianna's fear of his dying. Why did his father have to pick that one possibility to mention?
But she just laughed. "The twin law is a trick," she said. "I don't know who came up with it first, but it isn't the greatest power combination. It may make one person more powerful than anyone else, but when the four of us work together with three different bonds connecting us, then no one can beat us."
The king stared at her.
"It's true," Lyall said quietly. "I've never seen anything like it, Father. In fact, Brianna, Mianna and Terion working together managed to heal me from the magical damage inflicted by one of the trolls."
"What?" King Balen's eyes almost bulged out of his head. "No, that's not possible," he said. "Is it?"
Lyall lifted up his shirt and showed the silver scars from the troll's magical claws. "I was dead," he said simply. "They brought me back."
His father stared at the scars, then lifted his eyes to Lyall's face. "This changes everything." His voice was quiet, awed. "Do you know what this means, Lyall?"
Lyall smiled. "Yes. The four of us together should have no problems healing Mother. She will be able to walk again."
He hadn't even thought of it until that moment, but his heart swelled with excitement at the thought.
"Mama, Mama. You awright?" Lylis burst through the door, Mianna close on her heels. Lylis threw herself into Brianna's arms and burst into tears.
"I'm sorry," Mianna said quietly. "I know you hadn't finished talking, but she was so worried … "
"That's all right." Lyall smiled. He looked down at his daughter, his heart overflowing with love. There was just one issue …
Brianna looked up and met his eyes, her expression serious. She picked up the little girl whose sobs were slowing and stepped towards him. "Lylis, this is Lyall. He's going to be living with us now. He's your daddy."
Terion followed Mianna into the room, Kylis hanging around his neck, just as Brianna said the words.
Lylis looked at him solemnly, sucking her thumb. She took it out of her mouth long enough to say, "But do I have two daddies?" She looked over at Terion, her face a mixture of confusion.
What a big change to her little life.
Brianna opened her mouth to say something, and Lyall spoke instead, "Yes, you do." There would be time enough to explain the ins and outs of the situation to the little girl when she was older. "You have two mummies, so it makes sense that you have two daddies too."
Lylis's face lit up, and she leant away from Brianna, her chubby arms reaching for him. He met her and lifted her out of her mother's arms. She squeezed him tightly around his neck, and he squeezed back, letting himself enjoy this moment to the fullest.
"So what does this mean?" Mianna asked, her voice shaking slightly. "Are we all going to … ? What?"
Lyall looked to his father.
King Balen stared around the room, then heaved a sigh of many traditions leaving in one breath. "All right," he agreed. "I will see to it that the law is changed, under one condition."
"What's that?" Brianna asked suspiciously.
"That you come back to Isla de Magi for the wedding. Lyall's mother would be devastated if she missed it."
"Of course," Lyall agreed readily. "We will have to come back to heal Mother anyway, so it makes sense to have the wedding while we're there."
Brianna stared at him, hands on her hips. "I never said I was going to marry you."
Lyall's heart froze. Then he saw the twinkle in her eye and gave an unwilling laugh.
"What do you mean, you're not going to marry my son!" his father huffed. "After all this effort, you'd better be planning to. Lyall, you're not going to let her get away with that are you?"
"Father, leave this one to me to sort out, please?"
Brianna was grinning and let his father down kindly. "He has to ask me first."
Mianna took Lylis from his arms, and though it cost him an effort to let his daughter go, he knew they would have the rest of their lives to learn about each other and try to make up for the missed time.
"We'll be in the kitchen," Mianna said. "Come make some orange juice with me, Lylis?" Then to his father. "I think they might need some privacy."
The little girl waved a hand at him, and then reached up and took his father's hand. The old man stared at her in surprise. "Come make owange duce."
King Balen didn't even look back as he followed Mianna and Terion out of the room.
They weren't quite alone. The troll mage and his wife, who had now woken up, stared at them, holding hands. But Lyall didn't mind the audience. It even seemed fitting at this point.
Taking both of Brianna's hands in his, he knelt down in front of her, his eyes staring up into hers. "Brianna, will you do me the honour of being my one and only wife?"
She smiled, tears in her eyes. "I will, Lyall. There's nothing I want more."
When Lyall stood up and put his arms around her, she knew that this was exactly the way her life was meant to be.
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Can there ever be peace between the trolls and the humans? Read the troll's side of the story in Troll Curse, available now!
Bound by Magic, United by Love.
Jasyn is at the bottom of the food chain in the troll camp. As a mage, he lacks the brute strength that he could use to demand respect. He certainly will never catch the eye of a warrior woman like Kriss. But when he finds a book in a human village detailing unknown facts about the curse of the trolls, he knows he has to act before the trolls fight themselves into extinction.
Ever since she was a little girl being bullied around by her brothers, Kriss has been determined never to be weak. She'd never look twice at a troll like Jasyn. Strength and being able to beat anyone is her goal, and she won't let anything distract her from it. Until Jasyn stands up to their leader and insists there is another way. A more peaceful way.
The two of them form an alliance, bound in a marriage of convenience, focused on finding a way to end the fighting. An alliance that tests them in more ways than one. But can a people who have been ruled by strength and war ever find a peaceful solution to their problems? And can Kriss and Jasyn find time to look for their own happiness?
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Jasyn edged around the sides of the tent. Despite the chill that seeped in where the tent's outer coating of mud had worn off the furs, he didn't venture near the warmth of the fire in the centre. Better to stay far away from the roughly built centre table where the best warriors sat.
Only a dozen of them, clad in leather armour, had the honour of sitting there.
The firelight glinted off their green skin and made the red ridges on their ears glow. Raising their dented mugs, the warriors crashed them together, the last of the ale slopping out.